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This is what's wrong with The Industry™

Leafy

Monkey
Sep 13, 2019
637
410
Theres a thread over on pinkbike where people are talking about how important weight is and how they're willing to make some sacrifices like good tires to get the weight down with lots of positivity and hugging about it.

Looking at the stupid idlers coming on trail bikes these days, looks like the pendulum of making good bikes is swinging back towards "make dog shit for dumbass dentists that think that buying a plane ticket out to go ride bentonville is the pinnacle of mountain biking"

Average MTB Consumer: Willing to spend any amount of money for keeping up with the Joneses on expensive suspension that shits the bed and needs a new CSU every year and half because it's so much more supple and perfect than the competing brand that makes the exact same shit bro.

Also Average MTB Consumer: unwilling to put on tires that make a bigger difference than any suspension change would make at 1/10th the cost because they're so heavy bro.

I guess it's useful for helping me when I'm trying to figure out who to listen to and who's a goober, and who rides in places I want to go ride and who doesn't.
as long at they keep that energy when they look at the weight of the e-bike they reconsider buying I’m ok with it.
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
how did you go there and miss the moped BMX?
:rofl:

 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
20,139
10,685
AK
Jesus... where did you order it from?
S4. They appear to have changed the compression assembly from SC4 to SC5, but only the compression assembly, it looks to be the same cartridge. Why is there tape wrapped around the interface of the top cap to the damper? Don't know. Why is there a random plastic baggie? Don't know. Asking for refund for original SC4 that was returned for being harsh.

IMG_4456 (2).jpg
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
20,139
10,685
AK
What damper do you like ? @Jm_
Beside Fast SC4 and Push hc97
Best I got right now is my Avy damper in a 34SC and the Mastodon Pro, which is basically a TPC+ type damper. That wasn't good at all stock, very harsh and the adjusters for LSC and HSC were totally useless, since they went from very harsh to total jackhammer, but installation of Dougal's high-flow piston helped immensely and now it's actually quite good, definitely better than the SC4, Push, Charger and stock Fox stuff. Now I can actually use LSC adjustments without turning it into a jackhammer. Supposedly Manitou went way overboard in the damping to account for the heavy mass of fat wheels, but that's at odds with how much lighter the impacts are, you just don't encounter the same sharp edged stuff as you do in the summer and being overdamped to start with, you can imagine how that stuff is in the dry.

But I parted out the Yarilanche (anyone want to buy a 170 ACS3 w/2 springs?) and sold the Avy damper to move to a 37/38mm chassis. I'm trying to tune both the Zeb and Mezzer to work like the old Avy stuff did. The Mezzer's biggest issue is a screwed up over-damped progressive rebound tune evidently, so it packs up pretty well and isn't great. I'm going to tune that and see if I can get it to be amazing with Dougal's pick-and-mix tune, since it worked well for the Mastodon. Otherwise, I'll see if I can have a friend pick me up a new Avy damper for the Zeb, that's probably the ultimate fix.
 

canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
21,972
21,489
Canaderp
It sucks getting shit like that delivered, already busted, leaking or whatever.

But man I'm glad I'm either not sensitive enough or maybe just a crappy rider; stock suspension is usually pretty good for me, sure there could be some improvements but not really worth it to me to spend double what a fork or shock already costs these days.
 

Happymtb.fr

Turbo Monkey
Feb 9, 2016
2,070
1,439
SWE
@Jm_
I had a Mastodon too 5 years ago, not the fancy one. It came with a compression stack with a lot of preload which gives a platform feel that I don't like. It was easy to adjust following the instructions from Manitou.
The rebound was really strange. No difference between fully close or fully open because there was a clamp shims at the bottom of the stack... I still wonder why! Nevertheless it was easy to fix.
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
55,993
22,030
Sleazattle
I recently acquired a Mezzer pro and the rebound is a lot slower than when I am used to. However that does not translate into packing up for me. It rides so much higher in the travel than any Fox or RS fork I have been on that I am going to ride it for a while to see how I feel about it before trying to change the tune. I think I have preferred fast rebound on other forks to maintain some kind of ride height while fighting dive.
 
