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New Whip? New toys for the dependable steed?

scrublover

Turbo Monkey
Sep 1, 2004
2,909
6,247
Finished off my stock of Bontrager SE4 tires. Some ride time on one has shown I prefer these for the back of the little bike.
Negligible weight difference, doesn't feel slower to me, but feels much better overall - especially in/on wet conditions.

20220514_134944.jpg
 
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HeadMaster

Chimp
Feb 8, 2019
57
194
Finished off my stock of Bontrager SE4 tires. Some ride time on one has shown I prefer these for the back of the little bike.
Negligible weight difference, doesn't feel slower to me, but feels much better overall - especially in/on wet conditions.

View attachment 176408
Have been running eliminators on the back of all my bikes last 2 years. When taking price into consideration (esp with specialeds web sales) it is by far my current favorite rear tire. Have converted quite a few friends too. I ride Colorado front range, trestle, Angelfire, Moab/Utah and general Rocky Mountain.
 

scrublover

Turbo Monkey
Sep 1, 2004
2,909
6,247
Ran a Butcher 2.3 gravity in the back on high speed chunk the past 2 days with excellent results.
Have tried that, but don't care for one on the back. Up front isn't so bad, but prefer the Assegai to the Butcher.

Little bike is Eliminator F 2.6 and R 2.3 for now. Big bike is Assegai F and R, with similar larger up front. Both bikes mullet setups. The spare/DH wheelset is setup with DHRII rear and Butcher front. When those die I think I'll go for the Eliminator rear/Assegai front.
 

6thElement

Schrodinger's Immigrant
Jul 29, 2008
15,943
13,193
Finished off my stock of Bontrager SE4 tires. Some ride time on one has shown I prefer these for the back of the little bike.
Negligible weight difference, doesn't feel slower to me, but feels much better overall - especially in/on wet conditions.

View attachment 176408
Where does Grid Trail compare to EXO/EXO+? And T7?

My only experience with SpecEd tyres is some Ground Control, Control Casing, T5 Compound that came on new bikes. They don't seem to grip well on anything, rock, loose over hard, hard...
 

djjohnr

Turbo Monkey
Apr 21, 2002
3,012
1,704
Northern California
Have tried that, but don't care for one on the back. Up front isn't so bad, but prefer the Assegai to the Butcher.

Little bike is Eliminator F 2.6 and R 2.3 for now. Big bike is Assegai F and R, with similar larger up front. Both bikes mullet setups. The spare/DH wheelset is setup with DHRII rear and Butcher front. When those die I think I'll go for the Eliminator rear/Assegai front.
Was heading out on a trip and realized I was out of 29” double downs. Stopped by a bike shop on the way and my choices were Eliminators or Butchers in gravity 2.3. I liked the Eliminator 2.3 when they first came out as a rear but found the 2.6 too floaty in moon dust. Still went with the Butcher for the weekend for the deeper tread. It did great on the Georgetown trails with an Assegai EXO+ up front, although sometimes it was out-gripping that Assegai which almost got too interesting.
 

scrublover

Turbo Monkey
Sep 1, 2004
2,909
6,247
Where does Grid Trail compare to EXO/EXO+? And T7?

My only experience with SpecEd tyres is some Ground Control, Control Casing, T5 Compound that came on new bikes. They don't seem to grip well on anything, rock, loose over hard, hard...
T7 = softer/grippier. T9 even moreso.

Seems EXO-ish to me. I've got some Maxxis DD and DH tires to compare to, but no EXO+ stuff. These came in ~900gms for the 27.5 x 2.3 version here. They bill it as their medium weight between the regular Grid casing and the Grid Gravity.

Only two rides on one of these new variations so far, so can't speak to side wall/carcass longevity. You know what some of our rocks out here can be like.

Have had some of their older regular Grid stuff in the past, and always ended up tearing a sidewall. We shall see how these do.
 

DaveW

Space Monkey
Jul 2, 2001
11,196
2,723
The bunker at parliament
My bike lust continues unabated.
Production Privee Titanium Shan frame,
Titanium XTR cassette,
Black& gold KMC chain,
Hadley racing hub,
Carbon rims
NextR carbon cranks
Chromag Scarab pedals.
Hope brakes with the braided lines.
badabling.jpg
 

HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
6,730
5,612
Been running carbon cranks on all my bikes for about 11 years now.
Yet to have any fail on me. :)
As a fat guy that used to run cranks for months before they died there is no way I could put carbon cranks on a HT.
Rims and cranks were consumables when I was less of a sook.
 

