2010 V-One Travel Guide Review

I have been testing Sunline's new V-One Travel Guide for Jason; now I dont have to loosen my backplate bolts and rotate my backplate back to its proper position atleast once per ride like I was doing.

It's about time there is a guide that doesnt rotate when you hit the backplate on a rock. I'm not sure if everyone has a problem with this but most people I talk with have a problem with the backplate rotating, and ever since bikes have started getting lower it has become a bigger problem for me.

I have a 2010 demo 8 so I don't need to tell people how low it is because you already know. When I had my Sunday I thought that was low but this bike brings it to a new level of low. So naturally as DH bikes get lower you are going to be hitting your backplate on stuff more often. I also know several people who have broken or damaged their ISCG tabs by the stress put on them by the backplate not moving. So if you are someone who is strong enough and lucky enough to tighten the piss out of your ISCG bolts and not have them strip out and your guide isn't rotating when it hits stuff; this guide would still be good because you will not be putting stress on your ISCG tabs when slamming into something.

Setup is easy and there is plenty of clearance between the tire and the lower portion of the backplate.

Now for the pictures. Keep in mind this is a proto and the bashguard on the production model will be clear. This one is like a matte clear because it is has been made by a CNC machine and it will have sunline logos on it. Also should mention that I have a 37t sprocket on there.







View of the spring mechanism. It will have a cover over it for production.

kidwoo said:

Heh

Took me a minute to realize that bashguard wasn't all cracked to hell.

How's the noise on that thing? Does the lower pulley stay in place and only move when whacked?

Click to expand...

Noise is minimal, as long as your chainring isn't bent and you have the chainline setup correct.

It doenst move around at all like going through rough stuff if that is what you mean.

Im guessing you thought the cut outs for the cranks were cracks? There are cut outs on both sides so you can flip it when one side gets all beat up.

MinorThreat said:

Thanks for the proto review. I've been eagerly awaiting this since Jason first told me he was working on it. My Syncros guide has a spring lower idler but I do like J's take on it. My order is going in as soon as it's available on the site.

Click to expand...

No problem, everyone that has seen it wants one now haha.

Iridemtb said:

Haha, I do now. I had to chase the threads in my ISCG tabs because I bent the bolts inside the tabs. That sucked, now I have to use a very small amount of blue loctite when putting those bolts in so they don't wiggle loose.

Do you know how much they are going to cost and when the release date is?

Click to expand...

MSRP is the same as the SRS. ETA is not certain but sometime around Feb.

big-ted said:

I'm confused. The bashguard hangs down way lower than the guide arm as you have it setup in your pics. Seems the chances of hitting the arm itself would be pretty minimal in this configuration?

Also, are those Gravity Lite cranks? If so I would have thought that having the guide rotate due to the low BB would be the least of your worries.

Click to expand...

They are not gravity light cranks they are gravity gap cranks. Im not sure what that would have to do with the rotating guide though. I have rotated my guide several times with out hitting my cranks...??

I See what you are saying but for whatever reason that lower section of the backplate likes to hit stuff causing the backplate to rotate. If this has never happend to you, not even once I am very surprised. Many other can verify this happens often enough for it to be anoying.

dw said:

The AC chainguide had a moveable lower roller like this in the mid 1990s.

http://media.photobucket.com/image/AC Chain guide/gadro/acguide.jpg

The lateral (twisting) impacts are the ones that damage ISCG tabs, so unless this thing moves sideways, I'm not sure how effective it's going to be at helping "save" ISCG tabs. Personally, I like the LG1+ solution where the taco can deflect under heavy impact, but I'm a nice and simple solution kind of guy. I guess we'll find out how it all works out in a couple years.

Click to expand...

Well the real benefit is not having the backplate rotate on impacts.

As far as lateral impacts go, You are always moving forward on a bike so if you are moving forward and the backplate hits something and swings out of the way there wouldnt be any lateral forces applied to it.

It isn't just the roller that is moving it is the whole lower part of the backplate. In situations that you hit this you would not be pedaling.

As far as lateral forces go in order for the back plate to not compress it would have to be almost a perfect side impact, any impact that has some vertical force will move this backplate out of the way. Instances I could see a perfect side impact would be If your bike goes flipping down the hill and just happens to hit an object at just the right angle or a rock gets wedged between your tire and the back plate or your buddy decided he wants to stand on the lower portion of your backplate to test out your new chainguide. However none of these things have ever happend to me and won't happen to most people.

If you think about it, when this is hitting you are compressing your suspension which is vertical. So as you go through travel the guide is going to be pushed out of the way even if what is hitting it isnt dead center with the backplate.