Heinous profile

@dadstillrides - Carbon has so long promised to mimic whatever we want it to, but I'm yet to ride a carbon frame that feels like a good steel or ti one. There are many great carbon frames, for sure.

I should be clearer. It wasn't a dig so much at any builder, but many. The flex stay designs are popping up with reduced warranty periods and I can't see many builders who put their names on the side of a frame taking the risks associated with third party rear ends that aren't as durable. 

There does appear to be accessible software for modelling and designing suspension now though (racooz, linkage) which might facilitate home builders just like BikeCAD has. 

I've spoken to more than one super high end Ti builder over the years who'd toyed with buying rear ends off big guys but nothing ever came to fruition.

I do totally agree with your comment on shed magic and steel though. I was about to order an Actofive when they were steel, and the change to solid alloy (literally two solid pieces) just lost all romance and promise of supple feel for me.

I suspect Ventana could make rear ends available because they weren’t frantically manufacturing warranty ones for themselves.

The nipple on the end of that bent spoke is not long for this world.

And in doing so various parts are no longer cross compatible within the line. That's got to hurt long term ability to stay current with *ahem* standards.

I've been running Paul Comp hubs with WI freewheels forever and havefound them totally bullet proof, plus quieter than CK.

The Zerode prototype trail bikes Rob rode a couple iterations of for years were high pivot, idler, gearbox equipped and pretty remarkable. I still wonder from my arm chair if Zerode's decision to go Faux Bar was the wrong one...

I was once working with a pro team at a Tour high in the French Alps. We had a stage start at the bottom of the hill one day and riders decided to ride down. Bikes always get lubed the night before, because while 10-20mins is good, a whole night in a warm dry room is better. 

I came in from breakfast to inflate tyres, do a bolt check and hand bikes out, and find our Russian assistant mechanic spraying lube / using the Squidulous badly all over a chain which had dripped all over the carbon brake track (his team contract was a weird arrangement that became clearer a couple years later when the russian champion he was minding on the team went positive). He became very aggressive when I intervened. 

This remains the only time I have come to blows with a colleague.

I hesitate to attribute this to chain lube technique.

I've been running a Smashpot in a Grip2 36 for a couple of years. It's ruined other forks for me - the plushness, mid stroke and the easily adjustable bottom out has made me faster everywhere. It's most noticeable on cold days, I jumped on another bike after fitting the smashpot and immediately thought it needed a warranty it felt so sticky, slow and harsh. 

I'm about to run an experiment and drop it to 130mm for my singlespeed and see how it copes.

I worked on several team issue Canyons when engaged for races by one of their top tier athletes at the time. The frames were custom paint and team issue so potentially had extra level of QC to normal ones, possibly not.

The build quality of the frames was the poorest I’ve ever seen in a frame with a logo on the side. PF BB’s that we’re hand pressable in and out, stray material inside, seat tube and stem tolerance for so poor auxiliary means were needed to keep things in place. I’d been so close to buying one of the 27.5 spectrals (those black and gold ones looked great) and immediately decided to look elsewhere.

There’s a thread near the top of the gear forum about this right now!

The bolt up is nicely done. I have felt like the MKII is over damped at all (and didn’t find that with the I).

I had a solid ride yesterday on the helm. Stock 55lb spring (calcs all come back at 60-62lb for me, and the 65lb landed separately today).

It’s super plush, I gave it a little extra love when changing the travel. It’s also got a really lively but controlled feeling that seems quite unique to the helm in my experience. The traction is unreal and it makes technical rooty climbing really satisfying.

The 55lb is definitely too light, there were a couple of huge bottom outs that were in no way the kind of thing I’d want a fork to experience often, or my body. 65lb in there now, a couple small tweaks to rebound and LSC, hopefully a good shake down on it tomorrow.

My Helm arrived today, it looks great and reducing the travel the internals look really well built. Unfortunately the DLoc axle is out of tolerance (15.2mm OD at one point) so won't fit the hub I have. Hopefully they can get one to me fast, I'm looking forward to riding it. I'll need an Ohlins 60lb spring too I suspect but will see how the stock 55lb goes.

I was thinking a few cc's of oil would do the trick, but I'm intrigued by the air cap plus a few psi idea.

Flat mount isn’t necessary, but it’s the new thing. If you can avoid it, you’ll not regret it at all. There are no real benefits except getting the caliper inside the triangle.

How do you mean an air cap over spring? I’d be interested to know more about that.

I’ve got a Helm MK2 coil arriving in the next day or two. I think the stock spring weight will be close to what I need, but may need to investigate ohlins if not.

I think EXT has distribution tied down, which means you also get really good support if you want to tweak the tune etc. 

My EXT fork is about to go off for a warranty check and so far they've been great to deal with.

What’s the frame and fork?

I tend to get near full on my fork on gnarlier rides - say 155 of 160mm, but with a coil in the back I’ve not been able to track it.

How are people finding the ramp up on the Helm coil? I am considering one, but my other coil is a smashpot and the hydraulic bottom out is glorious.

Does anyone have any experience to share?

Yeah, I’ve had bags made before, but it would be a nice option given there are bosses on the bike.