**Posted by: velocipedestrian
**The SA is too slack as it sits now (forgot to measure), and there's no room for a proper size 29 tyre, so headset and fork are the options for geo changes.
On my V2 I can fit a 2.4 on a 29mm ID rim in the long chainstay setting (which I prefer with big wheels anyway) -- are you on the shorter chainstay first gen?
Posted by: velocipedestrian
Oops, oh well.
Vik, how are you finding the 140 & 62° combo? I'm contemplating some editing towards a similar front end...
Pipedream Moxie mullet is currently ~63.5°HA with the fork at 160mm. I'm pondering a - 2° works headset and lowering to 140. My guesstimate gives 62.5°HA assuming the travel drop steepens it by 1°.
The SA is too slack as it sits now (forgot to measure), and there's no room for a proper size 29 tyre, so headset and fork are the options for geo changes.
My initial review is here: https://vikapprovedblog.wordpress.com/2021/10/12/pipedream-sirius-s5-review-part-1/
Coles Notes:
If that was my bike I would drop the fork, but skip the WC headset to start since you have a normal headset installed anyway. Ride it and then decide on the HTA adjustment. I don't think slacker is better...necessarily... so you may not feel the need to adjust it at all or you may just want a -1 deg tweak.
Let me know what you do and how you like it. I feel like I have drunk deep from the Pipedream kool-aid. ;-)
FWIW - the Sirius S5 fits a 29 x 2.6" Maxxis DHRII on a 30mm IW rim at full slammed with minimal clearance. So functionally you'd need to pull back the slider a mm or two as clearance increases fast with slider movement.
Posted by: twk
**Posted by: velocipedestrian
**The SA is too slack as it sits now (forgot to measure), and there's no room for a proper size 29 tyre, so headset and fork are the options for geo changes.
On my V2 I can fit a 2.4 on a 29mm ID rim in the long chainstay setting (which I prefer with big wheels anyway) -- are you on the shorter chainstay first gen?
Yup. V1.
I have a set of i19 cx / touring wheels with slicks. Fitted a 2.4 on that to check (at full long) and it was 2mm/side, so no chance with a proper rim + flex.
Happy with the mullet, except for the SA - hence the - 2° headset thought.
Cheers Vik, I'll read your review, but yes, I'd test the lower fork first, though I have enjoyed the changes a works headset brought to my FS bike.
Seems like most of our bike mods are for comfort these days. I guess that's the lot of the 50+ MTBer! My GF wanted her bars higher and her grips to have more cush.
Deity 50mm rise Highside bar and RF 30mm Getta Grips to the rescue.
If a few parts keeps her smiling I'm willing to stimulate the economy. ;-)
Given she started MTBing 10 years ago and her first ride was a 6" travel FS rig I'm surprised/happy she's seen the light when it comes to riding hardtails.
I've got a bit over a 100K of trail riding on the Pipedream now. I'm still on the original 30x22T ratio. I've ridden a lot of Cumberland trails I've ridden geared in the past and so far there are only two climbs I haven't made. One is unlikely to ever fall SS since the entry is from a 90 deg turn off a sketchy bridge and I can't get on top of the gearing from a stand still. The other I think I'll get with some practice. I've also tackled some new to me trails and been pleasantly surprised I could ride them blind without too many issues. The climbing trail is great for getting me up high in the trail network with reasonable grades the whole way. As my SS fitness builds I'll explore more new trails [to me on a SS] and see how I do.
The Sirius handles great. It's fun to carve turns and it likes to pop off anything on the trail. Without a cassette & derailleur back there the rear wheel does a good job of skimming the rough parts of the trail. I know shorter bikes and shorter CS are not hot right now, but it feels so fun to ride I'm glad I went backwards in terms of geo trends.
Riding solo or with my GF who is slower than me works well. I can moderate my pace to match hers pretty well. I don't think SS will work so well in a group ride of faster folks who are at my fitness level. I'm not sure about that so I'll try it to verify. I'm also thinking SS won't be great when the snow falls, traction is poor and I need to be able to grind along smoothly at walking pace [low speed & low torque]. That said SS is a keeper as long as I can push hard enough to make a lot/most climbs...hopefully for the rest of my 50's! But, I'll want a geared option for fast group rides and snow rides.
Shout out to the rear Tannus insert. It's working great. I am riding much faster here than in the Victoria area on trails I don't know very well. I try and ride light, but that doesn't always happen. So far I have had zero issues. No flats with my EXO casing DHRII and no rim dings. Plus because I am not worried about flatting I can run the tires low enough to maintain solid traction with MaxxTerra.
