Do You Mountain Bike?

[Rel]

Selfless, shameless, plug: 25 mile bike ride through Groveland: http://grovelandgearsandgrooves.com

 

[bongski]

Yep. I'm a 29er fan.
I have a '12 Bandit and '13 Trans Am, mostly trail riding.

 

[Butch]

name this awesome ride:

Start at the Passivhouse
Ride up Lost Lake Loop (50 metres) to the start of Peaches en Regalia – turn left on to Tin Pants and on your left will be the start to Peaches en Regalia
Peaches en Regalia to Dinah Moe Humm
Dinah Moe Humm to Disco Boy
Disco Boy to The Torture Never Stops
The Torture Never Stops to Fountain of Love
Fountain of Love to Pinocchio’s Furniture
Pinocchio’s Furniture to Dwarf Nebula
Dwarf Nebula to Zoot Allures
Zoot Allures to Toads of the Short Forest
Toads of the Short Forest to Gee, I Like Your Pants
Gee, I Like Your Pants to Son of Mr. Green Genes
Son of Mr. Green Genes to Jellyroll Gumdrop
Jellyroll Gumdrop to Hooktender
Hooktender turns into Tommy Moore, which turns into Molly Hogan

 

[roxy]

name this awesome ride:

Start at the Passivhouse
Ride up Lost Lake Loop (50 metres) to the start of Peaches en Regalia – turn left on to Tin Pants and on your left will be the start to Peaches en Regalia
Peaches en Regalia to Dinah Moe Humm
Dinah Moe Humm to Disco Boy
Disco Boy to The Torture Never Stops
The Torture Never Stops to Fountain of Love
Fountain of Love to Pinocchio’s Furniture
Pinocchio’s Furniture to Dwarf Nebula
Dwarf Nebula to Zoot Allures
Zoot Allures to Toads of the Short Forest
Toads of the Short Forest to Gee, I Like Your Pants
Gee, I Like Your Pants to Son of Mr. Green Genes
Son of Mr. Green Genes to Jellyroll Gumdrop
Jellyroll Gumdrop to Hooktender
Hooktender turns into Tommy Moore, which turns into Molly Hogan

Lost Lake Park?

 

[PhoS]

Rode the new SC Flow a few times this weekend. I guess 6 had just opened as it was a little more fresh than 1-5. Overall it was way better than I was expecting, they did some very nice work. It's dry as a bone but rain on the horizon could be fun. Gotta run some higher pressure there I was near rolling my rear tire off the rim @ 36psi a few times in the berms.

 

[dking]

name this awesome ride:

Start at the Passivhouse
Ride up Lost Lake Loop (50 metres) to the start of Peaches en Regalia – turn left on to Tin Pants and on your left will be the start to Peaches en Regalia
Peaches en Regalia to Dinah Moe Humm
Dinah Moe Humm to Disco Boy
Disco Boy to The Torture Never Stops
The Torture Never Stops to Fountain of Love
Fountain of Love to Pinocchio’s Furniture
Pinocchio’s Furniture to Dwarf Nebula
Dwarf Nebula to Zoot Allures
Zoot Allures to Toads of the Short Forest
Toads of the Short Forest to Gee, I Like Your Pants
Gee, I Like Your Pants to Son of Mr. Green Genes
Son of Mr. Green Genes to Jellyroll Gumdrop
Jellyroll Gumdrop to Hooktender
Hooktender turns into Tommy Moore, which turns into Molly Hogan

Lost Lake Park?

https://www.whistler.ca/images/stories/PDF/Parks/lost-lake-map-2007.pdf

 

[dking]

Eh, I don't get the Trek hate. I've found their stuff to be super durable. I worked in a Trek shop for a decade and rarely saw an issue. On the rare occasion there was they always fixed it within a few days. Sure, I broke this, but at the same time, I'm about 255lbs with gear and don't ride easy.

Moar Trek hate?

http://www.trekbikes.com/pdf/recalls/20150421/15TK_QRRecall_WebNotice_USEN.pdf

From here...

http://www.sunshinebicycle.com/trek-quick-release-recall-notice/

 

[Sidewalk]

Riding a cheapo bike was so much easier. No setting up the suspension because there are no adjustments available. Cleaning is just blasting a hose...

But...

So much more rewarding once you get the setup right on these fancy bikes. First place AG at my last XC. Went tubeless since then and found that the previous owner must have been so afraid of flats that the tubes were over 3 pounds (combined, and I assume with sealant)! So now I've dropped 3 pounds of rotating mass

 

[PhoS]

New ride has all the rockshock stuff. Funny just having a 3 way switch instead of hi/lo adjustments but it works. The monarch plus debonair is also really really good.

 

[Sidewalk]

New ride has all the rockshock stuff. Funny just having a 3 way switch instead of hi/lo adjustments but it works. The monarch plus debonair is also really really good.

And the more mileage I put on the more I am getting the feel for the setup. I'm finding that I may need to go with thicker fork oil (running on the stiffest setting for XC style riding, probably too soft for the more AM and light downhill).

 

[squid vicious]

And the more mileage I put on the more I am getting the feel for the setup. I'm finding that I may need to go with thicker fork oil (running on the stiffest setting for XC style riding, probably too soft for the more AM and light downhill).

