My new Fox DPX2 arrived today..."What, i thought you already had one".... No, that's ended up on the Sworks Enduro of the 12 year old, so i've been running the Rockshox Monarch Deluxe R.
The thing is, i'm really happy with the Monarch R and it feels lovely.... So if i'm going to keep the DPX2 it's going to have to be mind-blowing 2021-06-09_01-54-17 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr
At the end of the day, i bought it for a great price considering it's almost brand new, so i won't have any trouble selling it on if i need to.
But i'll certainly be taking it out on the next jump sessions with the small ones.
Well I’m not exactly sure what to do here, the dpx2 feels soft and nice without doubt, but I’m not sure if it’s any ‘better’ though, well I’m not actually sure how to define better. But in terms of, what is the better shock, a Deluxe R or a DPX2 I’m sure internet wisdom tells us the DPX2 is the superior shock, but how/why/what I don’t really know.
Maybe I’m just not good enough to know better.
I don’t exactly ‘need’ the money back for it, but I’m not seeing a lot of point keeping both shocks.
My only real debate is whether changing the shock bushings sorted the creaky noise (just in case it was the shock itself) but as I can’t get either shock to make a noise now, I’m guessing we’ve resolved the issue. I can’t be bothered testing in this heat today so I’m taking a rest day from the pedalling and will ponder what I do next.
I decided to keep the Rockshox Deluxe R shock for mine, part of the reason was because i'm not unhappy with it, but also we have 4 shocks currently,
2 are 210*55 and 2 are 210*52.5. Now we CAN run 52.5's on either bike.... but arguably it should be 55... I had a buyer (the lady who sold us the Sworks actually) who wanted the 52.5 in particular, so my lad now has the 210*55 DPX2 that arrived from Bird yesterday and i have the Deluxe R in a 55 fitted on mine. Happy with that and think it's the right move. Didn't lose any money on the DPX2, arguably i could have sold for more, but she did me a favour on the bike so happy to sell for what i paid (arguably i did lost postage lol... no biggy)
We're off to Swinley Summit jumping at the weekend, i've got a few little targets in mind for me and the Bird, one of them being a drop i've not ridden off yet... i've ridden off it's smaller brother, but not this one which is about another 18" added.
The creak returned with fury yesterday, we checked this and that and pretty much confirmed it was seatpost shim causing it.
So today I fitted a 31.6 static post and went out, blissful silence.
Came home and sold the Vyron dropper and ordered a new Brand X one in 31.6 from CRC
Well none of this is going to sound positive and mostly like i'm whinging like a bit** , but that can't be helped.
I did a ride yesterday evening with the Brand X dropper post, it was a complete disaster and i wanted to throw the Bird in the hedge half way round.
I think a certain amount of it is down to me being used to the actuation on the Vyron as much as anything else.
First issue, bloody heck the lever is hard !!!! going down it's just a complete disaster and even when you unload the seat a fraction before hitting the button, it's STILL really hard pressing/pushing it.
You also have to leave your hand on it for what seems like forever while you wait for it to drop.
The seatpost has a wiggle/play in the top, which is at least as much play as the 6 year old Vyron had, i expect some with a dropper, but this felt excessive even after 1 ride.
Now as very little of the cable is in the frame, i thought cable rattle wouldn't exist on this, but it's either cable rattle or just seatpost rattle, but i had to actually get off twice and check my shock wasn't falling out it was making that much noise on the trails.
It completely spoiled my ride.
By the time we got to Babymaker, i checked to see I had 4g and ordered a Vyron and raised a return via CRC for the absolute piece of garbage Brand X.
The brand x posts are very sensitive to cable routing and tension, slightest bit of damage to outer or if outer ends aren't completely flat they can be tough to operate. Metal ferrules are better than plastic ones too.
I've got them on 4 bikes and with a little care can be made to work well, they all have that rotational play though, I've just got used to it.
'07 Griso 1100 (for sale), '94 Sprint 900, the scabbiest Himalayan in the country
weeksy wrote: ↑Fri Jun 18, 2021 6:46 am
Well none of this is going to sound positive and mostly like i'm whinging like a bit** , but that can't be helped.
