You fix some, you break some

Fixed:

Front and rear brake problems are now solved. The rear brake was solved by the idea of running a full outer housing for the cable. The tube guides didn't do the job unfortunately, but I managed to find some plastic wall plugs that had exactly the right inner diameter to accommodate the cale housing, and exactly the right outer diameter to wedge it into the hydraulic hose guides nice and tight! (pictures to come soon). The front brake was fixed with a lot more fiddling of the positioning of the caliper's mounting position on the forks.

Broken:

My chain. Oh, and various bits of skin on my leg and foot. After fixing the brakes I took the bike for a gentle Sunday afternoon ride with my girlfriend in Virginia Water. After a few hours riding we were returning home when the chain suddenly snapped on me. It wasn't the 'gold link' - as I first thought - but another non-descript link. To be fair, it may have been one of the links that I fixed no when I shortened the chain. Luckily I have some spares from hen I did this so I'll try to do it a bit better this time!

Cable worries

Just a follow up on the status of my brakes. The front brake is still useless and I'm still thinking of ideas - currently along the lines of spacing out the disc from the hub far enough to mount the caliper on the outside of the fork mount....

On the rear brake issue I've decided to follow some advice from the people down at the MBUK forum and get some new cable housing to run a fully enclosed cable from lever to caliper. Using some Cable Guides I'll hopefully be able to secure it to my frame without tacky looking zip-ties.

I just can't stop

I'm having a few problems installing my new brakes. When I had the old Kona Cinder Cone frame I was limited to Discs on the front, and V's on the back because of mounting constraints. So I opted to get levers that could handle both systems at once - leaving me with mechanical rather than hydraulic discs on the front. I went and got myself some Avid Ball Bearing 7 Mech Discs for the front, and some Avid V-Brakes for the rear. However, I then went and swapped the old Cinder Cone for the Blast frame and was suddenly given the option for discs on the back. Rather than send back the entire Brakeset I opted to just replace the rear V's with Rear Avid BB7's to complete the set with the front.

Now here's my problem(s):

1. The front brake doesn't seem to sit too well. For some reason the caliper mount versus the disc mount on the hub gives an end result that the disc only just fits between the caliper jaws.... and when I say only just, I mean that I had to work damn hard to stop the rotor from rubbing against the caliper housing itself - let along the brakes. But the worst part of this is that it means that in order to pinch the rotor between the pads, I need to bend the rotor as I apply the brakes so that it can reach the already maximally extended pad the other side. I'm sure this isn't right.
2. The rear brakes sits perfectly - no problems there whatsoever. The problem with this brake is the cable routing across the frame is designed for hydraulics - so instead of having appropriately located cable stops, I have rather useless oversized cable guides. Some of these are half open, and some are merely just raised seats for the cable to rest on. This is absolutely no good when it comes to cable brakes as when I pull the levers the cables just want to flex all over the place - or anything else that takes up slack and means that no force is applied at the braking end.
3. What makes the above problem worse is that at the moment, the Transfil Flying Snake Brake Cable Set that I purchased to go with my brakes did not come with enough cable housing to reach the rear brakes. With no cable stops the next best solution is to run a full outer casing from lever to caliper - but after fitting the front cable, I was left with housing that was about 4 inches too short.

That's how my bike currently stands. For the rear I'm left with the option of buying new cable housing (which apparently Transfil don't do separately!) and running the full cable, and then using zip ties or some other tacky device to keep the cable in place along the frame. Alternatively I could buy some clamp-on cable stops, but I'm worried these will look even more out of place, add weight, and also scratch the hell out of the frame.

For the front I have no idea what to do.

Almost there

I've now got myself the following parts (and have installed them):

• Halo Combat 26" Wheelset
• Halo Choir Master Lite DH Tyres
• Halo Quick Release Skewers
• Halo Inner tubes - DH Extra Safe
  

So that's pretty much a Halo wheelset! Seriously though - these components are ROCK HARD! Ok, so they're quite heavy but from the reviews I've read they'll take more of a beating than I'll be able to dish out! One reason I went for these was that I used to buckle rear wheels faster than I changed inner tubes or tyres! (this was from back hops on concrete surfaces mainly!)

For the gearset I have completed the SRAM lineup with these derailleurs:

• X-Gen Front
• X9 Rear

To complete the drivetrain I've bought and installed:

• RaceFace Evolve XC Crank with Rings and BB
  
• Kona JackShit Primo DH Pedals

This lot has all been installed and looks absolutely amazing. On that note I was going to put up a photo as it all builds up - but I've decided to wait until the end!