AustinBike

In the world of not sweating the offset, I took a look at how Niner positions offsets for my current Rip9:

"The trail bikes like RIP 9 and JET 9 do well with 44mm offset. It’s best to find out your current fork offset and use the same for your new fork."

So they recommend a 44mm offset and I have been riding 51mm Pikes for the past year with no issue. My guess is that this would not be an issue for me, I am not a princess, I probably won't notice the pea.

7 hours ago, brentb said:

If the 429 Trail is on your radar, have you considered the Pivot switchblade? Or is that more suspension than you'd prefer to have?

If you could build a Ripley for <$2k that'd be a great deal.

The Trail 429 would be a consideration, I have a friend with one and I might borrow it in the next week or two. The switchblade has 160mm of travel, far more than I need. 130 is the sweet spot, 140 is acceptable, but comes with some tradeoffs.

What turned me off about the Pivots is the price. Looking at a Ripley, the baseline lowest config is $4100. The Switchblade is $6,699. I realize that those are list prices and that it comes down to the discount, but I am thinking that I am in the $4-4,500 range and $5K if something REEEEEEAAAAALLLLYYY sweet happened to fall into my lap. Looking at the price of Pivots, I'd rather look at the Ibis, which is a very respectable bike and put the rest into my next vacation. If this were the only bike I owned and would ever own, I could make the argument for spending a little more because of the amount of riding that I do. But I already have an (expensive) steel single speed, a hardtail (that I will be selling) and an urban bike, so it is harder to justify the big price tag. Especially for a guy that does not need a big air 160mm bike. I have a friend that rides one, they are sweet.

7 minutes ago, Teamsloan said:

It's all relative. Like I posted earlier, plenty of people do it and it's fine. But Austinbike is German and takes pride in following specifications, so I had to put it out there.

It should have been "As I posted earlier..."

Don't mock the German unless you do it properly.

And with that being said, I'm tempted to take the risk on the 51mm offset and see how it does. Honestly, I do not have the finesse that some do and I might not notice the difference. If I end up having to get a new fork, the difference is really only whatever price I get as part of a larger build vs. the cost of buying it on the market. Everything else remains the same, so the risk is minimal.

Got sidetracked with some consulting work today, but hitting some shops starting tomorrow morning.

2 hours ago, rockshins said:

I assume your Pike is 51mm offset? That should be fine on the bikes you are looking at, I would keep that fork, it is awesome and can spend elsewhere. Santa Cruz is putting 44mm offset forks on their bikes, have a buddy who is running either a 47 or 51mm? offset fork on his brand new SC and it works just fine.  The other bikes on your list, the Ripley and Stumpy will do just fine with a 51mm offset.

I believe it is a 51mm offset. The box had WHT51 on it but after a little googling, that is a White fork with 51mm offset, mine is black.

On one hand I like the idea of connecting the north and south trail. On the other hand I don't like losing 250-254 without getting something in return.

Oh, yeah, and the ramps will be ramps, someone is going to get hurt there.

These are all very good pieces of input.

Neo are pretty much out of the running now. Will be doing a little more research on the Pike offset vs. new fork. That is a minimum of $500 savings (if I sold the pike) and that could really do a nice job on wheel upgrades.

I like to hear that 11-speed is easier to dial in than 12. I was a 9-speed fan for a long time, only went to 10-speed to get beyond a 32 in the rear.

Do you have a map? I remember a section towards the end (when running counterclockwise) that used to take you across and dump you by the east fenceline area. Is that part of that?

Opinions, yeah, you all have them. I'm starting the process and instead of spamming the board and spinning off a million different threads, I'll consolidate here.

Interested in your thoughts on the following:

1. Buying a fully configured bike vs. building? Knowing that my credit card gives me extra warranty is it worth buying a full bike all in one shot? I could buy the components ala carte and build one up, but is there a benefit from a warranty perspective? (My shop warranty experience has been mixed....)

2. Anyone ever buy from Competitive Cyclist? Wondering if I could get a frame with headset and bottom bracket installed. I could do the BB easily but I don't have a headset press. Would love them shipped to me ready to go.

3. Should I keep my 6-month old Pike boost fork since it is already at 130mm (my preferred travel) or sell it and just get a new fork with the bike? Any benefit on getting the fork matched to the frame or is this stuff all pretty compatible (thinking primarily about offset.) Would rather save the money and put it towards better wheels (see #4).

