I'm surprised to search here and not find a thread about this, especially given how popular it's becoming racing DH.
Being a good little consumer, I took a leap and just got one for my trail ("enduro") bike. I was interested in it because I ride flat pedals and have flat feet, which means that pedal kickback is a recipe for sore feet at the bottom of every run. It seemed like my bike would really benefit from it, having a pretty high level of anti-squat and pedal kickback (~13 degrees according to Linkage).
Anyways, first run today and I have some thoughts. I left in the 6 degree elastomer. Pedaling I did notice the lag in initial engagement, but as you'd expect it goes away as long as you keep steady pressure on the pedals. It did feel like there was a *tiny* bit of relaxation at the top of pedal stroke but I'm not certain. It also felt like my rear suspension was sagging a bit more while pedaling than normal (I'm guessing due to not having the high anti-squat fully engaged constantly to fight shock compression). Descending it was hugely noticeable. On the first descent I did, it starts out pretty flowy and bermy, then gets progressively steeper and rougher. Even the flowy part has a fair amount of small chatter from brake bumps, small erosion, etc. - nothing that you think about, but it's there. In the first section, I found myself braking a lot less because the rear felt so calm and stable. Pumping for jumps felt like I lost a tiny bit of support but I was also going faster, so I found myself going further than normal. When I got to the second half (faster, loose, rougher), it was still much calmer than usual, but in a way, bigger square edged hits kind of stood out more because of how much the smaller ones were ironed out.
I was talking to a buddy, and said I think the best way to describe the feel is like riding a coil shock with a super light compression tune, but only for maybe the first ~40% of travel, and if you push in further it's got a normal amount of compression damping.
FWIW, I'm running the O-Chain on a Megatrail MX, set up 155/160mm r/f, EXT Storia & Era, Tubolight inserts in EXO+ casing on WAO Union wheels with Hydra hubs. Suspension is set at 28% sag rear, 18% front. My compression settings are pretty close to open, but I'm thinking I might close LSC a click next ride to see how that affects things with the O-chain.
And just to head off the inevitable "why not use low engagement hub": that's different because the engagement point 1) will be random - sometimes you'll have slack until it engages but sometimes it will be already on and 2) hub engagement hits hard, rather than cushioned. I've ridden DT hubs extensively with 18t, 36t, and 54t rings. They feel nothing at all like this. The randomness of their engagement is a big turnoff to me - I'd rather have instant engagement hubs like Hydra, and tune my suspension around that feeling.
Being a good little consumer, I took a leap and just got one for my trail ("enduro") bike. I was interested in it because I ride flat pedals and have flat feet, which means that pedal kickback is a recipe for sore feet at the bottom of every run. It seemed like my bike would really benefit from it, having a pretty high level of anti-squat and pedal kickback (~13 degrees according to Linkage).
Anyways, first run today and I have some thoughts. I left in the 6 degree elastomer. Pedaling I did notice the lag in initial engagement, but as you'd expect it goes away as long as you keep steady pressure on the pedals. It did feel like there was a *tiny* bit of relaxation at the top of pedal stroke but I'm not certain. It also felt like my rear suspension was sagging a bit more while pedaling than normal (I'm guessing due to not having the high anti-squat fully engaged constantly to fight shock compression). Descending it was hugely noticeable. On the first descent I did, it starts out pretty flowy and bermy, then gets progressively steeper and rougher. Even the flowy part has a fair amount of small chatter from brake bumps, small erosion, etc. - nothing that you think about, but it's there. In the first section, I found myself braking a lot less because the rear felt so calm and stable. Pumping for jumps felt like I lost a tiny bit of support but I was also going faster, so I found myself going further than normal. When I got to the second half (faster, loose, rougher), it was still much calmer than usual, but in a way, bigger square edged hits kind of stood out more because of how much the smaller ones were ironed out.
I was talking to a buddy, and said I think the best way to describe the feel is like riding a coil shock with a super light compression tune, but only for maybe the first ~40% of travel, and if you push in further it's got a normal amount of compression damping.
FWIW, I'm running the O-Chain on a Megatrail MX, set up 155/160mm r/f, EXT Storia & Era, Tubolight inserts in EXO+ casing on WAO Union wheels with Hydra hubs. Suspension is set at 28% sag rear, 18% front. My compression settings are pretty close to open, but I'm thinking I might close LSC a click next ride to see how that affects things with the O-chain.
And just to head off the inevitable "why not use low engagement hub": that's different because the engagement point 1) will be random - sometimes you'll have slack until it engages but sometimes it will be already on and 2) hub engagement hits hard, rather than cushioned. I've ridden DT hubs extensively with 18t, 36t, and 54t rings. They feel nothing at all like this. The randomness of their engagement is a big turnoff to me - I'd rather have instant engagement hubs like Hydra, and tune my suspension around that feeling.
