Mountain Bike - Hard tail

I was up there with my 2 riding buddies like every year but decided to sit it out. Didn't feel like starting over healing my elbow and also didn't want to trash my bike.

Rained for 2 days straight before, all day, plus the day of. Course was a mud bog.

My one buddy that used to ride pro finished in right around 4hrs, other buddy broke down around 10 miles in with mud damage to rear derailleaur so I picked him up at dockery rd. crossing.


I camped out at Williamsburg Rd crossing with my cowbell and man......every ten bikes or so some poor fucker came limpin by with his bike draggin a chain. Unbelievable how many broke down bikes this year.

Glad I sat this one out and didn't have to spend 3 days pay fixing my drivetrain.

 

Iceman short video. Hope I don't get in trouble. http://vimeo.com/111621541

 

So although I have only been riding a few months now, I just got back from two days in Downieville California. What an absolutely amazing group of trails.

I just need to figure out two things:
1. How do I move to NorCal by spring so I can ride trails like that more often
2. What to get for a full suspension bike

 

Skip CA altogether, bunch of commies and people like Cortez there. Utah's where its at and you can start a nice collection of wives as well.

Seriously, lots of great riding in that area, we go to Downievlle every year to get our shuttle fix and then to Moab to do TWE and that's enough for me.

 

The last place I would want to move to is UT because of who runs that state. I'll take atheist commies over bat shit crazy religious types. For the record I need more and better beer than more wives, you can keep the 3.2 beer and plural marriage.

TWE is currently in the works for this spring coming up for me.

 

Agreed...I get totally tired of some of the best hunting, skiing, fishing, road and mountain bike riding in the world and the millions of acres of open space set aside for recreation not to mention the 330 days of sunshine annually and humidity which averages about 15%.....makes it soooooo comfortable that I can barely stand it! :up:

BTW, do your homework on TWE. It isn't a spring ride, it starts at 10,000 and then you pedal up to 11,300 in the LaSal mountains. You can do the lower two sections but that's a waste of time IMO..That's just a side of beans and rice.

 

NOOOOOBBB!!!! take the reflectors off your bike and you will gain 3mph.

 

alright, so I got my bike.... and wow!!! I love it. But now that I have ventured into the FS world, I'm at that stage where I am learning and testing and trying to figure out shock settings. I understand sag from when I was doing the whole motorbike-trackday thing, and when I say understand it, I mean I kinda know the basics. so before I rode it, I fiddled with it a bit. Set up the pressure in my rear shock (fox CTD evolution or whatever) to 155psi. I weigh about 240lbs. Took it out around my place and hopped some curbs and shit, and the lil O ring was going about halfway thru the travel. Then once I actually went for a ride, it was a little more than 3/4 thru the travel on a semi techy/rocky trail. So should I add a little more air? or?? I had no complaints with it being "too squishy" but I am so new to this whole FS thing, coming from hardtails. Anyone got any good advice or links to some truly good reading? Also, I have my rebound set almost dead middle between fast/slow...

Im guessing I will maybe need to just go for another ride and maybe take my shock pump and mess with everything on the trail and test it out???

 

Tuna, I don't know about that specific shock, but with the couple fox shocks I've owned, I've normally put around 200 psi, and I weight 190-205 depending on how gluttonous I've been. My goal is to use about 25% of the travel for free sag.

 

Ok thanks. I just found some stuff online that says for this shock/bike it should be rider weight(lbs) - 20. So im looking at like 220psi. So currently im way off haha.

 

my advice... is to put your bike up on a stand, take the 5mm or 6mm hex for the bolts that hold the shock in place, then loosen them until they move freely. after that, you'll want to take that shock off your bike, and find the nearest trash can, and throw it in the garbage.

haha no but seriously... a CTD RP23 will pretty much blow thru its travel no matter what you do. you can make it decent enough for light XC, but expect to see the ring hit the top even off like a 1-2' drop. i dunno if it has compression or if its one of the ones with just the couple setting options when Fox tried to dumb itself down for its consumers, but maybe ramp that up some. probably need a little more pressure. when i borrowed a bike with a CTD on it, i think i was up near 200psi or something dumb, might have been more even. and im like 200lbs. your suspension design has an effect on that as well though too and whatever leverage ratio its creating. if you really like the bike and feel like you wanna keep it, throwing that thing on ebay after a little while and getting a Cane Creek DBinline isn't a bad idea. DBair is the best thing ever.

 

Depends on the bike (DW and VPP like 3o% static sag) but rear sag at 25% is a good start. Front forks at 20% is a great start.

