skywalkdontrun profile

I think some of your issues might be alleviated by removing some volume spacers.  It seems to me that volume reduction has been marketed for entirely the wrong reasons.  As a heavier rider you (and I) need more volume in our air springs, not less, in order to achieve proper compression curve.  My recommendation would be to try removing most (if not all) of the volume spacers and seeing what can be done about adjusting compression with air pressure.  You may find the fork moves through its travel more smoothly.

I'm interested to see if the quality control issues that have plagued Rocky for the past few years have been addressed.  Since about 2018 Rocky's have looked great, and ridden great out of the gate, and then seem to hit a magical wall at about 6 months/1000 miles where they just seem to fall apart.  Cracked frames, snapped chainstays, bearing play, etc.  I also feel like rebuilt more blown shocks coming off Elements, Thunderbolts, Instincts, and Altitudes in the last five years than any other company, but that may just be biased memory.

I was always under the impression that the throw ratios between Shimano and Sram were different, and would therefore make cross compatibility impossible, but that may be old knowledge.  I would also look into a BikeYoke yoke to be able to replace the rear shock.  If memory serves, replacing the yoke also bumps travel up by 5mm.  The camber also is the same front triangle as a same gen stump jumper, so if you can find the back end of a 2014-2016 stumpy you could bump travel further as long as you get a longer stroke shock.

I mean, unless you're into that...

I'm a dog owner, of a dog that rips trails.  She responds to commands, doesn't poop on the trail, and stays close.  Thing is, I don't take her riding if I'm going with other people.  When it's just the two of us, or me and a buddy who's ridden with her before, and we're riding trails that are close to the house, sure, no problem.  But she doesn't get a free invitation on every ride.  Some trail systems require crossing busy roads, some go through private property, some are crowded.  A dog is a variable no matter how well behaved, and responsible owners and riders know where and when dogs are appropriate riding buddies.

And this is what I've been waiting for ever since Rocky's rebranding.  There have been a lot of swirling rumors about the precipitous drop in manufacturing quality in the most recent runs of Rockys Mountain bikes.  I'd be very surprised if this is the only model that will eventually be found to be defective.

Glad to hear it was helpful!  If there's one lesson I've learned from my crash, its its to aim for the spaces between the trees.  Who knew?

If you're breaking spokes at the cross point it generally means that your wheel has come out of tension enough to allow significant play between spokes under high torsion (like when you're smashing cutties).  One of the great things about carbon rims is that they're stiff, and they resist coming out of round/true better than aluminum, but that doesn't mean that they don't flex, and that your spokes can't still come out of tension.   This can lead to losing spoke tension without being able to see it, resulting in more spoke play, and hence, spoke abrasion resulting in failure.  A fatigued spoke breaks at its point of highest tension, generally the j-bend, sometimes the nipple, but not mid-shaft.  Hope that's helpful.  Also, really glad to hear you didn't get hurt in that crash.  I had a similar one a few years ago, was riding an aluminum rim, and the impact potato-chipped the rim, but left my fork unscathed.  Somehow I managed to not hit the tree with my body, and just had a nasty case of skier's thumb for a few months from the force of the impact blowing the bars out of my hands.

That’s a pretty sweet looking ride.  Throw a dropper on it and it’s perfect.

Hey man, sounds like we both are on approximately the same injury timeline.  I blew up my left AC two winters ago snowboarding.  Total Grade III, full tears of all three ligaments that hold the AC joint together.  Had about 1.5 cm of separation under x-ray, but no further separation under load (which I guess was lucky).  My doc was super disinterested, and just told me I'd be fine without surgery (more on that later).  I was lucky that I hurt my shoulder in the offseason, so there wasn't the immediate pressure to ride, but I definitely got back on the bike too soon.  I did a lot of rehab with bands and doing wall push-ups, building up slowly over the course of many weeks.  It took about ten months before I could do a normal pushup without pain, or bunnyhop a log without feeling a bunch of strain in my shoulder, but it seemed to be healed, even though I had a pretty sizable bump on my clavicle.  I rode with an EVS neoprene brace for most of the fall and through snowboard season, and thought I'd got out of it ok this past spring, but on my first mtb ride of the season in April I shoulder checked a tree and hit rewind on all my progress.  My shoulder definitely didn't respond as well to the second round of PT, and it was super frustrating.  I had decreased range of motion and pain any time I pushed outwards (pushups, holding bars, etc), until randomly one day in the summer I was throwing a suitcase up on a conveyor in the airport and felt a pop.  I thought at first that I'd torn everything again, until suddenly I realized that I had more range of motion and no more pain.  As best I can figure, that shoulder check moved my clavicle, and then the act of throwing the suitcase popped it back in.  Now it feels pretty damn good!  Not pre-first-injury good, but pretty damn good.  I can do pushups and lift without pain, and my shoulder doesn't bother me riding.  Best advice I can give you is to take time off, which sucks, but seriously is the only thing that's going to help, especially being so far removed from the original injury.  The collagen matrix that makes up your ligaments takes time to knit itself back together, and if you stress it while it's weak, it just takes longer and longer to heal completely.  I'm not sure if your shoulder will respond to PT at this point, but maybe using Kinesio tape or a brace will help give the joint the extra support it needs?  Good luck dude.