Whyte G-160, the big bad bouncy thing!

[MingtheMerciless]

It's just the inline airs that had the problem, they were rushed out apparently, really suffered with bikes with a flexy rear end and the trunnion fitting (like the specy enduro), the modded shocks came with blue seals but apart from being blue didn't fix the issue.

[weeksy]

Well the guys at Jtech called me with "shock is delayed, it's due now in about a month"

Shhhhesh. Not their fault, just the world in which we find ourselves currently as we all know.

He's not convinced the coil is the way forward, but looking into whether it'll work with a progressive spring.

Now weirdly I blew some air at the little holes that some people report as getting blocked on the Monarch shocks and, well, the Monarch is working like a charm currently. But I've mostly lost faith in it. However as I say, it is currently working fine, but for how long is anyones guess.
The great news is, Jtech will sort the warranty process for me if I want the Monarch doing for nothing more than the price if postage. Which is brilliant of them, but leaves me in a minor quandary now.

The weather next week is looking far more friendly and it'd be a shame to miss it all. So maybe the plan is to leave the DB air order in place and see if the monarch holds out until that arrives, then send it off for warranty once it does.
Jtech are also looking into their stock to see what they do have in 216*63 I can get right away, but I'm guessing, not much.

[weeksy]

Bought the cane creek from TFTuned. Arrives Tuesday

[weeksy]

Well once again i was let down by a supplier, promises of postage and shipping got delayed, so in the end i threw them a mail and cancelled it.

I then did exactly what i should have done 10 days ago and bought an RP23 which has been shipped today and tracking info provided.

s-l1600 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

s-l1600 (1) by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

2021-02-25_03-30-07 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Well the lovely Kashima coated shock arrived and based upon early testing, i love it. It seems more plush than the RC3, which i'll find out more when i ride in anger tomorrow with the Shockwiz on

[MingtheMerciless]

Good luck.

[weeksy]

G160 fox rp23 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Pretty darn happy with that for first try not far off at all. I'm getting better at this

[weeksy]

First big day out of spring. Couple of videos later of the boy to follow.

We rode over to Goring to test both shocks. Mine felt great I have to say, really happy.

Ended up in a jump area as planned which has quite an intimidating face to the table. I'd not jumped since breaking my scaphoid in October ish. So was a tough day out for me. But I took it really easy, easing myself into it slowly, then a bit more, bit more.

If you recall the pic from last year this is me landing it.


2020-05-17_10-02-03 by Steve Weeks - Flickr2BBcode LITE

Even then I wasn't clearing it every time, maybe 1/4.

Today I only cleared it nicely twice, but that was ok with me as a day back. Everything felt great on the bike, more than happy

[weeksy]

Fitted a new tyre to the G-160 at the weekend. Specialized Butcher, but the taping on it was crap, hoped it would hold well, but sadly it was dropping a bit of pressure over the past few days, pumped it up but again, overnight it lost a few psi. So after i got out today and got absolutely soaked and muddy, i thought, "now's the time" and whipped the wheel off to re-tubeless. Happily with the wheels being fairly wide it's a very very simple job. So i'm just waiting for the glue on the valve to dry up and we're all good.

[weeksy]

Shockwiz back on mine today to give it longer and more data.


2021-03-06_03-42-14 by Steve Weeks - Flickr2BBcode LITE


Not bad at all

[weeksy]

The on-going saga of the shock continues. We noticed yesterday the RP23 has slushy noise.... it's not uncommon with shocks, basically a tiny bit of air gets in the nitrogen reservoir and passes between the 2. It doesn't affect perofrmance, but the noise can be a bit irritating.

So that's gone back to the place i bought it from either for repair or replacement or indeed refund.

With all the issues i'm having with shocks, the temptation to go coil is incredibly strong, even though people think the G-160 isn't designed for coil, i'm not sure i bloody care any more, i just want a reliable and fully working shock.