DaveW

Space Monkey
Jul 2, 2001
11,196
2,723
The bunker at parliament
Yep and for me I'm 73kg and a smooth rider, I tend to float/loft the bike over stuff instead of just smashing it thru shit.
So for me carbon totally works, but for the less subtle riders, carbon cranks/rims/bars are not something I recommend.
 
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HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
6,730
5,612
Yep and for me I'm 73kg and a smooth rider, I tend to float/loft the bike over stuff instead of just smashing it thru shit.
So for me carbon totally works, but for the loss subtle riders, carbon cranks/rims/bars are not something I recommend.
The opposite of me then, hahaha!
I tried to be smooth but rocks and a lack of speed would get in the way.
 

slyfink

Turbo Monkey
Sep 16, 2008
9,323
5,074
Ottawa, Canada
Have tried that, but don't care for one on the back. Up front isn't so bad, but prefer the Assegai to the Butcher.

Little bike is Eliminator F 2.6 and R 2.3 for now. Big bike is Assegai F and R, with similar larger up front. Both bikes mullet setups. The spare/DH wheelset is setup with DHRII rear and Butcher front. When those die I think I'll go for the Eliminator rear/Assegai front.
curious as to why you prefer the Eliminator to the Butcher? I kinda like tires with "transition channels" like the Butcher has. The Eliminator seems like it also has lower knobs, so would wear out quicker. But I have no experience to back this up...

Where does Grid Trail compare to EXO/EXO+? And T7?
Grid Trail is like last year's EXO+, except with 60tpi casing instead of 120. What it gives in compliance, it gains in "robustness".

This year's EXO+ is 60tpi now too, but has an extra butyl reinforcement at the bead to help with pinch flats. If I had to start again, this is what I'd get. As it stands, I'm running 2.3 Butcher Grid Trails in T7 (with a Tannus Tubeless in the rear wheel).

FWIW, Specialized's 2.3 is also slightly more girthy than Maxxis' 2.4.
 

canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
20,453
19,450
Canaderp
Express delivery from Poland arrived today
View attachment 176090

I thought this would take months to arrive since the cassette is made to order... But I ordered this April 20th, and they shipped in May 4th. It took two days to arrive from Poland via DHL. Didn't have to pay duty, just taxes and the customs handling fee of $20 (which is double the normal postal service rate, but imo still reasonable for how quickly it came). I'm astounded (and almost embarassed about the embedded GHGs... maybe I'll plant a tree this weekend). Now I just need to procure a new SRAM chain...
Fancy... GHG?

Bicicletta out of BC has some chains...


I have been trying to order some 165 Sweetwings for a while now, back ordered for a year. Maybe time to send the Cane Creek sales dudes a few pizzas and beers at about 5:00 on a Thursday…
I'm sure you could borrow one of @4xBoy 's sets he has in the titanium bucket. :p
 

djjohnr

Turbo Monkey
Apr 21, 2002
3,012
1,704
Northern California
Back on a Smash. I’m loving the Altitude as a rough-terrain charger that can climb, but it’s not the best daily driver for my local trails so I gave it another stable-mate.

8452A3D0-013B-4532-9AF6-5938C53F1214.jpeg
 
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4xBoy

Turbo Monkey
Jun 20, 2006
7,043
2,887
Minneapolis
Fancy... GHG?

Bicicletta out of BC has some chains...




I'm sure you could borrow one of @4xBoy 's sets he has in the titanium bucket. :p
I'm going to use them,....someday.
 

djjohnr

Turbo Monkey
Apr 21, 2002
3,012
1,704
Northern California
How many bikes is this in 2 years?
2020 - GG Smash; 2021 - Norco Shore (plan on keeping this one a long time), SC Bronson; 2022 - RM Altitude, GG Smash (again). Typically I turn my trail/enduro frames over every year, and keep my DH frames for much longer. I prefer to buy aluminum frames for this reason (among others) since the resale value as a % of new price tends to be better, but what I want isn't always available in alloy anymore.
 
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HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
6,730
5,612
What? No purple ano components? BURN THE WITCH!!!
Yeah, purple stem will move across, if Profile did their Elite hubs with a Ti driver I would have bought purple hubs too but I have Red Hadleys because red was in stock and a Ti driver is more important than purple.
I like all the bits on my hardtail so they will all move across and I'll get cheaper stuff for the HT.
 

Happymtb.fr

Turbo Monkey
Feb 9, 2016
1,913
1,268
SWE
Maybe a dumb question, but what is the purpose of a hand dyno? I'd think to cycle when bleeding to purge hidden bubbles. Is that it? Something else??
mostly to rapidly check if compression and rebound adjusters are working as they should
 
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