4. Anyone use Stan's Neo hubs? I know I want Arch MK3 rims, King hubs would be nice, but very expensive, DT Swiss would be my preferred, but Stan's wheels with Neo seem attractively priced and easy to acquire. Worth it?

5. 11-speed vs. 12-speed? I just upgraded my Niner to 11-speed about 2 months ago so I have a brand new drive train. Does it make sense to transfer this over? I unfortunately made a ton of upgrades to my bike recently and would like to salvage that. Is 11-speed going to stick around as long as 10-speed did or is it going to disappear quickly (have not watched the trajectory that 12-speed components might be coming down.)

I am guessing I will return to add more questions to this as things progress.

I plan on being there. Apparently I don't need a cooler, I'll just keep my beer in the back of my car.

6 hours ago, Teamsloan said:

Ibis Ripley, Devinci Django, and Pivot 429 Trail would be on my shortlist. All are very efficient peddlers while being quite capable going down steep stuff. The Ripmo & Hightower are awesome as well but probably more bike than you're wanting. For riding around here and the occasional trip to Gnarkansas-like destinations, I would think you can't go wrong with any of the DW-link bikes in the 130 travel flavor. My top pick would be the Ripley. Considering it's an Ibis, they're actually are attainable at below boutique prices as well.

I'm happy to take your money though and order you up something like this...Ibis Ripmo XT build with i9 hubs and Cane Creek Helm fork.

If you don't care about things like Kashima Coat on your suspension and XT, then $5099 gets you a stock Ripley with SLX. Not bad at all.

Yeah, I used your tool, it is very cool. Have some definite UI points that we should talk about over a beer some Tuesday night.

https://cyclingbuilder.com/user/AustinBike/saved/#view=968TwP

Since I have a Pike boost and pedals, It looks like I could build up a Ripley for ~$1600-2000 + frame cost. Considering my budget is ~$4K this could be a real good option. Heading down to talk to Wes today about the bike, might even demo one. I think Abrams is right that the Ripmo is more bike than I can handle, it's just not me.

1 hour ago, ATXZJ said:

Saw the new tallboy Saturday and it looks pretty freaking sweet. 

Who had it in stock? Dropped into BSS Parmer after my Brushy ride today and they did not seem to have one, were pushing me to the Hightower which is nice, but more bike than a guy like me needs. 130mm should do fine for me.

10 minutes ago, TAF said:

My 27.5 Tallboy is very similar in geometry to a Trail 429. Take it for a spin if you want to. 

Is it a large? If so I might take a spin at an R&I sometime.

I hate shopping for bikes. If I knew that I could find someone to make the 100% right decision for me I'd give them my money and go have a beer while I wait for them to bring a bike to me. Sadly, that is not how it works.

All of this is rapidly becoming a non-issue. Basically have come to the conclusion that I have a garage full of bikes and parts that are a.) older spec and becoming harder to match up with newer components and b.) increasingly seeing more wear and tear from daily use.

My strategy has changed.

I am now shopping for a bike instead. Sadly everything new is 148mm (and increasingly 12-speed) so I think that I will be having a huge garage sale. Pretty much my (boost) pike is the only thing that will survive. And my Shimano brakes. Everything else will need to go. 

Contenders at this point are:

Santa Cruz Hightower or Tallboy

Ibis Ripley or Ripmo

Specialized Stumpjumper 

Maybe a Trek, Pivot or Devinci will hit my radar screen as well. Should be an interesting few months.

11 hours ago, TheX said:

My 2" Super Duty Single doesn't. Looking at the web site, it looks like the new ones have a slot for it. Mine is a year old.

That makes sense. I don't technically have a 2", I have a 1-1/4" that I replaced the receiver piece on a month ago, so that would have been one of the newest pieces. The only downside is that the "slot" is about 1/4" too short. When the rack it totally folded up, it actually touches the bumper. The next time it is off the car I might see if it is hollow - I could take a grinder to it to extend the slot a bit and move the rack away from the bumper. As it is right now the moving mechanism is a bit over tightened so it holds without the rack being in the "clicked" position.

The 2” does, the 1-1/40 does not. 