The good news is, the Monarch RC3+ has come back from warranty and is now fitted to the bike, so at the very least i have a working bike to play on.

But the Cane Creek coil is certainly tempting me.

[weeksy]

The Monarch RC3+ redeemed itself today. The rebound etc were not touched by SRAM when they repaired so was just a case of setting the pressure which i already knew and away it went.

It was perfect all afternoon, not quite bottoming out but only leaving 3-4mm of travel, so right in the ball-park of happy. Worked like a charm.

It's got a while before it completely convinces me... but i'm sure happy today with it.

[weeksy]

A thread over on STW prompted me to look at my tyres today. My wtb convict is in 'high grip' compound. Which is about as slow rolling as you can get.
So swapped it for a faster rolling Specialized Butcher. May not make a huge difference, but worth trying out.

[weeksy]

I'm off the bike for 2 weeks at the moment so a little spanner work today instead.

I swapped the bottom bracket a few months ago, but there wasn't anything wrong with it as such, so I whipped the seals off the one I removed and put some extra marine grease in it. I then fitted that one.
The other one I whipped out has also been regressed now and that's in the spares box.

Next job was fitting the new 180mm disc that arrived, although I then realised it's arrived pre warped, I mean seriously, how hard can it be to make then straight.
Happily it wasn't too far out and a few tweaks with the Park Tools rotor tool and that's all done too.

Lastly my mates boy brought his bike over to get his forks out for repair, they appear to be hydrolocked and won't compress. Tried removing the damper etc but no effect, so they're going away now. But he needed them pulling out and things like the crown race removing, which is now done with the right tool.
Checked his headset bearings and his upper isn't great, so that was swapped for a spare I have as his is a T130 and they share headset with G160. I've sent him a link to buy me a replacement.

I'll be heading back in later to check my lads bike as he's got the day on Tuesday again with Katy Curd training.

[weeksy]

Had the Shockwiz on again today for testing.... Just wanted to make sure i had things right. Had to drop 1 click of rebound, but other than that it was happy.

[weeksy]

Mutter grumble

My shock goes slurp squelch slurp again. I thought I noticed it when out the other day. Confirmed it today, so got home and ordered a new shock from TFTuned.

[Mr Moofo]

My shockwizz always tells me I have too much compression. After a quick discussion with Cotic , their suggestion was "that they always do on our bikes "

[weeksy]

My shockwizz always tells me I have too much compression. After a quick discussion with Cotic , their suggestion was "that they always do on our bikes "

I look forward to throwing the SHockwiz on the new one. I went with a Cane Creek DB IL Air not surprisingly. It's got LOTS of adjustments that's for sure to the Shockwiz will get a good testing. I think we're heading to 417 Flyup next weekend but whether i'll have it in time i don't know

In nice news, i pinged the guy i bought the RP23 from and he said "send it back up and i'll throw some new seals and service at it" i don't get the impression he wanted paying so that's very considerate of him. Obviously it'll wait until TFTuned get the CC DB out to me, but hopefully their stock levels are right and it'll be out next week.

[weeksy]

Well that was a wonderfully insightful chat with the tech guy at TFTuned.

Basically he's not convinced the DB Air IL shock will fit the bike/frame due to clearance.

2021-02-25_03-30-07 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

If you look at the shock here, i'll have to run the shock in reverse, which isn't an issue as such, so the air can will be at the yoke end, not at the bars end. But his thoughts are that even with that the air can may still be too big and cause clearance issues on the frame.

I'm not really sure where this leaves me now in honesty lol.

this one here is a LArge frame, which makes me hopeful it'll fit... but i won't know until i try it i guess.

[weeksy]

Well i chatted to TFTuned again and decided to cancel it.

I then ended up on Pinkbike classifieds and bought a Monarch RT3.



It was over in Basingstoke and i shot over there and tried it... fitted it in Halfords car park, tested and it's good.

So handed over some cash and away we go.