Mountain Bikes!

I love my FSi (22lbs now ), but if you do go CDale make sure those wheels get dished correctly for the A.I. rear triangle or you'll have all kinds of weirdness going on.


**EDIT - Oh I see they got rid of the AI offset... so go buy it!

 

On that wheelset, that is a super narrow internal width. I would pass on those.

 

Unless you're regularly hitting 40 going downhill you're not missing anything.

If you forget to put the caliper spacers in when the wheels are off the bike and your buddy taps the brake lever it makes for all kinds of cussing when everyone else is ready to hit the trail and ride

Hydraulic is cool when you're not having problems. That's all I'm gonna say

 

Ordered the bike! Will post up pics when it arrives. Have a carbon bar to replace the alloy. Adding a dropper post.

Still a bit uncertain on the wheels. The stock rims are 25mm, and the max tire clearance for the frame is 2.4.

WTB's rim width chart: https://www.wtb.com/pages/tire-rim-fit-chart

I agree that the 30mm rim would be more versatile, but the added weight in an alloy rim is pretty prohibitive. To compare, the Hunt alloy 30mm wheels weigh 1831g while the Hunt alloy 25mm weigh 1647g. The stock wheels on the Scalpel weigh 1934g. A lot more can be saved by going carbon, but that's about 50% of the cost of the bike...

 

fyi - mybikeshop.com is having a big clearance sale. Got some Hayes Dominion brakes for less than half price shipped...

 

How it started


How it ended

 

Noun[edit]
weight weenie (plural weight weenies)

1. (slang) A cyclist who is concerned about the weight of his or her bicycle.

 

RIP to my Magura's...................But gave me a good excuse to try out a Shigura setup and holy hell. These things are stronger than my Trickstuff brakes.

 

So a Shimano lever and Magura caliper? Any wandering brake point?

 

Nothing in the calmer ride I did after I installed them. Just straight up ridiculous power with perfect modulation. At least to me. HUGE thread on Pinkbike and another one on RideMonkey if you really want to geek out over it. I banged my leg up pretty good so I won't really get to ride them in anger until next week at the earliest. But had I known what I know now, I would have just gone this route than the Trickstuff's and might even sell them off since people are paying bonkers money for them. The one thing is if you tend to grab a fistful of brake suddenly, yeah, you are going over the bars or locking the front. They start biting immediately, which I prefer. Takes a lot less finger strength to get what I want done and I think this will save fatigue on longer stages. I may go down from 223mm to 203mm rotors even they are that strong.

The Germans are absolutely crazy about lever/caliper mixing if you go over to MTB-News.De, some of the brands like Trickstuff and Intend even contribute to the various builds with the actual math etc. Someone actually built a site that calculates everything for you if you want to go further down the rabbit hole.

https://brakes.ddzyne.nl/

 

I ended up trying clipless this past weekend with a set of low end SPD platform pedals and Five Ten Trailcross Clip-in shoes. I hadn't ridden clipless since riding my old XC hardtail in Iowa.

I found it to be a bit of a game changer. A lot better power transfer, which helped a bit on climbing. I thought it would be sketch on the local trail's rocky downhill, but it was actually great and even seemed to improve my jumping from.

The downside though is that I came into a rock garden with way more speed than usual and ended up denying the shit out of my rear wheel. So if anyone has recommendations for a solid wheel with fast engagement, I'm all ears.

 

put your favorite hubs on DT Comp spokes with Brass nipples and EX511 rims. indestructible.

 

Yeah I don't know how guys ride with flats. And SPD's are ok but I far prefer Crank Brothers. They clean out really well, have plenty of float, and are really easy to get in and out of. I use the ones with platforms as I feel more stable when I'm clipped in and its nice for when I'm just dorking around the yard with the kids to not have to grab my shoes. Mine are double sided though as I don't want to have to mess with flipping over the pedal to clip in.

 

Have fun in the forum -- cubic dollars for reduction measured in grams. https://weightweenies.starbike.com/

 

Up until this point, I thought it had to do with a specific brand caliper and specific brand lever.
A whole new world here.

 

This site always makes me laugh. Some of that stuff makes sense if you are 140 lbs and racing. Outside of that it's just pure bling.

 

You can take weight saving to a very expensive extreme.

This bike is going to be used for the WVMBA XC race series and (maybe) an aggressive gravel event or two.

I've got a gravel bike (20-ish pounds), and a full-suspension trail rig (30-ish pounds). This is hopefully going to slot in between them for machine built trails and races.

In WV we have a mix of trails, with a lot of old-school Civilian Conservation Corps built trails built the 1930s, to hand-built MTB trails to machine built flowy stuff. Bike choice really depends on the area where you're riding...

 

I just upgraded my crappy Sram Guide brakes to Hayes Dominion A2's on my FSi and OMG they are incredible. By far the best brake system I've had on a mtn bike yet... XT/XTR is really good, but these Hayes are just so incredibly consistent... its amazing how much difference it makes.

 

In the last 10 years, I've had XTs, Hope V4s, old Maguras, Formula The Ones, Dominion A4s, and now Magura MT7s.

XTs for the money are still a fine choice but obviously don't compare to more serious stuff. I just traded up the A4s for the Maguras. Verdict is still out for me. They're both so good, even over the Hopes which for a long time I thought couldn't be topped. So far i'll say this... i like the knurled levers on the Dominions better than the HC3 levers. The Maguras have SLIGHTLY more initial bite (which is what i want the most in brakes). Both so damn good though.

I still think the Formula The Ones were the best bite and feel of anything I've ever tried, they were absurd. No pad adjustment though which became annoying when the pads were half way done. Formula should make those again with pad and lever adjustment and i'd buy again.