NSMB 2023 Full-Suspension Thread

Posted by: [email protected]

Trail sign lean with mountain backdrop. Nice summery evening ride, awesome trail conditions in Cumberland, some corners already starting to get a bit dry & loose.

Yeah, I hit up Off Broadway before the rains set in over the weekend and was surprised at how loose it was in some sections...gunna be a dry summer I think.

I'm a FS noob with a question.  What brands are known for high quality pivots in that they last longer, require less service/replacement and work well for their lifetime.  I know Knolly scores high for this kind of thing.  Who else?  Any brands with great geo and components but their frames eat bearings?

hard to beat SC's bearing interfaces / lifetime warranty.  

otoh, my commencal likes to eat bearings on a regular basis (ie, main pivot replacement 2x/yr, others annually). granted, the frame is ~half the price of a sc, so...

On the reasonably priced end of the spectrum, Banshee's V3 bikes appear to have long bearing life. I'm going on 3 seasons on my Titan and every time I check, the bearings need a mild re-greasing at best, and none of the suspension bearings have been work. Granted, I do not ride this bike in the rain (that much) as I typically run my hard tail during the winter months.

I have been impressed with the bearings on my Geometron so far and I'd imagine other Nicolai frames fare well.

The bearings on my Raaw Madonna last multiple seasons, which is a first for me. 

My wife‘s Santa Cruz Hightower LT also runs smoothly for a long time. 

Never pressure washing them and wiping them off with a wet rag instead of excessive water with a hose or bucket also increases bearing life drastically for me.

Posted by: BC_Nuggets

I'm a FS noob with a question. What brands are known for high quality pivots in that they last longer, require less service/replacement and work well for their lifetime. I know Knolly scores high for this kind of thing. Who else? Any brands with great geo and components but their frames eat bearings?

Starling have 2 bearings and the cost £20 to change and its a 10 min job. I change mine once maybe twice a year its that easy and cheap.

The simplicity and ease of maintenence is one reason I got it.   If I had a multi pivot bike I would be less likely to ride it thru the UK winter.

Posted by: rnayel

On the reasonably priced end of the spectrum, Banshee's V3 bikes appear to have long bearing life. I'm going on 3 seasons on my Titan and every time I check, the bearings need a mild re-greasing at best, and none of the suspension bearings have been work. Granted, I do not ride this bike in the rain (that much) as I typically run my hard tail during the winter months.

I did a full bearing swap after a year on my Banshee Prime V3, probably could have left it at least another 6 months to be honest.  The bike is ridden all year round in the UK Slop and Grime.  It isn't jetwashed and is very rarely hosed down.  That was back in March last year so I probably need to get a new set of bearings in for when I do the next swap.

I recently did a teardown of the suspension pivots on my '20 Giant Reign (see upthread) and was pleasantly surprised. Frame alignment was really good and the bearings were in good shape after 3 seasons. Two were running slightly rough so I replaced them but once they came out, the old bearings were actually smooth so apparently they were getting squeezed a bit. The replacement Enduro Max bearings are smooth even when pressed in. Possibly the original bearings being slightly too large in diameter?

Older iterations of the Reign like my 2015 27.5 had a flexy 2-piece aluminum upper link that made the bearings in that link wear prematurely. I tried cheap CRC no-name brand bearings in that frame and they lasted only 6 months or so. I then went for Enduro Max and they lasted a couple of seasons. The newer generations Reigns have a 1-piece carbon upper link that is much stiffer and fixes the problem.

I ride my bike summer and winter and don't hold back hosing it off after muddy rides (never with a pressure hose though). In my experience premature bearing wear almost always happens as a result of poor design and/or poor manufacturing, with too much flex, misalignment, or a too-tight or too-loose bearing press-fit putting more strain on the bearings than what they are designed for.

I agree SC's design is really neat but I also feel like they somewhat over-engineered it, probably in a reaction to their 1st gen VPP trauma.

Posted by: fartymarty

Starling have 2 bearings and the cost £20 to change and its a 10 min job. I change mine once maybe twice a year its that easy and cheap.

The simplicity and ease of maintenence is one reason I got it.   If I had a multi pivot bike I would be less likely to ride it thru the UK winter.

Once or twice a year.... that's not a great track record IMHO. Over a few years it ends up not being so easy or cheap anymore compared to a multi-pivot bike that has bearing life spanning multiple years.

Posted by: [email protected]

Posted by: fartymarty

Starling have 2 bearings and the cost £20 to change and its a 10 min job. I change mine once maybe twice a year its that easy and cheap.

The simplicity and ease of maintenence is one reason I got it.   If I had a multi pivot bike I would be less likely to ride it thru the UK winter.

Once or twice a year.... that's not a great track record IMHO. Over a few years it ends up not being so easy or cheap anymore compared to a multi-pivot bike that has bearing life spanning multiple years.

Niels, i figure if I have set aside the time to check the bearings I may as well replace them at the same time.  Generally it's yearly.  When do a full brake bleed I usually pit new pads in as well.

Posted by: fartymarty

Posted by: [email protected]

Posted by: fartymarty

Starling have 2 bearings and the cost £20 to change and its a 10 min job. I change mine once maybe twice a year its that easy and cheap.

The simplicity and ease of maintenence is one reason I got it.   If I had a multi pivot bike I would be less likely to ride it thru the UK winter.

Once or twice a year.... that's not a great track record IMHO. Over a few years it ends up not being so easy or cheap anymore compared to a multi-pivot bike that has bearing life spanning multiple years.

Niels, i figure if I have set aside the time to check the bearings I may as well replace them at the same time.  Generally it's yearly.  When do a full brake bleed I usually pit new pads in as well.

Fair enough. I normally give everything a checkover once a year (at the end of winter) and have the fork and shock serviced at the same time. This seems to align nicely with how much I ride in a year. This makes the bike feel like new every spring which is always a nice feeling.

One thing I can say is testing bikes is bad for my maintenance habits, with 2 test bikes last year I didn't use my Reign as much and slacked off on the maintenance a bit, resulting in some minor issues right now. And an incoming new test bike is making me put off fixing them.

It's part of my yearly spring rebuild - including having the bouncy bits serviced.

I track rides thru Strava which links to the Pro Bike Garage app which lets you keep track of time on varoius bikes / components.

Posted by: thaaad

I found the 3mm too stiff to wrap around the chain stay, it was quite stiff even while warm. That flat side sections were fine but the corners and top had a lot of excess space since I couldn't seem to secure it tight enough to the stay to conform snugly as shown in my very professional illustration below. Maybe I just couldn't hold it snug enough while it was cooling off but I had a lot of trouble with the 3mm on the tight bends. Depends on the shape of your stay though since this was on my Darkside and those stays were rectangular. A round / oval stay might have better luck with the 3mm, or it could have just been user error on my part but the 1.5 was perfect for me for the stay. The big flattish down tube was fine with the 3mm. The most common use for Kydex seems to be gun and knife holsters and google tells me they commonly use 0.08 inches or ~2mm for that however they will often use a vacuum tank to get a super good fit, just food for thought.

Thanks dudes, looks like 1.5mm is the way to go. 

I’ve tried the mastic tape and I like it but it doesn’t hold up to my heel rub unfortunately.