NSMB 2023 Full-Suspension Thread

Posted by: fartymarty

Posted by: velocipedestrian

Nice, Marty. Looks purposeful.

You mean purplesful...

I trust you have a license for the dad jokes.

Posted by: velocipedestrian

Posted by: fartymarty

Posted by: velocipedestrian

Nice, Marty. Looks purposeful.

You mean purplesful...

I trust you have a license for the dad jokes.

Of course.

Posted by: fartymarty

Finished(ish).

170F / 140R so kind of a bigger travel version of the DarMur I will build at some point.  Also I do need to swap the LTD for my less beaten up LTD.

Beautiful.  And yes the Trailmaster LTD is my fave too.

It certainly hauls ass with 170 up front. It scares me to think how fast a 29DH bike would be.

My butt does seem to oike the shape of the LTD.

@fartymarty Sick looking steed! I'm getting more and more interested in Starlings for my next bike.

A couple more of the crossworx now that it's fully built and on the trails.

Not sure I'd want a bike much longer than this on a 1up rack haha:

Snowy on fromme today:

Adding a second set of bottle mounts:

Having mostly owned a series of bikes that lean quite strongly to the "trail" side of the spectrum, owning this thing is quite the adjustment.

It's only been a few rides and it's going to take a few more, but overall it's neat to be on a bike where for the most part I am not in "survival mode" half the time. Despite being bigger and heavier than my previous bikes, it's actually less tiring to ride, in most north shore type settings. It's a handful technical climbing, I'd say that's for sure it's weakness, although I'm sure a lot of it comes down to operator skill/fitness and getting used to it (the length especially). Otherwise it's just so solid and quiet and composed and just wants to go fast down all the things.

I have also mostly been anti steep seat tube angles but for whatever reason it doesn't seem to be an issue on this bike. I think it's partly because I sized up and the very tall stack in particular helps. I am overall way less sore riding this bike, hips, shoulders, hands, and neck. On paper it's too big but the lack of pain and overall high level of comfort and confidence seem to suggest I didn't jump the shark completely on sizing.

Really nice! 

What kind of spec are you running?

Also i found that i could increase shock pressure a bit on mine, giving better support climbing, while it is still surprisingly supple.

Keeping with single pivots, added a Jade X and some Daemon pedals, no ride time on the new shock yet as there is still a remarkable amount of snow here though.

Posted by: olaa

Really nice! 

What kind of spec are you running?

Also i found that i could increase shock pressure a bit on mine, giving better support climbing, while it is still surprisingly supple.

Thanks! Yeah I remember you posting yours! I just found the same thing as far as shock pressure goes, first two rides the BB felt extremely low despite a reasonable static sag and being unable to use full travel, so I was a bit nervous. I took all of the volume spacers out of the shock and increased pressure quite a bit. Static sag reading didn't really change much despite the spring rate increase, but there is way more support and still supple. 

I think static sag can be misleading because of the initial leverage curve, maybe. 

The bike has a Cane Creek kitsuma air shock which I am really liking. DVO diamond fork, for now. I will probably move it back to my hard tail and get a helm for the crossworx. 

Mechanical X01 Eagle which is a few years old now and never gives me reason to do anything different. Hope 165mm cranks, same thing, they just work. 

One up 210 dropper slammed in the 470mm seat tube ends up just the right height (I got a bit lucky on that one). 

Race face turbine R wheels which work fine except I'm constantly truing the rear wheel and it is always making crazy noises when descending, lol. I'll probably switch to a carbon rim at least in the rear. The vault hubs have been awesome though. 

The best description I can give is this bike feels like how I wanted my ripmo af to feel.

Very nice set-up! 

I think you got a good point about the leverage curve. I ended up tuning the shock by feel in the end, with about the same result as you.

165 cranks is the way to go!

I just switched to a 170 air spring in my fork, to raise the bb a little and slacken the head angle mainly. A small change, but probably how i should have set up the bike from the start. Still feels balanced but a bit more adapted to rough trails. 

Another cool thing you can look forward to about the bike is how solid it is, after 1,5 years with a lot of riding it still has a new bike feeling to it. Enough that friends who have tried it commented on it.

Finally putting my G1 back together after putting it away in pretty rough shape for ski season. Needed a new EX471 rear rim, sent the shock back to EXT USA for its second (and hopefully last!) warranty service in a year, and re-did the tubeless in both wheels. Just needs a brake bleed and some new grips to be ready for the beginning of the season here. It's incredible how much more service a bike that gets ridden at a bike park needs compared to my trusty hardtail. For anyone reading this based in the US - it turns out EXT USA had a bad batch of fill pucks (not sure what that is) that resulted in underpressured shocks. So - if your shock has a "clunk" that's developed after service, it is probably a warranty issue. 

I stumbled across Straitline's closeout direct-mount stems on their website yesterday and bought a 28 mm version in bronze to match the EXT shock finish "just in case"...probably a terrible financial decision! I secretly hope that EXT comes out with an inverted dual-crown fork soon that isn't an E-bike monstrosity, but if not I may try to look for a used Boxxer to play around with this season.

Posted by: mrkdwrds

It's incredible how much more service a bike that gets ridden at a bike park needs compared to my trusty hardtail. 

I've only done one or two days at a bikepark. It's not really my thing, but after riding my own "enduro" bike and seen the wear/tear I would definitely rent a DH bike if I went back in the future. Well worth the $$ to abuse a bike I can walk away from.

Posted by: Vikb

Posted by: mrkdwrds

It's incredible how much more service a bike that gets ridden at a bike park needs compared to my trusty hardtail. 

I've only done one or two days at a bikepark. It's not really my thing, but after riding my own "enduro" bike and seen the wear/tear I would definitely rent a DH bike if I went back in the future. Well worth the $$ to abuse a bike I can walk away from.

I have rented a couple times at Angel Fire here in NM and it's been fun to beat up a rental bike for the day. My issue is I'm pretty picky with setup so struggle when I don't like the grips, contact points, etc. You're not supposed to touch any bolts but I generally need to in order to get stuff closer to optimal, but even then I have enjoyed just using my own bike so it 'fits' right. 

Now I see lift-accessed riding as useful for two reasons despite the punishment of the bike: 1) getting the bike settings dialed in more quickly and 2) good for "training" for downhill segments too since you just get so many more feet of descending in a day (and get to repeat sections in a controlled way) compared to actually pedaling.

Posted by: mrkdwrds

I stumbled across Straitline's closeout direct-mount stems on their website yesterday and bought a 28 mm version in bronze to match the EXT shock finish "just in case"...probably a terrible financial decision! I secretly hope that EXT comes out with an inverted dual-crown fork soon that isn't an E-bike monstrosity, but if not I may try to look for a used Boxxer to play around with this season.

Damn.  Its's the Bronze finish that matches the EXT? I got the Ti-Grey stem last year to pair with my DH38 180mm on my G16