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Do You Mountain Bike?

Hey Wiki!

What kind of frame is it? What year?

Lemme dig into my bag of old parts, I may have some 9 speed stuff. >thinking, thinking. almost positive I have some shitmano mega 9 xt shifters< You might be able to set the bike up for 9 using the current rear derailleiur, depending on the sweep. You are correct in thinking you will need a new cogset, chain, and chainrings. The 9 speed chain has thinner plates on it, making it able to fit in the narrower spaced cogs. If you can find chainrings to fit your current cranks (bolt spacing), then you can use the original cranks with minimal problems. Otherwise places like cambria bikes or price point should be able to set you up with some surplus OEM cranks.

As far as reliability, I've got 9 speed on both my XC hardtail and my Duallie - no reliability problems for 2 years now. Reliability was initially suspect for bigger riders. It was felt that the heavier riders would stretch and break the chain with the thinner plates. I know you're almost my height, but there's no way you're near me in weight. :fatass So reliability shouldn't be a concern for you, unless you cobble together parts from 7 different part groups/manufacturers...

If you're worried about it though, you can go with an AFAM 530 conversion :laughing

Go thread, go!
 
back in the day...

we didn't have to replace our chains every month because a big fat chain that worked on a five speed cluster (before "cassette") didn't stretch...
 
hey kilt foo! ya gonna join us on one of these pedal rides?

maybe we should have one at Purrismo just for you...
 
Re: 9-spd conversion... I just did that on a bike I bought. You may not have to change the chainrings (I didn't have to), there are some that work fine with either chain 8-spd or 9-spd.

If it's only the number of gears you're worried about, I wouldn't do it for now. Especially on a DH bike. I only did the conversion because the bike came with gripshift shifters and I'm not compatible with those and I wanted to eventually change to a 34T rear cassette which are really hard to come by in an 8-spd.

One thing I had to replace that I didnt' expect was the cable housing. Either the cables that came with my trigger shifters weren't compatible with the existing cable housing, or the friction of the cable was too much for the closer spacing of the 9 sprockets vs. 8. I don't really know how well the shifting worked before the switch (I can't do gripshift).

Anyway, good luck.

And stop this rain, please!! :cry
 
I actually wanted to upgrade to 9 speed because I want to be able to climb with the bike too. It's a total tank!

I picked up a 2004 Giant DS

04-WARPDSIMA.jpg


I read that the frame is sturdy as hell...must be to survive as a rental bike at Northstar ;) I know I probably should pick up something a bit more versatile for climbing and downhill. I still have my hardtail which is a dream to climb with. I decided it wasn't too great for taking to Northstar after killing myself for a day on it there.

Aside from buying a whole new FS bike (which isn't in my student budget) I will try to make this one work as best as I can. :)
 
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You might be able to get by with just going a tooth or two down on the granny gear chainring. I'd try that first.
I have a couple sets of chainrings for my road bike, one with fewer teeth and one with more. This allows me to use less teeth in the winter, when my fitness level is low and my climbing sucks. In the summertime, when I lose weight and am in better condition, I swap out chainrings for something with more teeth. It makes climbing harder, but I have the muscles for it my that time.

OR

Start a thread named "Help me buy a bicycle!" Post that pic of you humping the wooden bear, and all the leghumpers will start throwing money at you. :laughing
 
I like to ride MT Bello area off page mill as well, you can climb MT Black 35 minute climb for us slow bastards and a nice 5-10 minute DH run, it's hard packed so you can ride shortly after the rain
 
kiltwearinfool said:


Start a thread named "Help me buy a bicycle!" Post that pic of you humping the wooden bear, and all the leghumpers will start throwing money at you. :laughing
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HAHAHAHAAA!

