Timmigrant profile

I'm the opposite. I learned how to ride on flats, which I think taught me many good habits riding wise. But transitioned to clips when I was racing downhill. I've dabbled going back to flats a few times, and had trips where my bag got lost and had to ride a few days on flats. I want to love riding on flats again, and you look cooler @thedumpsters with flats. But for me clips are way more fun. I like not worrying about my feet on the pedals, I like the float of the shoe on the pedal when cornering, and I like the connected feeling to the bike through really rough sections. I feel like I get less foot fatigue with the generally stiffer soles in clipless shoes as well. But I like that people like flats, and have a ton of respect for good riders on flat pedals.

Watching Friday Fails videos I think there are a lot more crashes caused by flat pedals than caused by clipless pedals. That might be because more beginner riders are on flats. But I see a lot of folks losing a foot on a jump or little lift, and having a crash as a result. Finding a crash caused by clipless pedals is much more rare. I'm hard pressed to think of many crashes that were worse when riding with clips.

I hope to do and read more comparative reviews of products were the company produces many levels of a particular type of product.

I consistently blue my rotors, and that happens at 300 °C / 600 °F. This is a neat reference: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempering_(metallurgy)"

I think 1000 °F would be pretty extreme, but maybe possible with a heavier rider on a long sustained steep descent.

Neat tip, I'm going to try that!

Great article, love it, and totally agree! I love the process of trying to get interesting imagery to accompany a review, and working with the talented photographers we've had contribute to NSMB. Almost all of my favourite riding shots have come through getting images for articles.

Well there's no question which photographer you shoot with most!

So awesome that we now have a locally produced carbon bike and wheels! Huge kudos to We Are One for the accomplishment. I love the industrial design, and attention to detail. I guess that's not a surprise for anyone that's held a set of new We Are One wheels in their hands. I can't wait to try one!

LOL! Good catch. I'm giggly, the helmet's aren't jiggly!

That's a great idea. I'll try it out for my next open face helmet review.

To my understanding it is the 36 Grip2 damper. Having ridden both the 36 and the Z1 with the Grip2 the damper performance feels identical. Also my Z1 is a 180 mm travel 27.5, which I don't believe is a variant option on the 34. The air spring for the Z1 is different to the 36 however due to the thicker stanchions being used.

I noticed an increase in stiffness with the Marzocchi Z1 over the Fox 36 and the Lyrik. Apparently the Z1 CSU is also less susceptible to creaking. Better yet the Grip2 damper will drop into the Z1 chassis. It's the setup I'm running at the moment and love the fork. I love the stiffness of the Z1 chassis, I like the air spring, and as you know the Grip 2 damper is outstanding.

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.