30x22T ratio is pretty good. I could ride to Cumby from my house in Comox no problem on this gearing then shred the trails. It's tall enough I can throw some power into the pedals on rolling terrain to keep my momentum strong. I think long term this could be my general purpose ratio. I will try a slightly lower gear 30x24T and see what that is like and how much I give up on the top end for the benefits climbing. I also need to experiment with an oval chainring.
Posted by: Vikb
Seems like most of our bike mods are for comfort these days. I guess that's the lot of the 50+ MTBer! My GF wanted her bars higher and her grips to have more cush.
Deity 50mm rise Highside bar and RF 30mm Getta Grips to the rescue.
If a few parts keeps her smiling I'm willing to stimulate the economy. ;-)
Given she started MTBing 10 years ago and her first ride was a 6" travel FS rig I'm surprised/happy she's seen the light when it comes to riding hardtails.
Looks like someone has a little RSD habit developing…
…gotta admit, another frame in the purple they use on the Wildcat IS tempting, as is that celeste on your wife’s Middlechild.
Posted by: tashi
Looks like someone has a little RSD habit developing…
…gotta admit, another frame in the purple they use on the Wildcat IS tempting, as is that celeste on your wife’s Middlechild.
I've now got 2 friends with RSDs [Middlechildren x 2 and a Wildcat x 1]. The GF has a MC [so that's 4 RSDs in our friend group] and yes I do like the colour, but if I could swap it for the new purple I'd do that in a heartbeat. That purple is very sweet and she loves purple. Value for performance is high with RSD as long as you aren't the kind of bike geek that wants boutique brand cachet or has very specific performance/spec needs/wants. If someone wants a bike and isn't super fussy I point them at RSD. Everyone who got one is happy.
I cant remember a time when there have been so many great choices for hardtails. Theyre not entry level bikes anymore and they can come as decked out and as progressive as you want.
I think that the modern hardtail can be a forever bike if you want it to be as long as it isnt rendered obsolete by parts spec.
Posted by: Ddean
I cant remember a time when there have been so many great choices for hardtails. Theyre not entry level bikes anymore and they can come as decked out and as progressive as you want.
I think that the modern hardtail can be a forever bike if you want it to be as long as it isnt rendered obsolete by parts spec.
I love that a relatively inexpensive HT frame like a Rootdown or Honzo ESD can do pretty much anything including last forever.
I'll keep a FS bike around in the fleet as there are some missions where they really improve the enjoyment of the ride like a long trip to the SW desert [Moab/Sedona/etc..] when that's a thing again.
But, I am enjoying riding my HTs so much that grabbing my FS bike is not a first thought. Given I like to tweak/wrench and I ride enough to get bored of one setup I can see a future where I have 2 complete build kits for two trail HTs and then I have 3-4 frames that get swapped in/out from time to time. Each swap/rebuild is a chance to create a different experience mixing the parts up a bit. The cost of a couple "extra" HT frames is low and given my geo experiments I don't see a need to change frames until parts no longer fit. I'm talking about you Mr. Gearbox. And even then a SS bike can roll basically forever and a frame that gets retired from trail shredding can become the new town/urban assault bike.
Posted by: Vikb
I've got a bit over a 100K of trail riding on the Pipedream now. I'm still on the original 30x22T ratio. I've ridden a lot of Cumberland trails I've ridden geared in the past and so far there are only two climbs I haven't made. One is unlikely to ever fall SS since the entry is from a 90 deg turn off a sketchy bridge and I can't get on top of the gearing from a stand still. The other I think I'll get with some practice. I've also tackled some new to me trails and been pleasantly surprised I could ride them blind without too many issues. The climbing trail is great for getting me up high in the trail network with reasonable grades the whole way. As my SS fitness builds I'll explore more new trails [to me on a SS] and see how I do.
The Sirius handles great. It's fun to carve turns and it likes to pop off anything on the trail. Without a cassette & derailleur back there the rear wheel does a good job of skimming the rough parts of the trail. I know shorter bikes and shorter CS are not hot right now, but it feels so fun to ride I'm glad I went backwards in terms of geo trends.
Riding solo or with my GF who is slower than me works well. I can moderate my pace to match hers pretty well. I don't think SS will work so well in a group ride of faster folks who are at my fitness level. I'm not sure about that so I'll try it to verify. I'm also thinking SS won't be great when the snow falls, traction is poor and I need to be able to grind along smoothly at walking pace [low speed & low torque]. That said SS is a keeper as long as I can push hard enough to make a lot/most climbs...hopefully for the rest of my 50's! But, I'll want a geared option for fast group rides and snow rides.
