Timmigrant profile

The glasses mount is awesome. I'm a sweaty bastard and can't climb with glasses on without them getting covered in sweat. Stoked to see a helmet maker address the obvious glasses issue.

Vik wouldn't the spokes at the 12 'o clock position also increase in tension with rider weight?

There was no mention of rider or style that the wheels were optimized for. They did mention a 120 kg weight limit, and they were reluctant to put a set of wheels on my DH bike for testing.

Tires on the Giant TRX 0 wheels were a worn out Schwalbe Magic Mary Super Gravity 2.35 x 27.5 Ultra Soft front at 23 psig and semi new WTB Break Tough Casing 2.3 x 27.5 High Grip at 28 psig. Tires on the Zipp 3Zero Moto were new Maxxis Minion DHF EXO MaxxTerra 2.5 x 27.5 WT at 23 psig and Maxxis Minion DHR2 EXO MaxxTerra 2.4 x 27.5 WT at 28 psig rear. Casings on the Maxxis tires are definately thinner and more compliant than the tires on the Giant TRX 0 baseline.

Crazy Train and Hey Bud wouldn't have the type of corners or loads I'm referring to. Where I noticed this most was on tight, high load, well supported corners like on B-Line, Ninja Cougar etc.

Having spent the last two years almost exclusively on carbon wheels I'll say that my recent experience being back on aluminium rims was aweful. I have some DT 511 rims on the DH bike, same tires and tire pressures as normal. Second run and I pushed a spoke through the rim tape, denting the rim and getting a flat. Pulled the dent out as best I could, retaped the rim, trued and retensioned the wheel, rode a few laps, trued and retensioned the wheel. Second day, trued and retensioned the wheel. Inflating tires was tough because the rim is a bit too small. Total pain in the ass. 

In two years of carbon wheel abuse and not a single wheel out of true, and I'd almost taken it for granted. Inflating tires tubeless is effortless. Given the reliability and minimal maintenance on carbon wheels I can't afford to go back to aluminium rims. The performance and weight benefits are almost secondary at this point.

Jerry I'm with you on this for virtually all the other wheels I've ridden. I've always been surprised about folks going on about wheel compliance through 30 mm of tire deflection and 180 mm of suspension travel. I always thought maybe I wasn't perceptive enough to pick up on the differences. But these Zipps were noticeably softer than other wheels I've ridden. I'd love to see more objective deflective tests from manufacturers so we can see how various wheels stack up in terms of vertical, torsional and lateral deflection for given loads.

@slyfink I suppose that was a bit ambiguous, but I was hoping it would be clear that the subjective impressions were relative to the baseline laps I did on the Giant TRX 0 carbon wheels. That said I've ridden those trails a ton on a variety of rim and tire combinations and the compliance of the Zipp 3Zero Moto wheels is noticeably higher than any other wheel I've tried. Aluminium rims could not achieve the level of compliance of the Zipp wheels without permanent deformation.

Zipp has a decent amount of technical information here: https://www.zipp.com/wheels/3zero-moto/

According to their specs the spokes are Sapim D-Lite J-Bend spokes that are double butted; 2.0 / 1.65 / 2.0. I don't see spoke tension info anywhere.

Knees are tight as bru!

It certainly seems like an area where folks could make gains. We're all much harder on rear wheels than fronts, so why not make a lighter and softer front wheel? I think the only folks doing that were Crank Brothers. But then saying that I know folks who also habitually break front rims that are considered extremely strong / "indestructible".

I have the same experience. I would usually go through 2-3 aluminium rims a year on my trail bike. Since running carbon wheels I've had much better luck. So running carbon rims has proved cheaper for me than running aluminium rims. 

I like the feel of heavier weight and super soft tires. Almost always a Super Gravity Magic Mary front and WTB Tough Casing rear. With that setup I've had very few flats with tire pressures I like ride performance wise. I think a lot of rim damage and pinch flats comes from folks not being careful about tire pressure before every ride. Wit no insert I don't like significantly lower tire pressure, especially on the front, the tire starts to feel vague. So for me the inserts like Cush Core do make some sense, primarily because they offer tire support, which allows lower tire pressure, larger tire contact area, better damping of trail vibration, and more grip. The rim protection is almost a side benefit for me.

