New Whip? New toys for the dependable steed?
- Thread starter mykel
- Start date
I just got back from the initial ride, with two good DH runs. My shock is not tuned right though and I have to play around with the 3 I have to find the right one, while I wait on yet another to come. Rear end coming up a bit on some jumps and the 5 position rebound is maxed out. Gotta work out a little shifting issue, looks to be taking a spacer out of the BB shell.
I *think* 400lb is the right spring. I started out on 388 and that was too saggy and I was going through travel too fast...did some big jumps and drops with 400 and no hint of bottom, so should be ok.
Climbing, seems decent, not worse than the GG. Better? Hard to tell, not enough time to really assess.
The Lithium is on my very short list for my next frame, I'm also curious to follow your thoughts as you ride it more. The Balance is really nice too, but I don't want to replace my 29" wheels.
How's the build quality and alignment? That's pretty much my main concern with frames nowadays. Cheers!
How's the build quality and alignment? That's pretty much my main concern with frames nowadays. Cheers!
Seems real good, no real gochas building it, straightforward and all. Probably need a DT/BB protector pad thingie.
Hunter brought it over tonight I upped the fork to 180...took it out and rode it, man that bike has more pull than any Shimano motor I've tested..more torque and the screen is amazing on it...it flat out gets it..way above my pay grade
I put a different stem on my bike today. Went from 35mm length to 40 or 50mm (I forget).
Bike is definitely on the edge of being too long now, so going to chop the handle bars down 1cm.
This seat post is also just too long. It fits, but it sits a little high when it's lowered all the way. It also needs to be 1mm pulled out, from bottoming out, or else it creeks on something.
A friend just purchased then 180mm version and has one size bigger frame than me, so maybe we can trade?
Bike is definitely on the edge of being too long now, so going to chop the handle bars down 1cm.
This seat post is also just too long. It fits, but it sits a little high when it's lowered all the way. It also needs to be 1mm pulled out, from bottoming out, or else it creeks on something.
A friend just purchased then 180mm version and has one size bigger frame than me, so maybe we can trade?
Can you use a different saddle that has a lower stack height (distance between middle of rails and center top where you sit on)?
I could, but it might be nice to get the seat lower, I'm not sure. With the seat all the way down, but still pretty high, it's a little awkward on really steep stuff - I have I have to stop and get going again for whatever reason.
We'll see... I'll probably just end up sticking with it. But I do need to put some friction paste on the post, as it keeps slipping down that last 1mm and ends up creeking.
Maybe not a new bike part, but I'm trying to remember how to set up my forkz... 36 Grip2. I'm very happy with it for general trail riding, but when I have to ride flow trails, it is not balanced for jumpiness. My shock is a Vorsprung-tuned Monarch and I love it. But I can't really change LSC. On jumps, my suspension is unbalanced, and my front end pretty much consistently dives, unless I really over-exagerate pulling up on the bars.
So my question is: is flying up the face of a jump a low-speed event, or a high-speed event? i.e. should I add LSC for flow trails and jumps, or add HSR? to the fork. I don't want to slow down rebound any moar on the shock, it's already kinda slow.
So my question is: is flying up the face of a jump a low-speed event, or a high-speed event? i.e. should I add LSC for flow trails and jumps, or add HSR? to the fork. I don't want to slow down rebound any moar on the shock, it's already kinda slow.
I'd at least add 1-2 clicks of LSR to the fork, maybe also 1-2 clicks of LSC on it also. In my experience, almost every time I've felt like the rear end was kicking on small jumps (i.e. not speed launchers), it was because the fork rebound was too slow. So the fork would soak up the hit but not extend by the end of the lip, causing the rear to come up. Opening rebound on the fork makes lips feel a lot more poppy to me.
thanks, just so I'm clear, when you say "add", you mean add compression damping, and add rebound speed (so less rebound damping).... correct?
I just went through this last week on my Ripmo with a Float X and 36 grip 2. Both ends of my bike felt good over bumps, but my 36 was not wanting the leave the ground as easily as the rear. For me, the solution was 2 less clicks of LSR AND HSR on the 36. This balanced the bike and all is good.
Then again, I run a normal setup on my rear shock with maybe just the rebound a touch fast, but on my 36, I prefer it with the compression almost wide open, a lower spring rate and the rebound set fast.
If it feels like your fork is diving too much in compression on jump faces, then I'd start with a little more LSC damping to keep that from happening. If you don't want to slow down your rear shock rebound any more, adding fork rebound speed (i.e., less rebound damping) should help balance front and rear after take off.
What I do for general riding (not jumping specific)
- Make sure spring rate feels even between front and rear. I set this up going down a moderate grade paved hill with the idea that I'm getting somewhere in between flat and steep terrain
- Make sure LSR/LSC give me the level of stability I'm looking for in response to body movements
- Set HSC based on how much stability vs compliance I want the bike to have in rock gardens, off jumps and drops. A lot of my local trails are steep fall line stuff with blown out braking bumps. I'll increase/decrease HSC between front and rear to change the dynamic pitch of the bike in steep bumpy situations like that (ie, if the front end is too low and LSC is already appropriate, I may increase HSC of the fork and/or decrease HSC of the shock)
What I do for jumps:
- I assume the suspension is already fairly balanced based on the above. I just want to decrease suspension movement on jump faces.