Your fork and shock should bottom out occasionally. Why pay for 150mm ( or whatever) if you don't use it all. Knuckleheads who say that your suspension should never bottom also ride in squadrons and corner low.

Compression, set it in the middle ditto with rebound. Then click one at a time CW for more CCW for less (I know you know this but doing it for the benefit of others)

Remember, just checking your rear shock "costs" you 5 to 10 psi because there is so little volume. The CTD is Climb Trail Descend. The Climb mode is just a platform that takes away some pedal bob. Let's keep things simple.....keep both in T (Trail) setting for now and only use Climb if you're doing a long climb on smooth doubletrack or gravel and the make sure you remember to put it back to Trail.

As far as the Fox RP 23 CTD being a POS...... remember, it's the MAGICIAN and not the wand that performs the magic. A CTD RP23 set up properly will handle some pretty big stuff and it's a good damper. I service mine twice a year with my fork and seems to be often enough. I will be let my buddies know that the big drop stuff we do is no longer doable because of the shock we use.. When ( more like "if" ) you ever exceed the limits of that damper you'll know by the medal count.

 

anything's doable... if brian lopes can rip telonics on a 160mm bike, you could pretty much ride anything on anything with enough balls or skills. Telonics/PG/Silver Surfer/Carwreck in Laguna Beach pretty much run the gambit of testing a bike's capabilities. knowing where you are... you ride King Kong with an enduro bike with an RP23? i'm sure you COULD... i don't think i would be so inclined to ever do such a thing.

i'd rather not be constantly having harsh bottom outs off 10 foot drops and 20+ footers though if i could so avoid... i like not seeing cracks in my frames. the way they blow thru travel with little ramp up bothers me. they make them too universal for the different designs is all it is too me. the valving needs more flexibility. just like dbairs on vpp will never see full travel unless you do the larger air canister and run 30-35%. the design naturally has too much ramp up for those things. on the flipside, the dbair needed crazy volume reducers on my commencal to not instantly blow right thru because it was linear as shit and had zero progressive ramp up. the symphony of internet hate for CTD stuff isn't coming out of thin air though. then again lots of people with a keyboard don't know how to put air in their tires. goes both ways i guess.

 

Well crap, no wonder my rims get dents..I need air in those tires?!!

Seriously, I agree with you to some extent. I use a DHX or RP23 (not CTD). The CTD and the DHX to some extent, does have a very annoying "trap door" spot in the bottom to mid-stroke which is difficult if not impossible to tune out of the stock damper. I use Push to tune my shocks and it really makes them a step up over the stock tune.

In a perfect world I'd be rocking a 27.5 rig with 160mm with a CC double barrel with Ti spring and Lyric up front, but since I'm down to two bikes (130mm 29er and a 29er HT) I need more versatility and the FS 29er handles anything I can toss its way.

 

Well, after talking with my buddies for quite a long time about trekking to So. UT., I finally said f*%K it, took charge, and rented a 4 bedroom house for my buddies and I for a few days in Hurricane, UT. I'll be there at the same time as the Hurricane MTB Festival in late March.

I'm really looking forward to it!

 

Nice Al!:up:

 

So you booked at the orchard, correct? There is no trail directly ridable from the property but plenty a short drive away. How many of you are there and what are your skill levels? Bonnie and I helped Q and DJ start the MTB festival and I volunteer every year. I will be happy to show you guys some great rides.

 

Oh, very cool!!!! I'm really looking forward to it like you wouldn't belive. We'd love to take you up on the rides!

There will likely be 3 of us, and each of us has been riding for a few years, but tend more towards "intermediate" stuff. Each of us ride 29er hard tails and 110-120mm 29er full-sus's (I have a Rumblefish, my buddies each have Cambers)... So no jumping off 5-6 foot rocks, but smaller rock garden and bumpy stuff aren't issues.

Not sure if this the orchard. I found an older 4 bedroom house on VBRO that seems to be about a block or two from OTE bike shop. The house seemed clean, inexpensive and had good reviews, so I figured what the heck, why not!

 

Thanks Karl! Hope all is well!

 

Went into Performance bike today for a new light and nearly pulled the trigger on this http://www.performancebike.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/mProduct4_10551_10052_1161809_-1_catNav
I just couldn't spend the cash on a bike I've never heard of. It seems like good components without getting into the blingy stuff but I got the feeling in the store that all the prices were inflated and the sale wasn't actually that much of a sale. I was really leaning towards a full suspension bike for my next one but the HT 29 seems to be a very popular option.

Any thoughts on Charge bikes?