New bike day. The hand me down. (MTB)

[weeksy]

IMG_20241109_124652 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

Today I took @crust Trek Fuel ex8 for a local ride, him on the Rail and me on the Fuel

For various reasons I've been struggling lately with power and speed and in truth I was starting to worry I'd just completely turned to shit with no way back. Doing the Gorrick cold challenge the other week from the first mile I thought I would puke my insides up, give birth to a cow or unload in my undies. It's been ongoing now for 2 years but I'm trying a new treatment which fingers crossed may just be onto something.

But I was always thinking the Status wasn't the greatest local bike due to the geometry and how it pedalled. But maybe that was just in my head because of the other issues above.

So I jumped on the Fuel today and WHAM it was off like scalded cat. I'd set the suspension to roughly where it needed to be and it felt sweet on the Fox34s on the first single-track, sadly it was cut short by a runner so I couldn't test fully. But the next 2 hours was filled with "wow, this is flying, the legs feel great the HR is good, power is there" and the Fuel was hitting all the lines and going sweetly.
I'm not at my best compared to say 2017 or 2020 but I'll bet it wasn't a million miles away.

I'd actually decided within the first few mins that I was buying it from him and the deal was done quickly. He tried to lower the price but was agreed on what was fair for both of us rather than just fair on me.
It's now tucked up in the garage waiting a new star nut or maybe the Granite stash multi tool as I let him keep his one up multi tool. But I'm having a relax and a beer

It's got Shimano m6100 (I think) which will come off for a set of Code RSC once I grab a set. They work lovely in truth but I prefer the Codes.

[weeksy]

Saddle installed, nicer bottle cage fitted and adjusted the Shimano brakes levers a bit closer.

I may even get out today for a small ride

[Mr Moofo]

I’ll give it til next tuesday

[MingtheMerciless]

I’ll give it til next tuesday

I can hear the winds of doubt already rustling.......

[weeksy]

I’ll give it til next tuesday

Well the Status lasted just on a year, so no rush yet on this

[weeksy]

Bleurgh I bloody hate internal cable routing. Took 4X longer to remove the Shimano brakes and fit the Code RSC. No need for details, we've all done them and yeah it's crap.

Then whipped off the Bontrager saddle, Bontrager grips.

Last job was cleaning the chain, cassette and mech/jockeys.
I don't know what chain lube @crust uses but it won't be getting used again. Claggy black messy stuff it is. Yuk.
So chain cleaner, brushes, cloths and GT85 and it's good again.

I just need to find some more Code RSC brakes to replace the race spares I've stolen.

[Mr Moofo]

Okay, I will update that.

I give it til Tuesday morning

[weeksy]

These things should come with a government message "Beware, MTBs can seriously increase your happiness"

IMG_20241111_110027 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Out shopping on this today and it's just FAB.... the brakes are ace and i honestly think the Fox34s suit the frame better than the 36s on the higher models. It still flies along !!!

Get a small pedal creak when under hard power so just cleaned all the pivots/contacts and checked everything, the bottom pivot is somewhat yukky but re-greased it and we'll see, all other points have been checked, stripped, cleaned etc. I still think it's potentially bottom bracket though, but we'll see on the next ride. Sadly it's the nightmare of PF30BB lol... joyous. So if that's the case i'll throw a Hope screw together PFBB on there i think.

Lovely ride though and really loving this thing.

[Docca]

https://www.veloline.co.uk

This is my local bike place. They are less than 5 minutes drive from my house and a lovely bunch. They have Fuels and Rails and the consensus view was that the Rail was preferred. I forget why- might have been battery life?

I really like your bike. I looks clean and agile and not like the fatter Rail.


Keen to watch progress

[weeksy]

https://www.veloline.co.uk

This is my local bike place. They are less than 5 minutes drive from my house and a lovely bunch. They have Fuels and Rails and the consensus view was that the Rail was preferred. I forget why- might have been battery life?

I really like your bike. I looks clean and agile and not like the fatter Rail.


Keen to watch progress

The sponsor/support our mate Isaac Eastlake, you could do worse than name drop Isaac i think they recently helped him out with his new Trek Session DH bike and look after it for him.

The Fuel as deffo given me 'something' and despite it being more work than the Orbea, i'm actually enjoying WAY more than i expected.

[weeksy]

Lunchtime = playtime

IMG_20241113_110756 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

So headed to the 'local' which is actually nearly 5 miles away so not that local but it's more interesting than the really locals.

I slowed the rebound by 4 clicks on the shock, i seem to have 16 clicks of rebound and it was on the fastest, on some of the roots i could feel the rebound was too quick. Deffo felt better and on the fun DH (closer to a low level enduro really) trail it was spot on, really good and poppy. 

It's not without faults though, i've got a bit of a creak still so a little bit of narrowing down on that, it's as always a bit of 'try this, try that' and eventually you get it. I'm currently torn between it being the BB (which I took the cranks off and cleaned today), the bottom/main pivot (which i regreased yesterday but wasn't perfect) or the chain (which was cleaned in citrus cleaner fully today). If it's not one of them, i don't know what it is yet

I then wanted to sort the brake on the back end. One pair of pistons was 5mm out, the other about 1mm, as you may have gathered i'm quite fussy and this is also often a symptom of the pistons not being 100% in terms of movement. So it was out with the piston block from Ebay, the bleed kit and the pistons were moved out 1 at a time, cleaned and pushed back in till they were silky smooth. Then back on with the pads, caliper etc and get them both set evenly... Job done.

