New MTB day. The one that should have stayed.

[weeksy]

Proper fitting kit installed and shock on for testing this week. First impressions on kerbs around the close is that the rebound is a little too fast, but obviously that's a simple fix.
But in truth, i'm pretty happy with the stock shock really. But we'll try the coil for a few days riding.

20260601_122034 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

20260601_122040 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

[weeksy]

Got an offer this morning for the coil and felt it was too good to miss out on for a well used unknown history shock.

Especially as i can get a Super Deluxe for £5 more.



Which is obviously new and with warranty as well as being a very very good shock.
https://www.merlincycles.com/rockshox-s ... 04232.html

So the coil has been boxed and shipped off and the new one is winging it's way over.

If you're asking 'why' well the simple answer to that is that i like to have every eventuality covered in terms of downtime/issues. Shocks can and do break and need servicing time etc, so having a spare is important for me.

[weeksy]

20260604_111327 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

Installed, but it's raining... so not yet tested. Set pressure to 200psi which should be about right.

[weeksy]

Windy out there, but remarkably dry considering some of the recent rain we've had.

20260605_101041 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

Good little test ride for the Super Deluxe, slowed down the rebound by 2 clicks, but need to dial it in on some more interesting trails

[weeksy]

Out today on what will be known forever as Taffs trail. The ride itself went well enough but i was getting a bit of chain type noise, which as you can imagine isn't acceptable for me, so i thought, "i'll check the bottom bracket"

20260609_095433 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

Now this is where it gets slightly trickier as it's a GXP Press-fit. So you can't just whip it out, try another and see if that resolves things. But i'd bought a cheap Shimano one last week as i was planning longer term to run the Shimano cranks i have here anyway. In for a penny in for a pound, "i'll just whip the GXP BB out and throw in a new one"

The removal was more complex and took a bit more persuasion than i wanted.. but it was out and i pressed in a new one. The Shimano one went in nicely enough with the press kit and i threw the cranks on. It was only when i put the chain on that i saw the chainring is bent to buggery !!! You could see it using the chainguide.... eeek
Fortunately i had another crankset in the spares with same chainring setup and i threw that on... well i would have if it wasn't a different chainline, so i had to remove the chainring and swap it over, then re-fit the cranks.

Anyway it probably took nearly as much time to write it as it did to swap

[weeksy]

Tough night of racing for me... Well, wasn't really tough in a lot of ways, but i'm just nowhere near the pace of the people i'd like to be near

I did manage to go faster and faster on each run, knocking 1.5s off even on my last run compared to the one before, so it does get better... but still a loooooooong way from where i'd like to be.

I enjoyed it though that's for sure.... but DAMN, how to get faster !!!!

[Taff]

Taffs trail

I guess that's the one I had a little sit down on?

[weeksy]

No, the longer one where I was a little confused, came out at the big house then the 200m down road to where crust crashed

[weeksy]

Well interestingly i fitted the 65mm rise bars after getting them back from a mate at the weekend.

I was surprised to find, they don't really work on this bike. Not sure if it's the slightly shorter stem, or the more trail based geometry, but the standard 28mm rise work great and the 35mm DMR worked great too.... but the 65mm.... Not so much. Front end felt all over the shop even up and down.

Swapped back after the ride to the 28mm carbon Bontrager.