Three months down the line, where are we with this? On the bike front, I finally solved the saga of the chain noise!! Curiosity first got the better of me, and I whipped off the cranks to insert another spacer on the spindle. That tightened things up but didn't fix the chain noise. Attention then turned to the chainwheel, as I noticed spline marks on the inside of the spindle hole, suggesting that the chainring might be slightly bent or warped. Tbh, I was kind of wanting to upgrade the chainwheel anyway, so I did just that, picking up a new, aluminium one from Odyssey. It looked great installed but as soon as I started turning the cranks, the chain would bind. Not in one place but several. That led me back to square one and the Izumi chain. Despite what it said on the box, there
must have been an issue with the sizing, as it clearly didn't fit either of the 1/8" chainrings. Perhaps the tolerances were off on just a few of the links or it was a Friday afternoon chain. Whatever the cause, I decided to bite the bullet and buy another chain, this time a more expensive one - an Odyssey Bluebird to keep things consistent and also knowing that Odyssey parts come on Sunday completes. The Bluebird looked much sturdier and better quality than the Izumi straight out of the box and sure enough, it instantly got rid of that flippin' chain noise!
Note to self - don't always try to save money buying the cheapest option!
With the drivetrain sorted, I wanted to just enjoy riding the now much quieter bike and not spend any more money on it. However, a few weeks later, a raft of NOS late mid-school/early new-school parts popped up for sale online and I couldn't resist! I was able to snag a Shadow Conspiracy railed seat post and seat for reasonable money and they look great on the Sunday. That brings things up-to-date parts-wise, though there is another purchase I want to make and that is bigger bars. The ones on there now are okay at 8.5" but they're race bars with flatter geometry than freestyle bars. I therefore want to give my wrists an easier time with more backsweep and have also been wanting to try 9'' or 9.25" rise bars for a while, so am currently on the hunt for something that ticks all the boxes - watch this space!
Riding-wise, up until Christmas I was going to the park at least once but often twice or sometimes even three times a week. Put simply, I just love riding there and am getting more confident and better at the basics. I've also been watching more and more park vids on YouTube and definitely have some tricks that I want to try this year. That said, I tweaked my back the last time I rode there, which led to me missing the first race of the year, so I need to take it easy and not go too crazy with it all. Bloody good fun though!
Recent Posts
still a few old boys left on here now and again and some recent new guys holding it just about together 
the old wanted and for sale threads are pretty much no longer but I do stick the odd request in lol keep posting and welcome back in 
.... is this site still running ??
