Mountain Bikes!

Look up, like 8 posts. It was the first thing I did on my old bike, and after grabbing the wrong brake a couple of times yesterday, I'm gonna do it on this one too.

I've heard reasons not to, but I'm not really too interested in those at the moment.

 

this is why i haven't. on the motorbike my right hand is doing the braking. on a mountain bike i want to finese the front more (just like slipping a clutch) and grab a fist full for the rear more (right hand already used to those motions). of course that varies depending on what the trail is doing and what you're generally trying to do, but fist full of fronts mean crashing generally until the weight is loaded... fist full of rear means super cool skidzzzz

 

I was pickin' up what you were puttin' down

 

My Tazer came setup Moto style but I just couldn't do it. I was a mountain biker before motorcycles so I've always just gone back and forth and don't have an issue.

 

Still got the tazer?

 

Yeah, the activities are just too different for my mind to really get tangled up between the two. And I’ve been cycling for way longer than I’ve been riding.

 

Yep! The Magura brakes are set up to be able to swap the masters which made it super easy to put the brakes back to the normal setup. This bike is ridiculously fun to ride, can’t wait for it to dry out here so I can start hitting the trails again.

 

For awhile was really trying to use the front brake to get "more" out of my low end fork... then I rode a bike with a better action fork like a Pike... world of difference as far ride, control & braking.

 

I ride brakes moto style on my road and mtb. It is a personal preference thing.

 

I layed the carbon weave on the frame crack last night. I'll unwrap tonight or tomorrow morning and see how it looks... hoping for the best!

 

All in all, I'm pleased with the results.... got some wrinkles but thats OK. Sanded down with 150-300-600 wet-800 wet, polished, then sprayed with 4 coats of automotive enamel.

The repair is solid. After an easy half mile or so (and worrying about every little sound I heard), I did another 7+ miles like normal with no problems.

Super happy!!

 

Took advantage of the nice weather in MI yesterday. Got a new PB on Red Loop at Ft. Custer, so I'm pretty happy with that! (about 42 minutes)

I've still been having issues with my left hand going numb. It's mainly my pointer finger and the top of my hand (meta carpel area). It seems to happen more so during ascents, especially if they are more technical with roots and rocks. I've been focusing on trying to be light on my grip and everything, but it still seems to happen every ride. I think I'm going to try some different bars and see what happens. It's important to point out that I have had broken both arms and wrists multiple times, and I have calcium deposits near the ends of the ulna/radius on both arms I also have a pretty rare genetic bone defect called Syndactyly Type 8. (My 4th and 5th meta carpels are fused together in both hands.) So, I'm sure it's a combination of all those things lol.

Another thing, my brakes definitely don't do the job anymore. I just have the Shimano MT200 dealio's that came with the Roscoe 7. I cleaned everything and put new pads in them, but they don't seem to have the stopping power needed during the faster downhill sections. should I look to upgrade the whole package here or maybe play with rotors/pads to find something? I've been trying to buy things for the bike only as needed. I would prefer not to blast into a tree though.. Currently, after about 1-2 fast descents, the rear brake wont even lock the rear anymore, and I can barely get the front fork to stroke under hard braking while using only 1 finger.

 

Have you tried the foam style grips like ESI chunkys?

 

What size rotors and what pads? I have never heard anyone say - "man I wish I didn't upgrade my brakes" - so I think you would be just fine upgrading the whole lot. That being said, I have run the budget Shimano hydraulics with good 180 rotors (XT) and good pads (not resin garbage) and they are much better than they were out of the box.

 

Weather has been getting good in WV as well, and riding a bunch.

On the brake issue, it seems that around here the Shimano XT is the standard setup. I've had three different SRAM sets (up to the Guides), and they didn't seem nearly as strong as Shimanos. I could never get a truly firm brake lever on the Guides (as compared to XT), and would have lever fade on long braking hills.

Not sure where you're riding or how hard/long you're braking, but it would seem that an overhaul of current setup would be a good step before replacement.

1) Check that rotors are in spec (thickness) and not bent.
2) Clean/scour rotors.
3) Flush out and Bleed brakes with fresh mineral oil (I prefer to push the oil from caliper to master cylinder (you'll really want the brake blocks and Shimano cup that screws onto master cylinder). When done bleeding, you should have a firm lever.
4) Install new Shimano pads
5) Seat the pads in parking lot by riding up to speed and smoothly braking to a stop about 10 times.

This has always worked for me. If I had to hazard a guess, I would think that MTB brakes would benefit from a larger reservoir and a bit larger master cylinder. After years of playing with moto, the entire system seems "dainty"

 

I was actually thinking about trying these next.

They are the 160mm rotors and resin pads. Rotors say "resin pads only" on them. So, I was thinking of moving to 180mm rotors and a more aggressive pad of some sort? I'm not sure what the hell even fits the MT200 caliper though.. So then I started looking to convert everything over to the the Shimano XT or SLX stuff. ....Then I started looking at Magura and Hope stuff and stopped myself. lol looks like I can put $800 worth of brakes on a $1200 mountain bike if I want. lol I prolly don't need that.

 

I just ordered Magura MT5 4 pots, and Hope 180mm rotors. lol I forgot I had some amazon bucks from my employers wellness plan. I don't think stopping should be too much of an issue with this setup.

 

The ESI chunky's are nice. I run them on all my bikes. I do like them quite a bit (especially w/my wrist injuries).

 

I have magura MT7’s on my tazer and they are ridiculous haha! Really good feel and power. I tweaked the front rotor so I decided to do a larger rotor on the front (223mm) and I’m anxious to see how they feel once it dries out around here. I wouldn’t have bothered but it was not very expensive so I figured what the hell.

 

LOL, no you probably will have plenty of brake now