1 hour ago, Anita Handle said:

Is the wheel that has the cassette rubbing on the spokes the same hub as the one that the cassette lock ring kept loosening up? This all seems very strange if you pull off your cassettes you should be able to measure the depth of the splines and relative lengths of things between the two hubs. Something seems wrong.


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I actually pulled both free hubs and compared them. They are identical. The difference between the two *should* be the axle, but when I put the 10-speed on either there is no issue. When I put the 11-speed on the 142 it rubs, on the 135 it runs smoothly (I had been running it for about a month on the 135 with no issues.

I just tore everything apart and rebuilt the Niner (older bike) back up the way it was, 135, 11-speed) and all is good. Will ride that tomorrow.

If that truly runs fine, that will be my bike and I will start the long search for a bike (not gonna happen before Bentonville). Probably pull the trigger around November or December if not some time early next year.

The hardtail will get built up with a sweeter build now (pike, better king wheels) and will probably get sold.

Ah, the joys of bike ownership.

I think my options at this point are:

A. 142mm with 10-speed (11-42 cassette and a goat link) on Arch EX (thinner rims) - newer wheels.

B. 135mm with 11-speed (11-46 cassette) on Arch MK3 (wider rims) but with a small crack on one of the spoke holes and a wonky cassette lock ring that comes loose occasionally.

The frame has replaceable dropouts so I can use either.

If I stick with the 135 on this bike, it hastens me getting a new bike but also screws up me selling my hardtail.

Maybe I just get rid of all of the bikes and become a hermit.

Below is the crack on the 135mm rim. Clearly I cannot true the hub because of that crack, and that is part of what started this whole chain. How bad does that look? Getting ready for a trip to Bentonville with 4-5 days of riding, so I am trying to figure out the best combination for the trip.

My point is that it would be most helpful if the original person who had the issue was posting this so that there was not a lot of second guessing....

16 minutes ago, TAF said:

I’ve a 142 rear rim just sitting here, if you want to try it. Stan’s Flow with a Hope hub, pretty sure it used to have an 11 speed cassette on it.

Might try that if I can't get this thing sorted out. It messes up everything if I have to swap back to 135, but that might work and just hasten my move to a new bike.

OK, I have an issue that I am hoping to resolve. Been switching around a lot of components and it seems like my new 11-speed drive train is not compatible with my 10-speed Chris King hub.

Interestingly, it worked well on the 135mm King hub, but it does not seem to work on the 142mm King hub. Must be the width of the hub giving it a problem.

You can see from the picture below where the cassette is hitting the spokes (worn and silver vs. black).

It feels like either a small shim would work or possibly grinding down the cassette a bit..... But what problem does that create?

If I switch back to the 135mm wheel set my 11-speed will work, but that is a pain in the butt and it messes up my other bike with the swap.

Any thoughts?

Why are we discussing this?

21 minutes ago, Anita Handle said:

Ok, so one bonus for the 1Up in your opinion is that the arms lock into place with a ratchet mechanism. ✔️

Regarding the tray orientation relative to the other trays, the Raxter advertises (WITH ZERO MARKETING BUDGET) that you can slide bikes fore and aft on the tray to make bikes nest better. You didn't find this to be true? That is one PITA with the Thule but I can usually slide trays around to get things to fit if I'm loading four bikes for a multi-day trip. Definitely not fun if I just want to load them for a quick trip across town.

Yes, you can slide bikes to arrange them, but with droppers, I have scratched some. When we pack your bike, we’ll need to keep an eye on that. I think that a “lizard skins” type of dropper cover for transit would be an interesting product category. 

11 minutes ago, brentb said:

Yes, it is. If you use part of an old tube for the patch, I think in that case you'd rough up both parts and apply cement to both, let them completely dry (10 mins or so), then stick them together.

Where I wrote "rubber cement" above is a mistake. Rubber cement is not a permanent bond. Contact cement is, though.

Spend my formative years at a shoe repair. Rubber cement is excellent. Glue both pieces, let them dry. Stick them together, then *gently* pound them with a rubber mallet. This pounding helps the two sides adhere together. 

And Antonio, a Dremel is probably good for the inside of the tire, provided the sander does not start chewing up any sidewall threads.

1 hour ago, Dr.Meltdown said:

1mm isn't much.

That's what she said.

I would not sweat a millimeter, should be fine (said the guy with an aluminum frame.)