Modified XP Lite

[Papa K]

Turning a great bike into an awesome ride! Nice job sir.

 

[Shark413]

Turning a great bike into an awesome ride! Nice job

Papa K, thanks.

 

[Shark413]

Bike is for my wife, but a fun project for me to modify it and make it user friendly for her.

 

[Smaug]

Nice mods. Watch your weight, though, with that suspension fork, sprung seat and now a heavier chainring set and derailleur. It's probably up to 50 lbs. now...

 

[Shark413]

Nice mods. Watch your weight, though, with that suspension fork, sprung seat and now a heavier chainring set and derailleur. It's probably up to 50 lbs. now...

Going to put it on the scale today. Will post results.

 

[Earle]

Would you mind listing the part brands and models you used?

 

[biknut]

Another thing I noticed during the mods was when I had the front wheel off I spun the axle by hand and noticed it was super gritty and didn't turn smoothly. This usually indicates either a worn bearing (which is not the case because the bike is brand new) or the races are over tigthened causing the binding. I readjusted the tension on the axle races so that the axle turned smoothly with no play. I also noticed the rear wheel suffered from the same problem (I guess the factory over tightens everything and hopes they wear in) and the pedals also have a lot of binding. All of this adds friction and drag on the motor/peddling effort, reducing over performance.

Bearing end play of new bikes is a challenge for online sellers, and factories. If they adjust the end play correctly, in less than 200 miles the adjustment will be loose as a goose as the races bed in. One of the advantages of buying from a brick, and mortar shop, is they'll usually offer a free check up after the initial break in period which would take this into account. Factories know that's probably not going to happen for online sales, so it's common practice to overtighten the end play enough that after bedding in the adjustment will be about right. It's not a perfect solution, but for the seller it's better than having owners trying too make warranty claims because the front wheel of their new bike wobbles.