New Bike Day.... the powder blue girls bike

[weeksy]

It is a piss of piss to do ...
Plenty of YouTubes about it.
If I can do it, you can ...
That said - not sure why you need 160mm unless you are riding real GNAR ...

140 mm works on all stiff of the Downs.
150mm should deal with most large jumps or drop offs

Trek Rail (alloy 2022) geo is designed around 160mm travel forks.

And yes, done it this afternoon.

Just tried it this afternoon, definitely a big upgrade on the previous air spring. Much more supple and soaked up small bumps far better. Quite surprised by the improvement tbh.

That's great news. I'm rubbish at feel mostly so don't think I'd notice much.

[weeksy]

Spoke to Sprung about the shock who said "easier just to send to Silverfish/Fox"

So it's on it's way and my home made spacer is in place instead

2022-06-22_11-51-22 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

Shock arrived, needed a new bushing in the bottom mount which was quickly done...

Now got to wait until lunchtime for the TFTuned hardware to arrive and then it should be back up and running.

[weeksy]

Now i'm not convinced anyone will be able to offer much here as it's a very very specific question.

But i was having a few issues with my Trek/Fox thru-shaft type shock.


Now this type uses 4 threaded bolts and 4 spacers to mount.

But i decided to go to a standard eyelet shock, which i odered the kit from TFTuned.
https://www.tftuned.com/tf-tuned-mount- ... ikes/p3791
M10*50 offset and M10*60 for the top.

So after faffing and faffing i simply cannot get the top to work/fit.

The lower comes up as this, 50.38mm on the digitals. Which is fine and happy of course.
2022-06-23_02-04-02 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

But the upper without spacers shows 57.74mm
2022-06-23_02-03-06 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

and with the inside spacers shows 54.69
2022-06-23_02-03-00 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

As per the above... the spacer is M10*60...so quite clearly it's not going to fit in a 55mm gap... even without the spacers in there the bearings get in the way.

I'm assured that it's all correct, but well, i'm at a bit of a loss.... I'm waiting for Ruth/TFTuned to come back to me... but i simply cannot see what i'm missing. There's no 'guides' like you sometimes see on a fork lower for example... it's just a straight forward flush/flat mount and no amount of 'go on you sod' is going to persuade it in there no matter how much i'd like it to.

I could simply wait for Fox/Silverfish who are on a 4-5 day turnaround they say... but i'd also like the ability to run a standard shock if needed.

[weeksy]

TFT said it's 60mm if you don't use the inside spacers and remove bearing to fit. 54mm if you keep spacers, ideally I'll keep them as they protect from weather a bit.

Waiting to see if they can supply a 54mm or if I get a mate to turn it down by 6mm

[weeksy]

Bottom mount and spacers installed and happy. All good.
2022-06-24_11-03-44 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Top has got really interesting as Bounce make a converter which means you keep your standard Trek bolts and trunnion style setup, but using an eyelet type shock instead.
So thanks to the guys at Basecamp Suspension, i now have a top solution winging it's way to me to be fitted HOPEFULLY tomorrow.
It's been.... interesting !

0184AD2B-949B-46DD-8B0E-6D22FAA3543B by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

4585A6B6-85D6-4A9A-97DE-2C5F4B146D90 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

D15E7FE9-19BD-4A94-9D18-10AC257FA738 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

2022-06-25_03-56-01 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Top ones arrived as i hoped (and paid for) and fitted easily and quickly.

Bike suspension set-up and ready for Surrey Hills tomorrow with the fellas.

[weeksy]

Fab day out with a few mates in Surrey Hills riding all the local favourites. Must admit that riding with fitter guys I found quite hard!! Both can climb better and faster than me so at a fair bit of the ride I was arriving at start of the trail pouring with sweat already.
Had a big crash and Captain Clunk on rooty section, grrrr
. Big over the bars looking at the sky.
Straightened bars and went back up and did it again.

Bike was ace, played with settings etc and I'm more than happy with it.

[weeksy]

Standard Trek shock arrives back from Silverfish today via DHL, although all i've got is a tracking/package, so i have no idea yet what they've done or not. My shock had a scuff on it, so i'll easily know if it's the same shock i sent or a replacement anyway... I'm hoping there's something in the box to tell me what they've done (or not) if it's my old shock.

I'm not decided yet whether i'll leave my Rockshox Deluxe RT3 on there or fit the standard one back on.

[Mr Moofo]

Had a big crash and Captain Clunk on rooty section, grrrr
. Big over the bars looking at the sky.

.

Is the bike ok ?

[weeksy]

Had a big crash and Captain Clunk on rooty section, grrrr
. Big over the bars looking at the sky.

.

Is the bike ok ?

Yup, it mostly smashed itself into my leg, which has left me with lots of funky colours on my shin

[Beancounter]

Fab day out with a few mates in Surrey Hills riding all the local favourites. Must admit that riding with fitter guys I found quite hard!! Both can climb better and faster than me so at a fair bit of the ride I was arriving at start of the trail pouring with sweat already.
Had a big crash and Captain Clunk on rooty section, grrrr
. Big over the bars looking at the sky.
Straightened bars and went back up and did it again.