I did a ride yesterday evening with the Brand X dropper post, it was a complete disaster and i wanted to throw the Bird in the hedge half way round.
It completely spoiled my ride.
By the time we got to Babymaker, i checked to see I had 4g and ordered a Vyron and raised a return via CRC for the absolute piece of garbage Brand X.
You must’ve been to the same school of “mantrum” as me
"Of all the stories you told me, which ones were true and which ones weren't?"
"My dear Doctor, they're all true."
"Even the lies?"
"Especially the lies."
weeksy wrote: ↑Fri Jun 18, 2021 6:46 am
Well none of this is going to sound positive and mostly like i'm whinging like a bit** , but that can't be helped.
I did a ride yesterday evening with the Brand X dropper post, it was a complete disaster and i wanted to throw the Bird in the hedge half way round.
It completely spoiled my ride.
By the time we got to Babymaker, i checked to see I had 4g and ordered a Vyron and raised a return via CRC for the absolute piece of garbage Brand X.
You must’ve been to the same school of “mantrum” as me
For me, there's right and wrong... if it's wrong, i'm throwing whatever it takes at the solution
lostboy wrote: ↑Fri Jun 18, 2021 3:05 pm
The bizarre thing is that you're one of very few I people I know that rates the Vyron.
Yup, absolutley. They're a massively marmite post it seems, but familiarity is key i think. I've been playing on my lads Sworks with a Specialized command post and it's way simpler/better than the Brand X to actuate.
Been fiddling with the sworks enduro of my lad lately. Since we're both running the correct length and stroke shocks now it was time to try and dial them in.
We've spent a few days now trying to get his DPX2 dialled in and even with volume spacers we still can't get it how he wants it to feel. Weirdly the DPX2 we sold to Tracey was a 210*52.5 but he seemed happier with it than he was with the new one we got from Bird.
So this morning we dragged out the ramp and tried settings. In the end we put the monarch deluxe RT, thus is the shock we had in his bike previously into his bike and he prefers that over the DPX2.
So I've now got the 210*55 DPX2 in the Bird which is fine with me of course.
felt i was a little too long low and slack and not really getting my body position right on the Bird, so jumped on ebay and grabbed some Nukeproof higher rise bars.
Lightbulb moment on the jumps today. Listening to small child and his technique of pumping near top lip, difference is huge, more height and clearing the table and landing nicely on the downslope
Continued as it started really today, the difference when you actually manipulate how the bike jumps is just remarkable. I was hitting it slower but the pop and lift was greater so still landing it fully on the landing zone instead of just about sneaking it over the top.
It's then really a question of getting used to it so it becomes normal and second nature, I wouldn't say I'm 100% yet but I'm certainly moved on a little from when I turned up there earlier.
Awesome
Just fitted a 30T chainring for this weekend. It's a SRAM one so a different fitting than i'm used to, but was simple as.
Reason is, we've got a Snowdon adventure planned, most of the boys are on Ebikes, i'm on a manual though. I had a 32T fitted i've had for ages, but with the hilly bits i thought lobbing a 30T on there may be a wise move.
BIt of a weekend epic coming up here, so grab a coffee
Started off on Sat with a trip to Afan, bunch of adults and a bunch of teenagers. By golly they're getting quick.. both up and down !
We spent the day on 'Y Wal' (The wall) which is a trail i really like. It went fine and happy up until one of the adults caught a rock and smashed his rear mech to bits... He had to go back down and get it replaced while we cracked on.
On the way down i was honestly really struggling with the Aether7. I'm finding it a bit well, long on the turns, i can't get it to get round stuff and the front end wasn't exactly filling me with inspiration. I got down everything, but wasn't what i'd call 'on it'.
It was hard to compare Strava times as we kept stopping and waiting for different parents, youngsters and the odd mechanical/punctures.
In the hotel that night consuming beers and massive burgers me and Beancounter and Tall Dan set the world to rights and i had a bundle of doubts about the Bird.
