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Do the brakes work?

tacklespore

Monkey
Feb 3, 2008
102
0
Texas
:poster_oops:Alright so I just bought a new ride (Pivot Mach 5). My girlfriend is very athletic and has recently added MTB into long list of outdoor activities. She like many other females was riding an oversized Trek "entry" bike. You guys know the one. Piece of *&^%...! So I figured I'd give her my nibble Specialized Stumpjumper to help improve her technical skills. The bike fit her great. As I'm riding next to her suggesting different lines she comments on how plush the F100 front suspension is. Well I blurt, " wait until you try the breaks." This is after I explained to her different body positions to assume as the trail changes. Well, she obviously remembered my little comment on how your front breaks are most of your stopping power. She continues to push on the front suspension and hits the breaks. I remind you her "entry" ride had V brakes she had to squeeze until her knuckles were white. Well I watch leave her thumbs on the bars and take FOUR fingers and squeeze the front break. Her face immediatly change to OH, *&^^. I appologized and asked her if she knew what an ENDO was. Yeah, I got a pretty sour face in return. She laughed and kept riding. :poster_oops:
I'm in love
 

tacklespore

Monkey
Feb 3, 2008
102
0
Texas
She is a trooper. Bit on this down hill section today. I'm yelling back to her, "last hill for a mile." I don't hear anything. No chain bouncing around...silence. I wait...turned around...and about 30 meters back she was sprawled out. Her chain slipped off. Left leg went through the frame and she ate @#$% good. Elbow, knees and left hip. She finised the ride again.

I'm going to start following her with my helmet cam
 

tacklespore

Monkey
Feb 3, 2008
102
0
Texas
27.5 lbs and that was after trimming 3/4 inch off each side of the bars and removing a link from the chain.

MINE:2008 Pivot Mach 5, Mavic Crossmax ST, Fox Talas 32 RLC, XTR components, Thompson stem & seat post,WTB rocket V, EA70 monkeylite bars, and some TLC from Planocycling and Sun County bicycles, Oh and 2 right hand OURY lock on grips


HERS: 25lbs 2005 Specialized Stumpjumper, Fox F90, Avid juicy 5, SRAM 9 shifters, and a bunch of stickers
 

ultraNoob

Yoshinoya Destroyer
Jan 20, 2007
4,504
1
Hills of Paradise
She is a trooper. Bit on this down hill section today. I'm yelling back to her, "last hill for a mile." I don't hear anything. No chain bouncing around...silence. I wait...turned around...and about 30 meters back she was sprawled out. Her chain slipped off. Left leg went through the frame and she ate @#$% good. Elbow, knees and left hip. She finised the ride again.

I'm going to start following her with my helmet cam
yep, she's a keeper :thumb:
 

-dustin

boring
Jun 10, 2002
7,155
1
austin
took a link out? did you check check the big/ big combo? Shimano rear derailleurs have less capacity than SRAM. with the other Pivots we've built with Shimano RDs, the chain, while not rubbing in little/ little, would it up being too short in big/ big. we build them now so that big/ big is safe.

i'm wondering if the other package of Ourys is two lefts...think i'm going to check that out Monday.
 

tacklespore

Monkey
Feb 3, 2008
102
0
Texas
Hey bro. I keep getting this freaking ghost shifting in 8 & 9 cogs. I could bearly ride it on the trails the first run. Pretty much single speed when the rear suspension was being activated. We loosened the tension it work better. Cable housing looks kind of short? The chain is folded over on itself on the rear derailleur. It just can't handle much tension in those gears (16/18)?
 

Reactor

Turbo Monkey
Apr 5, 2005
3,976
1
Chandler, AZ, USA
Hey bro. I keep getting this freaking ghost shifting in 8 & 9 cogs. I could bearly ride it on the trails the first run. Pretty much single speed when the rear suspension was being activated. We loosened the tension it work better. Cable housing looks kind of short? The chain is folded over on itself on the rear derailleur. It just can't handle much tension in those gears (16/18)?
If your derailluer says Shimano, that's your problem. :disgust1:

Seriously, You probably have a housing that's a little too short (or too long), and when the suspension activates it's causing the shifting. Make sure all the cable caps are fully seated, there is no cable drag, and nothing is getting too tight when the suspension actives. Check the housing nearest the pivot/shock first.


Edit: It looks like you have too much cable near the shock, since the suspension is going to compress, you want just barely enough there. I have a Motolite with a similar configuration.
 

Reactor

Turbo Monkey
Apr 5, 2005
3,976
1
Chandler, AZ, USA
Btw, My wife's second solo off road ride resulted in ten stitches, she hit a rutted out section of trail too fast and crashed into a rock pile. Your girlfriend is a keeper.
 

dirttastesgood

Turbo Monkey
Dec 12, 2006
1,517
0
CT
My girlfriend refuses to go near a bike. She's afraid of my downhill bike and won't go near it but she did ride my dirt jumper around town once this summer.
 