Won't get a chance to test it any more now until BPW at the weekend, but i'm more than happy it's good to go

[weeksy]

IMG_20241115_091503 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Well that's the bikes ready for BPW this weekend. I'm not sure which i'm looking forward to most, riding the Fuel or the Session, i guess both equally as they'll be being used on completely different tracks, although i'm tempted to ride say Surfing Bird and Vicious Valley on both, or maybe AC-DC just to see how both does in terms of time and speed, as well as how they handle the terrain differently of course.
If i can get on well with the Session i'll be racing it a bit next year for sure.
Pressures are done on forks and shock, rebound set, both bikes all lubed and ready to roll

[ogri]

Tch dirty tyres

[weeksy]

Well this could all be interesting or could be a bit of a "what else would you expect" type post.

Today was BPW and i started the day on the Fuel, the thing felt excellent in the morning, i'd forgotten to fit the spare wheel on the front with the Conti Kryptotal so i was running the Bontrager XR4 rubber both ends, 21.5 and 22.5 pressures. I'd set the pressure and rebound and didn't adjust it in the morning at all. But the bike felt lovely, plush and happy. I was running about the same pace as @Beancounter , but arguably slightly less than them and losing a couple of seconds on a track maybe even 4-5 on some. This perplexed me slightly as it wasn't just on the bigger techier stuff but the proper flow stuff like Sixtapod as well. Even though i felt good on it i did have a couple of front end moments over roots/rocks, but it was at time slightly damp and that happens, everyone else was getting the same so they told me.  We finished our first session with roller disco into the left after the tunnel down to the cafe and while my mate was getting breakfast i scooted down to the van.

IMG_20241116_124630 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

This then came out and first impressions (with the pressures all round set) was WOAH that's a massive front end... high, wide and just a bit nuts. On the run to the uplift van though it mostly made sense though and felt good. "you were shifting on that" said my mate.. Which i didn't think was the case as it all felt a bit normal.

So we jumped onto Vicious Valley into Surfing Bird and the Session blew me away. I could basically pic any line I wanted, ignore the roots, rocks drops and everything in it's way. @Beancounter was about 5s behind me by the end and started with "where the hell did that speed come from" , but again, it all felt effortless on the Session. Then into surfing bird with the same outcome really, there's a couple of rock 'overs' where you need to pull/pop to make sure you're not hitting a chainring etc and this thing just blew everything away with easy. Then down into Insufficient funds and i was feeling really happy.  They seem to have reprofiled the back of the drops so they're a bit of a longer distance to the nice landing part, but the Session didn't care, so i hit the 2nd, 3rd, 4th a bit harder to make sure i was OK and yup there was a gap to my mate again.

We tried AC-DC, Wibbly Wobbly and Rim Dinger... Rim Dinger was the real eye opener in the fact i could just ignore the brakes on section i've always braked, but it just cruises through the rocks !!!

Lets just say as you'll have gathered, i'm blown away by the Session. Although how much was the frame, forks, geometry and how much of it was better rubber, that i don't know... but as my mate said "you were night and day quicker on that"..

Don't get me wrong, the Fuel is still awesome around here and places like FoD will come into it's own... but BPW, well... Hmmmmm maybe the DH bike is King !!!

(hopefully none of this comes over as insulting to @Beancounter as it's really not meant to... I don't think i improved during the day lol. I think the skills compensator did an awesome job. !!! )

[Mr Moofo]

@Beancounter said that he let you come first because you don't half sulk

[weeksy]

I did have a minor issue as well, front brake was hastily fitted and seemed ok the other day, but after hard use today was found to be bloody rubbish and on run 3 I was losing brake feel, I don't think it was over heating, I think it may just need a better bleed in the morning.

[weeksy]

I did have a minor issue as well, front brake was hastily fitted and seemed ok the other day, but after hard use today was found to be bloody rubbish and on run 3 I was losing brake feel, I don't think it was over heating, I think it may just need a better bleed in the morning.

Something wasn't sitting quite right with me on this, the way the brake was gaining/losing feel wasn't normal.
I was thinking it through and worked out this was the RSC the boy had issues with back in summer, I took it off with the intention of throwing a service kit at it, but I think it slipped under the radar. He had the exact same symptoms I had yesterday with it.
So I've fitted a brand new pair of Codes to the Fuel and the rear RSC is back into spares, with the front heading off for a service/rebuild.

[Beancounter]

(hopefully none of this comes over as insulting to @Beancounter as it's really not meant to... I don't think i improved during the day lol. I think the skills compensator did an awesome job. !!! )

Not at all mate, you were definitely a lot more comfortable on the Session and I don't think that's purely down to the Conti tyres - the Bontrager's on the Fuel aren't bad and we were all finding it a bit sketchy.

Did we do AC/DC? I remember Vicious Valley, Wibbly Wobbly, Rim Dinger and Insufficient Funds but not AD/DC.

[weeksy]

Ummm did we not? Lol I have no clue what I had for breakfast but yeah you may be right.

The weird thing is, I wasn't trying and harder on the Session, it was like jumping on a panigale or a bandit 600. The session just made it really easy, I didn't push my limits more.

I'm currently devising several plans

Mrs Weeksy may stab me in my sleep if I go through with any

[weeksy]

Went with the boy and his forks/shock to TFTUNED in Westbury after work today.
Was getting them serviced and a full check over. This is the 4th set of services we've had this year and it's been insanely useful to use.
This is the first time we've taken the 'spare' shock as it's now the primary shock due to some damage on the shaft of what was the main shock lol.

Anyway, onto the thread again, I picked up a 150 air shaft that'll get lobbed into the Fox 34s. The frame is 150mm compatible and I think it'll feel great with it.
https://www.tftuned.com/fox-34-rhythm-a ... mbly/p3894

Sadly I think it needs a couple of tools I don't have to remove/fit but my mate at Rotec won't charge me a lot to swap