Incoming... NMTBD... The Slayer of trails.

[weeksy]

Quite liked the riding position and it happily means I've now got a spare bike myself as it's air both ends so as long as we know the settings I can use it and just set back to his weight afterwards

[weeksy]

Well funnily i've just spent a while attempting to take the Slayer apart to get the brakes off it... My word what a faff !!!

I've got a little 'door/port' which has 2 tiny 2.5mm head bolts in... sadly you need to remove the shock and pivot bolt to get to them, 1 you can't get to without removing the shock, the other you need the pivot bolt out of the way lol.

Then once you get that i noticed the brake line routes through the chainstay in what is a semi-impossible routing.

The top end near the headstock isn't much better with again, really tight and fiddly routing... I'm not sure i'd get the bugger back together with a brake

[weeksy]

Was having a play last night and removed the SLX from the rear and loosly fitted a SRAM GuideR to the bike, when i say loosely, i mean with cable ties onto the bottle cage
However i deffo do prefer the feel of something more GuideR like than SLX like.

But with FoD tomorrow and BPW on Sat, i won't change anything just yet in case the internal routing goes wrong and i end up on a bike i don't want to ride for the weekend.

I have an option on the Tech3E4s from razorazoo above which is a good and nicely priced option into the Hope world. But then part of me feels if i'm buying Hopes, i should really fit them to the boys bike not mine as he'll do them more justice, however he doesn't really need them on the spare DH bike and he seems to like the Codes on the 141... so bit daft.

Some thinking needed here.

[Mr Moofo]

Was having a play last night and removed the SLX from the rear and loosly fitted a SRAM GuideR to the bike, when i say loosely, i mean with cable ties onto the bottle cage
However i deffo do prefer the feel of something more GuideR like than SLX like.

But with FoD tomorrow and BPW on Sat, i won't change anything just yet in case the internal routing goes wrong and i end up on a bike i don't want to ride for the weekend.

I have an option on the Tech3E4s from razorazoo above which is a good and nicely priced option into the Hope world. But then part of me feels if i'm buying Hopes, i should really fit them to the boys bike not mine as he'll do them more justice, however he doesn't really need them on the spare DH bike and he seems to like the Codes on the 141... so bit daft.

Some thinking needed here.

I might just have ring Razorazoo and gazzump you
Oddly, I quite like the Code Rs on my 161 - an that is as a Hope brake fanboi for 30 years. And they don't equal like a bastard.
If the boy is happy with the code - then stick with them. Remember your re trying to stop more momentum than he is - and you probably use brakes far more than he does.

[weeksy]

Was having a play last night and removed the SLX from the rear and loosly fitted a SRAM GuideR to the bike, when i say loosely, i mean with cable ties onto the bottle cage
However i deffo do prefer the feel of something more GuideR like than SLX like.

But with FoD tomorrow and BPW on Sat, i won't change anything just yet in case the internal routing goes wrong and i end up on a bike i don't want to ride for the weekend.

I have an option on the Tech3E4s from razorazoo above which is a good and nicely priced option into the Hope world. But then part of me feels if i'm buying Hopes, i should really fit them to the boys bike not mine as he'll do them more justice, however he doesn't really need them on the spare DH bike and he seems to like the Codes on the 141... so bit daft.

Some thinking needed here.

I might just have ring Razorazoo and gazzump you
Oddly, I quite like the Code Rs on my 161 - an that is as a Hope brake fanboi for 30 years. And they don't equal like a bastard.
If the boy is happy with the code - then stick with them. Remember your re trying to stop more momentum than he is - and you probably use brakes far more than he does.

You can have them mate, i've gone for a set of CODE Rs for myself. Just ordered them off Ebay.... which could have arguably worked out as a swap deal with yours if i'd bought his Hopes... but too late now.

[MingtheMerciless]

Strange how SRAM (Avid) brakes used to be universally hated. LBS used to detest them. I remember raging at Mrs M's Trek because they'd over filled them at the factory an the replacement pads I was trying to fit on Dartmoor wouldn't go in as the pistons wouldn't go any further back in the bloody calliper (until I let a bit of fluid out without a bleed kit). Then I got the Speccy Enduro I wasn't sure I'd like the RSC Guides fitted to it but they were brilliant, so much so I put a set of Guide Ultimates on the Curtis (once they'd been cured of SRAM cancer). Fantastic, lightish, powerful consistent brakes.

Never got on with Hopes, always went off the boil after about 18months for me, despite rebuilds and bleeding.

XT's on the Evil are good but the bite point does annoyingly vary so I can see a set of Codes going on.

[weeksy]

Avids biggest issue for me was the bleeding... with the Bleeding Edge port it's a lot easier on SRAM brakes now..

