JVP profile

This looks amazing for the high end. I’m making the assumption that GX with cables is coming within a year. 

Shimano absolutely laid out the competition in the mid range with Linkglide, and SRAM is absolutely laying out the competition at the high end with this. 

Interesting times!

Just Stan's tape. Tried hammering with bead dropper, c clamps, standing on the bead and jumping... everything short of cutting. Other tires on these rims were easy, so I think this tire might be out of spec. It's my DH wheelset. I do think setting it in the warm sun (in a few months!) or heat gun and the normal brute-force tricks might be the thing. 

Horses for courses on inserts. I definitely like CC Pro for wet DH so I can run 19 psi without fear of ripping the tire off in corners. But for trail bike that does everything including high country epics, trailside flat repair is a hard requirement, so Tannus. Too-low pressure makes the bike feel boring on that stuff anyway. Only had to strap the insert on my bars twice in 3 years - I can live with that vs slow pedal out and getting back to the car way after dark.

Some combos are just murder. I've got one particular wheel where the CC Pro isn't coming off without cutting. Ever. DHR DH on a WTB cheapo i29 assym rim. All my others have been somewhere between easy-peasy and doable. I have the buttplug and all the other tools, and fairly strong hands from trail building.

* I should try a heat gun on it. Wheel needs to be re-taped.

I'm kind of going away from inserts lately on all but my park/shuttle wheelset that doesn't get much use. Just running tougher casings and calling it good. Yeah, inserts are nicer, but they don't change my place in the pecking order.

Sweet, wear a full face when you're boxing.

Freeeeedooooome!  I hate the restricted feeling of full face helmets. I have a TLD Stage that I now wear when I should, but I still don't love soggy, clammy, sweaty cheek pads and feeling closed in. Until I got this nicely vented thing I only wore FF in park, and I rarely ride park anymore. Granted I pedal a lot and sweat hard, so YMMV.

If I break my jaw, I'll live. My nose is already crooked and I was never going to be a model. More concerned about TBI, and many half lids are just as good in that respect.

So I just grabbed my big 'ole chia pet-like mop and shook it back and forth to do a "test". It's quite noticeable how much the skin moves relative to the skull. Your skin moves further than MIPS or little plastic donuts ever will. The more I think about it, the more I suspect the MIPS benefit is based on test rigs without the dynamics of skin and hair.

A company that has embedded sensors and could evaluate the forces on 1000 crashed helmets with MIPS and without MIPS could actually answer this question with some reasonable data.

I'd really like to see a university do a study on MIPS-like helmets and standard helmets on people with ample hair vs no hair.  I always wonder at the MIPS benefit if you've got a mop on top, but needs data to not be typical "wrong on the internet speculation guy".

Didn't know they had 18month warranty, though I've avoided Fox recently. Manitou does 2 years. I've had 2 forks in the last 8-ish years make it to 1 year without creaking, one was barely past that. This is from multiple brands. A whole pile started creaking within a few months, Fox being the worst.

I'm not even that heavy or going huge. Just a hard-riding middle aged dude who is 195 lbs. Sure, I like to smash, but I'm just your everyday expert.

The single crown interface we use today DOES NOT WORK. It needs an industry-wide redesign to a new standard. It's the one last piece of shit design on our otherwise amazing and reliable bikes.

So great to hear they upgraded the CSU. I’m one of those people. My goal is for single crown forks to make it one year and then sell. Hopefully the 36 can now hit that benchmark. 

Bring on the 160-180 dual crowns!

I like sauce.

Cool, thanks for that. A very quick skim brought me to this SORCA link:  https://sorca.ca/2019/update-on-the-district-lots-509-and-510-cheema-lands

Quick take: SORCA is on it, and sounds like they would need a rezone which they haven't been able to get, and if something did go through the landowner is having reasonable conversations with SORCA.

Reason #24,694 to support SORCA (and all our local advocacy groups).

I wasn't sure where to post this, but inquiring minds want to know... Someone I know mentioned that some the the Alice Lake zone in Squamish is slated for residential development that'll impact trails. Any truth to this or are they referring to a different zone?  The good trails are on some pretty special terrain, so I'd be surprised if they'd be developed, though stranger things have happened.

