UK-14’er: One Year In
The New UK-14’er
I’ve had the UK-14’er for a little over a year now. The bike has been great, and I’ve ridden it in Maryland, Virginia, Utah, Colorado, and South Australia. It was in Missouri for a couple days as well, but only saw a parking lot. I really don’t have any complaints. Aside from the parts I broke or wore-out, the bike has been a lot of fun and very reliable.
The UK-14’er at One Year
Anyway, here is a list of what I broke, wore out, or just decided to replace in the past year:
Replaced due to wear
- 3x chains: One Wippermann 908 and two Shimano HG93
- Middle chainring: The original Shimano XT ring was replaced with an LX ring
- Cassette: The well worn SRAM PG990 (taken off of the M2) was replaced with an XT cassette
- Freehub: The Mavic freehub was serviced and replaced per Mavic’s recommendations
- 6x tires: 4x Panaracer FireXC, 2x Hutchinson Toro XC, plus many tubes
- Brake pads: 2x rear, 3x front with a mixture of Avid and Kool Stop ceramic pads (Kool Stops are better)
Replaced due to damage
- Handlebar: Kent Eriksen bar replaced the Titec titanium bar that got ripped in Moab
- Rear derailleur: Shimano XT Shadow replaced the older (c. 2002) XT derailleur taken from the M2
- Derailleur hanger: The derailleur snagged a shrub and tweaked the original. I now have a couple spares.
- Computer: A Knog NERD replaced a Sigma BC1600 that was damaged in a crash
Replaced due to the rebuild after arriving in Australia
- Brake and shifter cables were all replaced as well as the brake housing
Replaced for no good reason
- The Chris King stem cap was replaced with one from the Poison Spider bike shop in Moab
- The Minoura blue anodized bottle cages were taken off for a while and replaced with King stainless cages due to the bottle tearing up the Minoura cages. Later I found some blue anodized Specialized cages, but they turned out to be crap. The Specialized cages wouldn’t hold a bottle and were quickly mangled by use and crashes. The Minoura cages are back on for now.