[weeksy]

Epic day out yesterday on the Slayer. Starting at Dowies with a small teeny, managed to hang on his wheel on 4/5 trails, losing about 30m on the 5th... But i'd take that... What i do find slightly weird is that somewhere like Dowies i can hang with him, but then at other places he just destroys me, like by miles and miles on a trail.
Me and the Slayer decided again it was man-up time and hit a couple of dad-gaps at FoD in the afternoon, along with a steep and gnarly trail that was pretty eye opening !
But all in all... it was a fab ride.
Only downside, the headset that was a bit dead, is proper dead. So as i was packing up the bike last night, i chucked a new upper bearing in it... only took a couple of mins and should be golden for BPW tomorrow.
The SRAM Codes haven't arrived yet, but i don't think i'll be risking throwing them on the bike today, just in case.. So they can wait till Sunday.

[weeksy]

Codes have arrived and it's SOOOO tempting to sort fitting this afternoon. If the routing was either external or even a bike i'd routed before, i'd have jumped on it by now. But that's sadly not the case and i don't know if i can route it easily, or nightmareishly on this bike.. So makes sense to leave until Sunday i guess. Look good though and ready to roll (stop rolling)

[weeksy]

This may come as a shock to some... but i doubt it

I was having lunch and thought "i'll fit the front as it doesn't need routing"

So that was done and i gave it an outside in the close type test.... "wow, awesome" so i whipped out the rear as well... and proceeded to route it... fiddly sod of a job actually but more than happy after 5 mins, once you get it through the hole in the bottom of the frame it's sleeved internally so works straight through to the top.

2023-02-17_02-24-12 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2023-02-17_02-24-17 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[Count Steer]

There was never ANY doubt.

[Mr Moofo]

There was never ANY doubt.

I'm trying to recover from the pink grips

[weeksy]

There was never ANY doubt.

I'm trying to recover from the pink grips

Back from when i had pink on the G170 frame.. just worked OK. In truth, i don't even know why theyr'e on there...They only went on for a pic for DMR as i now prefer the Deity.

[weeksy]

Well despite the weather that was somewhat of an epic epic riding day for me at BPW. There was a light misting of rain for most of the day but the trails were soggy and as you can see, not very clean.
2023-02-19_07-13-18 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

But grip levels were good and we had an absolute blast. The Slayer was epic and has moved to the top of my 'best bike ever ridden' in terms of places like BPW. It just eats up absolutely everything. In previous visits i'd not always 'clean' every part of a trail or two, Surfing Bird being one trail, i always ended with a foot down somewhere, but yesterday i aced it more than once. We also did a couple of tight tech blacks, including Deep Navigation, which is just so so rocky it's actually ridiculous but cleaned that too. Bonneville i always find hard as it's tight, nadgery, slippy and steep, but again it went down well.
The real thing that completed my day though was setting off down Sixtapod and having my lads mate behind me, he's not as fast as mine, but he can fly along.. When we got to the bottom he says "you were rapid, i couldn't catch up with you at all"... Blush and sigh, that made me feel good. Later in the day on Vicious Valley my lad was following me and afterwards says "you were proper quick through that section"... Again... i felt massively happy. Hopefully it shows that some of the hard work, effort and pushing is avtually paying off.
The CODERs were awesome, love them way way more than my SLXs, so really happy to have swapped them.

Can't wait for the next ride... Although i've got a day of cleaning/sorting first today and need a few days off, i'm proper achey at the moment.

[weeksy]

2023-02-17_02-24-12 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

As you may be able to see in this pic.... the routing of the rear brake was VERY tight.... i could just about turn the bars 90 deg.. but it was way under tension. The cable was simply too tight.

I ordered a cable set from Wiggle to fit, but then discussing on STW, plenty of people have theirs routed on the same side, not the opposing side. The Slayer has 3 ports which to make life easy are routed through the frame nicely. So they pop out where the cover it. On the UK settings the brake pops out on the right, in the US it'd be on the left.. you have a little rubber cover that say "brake and Shifter" lol. But you can rotate that.

Pic of the routing ports.
2023-02-20_03-32-44 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

So i noticed there's a 3rd hole.
Routing a gear cable through hole three
2023-02-20_03-32-37 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Shows that it pops out on the left instead.
2023-02-20_03-32-33 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

and works pretty effectively.
2023-02-20_03-32-26 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

In a moment of madness as a space has come up for this weekends race... I've entered myself and the Slayer for it.

I'll be nervous as a kitten now for the next 4 days !!!! But hey, that's why we do these things

See if we can get 2nd last... Mmmmmm

[Numnut]

Nice one! Got to be the right decision!

Where is it this weekend?

[weeksy]

Where is it this weekend?

Forest of Dean this weekend mate. Not a track i've ridden as far as i know, but it's in part of the forest i know pretty well.

[Numnut]

ah cool, should be fun then. Reckon you'll do better than 2nd bottom...

[weeksy]

ah cool, should be fun then. Reckon you'll do better than 2nd bottom...

LOL i'm not so convinced, i know how fast the racers are who enter these sort of things. I also know that even though i'm better than i used to be, this sort of course is basically most of my weaknesses in a trail