bogey profile

The swap is not quite as simple as it sounds. You’d have to break and reconnect the chain for each swap and likely mess with the RD limit screws. Probably better to have a properly sized chain for each bike though. 

On the other hand, you could just buy a shifter bar clamp and leave one on each bike which makes for a quicker shifter swap.

@awesterner, Unless things have changed very recently you’re correct. Typically there is a full hydraulic braking system that is controlled by the electric braking system. There are force and position sensors at the brake pedal and electric pumps in the hydraulic system to create the braking pressure to augment the regenerative braking. The system can still operate as full hydraulic if there is a power loss,. 

I’ve driven a few hybrids with this system and they all feel very disconnected compared to a traditional system. Electric steering feels awful in the same way.

Problem is, engineers already knew enough about gearboxes to know it was a bad idea on a bike. Too bad the decision makers at Sram didn’t know. Unfortunately too many of these sorts of decisions are made by people that have no business making these decisions.

The attitude of many companies is to rush to market with half baked products and fix problems later (if they ever fix them at all).

I found exactly the same thing. The sturdiness can be felt immediately in each pedal stroke. 

On my Tallyboy3 I can flex the crankarm and frame enough under power that I can clank an XT or XTR crankarm off of the chainstay. At first I thought the problem was mainly frame flex but with NextR cranks I just can’t do it.  

Very happy with mine so far! 🤞

Definitely could have used a degree or two chopped off of the HA but the frame is plenty long (at least in the XL). The stack is also pretty big so I'd need to slam the stem and go with a flatish bar.

STA is pretty good too - I wouldn't want it any steeper considering it'll get steeper with sag.

I will very likely be riding one of these in a few months if the XL frames are available (typically very hard to get).

Totally agree with this one but it depends on your budget I guess. 

I've known too many people that bought crappy gear (bikes, skis, etc) and had bad experiences because of it. I'd rather have them buy a good helmet and sell it if I don't like riding than buy an ill fitting helmet. The cheapie helmets might look similar but do they have the same fit and comfort?

Andrew, unfortunately this same lack of response is the norm many industries. 

I manage a large test laboratory and my standard is to respond to a client within 24 hours. All that is required is an email or phone call stating that we’ve received your inquiry and will be in contact soon to get further details and provide a quote. 

We keep data on our response time and can relate it to projects won or lost. It is amazing how many clients tell us that our competitors haven’t gotten back to them at all!

Definitely a major oversite to leave that RS shock on the Evil. At very least they could have de-branded it like the rest of the bike.

It’s an even shorter list if you get rid of cassettes that cost over $300. Ridiculous!

The ESTA is generally measured at horizontal line that projects back from where the stack height is measured to. This is mostly useless IMO.

There are one or two manufacturers measuring it to a ‘’normal” fully extended seatpost height but I don’t believe they tell us what that height is.

I'm not a fan of the feel of the sprague hubs. The vague feel when putting out high watts on steep hills just didn't sit well with me.

I'm really looking forward to trying out the new XTR hubs though. I’m hoping they get things moving and roll the Scylence tech over to their road hubs too.

So far so good for me on my SixC and Next R cranks although I don’t ride nearly as much as some people here. 

I AM lusting after the eeWings cranks though!

Being even heavier than Craw, I can feel flex in everything also. I'm 240lbs and on XL or XXL frames and have had trouble with component and frame stiffness for years (never a problem with strength though). I love some of the newer, stiffer carbon frames, burlier XC forks, 35mm bars, beefier cranks, etc. Along with the trend to longer frames, the increased stiffness of frames has me completely happy with the fit and ride quality of my bikes. Finally!

I've used all varieties of XTR cranks for years and I've noticed that the latest M9000 lacked stiffness in torsion and bending. When putting the power down I can feel the crankarms twist which causes an odd droop in the pedal which I can feel through my shoes (stiff carbon soled shoes). Even worse is that I can get the crankarm to clank into the drive side chainstay of my XXL Tallboy 3. At first I thought this was a combination of flex in the crankarm and flex in the frame but this went away entirely when I switched to Next R cranks. The Next R cranks sit closer to the chainstay by 2mm so that's not the reason for the problem. After putting a bunch of time on each setup I'm sure difference is due to the combination of stiffer crankarms and spindle of the Next R cranks.

Recently picked up some Fox Attack Pro Water and they’re great so far. Proper bike shorts fit and very waterproof but haven’t had them long enough to test durability.

Gore waterproof shorts have the worst fit I’ve seen in any shorts, ever. No tailoring to them at all.

One thing to note is that you really need to have those spokes replaced or better yet, have the wheel rebuilt. If you decided to rebuild it, why not get a new hub instead of just replacing the freehub?

Posted by: Ddean

Its exactly similar - does more power to the ground result in more wear? Up the power a lot and do the test. That's exactly how you test these things. Accelerated environment.

This is typically not how accelerated testing works. You can’t just keep cranking up the intensity of a test and expect to get good results. 

In this case, just cranking up the power output to the rear wheel will not get valuable results because there is a non-linear relationship between power to the rear wheel and trail wear. All data is garbage once you start tearing up the trail by spinning the wheel.

Personally, I think the shoe/pedal interface is more important than the spring tension (tension is still very important though). With the right shoes (Shimano), I can run the spring tension on XT and XTR pedals a the 3/4 point and I don't worry about unwanted release. The sole/pedal interface provides a fair bit of friction to keep the cleat snug in the pedal mechanism. When i ran Giro shoes I would get the odd unwanted release because the shoe sole wasn't snug against the pedal body.

I just picked up some new Saint pedals to see how they are. I plan to run a few pins in the pedals but nothing too crazy. The platform should provide tons of support. They are heavy though - approx 560g.

Posted by: kiwizak

All the new Fuel EX's have a 210x52.5mm shock regardless of Thru Shaft or not. Fox list the DPX2 in 210x52.5 for the Fuel. And the 2017 Fuel EX 5 had a Rockshox Deluxe. Not sure about any others.

True story but those are not trunnion mount and the lower mount is also quite different. Does Trek make some sort of adapter kit?

Posted by: Kevin26

Posted by: bogey

Posted by: Jasn

Thanks Gents some good insights. The Starlings are beautiful but too niche for me these days, I've owned too many niche bike's and have found difficulties getting parts or upgrades, ...

Like the shock on the Fuel? I’m a big fan of the Fuel EX but I really don’t like Trek’s use of proprietary shocks.

Unless I'm mistaken, the reactive /through shaft shocks aren't different sizing or anything, so can be replaced easy enough, you're not stuck looking for a through shaft shock

The eye to eye length is very long on the thru shaft shock so I can’t see another shock fitting. The shock shaft needs extra room at the bottom to poke through as the shock cycles.

Posted by: Jasn

Thanks Gents some good insights. The Starlings are beautiful but too niche for me these days, I've owned too many niche bike's and have found difficulties getting parts or upgrades, ...

Like the shock on the Fuel? I’m a big fan of the Fuel EX but I really don’t like Trek’s use of proprietary shocks.