Creaks and groans.

As the last month or so has dragged on the EX7 has started to make all sorts of horrid noises. It started with a small amount of up and down play in the rear end, which turned out to be the bushings in the shock wearing out, and after much searching I found some very reasonable priced bushings and a tool to do the job with. Some back and forth emails with the supplier and the bushings arrived with the tool and I was confident all my creaks and groans were to be solved?!

 After whipping the shock out of the frame, popping the bushings out and slipping the new ones back in I went to pop the shock back in the bike, just as I went to do this I noticed some horrendous creaking from the frame. Damn! The play had stopped in the rear end and some noises had disappeared but it was now apparent that the cables in the frame were sounding miserable. So over the weekend I decided to give the bike some over due TLC. Putting the bike in the stand I removed the wheels, pedals and cranks, cut the cables, undid the hose clamps and set to work (I left the Aheadset alone as the bearings were recently replaced). A while ago the length of the hydraulic hoses started to annoy me, they were just too long, luckily there were some hose olives and fittings in my bleed kit, so while there I set about shortening the hoses. This was straight forward but left the gear outer's looking a bit, well, gangly so these too were removed and shortened. A heavy covering of muck off was sprayed on all the nooks and crannies before being washed off lightly with the hose. With the bike looking sparkly all the outer's were re lubed and even a little dab'll do ya in the frame cable stops. Cables were re routed and brakes re bled after about two hours my work was complete, everything had been cleaned stripped and greased where necessary in the hope of getting rid of these last niggles. Tomorrow will be the first ride and would you believe it it's probably gonna chuck it down. Brilliant!