BadNudes profile

I've over-forked a fork. a Fox 34 @160 feels pretty noodly, but acceptably 'compliant' @150.

Also running longer than recommended forks on all my bikes for years with great success. Personal favourite is my 2002 Turner XCE with Marzocchi Z1 Drop-offs @130mm and a fox vanilla rear shock. I hate to admit the lazy seat angle has me walking up some of the steeper climbs, but the thing is magical when up to speed.

I used the Boca press tool last fall for suspension pivot bearing replacement. It worked okay to install the bearings, but the threaded rod actually snapped when trying to remove bearings from the frame. I was using an oversized socket as a reciever, and triple checked alignment and clearance, but it still broke before the bearing even budged. I used a hammer and punch to remove the rest of the bearings, and luckily there was enough thread left to finish installing the new ones. Another thing to note about the Boca tool is the drifts are all made of soft-ish plastic, when using the smaller diameters it was obvious that the pressing force would squish the drifts and cause them to bulge in the middle. Overall it's hard for me to recommend this tool over a threaded rod, nuts, washers, and a socket set.

I broke my brake lever clamp in a crash a couple of years ago, and because I had a hard time finding an i-spec-b compatible lever (I-spec 2 was current at the time, and now we've got i-spec ex) I was looking at replacing my perfectly fine shifter as well. Was finally able to source an older compatible lever to save my shifter, but I learned my lesson and will be using non-integrated controls whenever I have the choice.

I just got a set of the Aeffect R cranks, and mine seem to have come with the self-extracting cap  :)

By slackening the head angle with and angleset you'd actually be lowering the front end a bit, and I think that would exacerbate some of the quirks Andrew highlited with this bike; The STA would get steeper, the ETT would get shorter, reach would get longer. Oops, I missed the 'with longer forks' bit, that would preserve geo for the most part (aside from HTA), and could be a great option

I'm not sure if it's possible with this bike, but I think a better option would be offset shock bushings which would slacken both HTA and STA, lengthen the ETT , and shorten reach allowing for a 50 or 60mm stem.