NSMB - 2022 - Hardtail Thread...

18f 20r dhf/dhr 2.8 100kg

Never higher, but often lower. I'll ride to Fromme from Lynn valley Rd at max psi then lower the pressure at the trailhead.

Maiden voyage today. Took "marshmallow" (my wife's name for this bie) to the little Forrest near my home. Rode for a little over an hour and tinkered with bar height and tire pressure. Don't miss suspension at all (except for really fast trails where I need to control my speed a bit to keep my wrists from complaining). The no suspension thing with modern geo actually works really well for tech. Technicaal climbs were awesome. I can't recall if I made the sta 74 or 75 but I definitely don't want any steeper. It's nice to have a seat that stays out of the way when you are out of the saddle (which you find yourself wanting to be lots on a rigid). Cornering is awesome on this thing. 300mm bb height with a 27.5 rear wheel = snappy handling. Chainstay is set to 16.5" right now and the bike manuals and bunnyhops like a dream. The front wheel seems to stay down on steep climbs so I don't thinkni will bother elongation them for now.

The bike pulls a bit to the left when I ride without hands. There is a massive maxis type wobble in my brand new minion so that might be the cause. I'll have to check the dish of the wheels as well but I was pretty sure they were dished. Wouldn't be surprised if the frame was slightly askew but there are a couple things to check before drawing that conclusion. 

Overall I am really happy with my custom geo. A big thanks to Andrew who kindly answered my questions about his design process and designing a rigid geometry.  

Posted by: RAHrider

The bike pulls a bit to the left when I ride without hands. There is a massive maxis type wobble in my brand new minion so that might be the cause. I'll have to check the dish of the wheels as well but I was pretty sure they were dished. Wouldn't be surprised if the frame was slightly askew but there are a couple things to check before drawing that conclusion.

There could be an alignment issue, but it's not the wheel dish. I've ridden wheels 17mm incorrectly dished in a fatbike and you couldn't tell from the saddle.

My GF set out on her 3rd ever bike camping trip this weekend and the first that she actually instigated. We rode from our door down the coast and island hopped a bit with some help from BC Ferries. Probably not the ideal destination at peak summer travel season, but I wasn't going to say no when she was stoked to tour. There were so many positive achievements that it's almost mind boggling given her interest in bike camping has been low to none the ~12 years we've been together. I'll go out on a solo trip or with a buddy and she'll inquire politely how it went for 5 mins when I get home. 

The new bike worked great she was fine cranking along on pavement for an hour or two at a time, but when there was some gravel or MTB trails to ride she handled it well. She's been a terrible group rider all these years and has therefore not benefitted from proper drafting. On this trip me carrying extra gear and rolling on 2.8" tires vs. her 42mm tires evened things out pretty well and I often looked back to see her tucked pretty close behind me. Not roadie pack riding close, but not her usual 15'-20' back either. That worked really well when dealing with headwinds as I could punch through them and she could avoid some extra suffering.

I would normally stealth camp on tour, but I didn't think she'd be up for it so I found a campground with toilets and showers. As it turned out she didn't bother with a shower [a first camping] and our super noisy neighbours/shitty sleep had her commenting that we should have just stealth camped in the forest. So that's what we'll do next time!

All in all it was a successful trip and she's already talking about riding over to Powell River and doing a loop on some of the backroads there to camp. 

Posted by: Vikb

Posted by: RAHrider

The bike pulls a bit to the left when I ride without hands. There is a massive maxis type wobble in my brand new minion so that might be the cause. I'll have to check the dish of the wheels as well but I was pretty sure they were dished. Wouldn't be surprised if the frame was slightly askew but there are a couple things to check before drawing that conclusion.

There could be an alignment issue, but it's not the wheel dish. I've ridden wheels 17mm incorrectly dished in a fatbike and you couldn't tell from the saddle.

Hmm, well i guess diahingnissues are probably not it. I was just thinking about sliding dropouts and I wonder if the rear wheel dropouts are slightly different lengths. Maybe I'll try elongating the right chainstay and see if that fixes the pulling to the left.

The bikepacking sounds awesome. I don't think my wife will be into carrying camping gear anymore, but she's been going longer and longer distances on her gravel bike this year and I hope she will do some credit card tours in the future with me.

Posted by: RAHrider

The bikepacking sounds awesome. I don't think my wife will be into carrying camping gear anymore, but she's been going longer and longer distances on her gravel bike this year and I hope she will do some credit card tours in the future with me.

There are lots of great places to ride to with hotels/B&Bs/cabins to rent if that's more appealing. If the issue is just the carrying of the camping gear vs. the actual camping you can use a trailer/rack + large panniers to haul all the gear for both of you and there are quite a few tour companies that will drive gear from place to place and feed you on a trip so you can ride unencumbered.

Good luck with the frame alignment. It might be worth putting the bike upside down and sighting down the wheels from both ends to see if anything obvious can be noticed. No bike is perfectly aligned so if you are feeling something fairly significant in terms of handling it might be something you can see. A frame builder might be willing to help out as they'll have jigs that will identify misalignments and lots of experience fixing the issue.

Posted by: Vikb

My GF set out on her 3rd ever bike camping trip this weekend [...]

