Lastly, due to the overall linear feel, the shock doesn’t have a lot of pop. It takes more effort to pop and bunny hop as the shock absorbs a lot of the force you input. Although, this creates a ground huggy ride, it is more difficult to jump as it requires more energy to do so
Couchy wrote: ↑Mon May 24, 2021 6:55 am
Can you put some more air in and less damping time make it feel more bouncy ?
It's certainly something to try yes. I think i can go another 10-15psi and see from there. As with these things down here it's all about getting the right time on the right trails to try something and at the moment, the right sodding conditions too.
I've got 2 days at FoD this weekend then a day at Afan just after, so will give me a tonne of setup/playtime.
So the shock arrived and was a bit of a faff.... i tried it with a few settings, first was just bottle cage, no good.
Next was cage and angular bracket, that was close but again, no good with water bottle.
I then tried it with relocator bracket and angled bracket and that's what we have fitted and fits fine.
I then flipped the shock, well i tried to. Fitting the shaft at the opposite end and reservoir up top. No good as the compression lever gets in the way and hits the bracket. So i tried fitting shaft at opposite end and reservoir down, again not even close...
So that's what we've got and that's where we are with it.
Today was it's big boy ride, Forest of Dean with Taff, his boy and the usual riding crew for us of his mates and dad.
First trail i was a bit "woah" as the Bird didn't want to turn as quickly as i'd like. However that really was quite a short issue as i soon came to terms with it. We were on the off-piste riding today which we all absolutely LOVE... despite it being a bit of a trawl back to the top each time. But the trails are rooty, twisty and bloody good fun indeedy. They're also quite jumpy, not massive jumps, but certainly enough to keep you on your toes that's for sure, there's a couple of 3' high ones, but mostly 2'-3' you get a nice pop off them and a nice bit of a launch, but they could all be rolled if you wanted too. However we tried our best and hit them as well as we could manage.
Once i came to terms with the handling it was cracking on the Bird, it's composed and stable, holds a line well and the new Fox DPX2 is basically exactly what i want and love in a shock, soft and compliant, but without bottoming out. Ace stuff. Added a smidgen more pressure to it after the first run down as the Shockwiz wanted a bit more air, but after that i whipped the Shockwiz off to fit to Taffs bike and i'm more than happy.
Couple of minor issues, and i do mean minor.
1. My gear cable tensioning bolt wasn't tight enough and the cable slipped a bit... took a minute or two to sort that.
2. Irritating creak on the bars/headset. I'm sure it's just a tiny bit of lube/cleaning needed though.
It was then down to the Fountain Inn for an epic burger and 2 beers, before hitting the trails again. Sadly that's where it went a little wrong, my lad spannered himself last weekend on the scooter and put a 3" x 3" scuff on his knee, which he's been letting heal for the rest of the week. We then got to the bottom of the last trail for the day and wonderboy comes off in a bit of mud and rips the scab off his wound and there's blood everywhere ! i wasn't concerned about any major issues, but it could be a game changer for tomorrows riding or not as the case may be.
Hope the Boy Blunder heals quick, tea tree cream for anti septic healing stingy goodness.
"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: ↑Sat May 29, 2021 9:18 pm
Today was it's big boy ride, Forest of Dean with Taff, his boy and the usual riding crew for us of his mates and dad.
First trail i was a bit "woah" as the Bird didn't want to turn as quickly as i'd like. However that really was quite a short issue as i soon came to terms with it. We were on the off-piste riding today which we all absolutely LOVE... despite it being a bit of a trawl back to the top each time. But the trails are rooty, twisty and bloody good fun indeedy. They're also quite jumpy, not massive jumps, but certainly enough to keep you on your toes that's for sure, there's a couple of 3' high ones, but mostly 2'-3' you get a nice pop off them and a nice bit of a launch, but they could all be rolled if you wanted too. However we tried our best and hit them as well as we could manage.
Once i came to terms with the handling it was cracking on the Bird, it's composed and stable, holds a line well and the new Fox DPX2 is basically exactly what i want and love in a shock, soft and compliant, but without bottoming out. Ace stuff. Added a smidgen more pressure to it after the first run down as the Shockwiz wanted a bit more air, but after that i whipped the Shockwiz off to fit to Taffs bike and i'm more than happy.
Couple of minor issues, and i do mean minor.
