5 February 2015

Sorting out my Salsa/Surly fat 26" spare wheels & my other fat & semi fat wheels

Lets start from the start - I bought a standard Salsa XX1 Carbon Beargrease bike which came with green Salsa bolt through hubs and Surly Rolling Darryl rims. The rear hub had the Sram XD drive freehub for the 11 speed cassette. I used them for a few months before ordering a custom wheel build from Westbrook Cycles. Mark built me up a new pair of Surly 26+" Rabbit Hole rims with Hope Fatsno hubs & XD drive freehub. I currently have fitted Surly 4" Nate's on the front and rear.
Then I purchased a second Salsa Carbon Beargrease but as a frameset this time which came with a pair of black hubs. Again I got Mark from Westbrook Cycles to build these hubs up with Surly 29+" Rabbit hole rims. The rear hub came with a standard Shimano freehub body so had to remove the XD one from my original Beargrease rear wheel to run both Beargrease's at once- one 26" and the other 29". I have a choice of Surly 3" Knards & Maxxis 3" Chronicle tyres for the 29" wheelset.
The original Beargrease front wheel now has a Surly 5" Bud fitted but that has left me with the rear wheel and a spare standard freehub body that I cannot use.
So, I ordered up a Salsa / Sram XD freehub body, check out the rrp it is just a joke but Mark sorted me the some discount but it is still a hefty price to pay. I didn't want to cough up mega bucks for a XX1 cassette so sourced a second hand Sram X1 XG1180 (rrp £240) cassette from Ebay for way less than half price. I also required a 140mm rotor so bought another KCNC Razor that I have fitted to the other wheels, £17.99 from XC Racer shop.
30mins in the garage and I now have -
2no 26" front wheels - 5" Bud & 4" Nate fitted
2no 26" rear wheels -4" Nate & 4" Dillinger fitted
(I also have spare pairs of  26" - 4"Husker Du's, 4" Floater's & 3"Dirt Wizards tyres)
1no 29" front wheel -3" Chronicle fitted
1no 29" rear wheel - 3" Chronicle fitted
(and I also have the pair of 3" Knard tyres)
This means we can run both Beargrease's with Full Fat 26" wheels or one as Fat & the other as the Krampgrease, tyre choices for every possible type of condition.
three parcels and three items, I am ready now


Sram X1 10-42t 11 speed cassette, with 30 miles use! not so sure on that tbh

Popped it on the scales as a matter of interest

Salsa sram XD drive freehub body


KCNC Razor 140mm rotor inc bolts



freehub body only

freehub body, bolt through end cap & spacer

All cleaned up and ready for fitting

spacer on first, bevel edge towards cassette

Slide freehub boby on and engage the three prawls


Screw end cap on with 17mm cone spanner & a 13mm hex on opposite end of the axle

that's one side complete

clean up the none drive side and apply fresh grease

Push on the bolt through end cap

Grease applied and cassette fitted


Exact manufacturers weight

with t25 bolts

and that's the other side complete


tyre pumped up

and its ready for action

whilst I had my tools and grease out

I stripped down the other Salsa XD hub

Cleaned, re greased and refitted

when I took my XX1 cassette off I popped it on the scales, heavier than the X1 model !!!!!


all done and serviced


Spare wheels now ready for action when required
More soon, all the best

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