What kind of fork (air or coil spring)? are you bottoming it out? generally spring rate is better for support than compression damping.

 

[Sidewalk]

Air. 85 psi is recommended for my weight, I'm running 100. Any more and I lose compliance, any less and I'll bottom too easily. But what I've really found is that too soft in the damping ruins the feel. Slowing it down through the stroke feels better.

 

[squid vicious]

Air. 85 psi is recommended for my weight, I'm running 100. Any more and I lose compliance, any less and I'll bottom too easily. But what I've really found is that too soft in the damping ruins the feel. Slowing it down through the stroke feels better.

This is precisely the fine line I'm walking with a 2012 SID on my back up bike. If you do change out the damper oil for something a little thicker, definitely report back how it works out.

What's the make/model of the fork? If it's an older rockshox (pre 2012-ish) and has a separate positive and negative air spring you can bring the neg air spring to about 5psi over the positive to give it suppleness at the top of the stroke and add about 5cc's of 5wt oil to the positive air spring chamber to help it ramp up faster to reduce bottoming.

 

[Sidewalk]

This is precisely the fine line I'm walking with a 2012 SID on my back up bike. If you do change out the damper oil for something a little thicker, definitely report back how it works out.

What's the make/model of the fork? If it's an older rockshox (pre 2012-ish) and has a separate positive and negative air spring you can bring the neg air spring to about 5psi over the positive to give it suppleness at the top of the stroke and add about 5cc's of 5wt oil to the positive air spring chamber to help it ramp up faster to reduce bottoming.

It's a White Bros (MRP) Loop TCR, stock on my bike. All the reviews I've read raved about this fork, which matches my impression. I'm new to MTB, but I'm pretty sure this is how it should feel (without having high/low speed circuits). I'm just at the end of the range on the adjustment knob which tells me I need a revalve (probably in the future) and/or oil.

I'll do the oil in the next month or so between race weekends, I'll report back.

No negative pressure on this fork. I'll look into the oil in the high side idea. Makes sense, reducing the chamber size a little. Thanks.

 

[PhoS]

What kind of fork (air or coil spring)? are you bottoming it out? generally spring rate is better for support than compression damping.

Disagree, most people generally run too much preload and not enough low speed comp. then complain about it being harsh, diving, etc. It sounds to me like he needs to tweak the ramp up, in the case of this fork the oil height. On other stuff it would be a volume spacer. Running thicker oil might make the fork pack up. If its 5w I would consider maybe trying 7 but not 10, it will just destroy the compression circuit.

 

[Sidewalk]

Disagree, most people generally run too much preload and not enough low speed comp. then complain about it being harsh, diving, etc. It sounds to me like he needs to tweak the ramp up, in the case of this fork the oil height. On other stuff it would be a volume spacer. Running thicker oil might make the fork pack up. If its 5w I would consider maybe trying 7 but not 10, it will just destroy the compression circuit.

Sounds about right, being too harsh. I'm happy with the preload, it just strokes too much on any setting other then full damping (short of lockout).

 

[squid vicious]

Disagree, most people generally run too much preload and not enough low speed comp. then complain about it being harsh, diving, etc. It sounds to me like he needs to tweak the ramp up, in the case of this fork the oil height. On other stuff it would be a volume spacer. Running thicker oil might make the fork pack up. If its 5w I would consider maybe trying 7 but not 10, it will just destroy the compression circuit.

That makes sense, maybe I'm attacking my own issue the wrong way. Time to fiddle and go take it for a ride

 

[PhoS]

Sounds about right, being too harsh. I'm happy with the preload, it just strokes too much on any setting other then full damping (short of lockout).

Yea unfortunately on the more basic forks this is difficult to tune. Again, play around with the oil height if you're motivated and keep an eye out for an RC2 fork on the cheap.

Air. 85 psi is recommended for my weight, I'm running 100. Any more and I lose compliance, any less and I'll bottom too easily. But what I've really found is that too soft in the damping ruins the feel. Slowing it down through the stroke feels better.

What kinda sag are you getting standing in the attack position? I'd ignore the recommend settings and set it to whatever it takes to get 25-30% sag while in the attack position. Once that is set it should be about with about 15-20% while seated.

 

[Sidewalk]

Yea unfortunately on the more basic forks this is difficult to tune. Again, play around with the oil height if you're motivated and keep an eye out for an RC2 fork on the cheap.

I'll play with that when the series ends (June).

What kinda sag are you getting standing in the attack position? I'd ignore the recommend settings and set it to whatever it takes to get 25-30% sag while in the attack position. Once that is set it should be about with about 15-20% while seated.

I don't remember now, but I think I set it for about 25% seated and it was too soft, so I started setting it by feel. I bet it is close to those numbers in attack though. I'll check it out.

I've played around starting at the recommended 85 up to 110 in small changes and back down to 100 which uses most of the travel, only bottoming when I hit hard, which is rare in an XC or endurance race. I'm only doing that on weekend rides with friends.

 

[PhoS]

Yea, if the forks not ramping up near the end of the travel appropriately its going to bottom with good sag or not. 25% sag seated is definitely too soft.