1. My gear cable tensioning bolt wasn't tight enough and the cable slipped a bit... took a minute or two to sort that.
2. Irritating creak on the bars/headset. I'm sure it's just a tiny bit of lube/cleaning needed though.
It was then down to the Fountain Inn for an epic burger and 2 beers, before hitting the trails again. Sadly that's where it went a little wrong, my lad spannered himself last weekend on the scooter and put a 3" x 3" scuff on his knee, which he's been letting heal for the rest of the week. We then got to the bottom of the last trail for the day and wonderboy comes off in a bit of mud and rips the scab off his wound and there's blood everywhere ! i wasn't concerned about any major issues, but it could be a game changer for tomorrows riding or not as the case may be.
It was certainly another epic day out that's for sure, so good in fact that I did most of those trails again today.
Minor change on the Bird. It's now official that my Fox DPX2 has been stolen by the boy for his Sworks. Whoops. Wasn't my brightest idea fitting it to his bike for testing then.... but hey, you don't know what's better/worse until you try it.
So the Bird generally runs a 210*55 shock, the only shock i had in spares was a 210*52.5 so fractionally less travel, but Bird confirmed it'll be fine.
Removing my lads shock from his though does now free up a 210*55 which i've fitted to the Bird for tomorrows ride up at Sherwood Pines. I'll be curious to see how it feels. I'll also be taking some volume spacers to tune it if i get some time.
I've spoken to Ben at Bird Bikes and he's done me a deal on a 210*55 Fox DPX2 which is coming next week and i'll sell one of the spare Monarchs. Keeping the other one as a spare for emergency use.
Went up to Sherwood Pines with Couchy yesterday for a play, first ride was a lap of the red on the Bird. I'd set it up with the Monarch R shock which for some reason, even with the pressures the same, the sag the same, the Monarch R feels a LOT closer to how i like bikes to feel, far more plush and compliant. Throughout the ride i just needed 2 clicks of tortoise as it was set a little fast on the rebound.
The ride itself was excellent, sure Pines isn't the hardest thing on the planet but it's mostly flowy fast fun. Couple of bits i don't much like with some weird rollers that kill all the fun of it, but other than that it's brilliant as far as entertainment goes
For some reason, the front end isn't quite as poppy as i think i'd like, but i've got some slightly higher rise bars arriving this week i'll try out to see if i can get it a bit more poppy.
Mr Moofo wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 2:26 pm
Have you sold it yet?
Lol no, why? I love it. It's exactly what I want from where I am at the moment with bikes. It not only jumps well but it xc's well too, which was a weakness of the G160 of course. But the Bird doesn't lose out in the downhill, but gains in the flat and uphill, so is a better bike for my riding. As much as I kind of aspire to be the cool dad doing massive gaps, the reality is, I'm no more than semi cool dad doing smaller jumps.
Was sorting the gears out today, no matter what I did, j couldn't get all 11 gears nicely, so I threw a new cable in it and still the same. Now I've not crashed the bike so can't be the hanger or frame, so there was only 1 option, the B screw. So I adjusted it a few times and I think I've now got it perfect. I'll confirm next time I jump on it.
The bike has developed a creaky thing. Twice per pedal revolution, only when I'm pushing hard on pedals, which led me to think it was the bottom bracket, but seems not.
I've cleaned the pivots with the weirdest ever bolt configuration, swapped the saddle, cleaned the seatpost and clamp and swapped the pedals.
I'm Really hoping that's it done now as I'm not sure what else to swap. Can't swap the dropper as I don't have a spare, but can try a static post to test again. But it's not always present, it never appeared until 8km into the last ride and kinda came and went. It increases with cadence in relative terms. It's more of a clicky clicky than a grindy graunchy noise. Will be interesting to see when next out if we've fixed it!
I drove the youngsters over to Goring yesterday evening to jump. Took the Bird in the car too, so i could see how it did there. For the first time ever, i cleared the tabletop 5 times on the bounce. I never clear it every time, so that was pretty damn epic.
I don't know how much is the Bird being a better jumper bike than the G-160 or how much of it is me getting slightly better at jumping, but it actually felt like i could roll in at a lower speed and still clear the jump. Sure, i'm still a long long way from popping it as the 12 year olds do, but if i can land consistently on the down-side then i'm more than happy with that for a performance that's for sure.
I'm sure we'll be back there in another few days for more of the same.
This time i'll be running a Fox DPX2 which arrives today.
s-l1600 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr
s-l1600 (2) by Steve Weeks, on Flickr
s-l1600 (1) by Steve Weeks, on Flickr
2021-05-27_04-04-17 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr
Dpx2 baseline by Steve Weeks, on Flickr
2021-06-02_07-45-57 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr
lastjump2 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr
lastjump5 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr
lastjump4 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr
