bogey profile

I have a new 170mm Zeb waiting to go on my Stevo Expert. The Lyrik is great for most riding except for that fork heavy Shore riding. I’m also a big dude on a size S6 so it just makes sense. 220mm rotor up front too.

Thank you @specialized for making a proper XXL(S6) with proper reach and stack. In early pandemic times I found a S6 Stevo Expert at Steed and it is the best bike I’ve ever owned. It climbs really well, is fun on all trails, looks great (raw carbon), and has the SWAT box for my stash.

I swapped to a 2022 Lyrik and a 2023 Super Deluxe Ultimate then added some We Are One wheels and I can ride this bike almost anywhere.

100% agree - I miss that silky, old school shift action. I’d like to see interrupted cable housing done with internal cable routing so that it’ll stay clean and we get that great shift action back. Sure, there are internal cable routing haters that will cry about this but it wouldn’t be all that hard to pull off.

This is not entirely true. A car warranty is 100% transferable if it is still under the factory warranty period whereas a bike warranty is not.

Sure, if the car is beyond the factory warranty period you may get a short warranty from a dealer under a Certified Pre-Owned sale but if you want something longer it’ll cost you extra.

@cr4w, I’m with you 100% on this. Maybe I don’t ride steep enough trails on the Shore or maybe I’m more old school but I just don’t want my saddle completely out of the way. I use my saddle to stabilize and steer my bike with the inside of my knees. On rough trails it adds another touch point along with my hands and feet.

This is also why I dislike bikes with super slack actual seat tube angles. At full drop of a 200mm dropper, the saddle ends up way too far forward for it to be useful as a stabilizer.

Exactly Mike. BB bearings generally fail from corrosion and not from any sort of loading imbalance or overload. The NDS cup gets more grit and water from riding and cleaning so it won’t last as long.

One thing to remember about bicycle bearings is that they are very lightly loaded and usually fail from corrosion and not from overloading. Good, corrosion resistant bearings with good seals and good grease are always the best choice. Bearings with high load ratings and high speed ratings aren’t needed for bikes so Hambini’s observations are 100% incorrect. 

A good engineer can design something that will be very good for its intended use. The big companies such as SKF & NTN can surely design and manufacture good bearings for many industries but do they know bikes? The fact that SKF sold that solid lube bearing to Cane Creek for use in a bottom bracket tells me that they don’t know bike bearings (and It is disappointing that Cane Creek didn’t know better either).

This is a big miss IMO. I’m sure you guys know it, but a 34.9mm post can be made lighter and stiffer when designed to use the 34.9mm OD of the lower tube. 

As a tall and heavy rider I immediately appreciated the larger diameter upper tube on my XFusion 34.9mm dropper that came stock on my Stumpjumper EVO. It only has 190mm drop but I can easily feel the extra stiffness of the larger diameter tube over previous droppers that I used. It’s almost as if the seat tube angle is a touch steeper when climbing and there is definitely less bounce as the post flexes. I honestly won’t buy a 34.9 post without a larger diameter upper tube.

Engineering textbooks, whitepapers, and industry have used both words interchangeably forever. I found that it depended more on the professor teaching the subject than anything else. You can damp vibrations and you can dampen vibrations. 

Or is there some nuance that I’m missing?

For me at 6’5” tall, Santa Cruz has nailed their sizing. I’m on their XXLs and love the sizing. I’m truly in the XXL for clothing which just makes sense. The reach, stack and STA of my Hightower 2 is spot on for my height. They seems to have found an great balance so that the front end stays planted on all but the very steepest climbs, the STA is slack enough that I can put power down well, and the reach/stack combo gives me a balanced riding position. 

I’m eager to try Specialized’s S6 sizing which is their XXL whether they want to admit it or not. It looks to be a touch bigger than SC’s XXL so I’m curious to see if I’ve finally reached my limit and have bikes that are truly big enough.

Non-boost chainring offset FTW if your frame allows it. Every time. With a boost frame it keeps the chainline where it should be for riders like me.

Posted by: ReductiMat

As a hack who likes to ride a lot downhill, anything metal-on-metal was greased save for the little bits that made me wonder if it would kill me.  Those bits were loc-tite'd.

No metal bits were ever left to grind on each other, ever.

This is the way.

Or warm it up with a heat gun and it comes off almost residue free.

Posted by: T-mack

Posted by: FLATCH

Craftsman, not a robot.

Pretty sure robots don't weld any frames.

Many factories have robotic welding even in the bicycle industry. This is somewhat old tech now. Google will lead you to the answer.

After the update, my 520 tracked the whole ride and seemed to save as usual but actually did not save the ride.

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?