All in all it was a successful trip and she's already talking about riding over to Powell River and doing a loop on some of the backroads there to camp.

Nice! Good to see you guys are enjoying the summer!

Posted by: RAHrider

Posted by: Vikb

Posted by: RAHrider

The bike pulls a bit to the left when I ride without hands. There is a massive maxis type wobble in my brand new minion so that might be the cause. I'll have to check the dish of the wheels as well but I was pretty sure they were dished. Wouldn't be surprised if the frame was slightly askew but there are a couple things to check before drawing that conclusion.

There could be an alignment issue, but it's not the wheel dish. I've ridden wheels 17mm incorrectly dished in a fatbike and you couldn't tell from the saddle.

Hmm, well i guess diahingnissues are probably not it. I was just thinking about sliding dropouts and I wonder if the rear wheel dropouts are slightly different lengths. Maybe I'll try elongating the right chainstay and see if that fixes the pulling to the left.

The bikepacking sounds awesome. I don't think my wife will be into carrying camping gear anymore, but she's been going longer and longer distances on her gravel bike this year and I hope she will do some credit card tours in the future with me.

In the motorcycle world at least, people don't worry as much about the offset between the front and rear wheels (akin to wheel dish), but they do worry about whether the rear wheel is tracking straight relative to the front wheel (wheel orientation). You could measure from the BB to the rear axle on both sides to see whether the rear wheel is pointing straight relative to the BB at least, and if not, adjust until that measurement is close. Hopefully that corresponds to the wheel looking centered in the rear triangle. 

To check the frame alignment you could put it on a flat surface, measure the height to a fixed point, then flip the frame over and measure to the same point on the opposite side. So for instance, if you had the dropouts and BB touching the table you could see what the height is from the table to the head tube, then flip the frame and compare on the other side. Gets tricky with dropouts installed (I have seen jigs that hold the BB as the fixed reference point), but if it's far off you should be able to figure it out in this method. A granite countertop would be a great flat surface to use if you have one.

To check frame alignment you can use a string line around the headtube back to drop outs and take measurements. To check drop out alignment a laser is handy.

Posted by: [email protected]

Nice! Good to see you guys are enjoying the summer!

Thanks Niels. The first part of the summer was not great, but it seems like the last part of it will allow for a bunch of riding and adventures. Lots of fun stuff to do out of the door here which makes me happy. Good luck with the move. If you need any help just holler.

Posted by: RAHrider

Overall I am really happy with my custom geo. A big thanks to Andrew who kindly answered my questions about his design process and designing a rigid geometry.

Cheers! The colours look really good in person. Considered snapping a pic for my #CumberlandWorx project but have seen one too many misunderstandings started by someone getting too close to a bike on a rack (didn’t want to be responsible for anyone spilling their beer or having to run).

———

Before I put anymore thought into dish or alignment I’d mount up a wheel with a tire I know is good.

It’s crazy how badly a bike wants to stay upright and go forward in a straight line even if it’s out all over the place. It’s most likely the tire.

Posted by: AndrewMajor

Posted by: RAHrider

Overall I am really happy with my custom geo. A big thanks to Andrew who kindly answered my questions about his design process and designing a rigid geometry.

Cheers! The colours look really good in person. Considered snapping a pic for my #CumberlandWorx project but have seen one too many misunderstandings started by someone getting too close to a bike on a rack (didn’t want to be responsible for anyone spilling their beer or having to run).

———

Before I put anymore thought into dish or alignment I’d mount up a wheel with a tire I know is good.

It’s crazy how badly a bike wants to stay upright and go forward in a straight line even if it’s out all over the place. It’s most likely the tire.

Thanks, That's high praise coming from the guy famous for his cosmic lilac paint job! Feel free to snap a photo anytime. I figure it will get some looks, it is a pretty distinctive paint job and not too many like it. 

I lengthened the stay on one side slightly and the bike tracks straighter. I submitted a warranty form to maxxis. I figure I'll leave this one on until I get a replacement, but the wobble does drive me crazy when I'm pedaling on a road and notice it out of the corner of my eye. On the trail I don't notice it at all.

The Bike Gods had a laugh at my expense. I took the trouble to do a rare wash on the SS to get rid of the winter crud that had accumulated. The bike was looking very nice for one ride and then we had some lovely persistent rain on Saturday when the forecast said it was supposed to be dry. **sigh** lesson learned...leave the bike dirty

Even worse my usually silent machine picked up a regular loud creak under heavy power when climbing. Ugh! So I did the only thing I know how to do in these situations. I made a long list of what it could be and started working my way through them. It took a couple wrenching sessions moving through BB/chainring/chain towards the back of the bike and checking the lockring/sliding dropouts and axle. Greasing the axle solved the noise. Interestingly that's a first for me that a rear axle caused a creak. 

Oh well. The bike deserved a bit of attention and in the end it was an easy fix.

Vik - at least you found the source of the noise. I have a ticking noise on my HT coming from cranks / BB area. I've removed / reinstalled the BB so many times that it's beyond funny. It's still there though. Hollowtech Hope BB (a few rides old) with Zee cranks. I've changed everything else so think it's the cranks. Anyone else had ticking noises from Hollowtech cranks?

Edit - i'm now at that desparate stage where i'm asking in forums on the internet...