I wonder if that would really work :confused

KIDDING!
 
i just finished my ride at china loop and the trail is pretty well considering the recent rain. i was aalmost drenched though afterward which was pretty fun :grin
 
Action Shot

Here's a pic from back east to break it up a little. Enjoy

1493892-gapjump.jpg
 
Norm15 said:
i just finished my ride at china loop and the trail is pretty well considering the recent rain. i was aalmost drenched though afterward which was pretty fun :grin
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Awesome news.... I'm heading there tomorrow morning.

Looking foward to getting a little wet!

1493892-gapjump.jpg
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Great Shot!
 
Thanks Massive here's another east coast shot. I wouldn't want to ride there now if you guys hate the rain how would you feel about riding in 20 degrees in the snow? I wish I had more hands
So I could give the weather 4 fingers up :twofinger :twofinger

1493985-billdrop.jpg
 
F@#$ Biking in the Rain, Lets go, ...

SKIING!!:thumbup :teeth

Well, to really break it up a little bit let me just say Woooo F@#$EN Hooo for todays trip to SugarBowl. (BugarBowl)
No fresh powder but the day was none-the-less epic from all the powder they had last week. No lift lines, very few people and everything was EXTREMELY soft and plush.:thumbup

That said, here is the down side. (a little story, ... if you will)
And if this happened on a mtn bike you would be F@#$ED!!!!!!!
So I'm minding my own business just rippin' through some semi-freshies (semi out of bounds) which is comprised of some great powder, some soft but chewed up crud and some bumps. Anyhoo, so I sail through a couple of bumps at a pretty good pace and as I go over the last little bump which appears to be about 2ft high I realize that there is no longer anything underneath me. :wow Ooops!
Yup, I'm in the air and it's about 15 feet down with my landing looking like it's gonna be a 5 or 6 foot (uphill) mound. No avoiding it, IMPACT IS INEVITABLE!:( I hit and sink in about 3 feet. My speed goes from lots to zero in a millimeter of a second. My entire body compresses. My ass bone hits my rear binding and my lower back takes a good compression.
End result, 2 shots of Yukon Jack, 2 ibuprofen and a snickers bar allowed me to finish the rest of the epic day out.
However the ride home did require 3 more ibuprofen and a Vicodin.
The lesson learned here is, .............. No F@#$EN clue but God I love powder.:teeth
 
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By the way EC70

Sweet Shots!! :thumbup

PS. Do me a favor. Remind me to never follow you :teeth
 
OK, last one.
A bad skiing shot from a couple of years ago.

1494247-joesnowskijump2.jpg
 
EC70 said:
I wouldn't want to ride there now if you guys hate the rain how would you feel about riding in 20 degrees in the snow?
Click to expand...

My friends & I in Chicago used to go ride on New Year's day at this place in Wisonsin called Kettle Moraine. We'd get up early & head there, no matter what the weather.

The first time I rode my bike with disc brakes (like 1996), I slid and slammed all over the trail there was so much snow. I don't think I rode more than 1/4 mile without sliding off the trail or falling down. But i was wearing so much padding, and falling in the snow, that it didn't matter. I was laughing all the time! I finished the trail about 10 minutes after the rest of the guys :laughing
 
Harpo glad to hear your ok after that nice drop off. Good thing it snowed alot it's never fun landing on the face of a jump or whatever for that matter. Been there done that.
 
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Ha, ya know what's funny?

I used to mtn bike at saratoga gap all the time. The parking is just that small gravel shoulder to your left as you descend the frontside of hwy 9 at four corners. I used to always see all the motorcyclists gathered at 4 corners on the weekends.

I used to stare and stare and stare. All the boys in leathers ;)
And I used to think to myself "wow, motorcycles look like so much fun. I wish I rode one".

And then one day I was like screw it, i'm gonna figure out how to get a bike and ride it. So I did. Took ALOT of work (since I didn't know about barf). Ended up just calling people from craigslist. Finally one guy took pity on me being a female who has no one to help her look at bikes. He came with me to look at a bike in San Francisco and then rode it home for me.

And now I AM one of those cool people at 4 corners on weekends. Well....I used to be until I moved to stupid Texas.
 
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