The next morning brought Bike Park Wales, jumpy droppy, fast, crazy stuff. Same group mostly but Crust had gone home.
We started with me leading the small ones down and on Sixtapod, it's a fast flowy blue and we all had a blast, from there into Willy Waver, again, loads of fun. Of course i was holding them back, but i was enjoying it LOTS and keeping them sane as a few of them had never been to BPW, so trying to keep them in check.
After that we jump on Sixtapod again, but a left 3/4 of the way down into Locomotion, a red with some drops..... Well they seem to have grown !!!! They were more substantial than i recall. By this time we'd had 4 people hit the deck whoops. All youngsters who bounce so all was good They were fine.
We then jumped on a few reds, like Vicious Valley, A470 and a few new trails like Merthyr Rocks.... again, lots of fun.
Any worries with the Bird had evaporated there, it was fantastic at BPW and on the flowy stuff i was going really well. Again, hard to check on Strava runs as we stopped for people, crashes and rests at times, but i think i did OK overall.
Coming toward the end of the day, my lad wanted to do A470 again.
This isn't my video but it's the same jump, same landing and same over the bars tumbling down the other side too.
The trail is 12-15 of these, some bigger, some slightly smaller. In terms of height they're about 15-18' tall and 25' in length. The last few, including this are sort of step ups, so the landing is higher than the take off, unless you make the full other side. Which at my level is bloody hard.
So as I land I semi plant my front which bucks the back and sends me over the bars, landing head and shoulder first, then tumbling over and over to a stop.
I'd had 3-4 warnings on it, almost doing it on other runs, bit was feeling good still at the time. Right up until it wasn't good of course.
Only real damage is a dead leg from where I landed on my car keys and an overall feeling of "ooooohhhh" that's all a bit stiff when I move. The body armour did it's job. My jersey is ripped in several places, but hey, it's far from terrible. 2021-07-04_08-17-14 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr
Bike needs a new mech hanger which is £15 so no biggy.
But overall i went away happy... The day was fantastic, a few beers, some laughs and some crashes of course
I am of course sitting here thinking, does the Aether7 go up for sale and what would i get for it... I think it's worth £2000 as it sits, but you don't get a lot for that and i end up with the same possibility of getting something not quite right.
I'm going to start of by fitting the mech hanger, getting it fully cleaned and then fitting a WTB Vigilante on the front. I've run Vigilantes for a while on the front now on the G-160 and love them.
I've been running Specialized Butchers at 26psi and i dropped 3-4 psi out today, so was it the pressures that helped me ? Or indeed was it just me yesterday ? But overall i'm still not fully in love with the LLS geometry of the Aether7. I also had more pedal strikes than i've had at BPW today, although not big ones, they were still enough to irritate me.
Bit more cleaning and sorting today, need to sort the rear mech hanger too, luckily a mate has one, but i've ordered 2 from Bird anyway.
Been having some interesting dicussions over on STW regarding the Butchers on the Aether7 and also on the presures they seem to run at. Some thoughts are they're more sensitive to pressure than other rubber, so maybe dropping the PSI on Sunday morning was a bit of a game changer.
Anyway, i was mistaken about the Vigilante/Butcher combo on my lads bike, i took the Vigilate off mine a month or so ago to give it better rolling and fitted to his as he wanted more rear grip, it's a high grip compound, so he's got a high grip Vigilante on the rear and a high grip Convict 2.3 on the front.
I've got 2 * 2.3 Butcher grid gripton on the Aether. Checking the pressures today i've got 21psi in both, i'd say i had closer to 25-26 in the front at Afan. I'm still going to fit the Vigilante i bought a couple of weeks ago on the front of the Aether though today when i get a bit of time after finishing cleaning and sorting everything
2021-06-09_01-54-17 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr
2021-06-22_10-01-07 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr
moment on the jumps today. Listening to small child and his technique of pumping near top lip, difference is huge, more height and clearing the table and landing nicely on the downslope
2021-07-04_08-17-29 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr
2021-07-04_08-17-25 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr
2021-07-04_08-17-14 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr
2021-07-04_08-17-05 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr
