2021 - Full Suspension Bike Thread

Posted by: mammal

Keep in mind it's not all interchangable. 12spd Shimano derailleur will work with sram 12spd cassette/CR/chain, but one of the biggest benefits of 12spd Shimano is the hyperglide system, which needs a Shimano chain/CR/cog set. The tooth profile is different. So you can graft a Shimano 12spd derailleur to full 12spd Sram system (I do without problems) but you won't get the full shimano shift-under-load action.

Yeah, I figured it wouldn’t be as good, but options are nice to have.

I may end up going with a new wheel set anyway. I don’t really like the design of the rear hub. You press the bearings into the shell, then you preload the inner bearing races like a cup and cone hub with an adjustment nut and locknut on the non-drive side - it’s odd. I could just replace the rear hub I suppose, but while the rear rim is in decent shape, I don’t really want to rebuild on it.

I could replace only the rear wheel, but then my vanity kicks in of them not matching. Plus I would like to go to wider rims at some point anyway.

I suppose I’ll keep checking my chain (second one on this drivetrain) and see what’s in stock when everything wears out.

For now, I ride it.

Posted by: Vandy

Posted by: DemonMike

Did you get evacuated? I know of people who have in that region. I have only been here for a year next month. Have yet to ride, been over a year for me now.

Yeah, family was out. I had to stick around for work, finally got to head down to the Fraser Valley the past couple days. I hope you're doing well because I see the Sparks fire is creeping in on Barriere.

...

On to the bike!

I spent a few hours at Thornhill doing laps for a bit of a proper shakedown on the flowy jump lines. I wanted a bike to hopefully suit the smoother faster trails you tend to find in the Kamloops area, and I think this will do nicely.

Still no weight. Next time I'm in Kamloops I'll see if some bike shop will let me break their scale.

Pros:

• Climbs way better than I imagined it would. For what it's worth, I'm definitely of the seated and spinning school than the stand and mash. The front stays planted with minimal hunching over the bar. I actually had to consciously think about not leaning forward so much because its a bit of an automatic response. The rear suspension is reasonably calm, able to maintain traction, and responsive to unweighting to hop the rear wheel over things. It motored over some big nasty roots that I thought I would stall out on without much fuss. Basically I felt like I could relax more when climbing and chug my way up.
• Anti-squat feels quite balanced. I was kinda worried about "the numbers," but as usual, it's more than just the numbers. I didn't feel like my feet were getting excessively jostled despite me riding in my Chuck Taylors... I was stopping to check out the jumps before hitting them the first time like a good boy, and I felt there was a good amount of support when you hammer out a few pedal strokes to get up to speed. No excessive mush or bobbing to be had.
• Good support to push against in corners and off the lips of jumps.
• I think its the extra stack, but I didn't find the long chainstays made it difficult to get on the back wheel.
• Rear traction feels great. I didn't feel the back end skipping around in turns or under braking. Most of the trails back home were torched in the fire but there are a lot more fast flat corners I'll be checking out whenever we get back in there.
• Confidence-inspiring. From time to tim I think we can all end up fighting the "lean back!" lizard brain response. I felt like I could really ride the front wheel and hit the turns pretty damn hard. Dare I say I slapped a couple berms.
• This bike wants to go FAST.

Cons:

• Takes a fair bit of effort if you want to kick the back end loose. It will do it, you just gotta really mean it. This bike is much more about business than goofin'.
• I can see the desire for speed writing cheques that the amount of suspension can't quite cash if you aren't paying attention in the rough.
• Frame protection was peeling off out of the box. Privateer had another set in the mail before they even replied to my inquiry, so we'll see if I can fix it up.
• I noticed a bit of chain noise as well. I think this has more to do with the fact the clutch on my GX derailleur is punched than anything inherent in the frame design. The actual coverage of the included chainstay/seatstay protection seems good, although it could probably be thicker material.

Future changes? I want to move away from the disposable SRAM clutches and everyone talks about 12-spd Shimano like it's the second coming of the baby Jesus. Unfortunately I doubt I can find a microspline freehub for my SRAM-branded hubs. I'm probably going to drop the coin on a new wheelset next year and move to microspline so I can throw an SLX 12-speed drivetrain at it.

I probably could have gone for a more conventional brand, but I wanted Alloy, and I didn't feel like spending $6,000+ to get the good suspension bits on a new bike. It's still the honeymoon phase, but I think I got what I was looking for. Also I now have so many pirate-themed options for naming my bike, possibly the best part.

No evacuation notice for us. We are 20+KM east of the town. And I thought I recognized that road. Used to live minutes away from Thornhill. Some of my buddies build several of the trails there.

Posted by: DemonMike

Posted by: Hepcat

Posted by: Znarf

Raaw Jibb probably launches on February 18th.

I don’t know specific final travel numbers, but heard directly from the source that it is a bike that is pedally and nimble, much more playful than a Madonna, but still well at home in a bike park.

Maybe more a main bike for not extremely gnarly terrain than a little sister for your typical enduro beast? But that is just speculation at this point.

But we will see...

The Propain Hugene is also very interesting.

Whoa nice info, circled on the calendar. The speculation is half the fun. Hoping for 135mm travel, 470 reach, 430 seat tube, 440 stays. Of course even if you buy the frame scraping together enough parts would be a daunting task.

