Having spent over an hour changing over my tyres to slicks on Saturday night (I know, I know...get a life etc) I am so pleased i had the opportunity to do this myself. I had a new tool built in on my pump for the purpose and under any other circumstances my boyfriend would have changed them over in the time it takes me to make a cuppa and I'd have returned to a great bike but no further down the learning curve than I was before. I would like to thank Stars In Their Eyes for freeing up enough time and brainspace to make this opportunity possible

Good news Sal. Top marks for preveting the 'just give it here, I can do that in no time at all' partner and learnt for yourself. At the end of the day, and probably was the end of the day by the time you finished, you can now do it yourself. And that is what counts

I fully agree with Cullen Sally, Congratulations. But was it really necessary to have a new tool built in on your pump for this purpose? Surely there plenty of affordable small packs on the market to assist with just this task.

Ah but the thing about having your tool built into your pump is that it's that much harder to lose it.
Then tyre levers just wander off, reappearing (after combining with missing allen keys) into those plastic and metal coat hangers that you've got in your wardrobe.

Brant, your experience with the tyre levers reminds me of when my cat went awol and re-appeared some weeks later, after 'combining' with another cat, in my sock draw with lots of little cats.


But I've never that trouble with my tools, they just go and never come back.

As amusing as the cat discussion has turned out to be, i feel i must interrupt because i'm in need of a little help from people with more knowledge than me. I've recently bought a Giant XTC Team and i am having a few problems. I changed the gears from SRAM 9.0 to XTR's and am now getting problems changing gear when i'm on the top cog. As long as i stay in the middle or lower cog everything is fine, but when i go for the higher gears it takes a couple of attempts to get it into gear. This must be a common enough problem so someone must know the cure.

hit it with a hammer

or much less fun but more likely to get results hav fiddle with the cable tension to your rear mech try looseninig it quater of a turn try to shift on all your rings
fiddle again untill youve got it runin sweet

chris - have you changed both the mech and the shifter over to XTR. if not then it will result in poor shifting. ESP shifters pull a different ammount of cable than shimano. If all else fails, as was said above, hit it with a hammer.

ben - i changed the whole rig to XTR so presumed (silly old me) that i wouldn't have to many problems. It wasn't even me that made the change, it was something i requested when i bought the bike cause i hate gripshifts. Has anyone got a big hammer i can borrow ???????

Exactly which gear combos are you having problems with - am I right in thinking its big Cog / small sprockets that are causing your troubles? If so, this combo is suceptable to problems with the limit adjusters on the rr mech. Try letting this out a bit... I assume there is no Fr mech rubbing of course. Also, shimano have put weedy springs into high end stuff to stop you buying SRAM (this is true by the way) so the shifting down the cassette can be troublesome.

From:-
http://www.freetownsports.co.uk/cust_services_tech.htm

How to adjust a rearmech.

Make sure the cable is not holding the mech. up off the stop by making sure there is no tension in the cable, also check that the hanger which holds the mech is strait.
Adjust the top stop so the chain rolls on inline with the centre of the cog (note the bottom cog is slightly further away from the other cogs than they are to themselves).
Attach the cable so as to take any slack up. Using the shifter, shift up to the top of the cassette. Adjust the bottom stop so that the chain rolls on inline with the centre of the cog. While making these adjustments pull on the cable with your hand and position your view as in the picture !
Shift up and a few times then go to the largest cog and pull hard on the cable to relieve as much cable stretch as possible. Starting at the smallest cog shift up one gear, the mech should move one cog if not check cable tension,Shift up to the middle of the cassette and adjust the cable tension so the chain rolls on inline with the cog in each gear.
Where necessary adjust the b-tension adjustment screw. This is the adjustment responsible for the distance between the jockey wheel and the cogs.
You are aiming for about ½ a link to 1 link(1 link = 1 outer plate and 1 inner plate).If you are still having problems check the condition of the cables, chain, cassette and shifters and replace as necessary.

Chris Blake
Before taking a big hammer to it. I had exactly the same on an XTC DS2 with Sram 7.0 fitted.
Check the chain. Is it the galvanised non SRAM type with a big Z on it?. If it is thats your problem. Go buy a Sachs PC59 or similar and change it.
Itll change sweetly then.

Giant fit these galvanised chanins to all models including high end stuff and they just are not fully compatible with the cassette.

Good luck

bored. random aimless insertions...

waheey. more girlies getting in on the dirty work. respect to the girly.

Have you checked the chainline?

Doesn't sound like a rear mech problem if it is shifting fine in the other two chainrings.

Giant have been none to do a "Friday afternoon job" when welding on the bottom bracket shell.