Bushpilot profile

WAO also offers a 50% off crash replacement for second hand owners, which is huge if and when it comes time to sell your wheels. New carbon wheelsets keep coming out and WAO keep staying ahead of the pack from a service / got your back perspective.

Those safety wire pliers are amazing!  Thank you! I ordered some from Gnarly after reading this and just wired my Renthal grips.  Took 1/100 the time it used to take me to do it by hand.  Worth every penny.

Mind sharing your weight and Storia settings? I see the part about the 475 spring and the rebound tweak. Curious to know what you're running for HSC and LSC on the shock.

The G1s are soooo hot right now.

Excellent article! I just got my G1 last week and have 5 rides on it now in stock 29er configuration. Can’t wait to start messing with the mutators and a 27.5 rear wheel. I’m sure I’ll be referring back to this article over and over in the coming months.

Weapon, sled

I wonder how it would feel with an “instant” engaging hub like Onyx. On the one hand that might negate some of the pedal response lag but on the other Onyx can feel a touch squishy on its own so maybe that would just amplify the sponge-factor.

I'm probably guilty of not applying the Dumonde Tech stuff as sparingly as I should have (although I definitely didn't apply as much as the WPL wet in each application) so it wasn't meant to be a straight apples to apples comparison I guess. Maybe I'd have noticed a bigger difference if I'd gone hard-core one small drop per roller on the Dumonde Tech stuff. I didn't have any real problem with the Dumonde stuff either...but I did find it particularly easy to clean up my chain post-ride with the WPL wet.

I'm trying the T-9 spray on one MTB now and Squirt on another...it will be interesting to do a direct comparison in the same conditions.

The WPL dry lube is absolutely awful IME. It left and awful and difficult to remove gunky residue all over my jockey wheels and chainring. And it didn’t seem to do much “lubricating”. However, I found the wet stuff much better. I found I had to reapply the WPL wet much more frequently than the Dumonde Tech stuff but the WPL stuff stayed super duper clean for a wet lube and the chain cleaned up really nicely after nasty winter rides. The WPL wet bottle didn’t last me very long though.

Just found the exact same “cosmetic” cracks on both of my crank arms. Warranty claim submitted today. I’ve had them on my “sea to sky” XC / trail bike since end of August 2020. Not terribly impressive.

Posted by: Kenny

I was finding squirt got into the inside parts of my chain well but the outside would get rusty and it just couldn't seem to get the outside covered well without making a mess. Operator error I'm sure. 

Anyways I'm using wolftooth wt-1 which is a rebrand of some other lube whose name escapes me. 

Seems good.

WT-1 is the same as this stuff: https://scctech.bike

It’s good. Clean, quiet and long lasting.

Well I installed some DH22s yesterday and will give them a good trashing over the coming months. We'll see how they hold up in the cold.

Posted by: Kenny

They can be had for about 900 from some of the italian distributors, and they're about 980 CAD from bike24 (fluctuates some based some based on exchange rate of course). Add some shipping to contend with of course but I'm generally buying tires or other random stuff anyways. A 2021 lyrik ultimate with low-ish use and fresh lower service should sell for ballpark 900ish, so the net will be couple hundred bucks by the time I get the right spring etc. 

Honestly I'd buy from Alba, since it'd probably be helpful for getting the right spring rate etc, but they had no stock of anything last I checked. Either way - I guess what I'm saying is changing forks is cheaper than trying to hot rod the lyrik any further via damper upgrade or coil conversion.

That all makes perfect sense and makes me want to take a second look at the Selva C and the Selva R.

Mind sharing where you can get a new Selva C for close to what you sell a used Lyrik for? I’m all ears. I see Alba has them listed for $1200. Is that near what used but loved 2021 Lyriks go for these days?

Yeah 30mm probably the ticket then. Recon is a surprisingly fun tire and those smallish side knobs punch above their weight. Another fun combo is DHR2 2.4 front with either a 2.4 Recon or 2.4 Dissector rear. Fun fast and still pretty good braking. Anyway, I’ll stop derailing the thread now!

Posted by: heathen

Posted by: Bushpilot

Does it have to be 30mm ID? I'm running 2.4 DHR2s on EX471s which are 25mm ID and the tire profile is really nice. I expect you would get a similar result with other Maxxis WT 2.4 tires on a 25mm ID rim. But maybe I'm wrong about that...wouldn't be the first time. FWIW I also have a 2.4 DHR2 on my other bike which has a 30mm ID rim and the profile difference of the tire between the two different width rims is very slight (on those tire and rim combos at least). That might open up more XC / light trail weight options for you.

25mm definitely opens up more possibilities but I would prefer to stick with 30mm or very close to it. 28mm at least. I ran a DHF/DHR on 25mm rims in 2018 and found them a bit drifty and when I switched to 30mm they had better bite in corners as the profile was flatter.

FWIW I tried a 2.5 Assegai on the EX471 and did not like it. I found that tire too wide for the 25mm ID rim and the profile ended up too round for my taste. And 2.5 DHF actually measures wider than an 2.5 Assegai (at least it does on my 30mm ID rim so same should be true on 25mm ID) so I’d imagine that the 2.5 DHF could be even rounder on a 25mm ID. But I don’t find that at all with the 2.4 DHR2 WT (side knobs still square up nicely for hard cornering). I guess just an additional data point. Maybe the 2.5 DHF threw you off? 

Also FWIW I have inserts in both of the wheel sets so I don’t comment on tire stability as between the 25mm and 30mm rims since the inserts take care of that. But that might also be a difference separate and apart from tire profile.

Anyway happy rim hunting.

Does it have to be 30mm ID? I'm running 2.4 DHR2s on EX471s which are 25mm ID and the tire profile is really nice. I expect you would get a similar result with other Maxxis WT 2.4 tires on a 25mm ID rim. But maybe I'm wrong about that...wouldn't be the first time. FWIW I also have a 2.4 DHR2 on my other bike which has a 30mm ID rim and the profile difference of the tire between the two different width rims is very slight (on those tire and rim combos at least). That might open up more XC / light trail weight options for you.

Posted by: DangerousDave

I would suggest multiple gloves regardless of what you do. I bring a second pair of gloves in a ziploc and switch out mid ride. I find waterproof gloves to be tricky as they are either bulky, don't breathe or simply don't work very well. As with all my other waterproof gear, I've lowered my expectations from 'I'll be perfectly dry' to 'I'll be more comfortable for longer'.

After buying more high end wet weather gear than I care to admit I’ve learned that (here on the Coast at least) warm when wet and dries quick are much easier to achieve than stays dry.

Wet and not very cold Fox Ranger is excellent. Really good dexterity with this one. Waterproofing is “okay” but probably above average for the mountain bike market. You’ll want more than one pair for real rain for longer rides. 

Wet and cold 100% Brisker Hydromatic. Dexterity isn’t as good as the Fox Ranger but this one is warm. I’ve been happy with them down to sleet. Waterproofing is also average but probably above average for the MTB market. But, these ones are warm when wet so there’s that.

R2 bike is another good German one. 

I swap tires for slippery season.  Maxx grip are great in the wet but if you ride Dec - Feb you might also want to look at something like Continental Der Barons or Kaisers in Black Chili compound.  Or maybe Ultra Soft Schwalbes.  I’ve found Conti rubber stays much softer than Maxxis in the cold, which IME yields more grip. Apparently Schwalbe is the same.  But the Conti tires can be had in sticky rubber at normal trail tire weights.  I think my der barons were around 1000g.  But the Schwalbe Ultra Softs are only available in the Super Gravity casing, which is around 1400g IIRC.