Hugene's 67° head angle might take getting used to after all the <65° sleds.

Even the frame could be a issue. One of the guys at District in Kamloops . He ordered a Madonna frame-set, 1st one went MIA. Last time I was in(2wks ago) he was still waiting for the 2nd frame. It was at custom and they where dealing with taxes and such. Looking forward to seeing one in person.

Maybe just a coincidence but my jibb frame has been stuck in customs for 2 weeks now.  I buy stuff from bike24 and bike-components.de fairly regularly and have never had anything take this long... :( I'll give it another week I guess but I'm not feeling too hopeful...

That blows... I made a bike24 order on Aug 21 that showed up today Aug 30.. nothing big though just tires a jersey and a pump.

Might be DHL and Deutsche Post that are the issue. It seems that they have massive trouble at the moment with just about everything. I've had a frame being sent around Germany for the last 2.5 months, and now nobody really knows where it is... And from what i'm hearing i'm not the only one.

Posted by: Kenny

Maybe just a coincidence but my jibb frame has been stuck in customs for 2 weeks now.  I buy stuff from bike24 and bike-components.de fairly regularly and have never had anything take this long... :( I'll give it another week I guess but I'm not feeling too hopeful...

Still stuck? So weird that it gets held up like that. My Privateer shipped via DHL. I paid my taxes/duties/extortion and it sailed through. It took about as long for it to get from England to Canada as it took to get from Vancouver to my local post office because they handed it off to Canada Post for final delivery. DHL was fairly responsive when I emailed their customer service wondering who was actually going to deliver the frame. Took about a week in total for me...

Just got an SC Bullit

wow

Wonder how many manufacturers will release their 2022 models this month... In a normal year Sept sees a lot of action.

Posted by: XXX_er

Just got an SC Bullit

wow

do u rob banks?

Posted by: Vandy

Posted by: Kenny

Maybe just a coincidence but my jibb frame has been stuck in customs for 2 weeks now.  I buy stuff from bike24 and bike-components.de fairly regularly and have never had anything take this long... :( I'll give it another week I guess but I'm not feeling too hopeful...

Still stuck? So weird that it gets held up like that. My Privateer shipped via DHL. I paid my taxes/duties/extortion and it sailed through. It took about as long for it to get from England to Canada as it took to get from Vancouver to my local post office because they handed it off to Canada Post for final delivery. DHL was fairly responsive when I emailed their customer service wondering who was actually going to deliver the frame. Took about a week in total for me...

Yeah still stuck. It is from Germany via DHL  but standard DHL packages from Germany seem to be different , they get handled by Canada post once they hit Canada (I think standard parcel shipment via DHL in Germany is just their national postal service like Canada post here).

They don't make things easy to check on beyond tracking.  If no action by this Friday I'll have to try to dig into it some more I guess.

Posted by: tungsten

Posted by: XXX_er

Just got an SC Bullit

wow

do u rob banks?

I've done 4 rides still getting used to it, a little longer/ a little more travel a little more of everything than the 5.5,

Its easy to do 2 laps instead of 1 and i just discovered railing berms ... uphill

at my pay grade the money is not a probem,

Lavender is the new Turquoise

Already posted in the short travel 29er thread, but my entry to the world's heaviest trail bike competition is now also complete. I actually haven't weighed it. Don't really want to. LOL. 

L Raaw Jib, Formula Mod Coil, 160 Lyrik, X01, Hope 165mm cranks, Race Face Turbine R wheels, Oneup 210mm, Conti Der Baron/Der Kaiser.  I'd think she's certainly north of 35lb... suspension tuning to do, but first impressions are great.

Those RAAWs are great looking bikes! I really like'em

The weight probably isnt that bad compared to many (possibly even most). There are plenty of 38ish lb trail bikes looping the Shore these days, although theyre more like 170/180 bikes than short travel 29rs. They might not climb fast but they climb well - lots of traction - comfy position, etc...

The only thing better than new bike day is new bike day with a bike that almost no one else has!

Quick Update on the Spire.

Its working well for what I want - a confidence inspiring bike that you can pedal up. It feels like it has a trailer in tow when Im peddaling up but Im not that much slower than my hardtail (maybe 10/15%), and now my hardtail feels like a rocket. The Spire climbs faster than my legs feel it does.

Its doing what I hoped - getting me back into some sketchier moves that would cause me to pause (or skip them entirely) on the HT. Im using every mm of the travel, which is a shock to me, and Ive even jacked the rear pressure 10% or more over recommended. It feels a bit harsh on smaller fast hits but I think that I can dial most of that out by reducing tire pressure a bit (running 30 now, probably go to about 25).

The bike is easy to settle into. Nothing bizarre about it as its well balanced front/rear. Im learning to trust it more and just give'er and not think too hard about what lies ahead. Its amazing that a 63* long and low bike can ride as well as it does on a trail; I guess alot of that is because its reasonably light and its seat tube is really steep. I do not find that its a fast bike - it does not feel like it wants to run away from me. It feels fine in the the jank. Pedal strikes are rare now, partially I think because Im climbing higher in the travel than before due to the higher pressures.

Spec is good. Had I not fallen in love with the color I probably would have bought the alloy to save a bunch of coin, but hell yeah that color did it for me.