Skeen profile

I started down this path with a Spank vibrocore bar on my enduro FS bike because it had the right dimensions, was the right price and I was interested to try something new. I definitely notice less hand/ arm fatigue after rides. Next I decided to take it a step further and combo vibrocore bars with rev grips on my Honzo ESD. Even through the front  has plenty of suspension I was looking for any extra relief possible due to a pinched nerve in the should causing several months of finger pain. I added both components at once so it’s hard to tease out the details but the setup feels great! I am running softest washer combo and never notice unwanted movement on the trail.

Thanks for reviewing Andrew, that was another fun read. And as others have said, keep the niche product reviews coming!

This conversation continues to tempt me to put a DC on my current FS rig, a 2018 (metal) Megatrail. If I pull the trigger on this I would also likely put a 29 on front to go mullet. It would just be a rather expensive experiment if I ended up not liking it better than my current setup, and would go against my “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it... or replace it” mentality. But it’s fun to think about! I’ll be keeping my eye out for a good deal on a DC 29er fork anyway...

I put the sunrise on at the same time as a 4” travel recon in place of a 1” RST because I didn’t trust the old fork (circa 1996) anymore. Needless to say that wonked out the geo but it’s still a real fun bike for mellow days.

Awesome roundup. I think the high rise bars look sweet, I recently put a set of Surly sunrise with 83 mm rise on old 26er revival because I couldn’t find the pro tapers available. I’d still like to get the pro tapers on my more hardcore bikes. I forget where I read it, but I think I read the sunrise is only rated for something like 3’ drops... either way I love 800+mm width which works in CO thanks to a lack of tight trees on most trails. And cheers to shredding with groms, peace!

Great article, thanks for articulating some very nuanced ideas.

Although I have preferred shimano since the days of hating grip shift I found GX circa 2011 held up well. But NX and GX from 2018 were  pure crap. I find the reasoning that the jump to 52t is okay because it's not that much worse than the (already poor) jump to 50t to be pretty weak. Appreciate the article, more reason to move on to XT 12 speed once my 11 wears out.

Used to run a 888 set to 170 mm on my '05 stinky with 6" (so ~150mm?) In the rear. That was a sweet overfork for hucking until the frame failed at the bottom of the seat tube where it was welded to a plate above the bottom bracket.

I have a 2018 mega trail, it has 2 rear shock mounting positions to switch travel between 165 and 150 mm along with a slight Geo change.

I got a second, shorter stroke shock with same eye to eye so Geo is the same but travel is reduced to 145 or 135 mm. This is basically the same as a shred Dogg but with my same longer travel fork. Although I air up the fork so effective travel matches the reduced rear.

I think the 29" smash could do the same thing but recommend just contacting guerrilla gravity they are super helpful folks.