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Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
20,139
10,685
AK
I have a particular set of roots to test on and if the fork works good, I just glide over em and keep speed. If not, it sucks major speed and I slow way down. So far, the only two things to glide through are the Avy+coil in the Yarilanche and the tuned Mastodon (2nd gen). I'm not sure it has all of those issues as the first gen, but the new piston did involve some re-shimming. Adjustment range with it is not huge, but very useful, vs. before it was huge and useless. The mezzer shows some promise, but it also packs in that section and slows me down. I only got it at the very end of the season, so I'm interested to see what the tuning will do for it. More of a fan of that TPC in the Mastodon though, it's just a lot simpler and easier to bleed/work on, etc.
 

jrewing

Monkey
Aug 22, 2010
422
290
Maydena Oz
I recently acquired a Mezzer pro and the rebound is a lot slower than when I am used to. However that does not translate into packing up for me. It rides so much higher in the travel than any Fox or RS fork I have been on that I am going to ride it for a while to see how I feel about it before trying to change the tune. I think I have preferred fast rebound on other forks to maintain some kind of ride height while fighting dive.
What i find in my mezzer.
 

konifere

Monkey
Dec 20, 2021
607
753
S4. They appear to have changed the compression assembly from SC4 to SC5, but only the compression assembly, it looks to be the same cartridge. Why is there tape wrapped around the interface of the top cap to the damper? Don't know. Why is there a random plastic baggie? Don't know. Asking for refund for original SC4 that was returned for being harsh.
These guys are local and I don't do business with them anymore unless I need something in a pinch. Sorry to see this, I hate it when people can't be half arsed to pack things nice and make sure that they work well before sending it. Hopefully they make it right in the end.
 

MrBaker87

Monkey
Mar 30, 2014
167
116
neverlandranch
These guys are local and I don't do business with them anymore unless I need something in a pinch. Sorry to see this, I hate it when people can't be half arsed to pack things nice and make sure that they work well before sending it. Hopefully they make it right in the end.
That’s interesting to hear.

I have had work done at their Whistler branch a few times over the past two or three years and had nothing but absolutely exceptional service from them. Not only that, they were very real with me and other customers which I appreciated a lot.

I did not have anything shipped.
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
S4. They appear to have changed the compression assembly from SC4 to SC5, but only the compression assembly, it looks to be the same cartridge. Why is there tape wrapped around the interface of the top cap to the damper? Don't know. Why is there a random plastic baggie? Don't know. Asking for refund for original SC4 that was returned for being harsh.

View attachment 205515

maybe they use air freight and low cabin pressure to complete the vacuum bleed
 

konifere

Monkey
Dec 20, 2021
607
753
Oh yeah that's right, they have 2 branches now. I was talking about the Quebec branch. No experience with the Whistler place, but since they were previously Vorsprung's service department (Melius), I'd guess they do a better job over there if they kept the same staff.
 

Jozz

Joe Dalton
Apr 18, 2002
6,152
7,840
SADL
Oh yeah that's right, they have 2 branches now. I was talking about the Quebec branch. No experience with the Whistler place, but since they were previously Vorsprung's service department (Melius), I'd guess they do a better job over there if they kept the same staff.
I get excellent service and prices from S4. One of the top tech came over yesterday for beers. Been dealing with them (him back then) since day one and only once they installed the wrong air shaft. Turnover is also excellent since they are 10 minutes away.
 

konifere

Monkey
Dec 20, 2021
607
753
Yeah the top techs are very good, and I have had great customer service back then, but the last few times I have received wrong parts, wrong travel settings adjusted, oversights on orders, so when that happens too many times it gets too complicated and I just try another place. I think this all happened when they became a bigger business, when it was just Guillaume and Myriam it was great.

Most of my issues with S4 would have probably been moot if I had been local to them, but shipping things means that stuff has to be double-checked so that the customer doesn't have to mess more than needed (like on Jm's case). That said, Suspension Werx has been perfect so far and it's not any more expensive to ship my stuff to them than to S4.
 

ChrisRobin

Turbo Monkey
Jan 30, 2002
3,403
212
Vancouver
S4. They appear to have changed the compression assembly from SC4 to SC5, but only the compression assembly, it looks to be the same cartridge. Why is there tape wrapped around the interface of the top cap to the damper? Don't know. Why is there a random plastic baggie? Don't know. Asking for refund for original SC4 that was returned for being harsh.

View attachment 205515
Can't wait to hear what they say about the'S4' tape and the random ziploc bag. Super weird and ghetto.
 

HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
7,741
7,082
When something is bad compared to a Crank Brothers product you know it is properly bad.
1704029050299.png

I bought on of these because I forgot to throw any tools in to the car, go to undo my rear axle, nup, flexes and feels like it's about to fall apart.
Expensive, and shit.
 

konifere

Monkey
Dec 20, 2021
607
753
To be honest, the Crank Brothers multitools are awesome. I have a M17 that I've been using a lot since 10 years and it's been flawless. I just bought another one to leave in my other pack. It's sturdy, has all the tools, does not rust, the chain breaker works great and they're reasonably priced. My new CB dropper (the cheapest one) works just as well as my OneUp too and it was cheap.