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"Slalomizing" old trail bike?

wydopen

Turbo Monkey
Jan 16, 2005
1,229
60
805
So I miss my old 03 Enduro sx that I had setup for slalom/dirtjumps/railing berms/play riding on..

I have amassed a large amount of spare parts and am going to turn a 2010 giant trance x into a slalom bike of sorts..I have a 36 float Im going to lower...Id also like to get a shorter length/stroke shock as Id like to shorten the travel and lower the BB...was planning on lowering the fork to 120ish...my problem is the head angle is already 69.5deg with the stock fork (150?)

Giant doesn't list bb heights but my 2010 reign was sky high...does anybody know how much shortening the shock eye to eye changes the geo? The stock shock is 7.125 x 2.125..

Im already going to be steeping the HA quite a bit by lowering the fork over an inch...dont really know what is a good HA # for a slalom bike..the new enduro sx is 68deg...Anybody else done this?...if anybody has any suggestions for a good HA # to shoot for or what stroke shock I should try to find it would be appreciated...

I guess if worse comes to worse I could get an angleset for it...
 

wydopen

Turbo Monkey
Jan 16, 2005
1,229
60
805
My question is more how to achieve that..

is it 10mm of difference in a2c = to 1deg of headangle?
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
is it 10mm of difference in a2c = to 1deg of headangle?
roughly one inch in A-C equates to a degree.


My question is more how to achieve that..?
I would say the best way by far is to type the following terms into the pinkbike buy/sell search bar: "specialized sx, a transition double, a blackmarket killswitch, trek ticket S, NS soda"

Maybe you see where I'm going here.........
 

Jeremy R

<b>x</b>
Nov 15, 2001
9,698
1,053
behind you with a snap pop
Your bike was born a trail bike but you want it to identify as a slalom bike.
You can do a complicated surgery to help your trail bike transition into a world where it will never be quite right.
Or you can just buy a slalom frame and be awesome.
 

HAB

Chelsea from Seattle
Apr 28, 2007
11,580
2,006
Seattle
You could put a 6.5x1.5 shock in there. It'll be the same length as the stock one bottomed out, so you won't have clearance issues. That would lower and slacken it a lot. You'd lose a bunch of anti squat so it wouldn't pedal very well, but it would probably be pretty fun to throw around.
 

wydopen

Turbo Monkey
Jan 16, 2005
1,229
60
805
You could put a 6.5x1.5 shock in there.
I found one for cheap...think Ill pull the trigger...pretty sure that will drop the bb about a 1/2"...not sure what that will do to the HA though...also I plan to run the thing with allot of air...basically just to take the edge off big hits
 
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wydopen

Turbo Monkey
Jan 16, 2005
1,229
60
805
Your bike was born a trail bike but you want it to identify as a slalom bike.
You can do a complicated surgery to help your trail bike transition into a world where it will never be quite right.
Or you can just buy a slalom frame and be awesome.
Not really looking to spend any $...also this is a 6year old medium so compared to my megatrail its going to feel like a bmx bike
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,573
24,192
media blackout
speaking of the SX... any of you guys remember the swingarm issues from the first gen frames? was it a bigger issue with the SX trail and not as prevalent on the SX?
 

wydopen

Turbo Monkey
Jan 16, 2005
1,229
60
805
speaking of the SX... any of you guys remember the swingarm issues from the first gen frames? was it a bigger issue with the SX trail and not as prevalent on the SX?
I never broke mine and it was abused for years...loved that bike

 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,573
24,192
media blackout
i've done some googling; based on that and my recollections from that era, the swingarm failures were more prevalent on the SX trails. or am i missing something?
 

iRider

Turbo Monkey
Apr 5, 2008
5,648
3,089
Giant doesn't list bb heights but my 2010 reign was sky high...does anybody know how much shortening the shock eye to eye changes the geo? The stock shock is 7.125 x 2.125..
FWIW: in the old days the Giant team rides short shocked the regular Trance to use it as slalom bike.
 

