New winter project: Lipstick on a Pig

[Sandwich]

Honestly, they're a "WSD" model which it seems may have been designed around a shorter reach for smaller hands. I'm fine with that because most hayes brakes are designed around people with Shaq hands. Not sure what pads they come with, but I would straight up swap my caminbros for the hayes and leave the current rotors and mounts.

I know that I should just cough up the dough for SLXs, but this gives me an opportunity to ditch my broken 888 and pick up brakes that may work....then possibly sell the caminos later.

[Electric_City]

My buddy wants to get rid of a 2007 888rc2x that he bought on our trip to SS. I know this fork has less than 5days on it. I think he wants $250. Let me know. Ttyl, EC

[Steve M]

hey, I have the opportunity to trade my broken 888 for a pair of hayes nines. Worth it? I could probably turn around and sell off the caminos for $50... I didn't mind my mags, though they didn't have the power that my saints did, they were relatively fade-free and fine on non-plattekill trails.

I did take the caminos for a test run in the yard, and even two-fingering was...questionable.

Hayes 9s are the 2nd most unreliable brake ever made. The most unreliable was the El Camino... ditch em in favour of anything else whatsoever. You can get Elixir 1s for <$100/end brand new, or CRC is having a huge sale on brakes right now. http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/M...?ModelID=87344 for example - not the most powerful brake ever, but with an 8" rotor they're decent enough.

[Horror Business]

Hayes 9s are the 2nd most unreliable brake ever made. The most unreliable was the El Camino... ditch em in favour of anything else whatsoever. You can get Elixir 1s for <$100/end brand new, or CRC is having a huge sale on brakes right now. http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/M...?ModelID=87344 for example - not the most powerful brake ever, but with an 8" rotor they're decent enough.

Steve M's opinion is absolutely the popular one, but I have ridden Hayes 9's on multiple bikes for years and years adn I find them to be quite reliable.

[Sandwich]

Hayes 9s are the 2nd most unreliable brake ever made.

Steve M's opinion is absolutely the popular one, but I have ridden Hayes 9's on multiple bikes for years and years adn I find them to be quite reliable.

Ok, so I can get Stroker Rydes for $50 locally, nines for $65/fork trade, or SLX for $180. Any money I save here can go towards a 888 CR, which would be nice....though I guess I could stick with the monster and run SLX instead.

[Steve M]

SLX if you like having brakes, otherwise save time, money and weight and just go brakeless. The Hayes Primes are not bad, but everything Hayes have made between them and the old Mags is not worth considering. The Rydes have far too many issues with the lever and master cylinder, the oil in the 9s is held in with a plastic plug that falls out now and then, leaving you with no brakes whatsoever, the circlips in the 9's levers rip out, the levers develop heaps of play etc etc.

[Udi]

Why not some cheaper Shimano brakes and the 888 CR? There are plenty of cheap ones on CRC at the moment.

[Jim Mac]

Maybe it's a function of my age, kids and general guarded use of my dwindling free time, but this project is beginning to sound like my 1st car and the cadre of issues that I inherited with it (but hey, it had a cassette player!):

[JRogers]

I agree with others not to go for the Hayes 9s. I had some a while ago and they were fine, but almost anything else made in the last few years performs better and has better ergonomics. Cheap Shimano, Elixirs or even Juicys would probably be a better choice and wouldn't cost much.

[Sandwich]

Okay, back to the drawing board. Looks like my uber-cheap 888 option is gone, so it may be brakes and keeping the monster going...that might not be so bad.

[phill1]

That was a fun bike. I rode for ADR backin 04 and 05. That is an 05 Kaos (im pretty sure that was my old frame) There is not many of those out there. Send me your address I have a bran new still in the package jersey for ya.

[Electric_City]

888 is still for sale if you want. Black stanchions and crowns, gun metal grey lowers. $250 includes extra set of marz seals.

[Sandwich]

I'll think about it.

My plan is to stick with the monster since I can extend it a bit and get more normal geometry. Plus, SLX brakes new @ 180 are really hard to argue with, especially compared to a pair of mags or something similar @ $80 for half-assed....and having legit brakes is more important to me than a slightly better fork.

[sbabuser]

I'd go with the $250 888 and drag my feet to slow down. I was so sad when I realized that I sold a perfectly working '06 rc2x for a craptastic '07 ATA...

[Sandwich]

So here's my evil plan. I call it the "finangleset".

I previously purchased an angleset for another bike which I have since sold...but since nobody wants anything besides -60000000* head angles, nobody ever wants the spare cups. I had a -1 and -0.5* left over. I searched on pinkbike and found somebody else with the same issue, so I snagged his -1* cup for $10. The next step was the gimbals, which I had lined up for $17 each, but dragged my feet and missed out. Ended up getting them for $24 each.

I then popped out the god-forsaken e13 "why would you want to replace your bearings" reducer cups, "removed" the bearings, then popped them into the angleset cups, et voila: -2* reducer headset for $60.

"oh yeah, just pop the bearings out he said":


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Despite how little I liked my previous angleset, the options were either a new one @ $120 or $160, or a works setup for $120. This should give me better geometry and the cost is hard to argue with. I already have lockrings, crown races, spacers, and top caps to set the thing up. The new cups of the angleset appear to be redesigned, so maybe that will reduce the crappiness.