Shout out to the rear Tannus insert. It's working great. I am riding much faster here than in the Victoria area on trails I don't know very well. I try and ride light, but that doesn't always happen. So far I have had zero issues. No flats with my EXO casing DHRII and no rim dings. Plus because I am not worried about flatting I can run the tires low enough to maintain solid traction with MaxxTerra.
30x22T ratio is pretty good. I could ride to Cumby from my house in Comox no problem on this gearing then shred the trails. It's tall enough I can throw some power into the pedals on rolling terrain to keep my momentum strong. I think long term this could be my general purpose ratio. I will try a slightly lower gear 30x24T and see what that is like and how much I give up on the top end for the benefits climbing. I also need to experiment with an oval chainring.
Glad you are loving the new bike and the SS. I've ridden a ss on a group ride and if anything, I'm faster on the SS. Your gear is harder than what you would usually use for easier climbs like the climbing trail in cumby. For technical, steeper climbs, you have to attack everything more aggressively in order to have enough speed to clean things so you ride faster on those trails as well.
On downhill, it mostly about pumping the bike, working the trail and you really don't lose much speed. There was a pinkbike video today about riding chainless to improve your speed. His times without a chain were within 5% of his fastest chained run.
As for enjoying the pop of your new bike, there is nothing like a bike that wants to play on the trail. Every time I go back to my 27.5 hardtail, I remember what I'm missing on my chromag. Nothing wrong with the chromag and love it too, but there is nothing like 27.5 for the pure fun of riding.
Posted by: RAHrider
Glad you are loving the new bike and the SS. I've ridden a ss on a group ride and if anything, I'm faster on the SS. Your gear is harder than what you would usually use for easier climbs like the climbing trail in cumby. For technical, steeper climbs, you have to attack everything more aggressively in order to have enough speed to clean things so you ride faster on those trails as well.
My concern with riding with a fast group is that my SS pace is kind of opposite to my geared pace. So any place where pushing a harder gear is useful I'll be slower and I've got to attack steep climbs so I'll be faster there. My guess is that will screw up the riding flow since I'll either be holding folks back or be held back on climbs and have to get off. Riding with my GF or folks that are slower is fine since I am at the front the whole time. Riding SS in the middle of a group of equally fast folks seems like it would be a challenge. I'll have to try it and see what happens.
At the end of the day I am not getting rid of gears on all my bikes so it's just a question what to bring more than being a real problem.
Posted by: Kenny
Anyone on full rigid?
For winter I'm thinking about replacing my 140mm 29er suspension fork with a 480-490mm through axle rigid fork.
Basically I'll run 29+/27.5+ mullet for trail, and then have another light/narrow 29er wheelset for pseudo-gravel bike excursions.
I have my 2021 Karate Monkey set up fully rigid - stock surly fork and 29x2.25” tires. Granted, I mostly use it as gravel grinder but I’ve taken it down some mellow singletrack and had a lot of fun. When I laced up the wheels I built them for mostly long distance gravel type rides in mind and used narrow rims/tires but I think this winter think I will build a second set of beefier wheels with 29x2.6 tires for a bit more serious singletrack action.
These days I mostly ride for fitness and ride solo so I’m not trying to keep up to a group or even set any personal records; the simplicity of a rigid bike is great fun and takes me back to the days I enjoyed riding bikes the most.
Oh, and it’s got a 2x10 drivetrain and non-dropper post :)
Posted by: kavurider
Not new for sure, but new to me. Resurrected Rocky Mountain Hammer steel frame, old Zocchi EXR Pro, Mavic wheelset. Set up SS with 32-19 gearing and a Pauls Melvin Tensioner.
I love this bike! It is funny to switch from my Yeti 165 or my Intense Tazer to this. It is remarkably more capable than it appears. But then again, I dig old bikes.
No picture showed up. Are we talking 26" wheels?
Posted by: RAHrider
No picture showed up. Are we talking 26" wheels?
I am trying this again, not sure why it isn't working.
Not new for sure, but new to me. Resurrected Rocky Mountain Hammer steel frame, old Zocchi EXR Pro, Mavic wheelset. Set up SS with 32-19 gearing and a Pauls Melvin Tensioner.
I love this bike! It is funny to switch from my Yeti 165 or my Intense Tazer to this. It is remarkably more capable than it appears. But then again, I dig old bikes.
Yes, 26" wheels, 1.95 tires!
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