Bike was ace, played with settings etc and I'm more than happy with it.

I missed an eventful ride by the looks of it. I'm guessing your OTB was on the steep section at the end of Captain Clunk?

[weeksy]

Yup, that's the one sir.

[weeksy]

So today the shock arrived back from Silverfish/Fox and it's silent... like lovely

Was all done under warranty, so no charge... bargain.

So i threw it on and as the wife is away me and the lad went out for a play.
First of all riding the Enduro Line... where i was destroyed by him, but i was really impressed with the shock, it's nicer than the RS Deluxe.

We then moved onto this line.


This was a bit of a 'thing' for me as the gaps are a bit wooah and a bit wheey for me... But after some coaching from the 13 year old i was eventually clearing the gap he does first, which we measured at 13' give or take. It's so so much a head thing for me, i just need a little bit of self belief that i can actually hit these things and not spanner myself, but in the end i got it right and was hitting the landing nicely.

We then went for beer, pizza and ice-cream at our favourite local

[weeksy]

Well that was interesting.... I've been babysitting this

2022-06-29_08-00-29 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Which is a whole other thread in it's own right... but not my job

Anyway.... I took it out to test it, needed to make sure everything works well etc... and it's absolutely ace..

I'd even argue potentially the ML suits me better than my L. It's a bit nicer in a jumping context too.

It's prompted me to move my saddle slightly forward along with rotating my bars back a little bit too, i think they were too far forward.

I'm off to Rogate on Sat morning with the small ones, so will be good to see how mine feels and if there's any change. But for sure it's interesting that the ML felt just a little more nimble etc.

[weeksy]

As usual, today i thought "Hmmm i wonder".... and i then ended up fitting the 40mm length stem, the standard one on the Trek EX9.8 is 50mm.

This is a different diameter too of 31.8mm diameter bars..

The only slight downside to this test is that my spare 31.8 bars are 740mm in width which isn't exactly on-trend. But will be interesting tomorrow to give it a whirl for a few runs and then swap back to the other setup at lunchtime and try again.

2022-07-01_02-49-51 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2022-07-01_02-49-42 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

Enduro
NAME HEIGHT (CM) BAR WIDTH (MM) RATIO
Sam Hill 175 750 2.33
Florian Nicolai 183 780 2.35
Kevin Miquel 190 780 2.44
Richie Rude 182 750 2.43
Jesse Melamed 170 740 2.30
Eddie Masters 185 770 2.40
Adrien Dailly 172 780 2.21

Interesting that the Pros are narrower than i'd have expected.

[irie]

The only slight downside to this test is that my spare 31.8 bars are 740mm in width which isn't exactly on-trend.

Have cut my bars down to 740 which I find more comfortable. But then comfort comes first - I'm a 1.78m grandfather and definitely not on-trend.

Also use 12 degree sweep bars (SQlab) which are most definitely not on-trend!

[weeksy]

Down at Rogate yesterday i spent the morning on the 31.8@750mm bars followed by the afternoon on the 790mm@35s.

The difference isn't as great as you'd honestly think at times, you could notice some difference, but not massively. I settled on the 35s though and carbon, which is the standard bike setup. I may whip 10mm off them, but doesn't need anything too drastic.

I was concentrating yesterday on riding things a little outside of my comfort zone, so spent a tonne of time riding biking bottom and split richard trails. Bikini bottom was because of the 3 gaps at the bottom, they're what i've been working on a bit lately. Sadly for me, in the video one of the lads took, it looks WAY less spectacular than i hoped it would ! But i was clearing all of them nicely onto the downside yesterday and that made me massively happy.

The world did get complex at one stage of the morning as my lads new Hope rear wouldn't hold pressure and was leaking... I think it's likely to be a taping issue rather than a wheel or tyre issue. We threw a tube in there and that sorted it for the day.
In the afternoon one of the lads killed his rear wheel, pranging it on landing and bending out an edge... That took a little more and a little less delicate work to resolve and was taken care of with brute force and a hard bit of hammering, but i got it 99% straight and it now holds air, he was soon back out on it

The Fuel9.8 was again faultless though, it's a lovely lovely thing. Well, i say faultless, it's got a proper waggly dropper and lots and lots of play in it. Apparently there's 2 bushes and 2 keyways that need sorting. So i've ordered a Brand X dropper for today from CRC and then i can get working on making that one better or i can simply swap for the Brand X. The dropper on the Fuel9.8 really does get slated in reviews and makes me think i may as well just throw the Brand X on and forget it, rather than chase my tail with the Bontrager one.

That all assumes i can actually move today, which it seems is quite hard !!!!

[Count Steer]

Having been reading about them on here for some time, I did a bit of googling. I now know what a 'dropper post' is.

The other thing I have learned is that for v expensive things with a tough job to do, MTBs are surprisingly fragile. They remind me of the 'I love this garden spade, it's had 2 new handles and 3 new spade ends since I bought it but it's still as good as new' joke.