HAB

Chelsea from Seattle
Apr 28, 2007
11,580
2,006
Seattle
I found one for cheap...think Ill pull the trigger...pretty sure that will drop the bb about a 1/2"...not sure what that will do to the HA though...also I plan to run the thing with allot of air...basically just to take the edge off big hits
More like an inch and a half. It's really going to lower the fuck out of it. It'll take something like 3 degrees of the HTA too.
 

wydopen

Turbo Monkey
Jan 16, 2005
1,229
60
805
FWIW: in the old days the Giant team rides short shocked the regular Trance to use it as slalom bike.
Im basically gaining an inch of travel and slacking it out by 1deg with the '10 trance x over the 08 trance...09 and 10 trances are the same
 

HAB

Chelsea from Seattle
Apr 28, 2007
11,580
2,006
Seattle
from 7.125 to 6.5 is not going to bring the bb down anywhere near that far...
Coupled with a corresponding drop in fork height it will. More than half an inch of the shock eye to eye on a bike with a ~2.5:1 average leverage ratio moves the wheel close to an inch and a half. Granted you don't see that full change in the BB unless you also lower the fork a similar amount, but the OP said he was planning to do exactly that.
 

Gary

"S" is for "neo-luddite"
Aug 27, 2002
7,541
5,472
UK
want my 02 SX?

it's in bits (as the main pivot axle is seized) but I'm sure a machine shop could help you get it out.
But everything's there. beaten up a good bit but no cracks.
have a spare full bearing kit for it and it has a push tuned Vanilla coil.

UK based so maybe no use to anyone here. but you are welcome to it.

realistically I'll never sort it out now I have a replacement wee bike

shipping might be a bitch
 
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dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,196
4,419
How to slalomize a trail bike:

1. Lower seat to minimum.
2. Remove bar-ends.
3. Slalom bike!
 

dhbrigade

Chimp
Feb 21, 2006
89
2
FWIW: in the old days the Giant team rides short shocked the regular Trance to use it as slalom bike.
This is what I did. Got a 07 Trance, put in a shorter shock to lower bottom bracket and a 115mm Reba to lower head angle.

The Trance now provides around 3" of travel, accelerates like a XC bike and corners like a dream. Perfect fun bike.
 

dhbrigade

Chimp
Feb 21, 2006
89
2
What's slalom?
I know it's hypothetic, but for me it's a sequence of beautifully shaped berms, doubles and rollers, where the technically best rider takes the win. Not the one who "karimed" his opponents best of the track (to use ancient tongue). ;)
 

rockofullr

confused
Jun 11, 2009
7,342
924
East Bay, Cali
Since we're talking about slalom...

What are people running for rubber on their little bikes these days? My last Larsen TT is about to give up the ghost. Should I just get more?
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,241
20,022
Sleazattle
Not sure about slalomizing, but sticking some smoked wild caught pacific Coho down the seat tube will do wonders to Salmonize just about any bike.
 

SDet

Monkey
Nov 19, 2014
150
42
Boulder Co
I've had good luck with Kenda small. Block 8s, had an icon before that, can't really call it much of a tire.
 

dhbrigade

Chimp
Feb 21, 2006
89
2
Since we're talking about slalom...

What are people running for rubber on their little bikes these days? My last Larsen TT is about to give up the ghost. Should I just get more?
Schwalbe Rocket Ron or if its dry Racing Ralph or maybe Thunder Burt. All in PaceStar Compound.

Just above half the weight of a comparable Larson TT. Extremely fast rolling and accelerating tires that make you explode out of the gate.

Had a lot of firends that were quite surprised by those tires.

Not the best puncture resistance though.
 

rockofullr

confused
Jun 11, 2009
7,342
924
East Bay, Cali
I've had good luck with Kenda small. Block 8s, had an icon before that, can't really call it much of a tire.
I run a small block 8 in the rear most of the time but they don't have enough cornering traction for me in the front.

Schwalbe Rocket Ron or if its dry Racing Ralph or maybe Thunder Burt. All in PaceStar Compound.

Just above half the weight of a comparable Larson TT. Extremely fast rolling and accelerating tires that make you explode out of the gate.

Had a lot of firends that were quite surprised by those tires.

Not the best puncture resistance though.
Interesting. I'll have to take a look.