This evening after a nap I went to the track to do some gates with my friends and while doing the gates my cassette was slipping a lot randomly! It was OK to ride but it was un-nerving to say the least and I also noticed that the bars are too high on the bike as well. When compared to my 24″ the bars are 1″ higher so I have ordered a set of 7.5″ Staystong Chevron Straight Race Bars from SourceBMX which should be here by the weekend hopefully.

When I got home I took the rear wheel off and found that 3 of the 4 sprags were around the wrong way so only one of the paws was engaging correctly!

This explains the slipping when under pressure and was an easy fix as I tuned the sprags around and now all are engaging correctly so I expect the hub to perform as it should from now on 🙂 I also tightened up the driver a bit more as well for good luck so🤞🏻 its all good from here as I really don’t want to have to pay out for a new hub right now!

Other than the hub issues and the bars being too high I am really loving riding the OS20 and I think that it is definitely the way forward! Once I have the bars a bit lower I think that I will really enjoy riding the OS20 as much if not more than the 24″.

Tonight I started to get my manuals smoother and faster and started to get a pop out of them to get more backside so once I have the bars lower I think that I can be as fast, if not faster than I am on the Cruiser.

I am missing the Onyx Hubs a bit at the moment but I think that I will get used to the Profile soon enough and it will not be a problem. The Profile hubs are definitely more robust than the Onyx hubs so they definitely make a better winter hub so I am deffo using the Chase for my winter bike for now! I think that I will also get a Profile Elite hub for the Standard 125R when it is built up as it is in between a Profile Mini and an Onyx hub in terms of performance and is as easily maintained like the Profile Mini hub so it makes more sense in the UK for a training/ Pump track bike than the Onyx hub which is more fragile and more difficult to maintain than the Profile elite hub and definitely doesn’t like the wet english weather compared to a Profile hub. I may well build up the Curtis OS20 with Onyx hubs for Racing on and Profile Elites for Training on I will see when the time comes!

I am going to race the Chase in the club race tomorrow night and see how it goes as I want to get used to it and also Don’t want to ride the Curtis as its going to be wet and I don’t want to mess up the Onyx hubs with the wet weather!

I am pretty confident that the rear hub will be OK now so it should be fine. Its only really a training race anyway so its now a big problem if I am slower anyway! Its more about getting 4 fast laps in in a training session to be honest to build up my fitness rather than winning!

I have also noticed that the Chase seems to jump really well! I am not sure if its the higher bars or the higher bottom bracket but it really wants to jump! I almost cleared the table top without trying so with a bit of training and effort I should be jumping it again in no time 🙂

I also put some different grips on the bike today as the ones that were on there would not tighten up properly so had throttle grip which sucked so the newer grips are much better and do not move! I have put the old grips on my e-bike for now as I took the better grips off of the e-bike and I need to ride it to the office in the morning so they will have to do until the new grips arrive tomorrow!

All in all I am really happy with the Chase OS20 Conversion and think that I will love training on it over the winter. I also can’t wait for the Standard 125R OS20 frame to arrive so that I can try riding an actual OS20 bike as well. I am also really excited to get Gary to build me an OS20 specific frame too.

The only other thing that I really want to change is the bottom bracket so I have ordered another Forward Bottom Bracket from Crucial to use over the winter then both my bikes will have the same bottom bracket for now. The current Shimano bottom bracket is a bit crusty so could do with being replaced soon. The new Bottom Bracket should be here early next week so by this time next week I should have a completly dialled and setup OS20 bike and I can just ride it.

I will need to leave the OS20 in the container as my car’s MOT runs out at the weekend and I want to wait a bit before getting it MOT’ed to see if I can use just my e-bike for a few weeks instead of the car.

Over the next few weeks I also need to get a load of my bike parts and bikes I am not using onto the internet to sell to free up some cash and also free up space. I am also thinking that I may get my Motorbike back on the road and ride that instead of the car as its cheaper and way more fun! I will see how I get on with the ebike first then make a decision on the motorbike. I am thinking that I should probably sell the motorbike as its just money wasted at the moment!

Whichever option I use I will need to leave the OS20 in the container anyway as I can’t carry the bike on either bike anyway!

I have also bought a pair of Adidas Velosamba clipless shoes to use for the winter as my Sidi shoes are really hard to walk in as the soles have basically fallen apart so I keep twisting my ankle and as the ground gets softer it gets harder to walk without twisting my ankles all the time. I will keep the Sidi’s for racing in and use the Adidas the rest of the time!

I am hoping that the Adidas shoes will also be warner for the winter weather as well and I will hopefully be able to wear them to ride to and from the track and also drive in them when I get the car back on the road too. I may well get another set of HT pedals so that I can ride the e-bike clipped in as well then the shoes will work and I can swap bikes easily too.