- Increase LSC on fork and shock. Depending on how suddenly the jump faces come I may increase HSC as well. In both cases I'm matching front and rear as much as possible. Some people increase spring rate, or reduce rebound damping (or some combination of all three), but I'm too lazy to go changing my spring rate and I don't like how faster rebound feels on jumps.
- Make sure spring rate feels even between front and rear. I set this up going down a moderate grade paved hill with the idea that I'm getting somewhere in between flat and steep terrain
- Make sure LSR/LSC give me the level of stability I'm looking for in response to body movements
- Set HSC based on how much stability vs compliance I want the bike to have in rock gardens, off jumps and drops. A lot of my local trails are steep fall line stuff with blown out braking bumps. I'll increase/decrease HSC between front and rear to change the dynamic pitch of the bike in steep bumpy situations like that (ie, if the front end is too low and LSC is already appropriate, I may increase HSC of the fork and/or decrease HSC of the shock)
What I do for jumps:
- I assume the suspension is already fairly balanced based on the above. I just want to decrease suspension movement on jump faces.
- Increase LSC on fork and shock. Depending on how suddenly the jump faces come I may increase HSC as well. In both cases I'm matching front and rear as much as possible. Some people increase spring rate, or reduce rebound damping (or some combination of all three), but I'm too lazy to go changing my spring rate and I don't like how faster rebound feels on jumps.
I see I worded that poorly. I meant open up (speed up / less damping) LSR, maybe close (slow down / more damping) LSC.
What @djjohnr is describing is more or less what these fancy data acquisition systems are helping people do. Not Shockwiz which is a joke, but the good ones like Motion Instruments. My buddy has one of those and I've used it to tune a few of my bikes. The process is basically adjust spring rates so the dynamic sag is the same front/rear on trails you're tuning for (and travel used is as desired), adjust rebound to get to a certain threshold max rebound speed (basically as fast as you can stand) and balance average rebound speeds front/rear, then adjust compression so average speeds match front/rear.
On the new toys for the steed topic, I found a guy on PB selling an extremely hard to find Super Deluxe Ultimate air shock *with* HBO, so I snagged that. I love the coil version on my Nomad, but the eeb isn't quite progressive enough, even with a Cascade link. I also scored a cheap Renthal 31.8 bar in 40mm rise / alu / black and an i9 A318 stem to continue my less sweep experiment. The 7* sweep felt great on the 35mm Fatbar Lite Carbon I tried, but that thing was painfully stiff. So I'm going to pay attention to what the internets say (and pros are actually riding) and try the alu / 31.8 version and see if my hands can live with that. I got the 31.8 version of the same stem I'm running now to try and have the most controlled experiment I can.
On the new toys for the steed topic, I found a guy on PB selling an extremely hard to find Super Deluxe Ultimate air shock *with* HBO, so I snagged that. I love the coil version on my Nomad, but the eeb isn't quite progressive enough, even with a Cascade link. I also scored a cheap Renthal 31.8 bar in 40mm rise / alu / black and an i9 A318 stem to continue my less sweep experiment. The 7* sweep felt great on the 35mm Fatbar Lite Carbon I tried, but that thing was painfully stiff. So I'm going to pay attention to what the internets say (and pros are actually riding) and try the alu / 31.8 version and see if my hands can live with that. I got the 31.8 version of the same stem I'm running now to try and have the most controlled experiment I can.
Whats the air spring config in your fork? Stock spring? Spacers? Sag?
Envious. Those are very good shocks from the ones I've tried.
Scored a decent backup wheel for my warranty waiting period on my cracked rim.
Had all the required spares to assemble this into a bolt on ready wheel. Only about an ounce of Stan’s in there, but it seems to be holding…
Not bad for $100
Had all the required spares to assemble this into a bolt on ready wheel. Only about an ounce of Stan’s in there, but it seems to be holding…
Not bad for $100
The people at the Trek store had a freaking panic attack when I told them I was going to use a Bontrager strip in my Nextie rim.
It's freaking magic, holds with no sealant at all. I highly recommend these if your rim width is close and you just don't want to deal with freaking tape.
Fingers crossed the next step is subscription based gear access for electronic drivetrains. They'll drop the cost of AXS Transmission to $150 for the groupset and you pay $35 a month or $1 per shift. Enter code "youbroughtthisonyourself" to get 15% off the Reverb "pay-per-drop' bundle.
Nah it will be a combo along with the Flight Attendant suspension.
Depending on your package level if you don't pay more, using the climbing gears will cost more and the suspension won't be as plush on the way downhill.
It will all become clear when we reach the Singularity.
Any valve that works with your strips, yes, they do add a little bit of height though, so you might need an extra 4mm or so and if that puts your valve too low, you might need the next size up (longer).
As a lizard, I’m still trying to figure out how to get y’all on DH bikes. Do I need to make them subscription based?We gotta be careful throwing these ideas around, the lizards might be watching.
Build more bike parks.