-dustin

boring
Jun 10, 2002
7,155
1
austin
Hey bro. I keep getting this freaking ghost shifting in 8 & 9 cogs. I could bearly ride it on the trails the first run. Pretty much single speed when the rear suspension was being activated. We loosened the tension it work better. Cable housing looks kind of short? The chain is folded over on itself on the rear derailleur. It just can't handle much tension in those gears (16/18)?
Pretty confident that the housing length is fine. It's cut the same as mine and mine's working well. Reactor, the routing is pretty much exactly the same as Motolite routing. the big loop you see is for the front derailleur. The piece for the rear has a slight curvature. I do this mainly for the following reason; as the housing compresses, rather than having to deal with crap shifting (exposed strands of steel), the ends can be trimmed giving a solid piece of housing for the ferrule to butt up against. 5mm max trimmed...not enough to create shifting issues before or after.

Anywho, ghost shifting in 8 and 9...first thing I would check would be low limit screw. I got pulled off the bike a lot to help customers. I might've missed that adjustment. Excuses...I know. Seeing that loosening cable tension improved shifting is kind of interesting. That tells me that perhaps there's some contamination in the housing. Or...I'm wondering if maybe the was some housing compression and loosening the tension dropped the cable tension enough to pretty much make your drivetrain an 8sp drivetrain, such that the first shift, rather than pull the derailleur, just took up the slack in the line. I can't remember...do you have a rapid rise rear derailleur or not?

Ordered my girlfriend a Womens Stumpy last week. Can't wait to get her out on the trail....
 

Reactor

Turbo Monkey
Apr 5, 2005
3,976
1
Chandler, AZ, USA
Pretty confident that the housing length is fine. It's cut the same as mine and mine's working well. Reactor, the routing is pretty much exactly the same as Motolite routing. the big loop you see is for the front derailleur. The piece for the rear has a slight curvature. I do this mainly for the following reason; as the housing compresses, rather than having to deal with crap shifting (exposed strands of steel), the ends can be trimmed giving a solid piece of housing for the ferrule to butt up against. 5mm max trimmed...not enough to create shifting issues before or after.

Anywho, ghost shifting in 8 and 9...first thing I would check would be low limit screw. I got pulled off the bike a lot to help customers. I might've missed that adjustment. Excuses...I know. Seeing that loosening cable tension improved shifting is kind of interesting. That tells me that perhaps there's some contamination in the housing. Or...I'm wondering if maybe the was some housing compression and loosening the housing dropped the cable tension enough to pretty much make your drivetrain an 8sp drivetrain, such that the first shift, rather than pull the derailleur, just took up the slack in the line. I can't remember...do you have a rapid rise rear derailleur or not?

Ordered my girlfriend a Womens Stumpy last week. Can't wait to get her out on the trail....
I'm was just guessing, and from the picture, it looks like there is too much cable running between the rear triangle and the frame. But it's a picture and it's hard to be sure. The ghost shifting problem could be as simple as some cable caps that weren't completely seated and seated after the bike was shifted a few times. That would cause the cable to loosen up. The limit screw is a strong possibility also. If I could touch the bike I (and I bet you too) could figure it out in about two minutes.
 

loco-gringo

Crusading Clamp Monkey
Sep 27, 2006
8,887
14
Deep in the heart of TEXAS
I touched it. A lot. It's not the limit screws. They are near perfect, if not. It shifts perfect on the stand and in the lot. It sounds like it just gets funky when it's moving through its travel. I will look at it one day this week for Jamison.
 

-dustin

boring
Jun 10, 2002
7,155
1
austin
Hm. Keep me updated. I sold one yesterday to a guy that came in from Louisiana. Can't remember what his housing bits looked like.

Loco, where's your shop at? I'm going to Austin in a few weeks for a mini-riding vacation. I've always wanted to stop and pee on your toilet seat.
 

Reactor

Turbo Monkey
Apr 5, 2005
3,976
1
Chandler, AZ, USA
a picture of my housing, just for kicks...

Your housing looks a lot like mine, mine is just a tiny bit shorter. It also occurs to me that someone might not have put the right spacers in the bottom bracket, so the chainline could be out of whack, but that's a long-shot if it's anyone who's built a bike before, and it would be bad all the time not just when the suspension moves.
 

-dustin

boring
Jun 10, 2002
7,155
1
austin
The crankset is definitely correct. as you can see in this picture, the cups are integrated into the frame, so no spacers required.



of course, that doesn't rule out frame alignment, but i don't think that is an issue.
 

Reactor

Turbo Monkey
Apr 5, 2005
3,976
1
Chandler, AZ, USA
The crankset is definitely correct. as you can see in this picture, the cups are integrated into the frame, so no spacers required.



of course, that doesn't rule out frame alignment, but i don't think that is an issue.



Wow, that's interesting i've never seen that before.
 

tacklespore

Monkey
Feb 3, 2008
102
0
Texas
We went out again. I aked her how many time she fell today she said, "less than ten." I remember my first pair of clip-ins.

http://

Loco, Reactor, and Dustin I'm pretty sure my ghost shifting is the housing. The housing in the picture that you can see is for the front derailleur. The rear housing appears at little short. You can see the tension increase when the shock opens back up.
 

-dustin

boring
Jun 10, 2002
7,155
1
austin
I got my g/f a Stumpy hardtail last week. 2007 womens version. she digs it. now i just have to convert her to clipless.