Home Mechanic: Shimano XT BL M775 Brake Levers

I recently picked up a pair of used brakes for my bike.  They are Shimano XT brake levers with XTR calipers, and they are pretty, albeit a bit beaten up. 

These brakes have AWESOME modulation.  Nose wheelies, anyone?

The only problem that I have is that the rear brake is not engaging well at all.  I thought that the issue may be with Shimano's "Free Stroke" adjustment.  I couldn't figure out what the hell it did, and why it wasn't really doing anything for me.  So I decided to take it apart.  This is partly a walkthrough, partly a tutorial, and mostly just a close look at what goes on under the lever on these brakes.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas America!

Nothing like home...

  We all love our home trails.  Now that I'm at home for winter break, I'm stoked to be riding the same mountain I learned on:  Galbraith. One of my favorite trails on Galby is Cedardust, which is a cross country trail that has some wood work and and a rock drop as options:

The author getting his hop on.

 It's more or less flat, but there aren't many flow killing turns or bumps, so you can totally rip.  The ladders are a good mix.  You can stay on the easy stuff, or go hard.  You can even stay off of them and sprint down the side-trail for racerboy status.  The rock drop is a move that took me a long time to learn, but it is now a familiar route. 

Jesse taking a side option.

Cedardust is one of those trails that never fails to please, whether you know it well or not.  Let's hear it for the home trails!

Support your LBS

Suport your local bike shop! Okay I said it, it's out of the way. I know if you're reading this blog you've probably heard this a million times and have your own LBS that you frequent with a regularity that non riders consider unhealthy. So I don't need to go on about why its good to support your LBS. You already know that. So instead I'm going to talk about how awesome they are.

I was in the airport on my way home for a well deserved winter break when a text rang in from my old boss back at my home shop "Pho Phriday on saturday, be there, or be fired". Needless to say I was there. I rolled in three minutes late the next afternoon for my first lunch back on the east coast to "your late, get the fucking food" and a hundred dollar bill being whipped out of the register and stuck in my hand. Ten minutes later I pulled back in to the shop with seventy-five dollars of Pho steaming in the passenger seat of my pickup truck and the parking lot slowly filling up.

The shop was filled with mechanics and customers alike, guys that had been frequenting the shop for fifteen years and other who started coming last year, all crowded around the dinning room table and clamoring over pho. Our shop is a second home for most of these people, guys who need an escape from the rigors of work, home, school, or just the daily grind. Some ride out of the shop, several times a week, on the decades old legendary shop rides, others just come in on their day off, riding a wheelie through the front door with an ice cold beer in their pocket. It's a place where anyone who rides, skis or just needs a place to chill is always welcome. Its not uncommon to walk in to the smell of food cooking and people crowded around the grill, swapping war stories and waiting for their dogs and burgers to finish cooking.

My shop is a place that I'll always have a place in, and if you ride, you have a place there too, and no matter where you go there will be a shop just like this one where you can find your place. So sure, you can save a few bucks online, but just remember, what you get out of your LBS can never be bought through warehouse .com stores. So you know what, fuck it, I'm going to say it. Go suport your local bike shop.

3k for a dirt jumper? No thanks, Trek.

This bike costs $2700.  Yup, that's a good thousand more than any other top-of-the-line DJ bike out there.  Why, Trek?  Does sponsoring Semenuk, R-dog, and Mccaul give them the ability to mark the bike up that much?  I wouldn't assume so, but obviously those guys ride it, so it must be the best.  Riding this bike probably will bump you up at least five places in the next DJ comp you enter.  Especially that 9-speed drivetrain, which is super essential.  You can tell, because so many pros ride gears these days.  Especially the ones sponsored by Sram...
Not that I think this bike is terrible.  I would love to ride the same bike as Brandon and Cam.  In fact,  I think that the bike has a legitimate place:  as a 4x/slalom bike.  Throw on some tires with side knobs and it would rip.  The frame is pretty sweet too, with sliding dropouts and a tapered headtube.  But really, who's going to buy it?  Well played, Trek.

Yeaaa Buddy!

Let me start by saying how much I LOVE to ride. Really, I do. Thats why I just packed up my trail bike to fly back home to get in a couple east coast winter rides. And let me tell you, there is nothing like seeing a carbon fiber beauty stripped down to nothing but her bare frame, it gets me going every time. You might want to find some where private before you look at the picture.... nsfw. Just saying. But enough of that. Ill ride what ever I can, trail, DH, street, little bit of dj time here and there, my road bike even gets decent millage in the summer. If it has two wheels ill try to shred it. Im pumped to be here and contribute my piece on the five B's.
 

Okay, on the real though...

I love all styles of riding, but recently I have been missing dirt jumps like crazy! Nothing gets me pumped for a ride more then a really fun bmx trail edit and thats exactly what this is. Props to the boys up in Michigan for riding out there in the cold and making frozen lumps of dirt look so appealing.

Welcome!

Welcome to The Evergreen State College Mountain Bike Club, yes thats right, not biking just a bike. None of use actually know how to ride bikes at all, in fact we really don't know that much about them or the scene and history. But we do know how to play Angry Birds, and after this instructional video, we will also know how to roll a joint like Wiz Kalifa, enjoy:

neXt leVel biKing

My name is Finnegan Hopper, and I ride bikes.  Like this:

This blog is about the trials and errors of being a college student and a mountain biker...and the five B's:  bikes, bros, babes, beer, and...um...bikes!