mack_turtle

Tuesday night behind ATX Bikes at 6 is a great way to learn the trails. I am always up for leading a tour as my schedule allows.

I need to start map-doping immediately. Where's the maps? Or routes narrative? If anyone wants to screw up the route and ride a bunch of un-counted bonus miles, follow me!

I was sitting in my driveway drilling holes in my bike to install seat tube rivnuts when it suddenly dumped on me. I am near Dick Nichols.

Glad to hear it was fixed. Makes more sense than buying a new one, which is what most people do. More crabon parts in the landfill (stuff is notoriously resourse-intensive and hard to recycle) goes against the spirit of conservation that would drive one to not water their lawns. (Watering lawns is wasteful and selfish.) My yard is a farm. I am raising rats' asses. people keep asking for me to give them some, but I am keeping them all to myself!

Tightwad tip: I needed a flat, 26mm, 6-point socket. I bought one for under $10, mounted it to my drill, then went to town on a flat stone block in the yard. Five minutes later, I had removed the chamfer from inside the socket, making a nice flat one for accessing the caps on my new fork.

Sounds good. thanks for all the insight, folks! I'll play around with spacers. This is handy: Borrowed from https://www.ridefox.com/fox17/help.php?m=bike&id=551

Current Fox has an a-c of about 545mm and a 51mm offset. That should be about 510 sagged. I believe this is the 27.5+ version, not the 29er, although I have a 29x2.4 tire in it with plenty of room. That's 20mm taller than my 120 Reba and with more offset, and 30mm+ taller (sagged) than my rigid fork! (Comparing a rigid fork to a squish is hard because you have to pick sag or no sag.) Consider that my BB goes up with the fork, so the handlebar should be in the same position relative to my feet because I set up my cockpit the same way. I think this created a considerable rearward bias though, partially because it also pushed my seat angle back for seated pedaling. All the more reason to drop the front end by softening the suspension, dropping the bar, and maybe dropping the travel. I'll look into the air spring. I've dissected several Fox products with Nick @ Fox, but I've had no subsequent practice. Probably just need some Fox bath oil. I have a Syntace 44mm/ -30° stem in my parts bin. It's LOW. Might have to try that.

Do I like a progressive fork? Not sure yet. Maybe someone can tell me what I am shooting for based on the following: I set it up with at least 25% sag at the beginning but didn't use all my travel ever. I set the three-position dial in the middle and ended up riding with it full open by the end of my ride. Compression damping was intensionally set right in the middle and I ended the ride with it fully open. Started the Fit4 rebound in the middle and knocked it up two clicks mid-ride for more damping, if that makes sense.

I am avoiding lowering it 10mm for now as tearing the fork apart sounds like a PITA for such a small change, but it's on the agenda eventually. Is 10mm really that big a difference? It sounds like a need to change the damper if I want to go lower than 130.

I bought that 140mm Fox from @4fun and it's fantastic! Or at least it will be once I've dialed it in. Rode CnD the other night with it. 160 pound rider w/ 5+ pounds of gear. 4 volume spacers in the fork and ~75 psi in the air spring. At the end of the ride, I have only used 2/3 of the travel. Also, the bike felt high up and sketchy in turns. The BB is very high, the front wheel much further in front of me, and I can't do much to get the handlebar lower, although I like my grips to be low. I felt very comfortable zipping around SATN tight, twisty trails (much to the horror of @ATXZJ) with a smaller fork, so this will require some tuning and adjustment as the front wheel would not stay planted enough to give me confidence. Need suggestions: 1. I need to dial in the fork settings. Most likely, I need to lose some volume spacers so I can get all the travel and/or reduce air pressure. It would be nice to allow the fork to ride a little lower. Anyone have experience with that level of fiddling? 2. I have the handlebar about as low as I can get it before the brake levers hit the top tube. If that's what it takes, I'll do it, but I don't know if it's the handlebar position or the fork action that's bugging me. 3. If those two don't do it for me, I can drop the fork to 130mm with the existing air spring parts I have, or replace some parts from Fox and drop it to 120. I bought this work because I wanted a stiffer, smoother platform and it's delivered that, but the extra travel might not be for me.

As much as I love Surly stuff, that Pine Mountain is a steal!

Much cheaper and considerably lighter than a regular tube: https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/us/en/maxxis-ultralight-mtb-tube/rp-prod107725

Subjective. Give me all the ledgy, uphill switchbacks or give me death. If I want to ride something flowy, there are virtually endless flow trails all around called "roads."

AKA hang on and let the suspension do all the work. Just buy a motorbike already and get off my lawn!

Still confused about this. No part of my skeleton grew 2" in the past few years, so why would I want a more stretched out, huge bike now? I guess I'd have to try it, but I am one to avoid sitting on my bike when stuff gets rough. If I can't bunnyhop and manual a bike on the trails, that geo is rubbish. What's the point of a bicycle that you can't wheelie?

I would like to ride a Jones some time, just out of curiosity. His choices are unconventional but people who ride them love them. For my particular style of wrangling the bike, it seems like it would not work though.

KS makes a cable end that will work with most levers in case the post and lever not need a bolt-on cable end. An Odyssey Knarp ($5 a pair at Empire BMX on North Lamar) can work too.

regular tubes cost $8-10 these days. I can imagine playing maybe double for a handy tool like this, but $30-40 is a bit ridiculous. This is old news, BTW. This product has been around for a long time.

I am under the impression that the point of this product is not an alternative to tubeless, but a lightweight, compact spare tube for emergencies. No one who would even consider a product like a "premium inner tube" uses tubes, DUH. This product is for people who know that tubeless systems are not bulletproof but also don't to haul around a standard tube. I carry a spare 29er tube and I have had to use it a few times. I try to carry the bare minimum, and a standard 29" tube is quite bulky and heavy compared to all the rest of the little, lightweight gear I carry. A compact, lightweight tube would be perfect, but not worth $35 for me.

REI is a major supporter of ARR, last time I checked. They are generous with their employees, for a retail company as well. Their garage sales keep stuff out of landfills and sell gear cheap. What's not to like?

For reference, this is the lever that came with my BX post. I tried everything, including cutting an old bar end into a stub and mounting it sideways like a shift lever. It hurt my hand so badly after one ride that I could not ride for a week. Fuck that thing.

Some droppers come with a crappy lever, then you can buy an "upgrade" lever later. If crapper + lever = more than the dropper that comes with the non crappy lever in the first place, just buy the post that costs more and does not require an "upgrade." I learned that the hard way.

I had a BX for a while, then switched frames and needed a different size. Went with a PNW Bachelor. The lever that came with the BX sucked! It hinged from the top inside of sideways like a shifter would. Replaced it with a KS Southpaw, which is fantastic. I had to clamp an Odyssey Knarp on the Southpaw due to the cable configuration but it never bothered me. I use the Southpaw with my PNW post too as it seems like a more adjustable design than the one that came with the PNW.

That might be the same one I returned a few months ago. At the time, my seat tube was not deep enough.