Following up on this after a few big summer rides. 6 (admittedly big) rides on the Rekon 3C 2.4 EXO +Tannus in the rear and it's toast. I only run this wheelset when I'm fully into suffer mode. 

The transition and side knobs are all undercut or completely torn, center treads still basically perfect. I should have known, any Maxxis with small side knobs die quick (cough, Dissector, cough), and I tear even DHR side knobs pretty quick. The last two rides were Angel's Staircase and Foggy Dew, so lots of vert and pointy rocks, but still. I won't be running a Rekon again. 

Next summer it's either stick with the trusty Aggressor, the e.thirteen Optimus or Wicked Will (if I finally get a 29er).

Don’t worry, they include them n the caliper rebuild kits. 

Oh… wait.

Posted by: Stihlgoin

I may just pull the seal and throw some Slickoleum in now that the subject came up. 

That's a really light grease for bearings. Something heavier will perform better and last substantially longer.

Yeah, I agree with Niels that something sounds off in the tolerances. But beyond that, put more grease in when new, and use the heaviest grease you're comfortable with. Pop seals from time to time and repack. This goes for bearings, but NOT pawls/ratchet - definitely stick with MFR recommended grease for that bit.

Hub bearings really shouldn't be getting sloppy that fast. I find they usually get gritty and horrible well before they get sloppy, though I've never run I9. 

Are you on OEM bearings? I've had bad luck with putting Enduros in Hope hubs. The tolerances are off between the two - Enduro runs just a teeeny bit small, and Hope runs just a teeeeny bit big, so you get slop.  Took forever to figure this out, but it's a known thing, not just a one-off experience or bad luck.

For me it's mostly been broken frames, and more recently going longer, but there were 3 bikes of the 14 (trail bikes) I've owned that just sucked and got sold off within a year. I either flog them for a long time or dump them quickly.

Before my current ride (warranty replacement) I went through 4 bikes, going 20-ish mm longer each time. I'm finally at the "right" size with great geo. Don't want longer, could even go 10mm shorter. 490-500mm reach and 64* head angle is my happy place. 

My next bike will be a 29er. But honestly my current bike, a '19 Patrol, is so fun and reliable that I'll just ride it 'till it dies. Might add a short-travel trail ripper to the garage, but will always have a 160-ish do-all bike.

Posted by: Hepcat

I used to break stuff pretty regularly, but I think since running air suspension I haven't really broken anything much? Lots of tokens, pretty low sag, it just never seems to hit bottom hard anymore.

You're onto something ^^ that's worth repeating. I suspect OP is breaking frames due to hard bottoming or the super-long seat post like already mentioned.  Run something with lots of ramp or bottom-out control. MegNeg with tokens, Cascade Link, progressive spring or whatever other method you can find to keep from bottoming too often or too hard. Frames with a good amount of progression are key, but MegNeg will make a lot of frames ramp up nicely.

I'm only 6'2" and around 200 lb riding weight and I've broken a lot of frames. Partly because once I have a bike I like, I keep it until there's a really compelling reason to upgrade. I've broken frames at a slower rate now that I'm dialed in to setting up my suspension so it doesn't bottom. I wish I understood this better in 2005, holy crap I killed a lot of frames around that time.

I'm also done with aluminum unless it's a tank due to welds failing at about the 3 year mark. Not that carbon can't break... done a few of those too, but usually a manufacturing defect instead of being weak.

Posted by: breakdance32
I've got a narrow head and found the Smith Mainline fits my head shape well.

I've tried on the Mainline, and it's not the one. I guess not all narrow heads are shaped the same.

Good thread. I've been wanting to pick up a vented Enduro FF so I actually wear it. The DH lid (TLD D2) just doesn't get worn outside of my handful of park or shuttle days a year since I run hot and don't like the clammy, constrained feel.

Anyone with a narrow head have a vented FF that fits well?  Fox used to be pretty good for my head shape, but that was a loooong time ago.