Over the last 18 months I've got 55 bike park days, and 250,000+ m of vertical on a set of Race Face Next R pedals. Tons of bike park, pedaling, shuttling predominately between Whistler and North Shore. I'd had some issues with the previous generation Next SL cranks, but the newer Next R carbon cranks have been flawless. I've also been impressed with the newer bottom brackets. Still on the original BB.

klankilla, you're right a lot of trails in Squamish and Whistler were built by moto trials guys. However moto trials bikes are definitely not easier on the trails. There is an order of magnitude fewer riders, and all the purely moto trials trails I know in the Sea to Sky are in far worse shape that any of the comparable age mountain bike trails.

That's great, you're making progress in the right direction. I agree with what Znarf is saying. I've been running a Luftkappe from Vorsprung. This increases the negative chamber volume, and reduces the positive chamber volume, which makes the air spring more progressive. This way I can run the fork softer off the top, but then nice and progressive. This seems to match the rear of the Range well. The last 10 mm is emergency travel on the fork for mistakes, and is quite difficult to get through. The new Lyrik seems to have gone in a similar direction. I believe they make a similar product for the 36, which might help make the fork more progressive.

But before you start buying parts for the fork you can also try and add a bit more LSC and remove a few psig of air. Removing a click of rebound might also help. The combination should help the fork stay a little taller in the travel under braking and other low speed inputs, but still allow you to get through more of the travel with higher speed compressions. All without making the fork too harsh or too mushy.

You're most welcome, and it looks like you're trending in the right direction! 30% is probably a bit too much, and I find the bike still works very well with a little less sag. Aiming for 28% should make a positive difference.

Unfortunately the only way to combat the bottoming out is either to increase the air pressure or increase the compression damping. You might want to try a bit of both, to better control the bottom out events. Try increasing the high speed compression a few clicks, and see if that makes an improvement. If possible try and take a sag measurement, and let me know where you're at. I do bottom the rear of the bike once or twice a ride, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. 

As for the fork I personally prefer to run the HSC almost all the way out, with some LSC. I find this gives good support during braking and cornering, but lets the fork soak up the high speed bump in places like the bike park. You'll notice I've taken a similar approach on the rear shock setup.

The bikes are the same, but I wasn't sure if the Fox X2 shocks came with the same number of spacers. I think that shock needs the full 5 spacers in the air can to get anywhere near the air spring progression I like.

I'm a little lighter than you, but I run my bike a bit firmer than most. Try my settings with 200 psig in the air spring and let me know how things go.

What settings are you running on the fork? You want to make sure that when you're bouncing the bike in a quasi normal riding positive that the fork and shock are compressing and rebounding at similar rates.

Hey kenwood. I know we don't know each well yet, but how much do you weight, and what fork are you running?

As for the Fox X2 this is the setup I'm running. I find this gives me the best compromise for the variety of terrain I ride from soft, slow, steep loamy trails, to wind open fast bumped out trails in the Whistler Bike Park, to pedaling efficiency.

Air Can has 5 (max) spacers. This was the stock configuration on my 2017 Range frameset. Check yours is the same.

Air Pressure; 200 psig (this is going to be different on your bike as the leverage ratio is different). I personally run my bike a bit stiff at 25%. Most folks prefer 28 - 30% sag.

LSC - 11 clicks out from fully closed

HSC - 16 clicks out from fully closed

LSR - 15 clicks out from fully closed

HSR - 15 clicks out from fully closed

Adjust the rebound settings to your taste, mine are probably on the quicker side for most. If you increase air pressure then fewer clicks out of rebound, and vice versa.

Top three get automatically volunteered for next race?

Come in guys! Brian and Maya are doing a killer job keeping this afloat. It can't happen without more helpers! If a quarter of the racers volunteered to help out with just one race, maybe we'd even see Brian race one of the Fivers.

Awesome Apres burgers Steed Cycles! Thanks! Love the new shop!

We're all scared to see Brian race!

Agreed that was an awesome race and loved the different course, even though I suck going up. Fantastic after party by Steed! Thanks!

And a round of applause to all those in the tight and bright outfits, well played.

40+ category you say….???

Yes it's called "Old Balls".

If somebody come to a friendly fiver and is so competitive as to want to run up the course, well wow….

Does anyone have a 22 tooth chain ring I can borrow so I don't get ridiculed for walking up Stage 1?