Mountain Bikes!

All 29ers's are definitely not the same. I used to scoff at bike geometry (it can't make that big of a difference) but when I went from my Focus Raven to my Trek (or Specialized), it was night and day. Two turns into my favorite single track segment, and it was noticeably better/quicker turning.

 

Dang bros. I stupidly dislocated my pinkie two days ago. Was climbing up the trail and lapsed in concentration. (A bunch of active fires in CA had my town super smokey) Maybe it was the smoke, or maybe I was still half asleep at 7am riding up this mountain... Either way, my front tire went off the trail and I couldn't get my feet out of my clipless pedals.
Down I went.
Got up and my pinkie was sideways. I was gonna do a self reset, but my finger was bleeding so I thought the bone was poking through. I rode home two miles and drove myself to the ER.
After a couple x-rays and a marcaine injection the Dr reset my finger. Three stitches later he said only dislocated and no fracture.
I'm just upset because I've fallen a hundred times like this and only ended up with scratches and bruised. I guess this was the 1 in a hundred times that end in injury.
Here's how my finger looks today. Bummed I won't be able to ride for a while

 

tape it to the adjacent finger and go ride your bike.

 

Anyone have a light suggestion for night rides?

 

I have a couple of these I use for endurance races or just a night ride.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y441QT2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ETWqFbGC486FP
I have one on the handlebar and one on the helmet, usually not even on full bright.

 

Lupine lights are top notch. Not cheap though. I picked one up last fall/winter and love it.

I can dig up contact info for the NA rep./dealer I delt with in getting mine if you need.

 

Outbound Lighting. The dude is a proper automotive lighting engineer and the lights are much more than just a glorified flashlight.

In my opinion, in the MTB world, there are two brands that have no competition:
1-Up racks
Outbound Lighting lights

But if there is something better, I'd love to know of it.

 

looks neat for a headlight but no tail lights??

 

Garmin Varia. It's more than just a tail light though, it's a motion-detecting radar that ties into your Garmin device(s) and will alert you when traffic is coming from behind. It works quite well when riding on main or gravel roads. Most all the guys in our gravel group rides run one. I just got sucked into getting one too and it's really nice.

Otherwise, any basic tail light is a better than nothing.

 

Tail lights? Where we're going, we don't need tail lights.

Tail lights are easy and any number of the mass market LED's are plenty good. Good headlights are tough due to the beam distribution.

 

I looked into the Garmin Varia because it seemed like another awesome gadget to buy. For once, logic kicked in and I decided I don't wear spandex often enough to justify.

 

We were all there at one point. Give it time and you'll be showing off those quads in black, sleek spandex in no time.

 

Many words come to mind. Quads is not one of them.

For that matter, black and sleek only work when a ball gag is involved.

 

I run Light and Motion Seca's (I think 1800 and 2200 watts), one on my helmet and one on the bars. They have been a stand up company to deal with and quality stuff. I would say they have the highest penetration among the industry folks I ride with, but that also could be from the employee deals.

I am curious how the Outbound lighting things turns out for them, knowing one of the guys that was in the design hasn't made me necessarily want to buy/try their product. Plus I have LM's so its not like I need anything for sometime. If you dig them, that is good to hear.

 

If anyone is looking for a really nice Stumpjumper, I’ve listed mine on eBay. If interested in working out something, just let me know. Thanks!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2011-Speci...-Expert-29er-Medium-with-Extras-/124327640150

 

Forgive me in advance as I’m sure I’m going to call all the parts the wrong name but I think I can get my point across.

Yesterday while on my dad’s stump jumper the bike hit an alien force field and stopped in it’s tracks...I was not affected by said force field and continued moving until my shoulder met the dirt.

After I dusted myself off I could see that my axle had backed out. Cool, easy fix right? I’ll be back to riding in a minute...nope!

When I put the axle back in the bike would not free wheel/back pedal? I limped it back and removed the wheel when I got home. The cassette would engage randomly and it wouldn’t click like normal when freewheeling. Playing with it made it worse and now it won’t engage at all. On the bike if I crank the whole drivetrain just spins unless I put the axle way tighter than it should be and it won’t freewheel at all. I just had a 1x11 conversion done, could the shop have botched the job? It rode fine for probably 50 miles of trails since they worked on it. Any guesses as to what broke? Of course the shop is closed on weekends for COVID...

 

What hubs/wheels? On chris kings the teeth on the pawls are so fine that they get a ton of engagement points, but it also meant that gunk or coming out of alignment inside the hub would cause them not to engage and so the bike would just freewheel or randomly lose engagement under load. Could be freehub not being all the way in on the hub bearing surface. Pawl springs stuck or something.

On the flip side, i just had my bike NOT freewheel at all almost like a fixie and kept binding. Took the freehub off to inspect and a ton of metal just fell out. Completely shredded a bearing and spacer into bits that were getting jammed up inside.

 

Im away from the bike but this is the spec as far as I can tell.
Product Details
Components
Bottom BracketSRAM PF30

HubsSpecialized Hi Lo disc

TiresSpecialized 2Bliss ready; Front: Purgatory Control, 29 x 2.3; Rear: Ground Control, 29 x 2.3

WheelsRoval 29

Chainrings36/22

ShiftersShimano SLX

HandlebarsSpecialized XC Mini-Riser, aluminum

Tape/GripsSpecialized Sip Grip

StemSpecialized XC, aluminum

Brake LeversShimano SLX

BrakesShimano SLX hydraulic disc

CassetteSRAM PG-1050, 10-speed: 11-36

FrameFSR M5-aluminum, 130mm-travel w/142 x 12mm dropouts

CranksetSRAM S-2200

Rear ShockFox/Specialized Remote Brain w/AutoSag, BrainFade adjust

Front DerailleurSRAM X7

Rear DerailleurSRAM XTR Shadow Plus

SaddleBody Geometry Henge Comp

SeatpostCommand Post BlackLite, 125mm-travel (Small: 100mm)

The only changes being the shifter, chain, cassette, and derailleur.

 

A quick google of that rear hub turned up a lot of negative posts on mtbr e.g. issues, waranty jobs, complaints etc. amongst spec. MTB owners. I'm not saying it's the cause of the same issue as you are having (yours sounds like the freehub has disengaged e.g. from sticky pawls retracted and not positively engaging due to excess lube/grease) but it may be a known weak spot. GL, ime rear hub issues either resolve quickly, or expensively.

 

I wonder if there is a missing spacer on the 11 speed conversion?

Anyone in FL riding Santos next week?