RE/
Quoted message said:Bummer. Didn't you get it this year?
Yes.
Quoted message said:Your repair is worth a try, but I suspect Maverick is already using high
strength bolts. I use red loctite on the nuts on mine (also the two
that hold the shock to the swingarm).
They look conspicuously cheesey to me. "Low-Strength" would seem more
descriptive. I'm not even sure whether the material is metal or some kind of
plastic. One possibility, though, is that I had allowed the nut to come
partially unscrewed - somehow transferring stress to a place it shouldn't have
been. i.e. the strength when properly deployed is perfectly adequate...but the
system is not very fault-tolerant when things come loose.
I called Seven from the trail and they gave their condolences and volunteered to
warranty the bolt and ship me 2 more overnite, so I guess "repair" is taken care
of. I'm still, however, thinking in terms of a jury-rig kit in case it happens
again. Walking's OK....but riding home is preferable.
Quoted message said:Much as I love my Maverick-style Klein, I think when I get that next big
"issue", I'm on my second frame, I may just have to move on. 'Course,
with how much I've been riding it the last couple months, I'll be able
to pass it on to my grandkids. :-P
Only thing that I was grumbling about was the supposed need to
dissassemble/reassemble with fresh anti-sieze when it started creaking (which
usually happened after immeresion or riding in heavy rain). Lately, though,
I've come to realize that the creaking that called for the dissasembly was
coming only from the area of those two bolts - and that squirting a little
ProLink chain lube in there took care of it. OTOH, maybe the ProLink attacked
the LocTite and precipitated the problem....gotta check the torque on the
surving bolt.
Since my contract exprired on Sept 30th, I've been riding mine a couple hours
every day. The more I ride it, the more I think I'll never want anything else.
If somebody ran over this thing tomorrow and their insurance sprang for a
replacement, I'd just call Seven and tell them to build me one *exactly* like
this one. Ran that past the local dealer and he said he hears the same thing
on a regular basis - except from guys that really are ordering another frame...
To be perfectly candid, Seven really [censored] me off while they were
spec-ing/building this thing. I'd call up and ask them to make this longer,
that shorter, or whatever...and they'd always reply to the effect of "No, we're
sticking to our design". At some point, they passed me up the chain of
command and a guy said something like: "Look, we've built a lot of bikes. We
know what we're doing. Trust us.".
I said "OK"...and it worked. In the end, I think they saved me from myself and
my cockamamie ideas.
Only improvements I can envision are a more elegant way to tension the chain
(I'm running a internal-geared hub), maybe a better set of forks - or at least
something with a lockout that's controllable from the handlebars, and a fewer
cable stops (doesn't seem rational to me to have exposed cable down on the swing
arms of an MTB).
--
PeteCresswell
