smoochy profile

I received that very Fireweed jacket for my (winter season) birthday and I love it.

10/10, no notes

Proprietary be damned, it looks awesome. The leap from “it’s not an off-the-shelf shock” to “huge oil and air volumes” looks like a good trade off to me, and the design philosophy and aesthetics are the first to make my eye wander away from hardtails in years.

I’m signed up for the newsletter looking forward to the shorter travel 2x29 wheel version whenever it arises. Nice job Tim.

"we must of course transmit the water and tools to you in a receptacle."

Timely article. I just dropped the travel on my Moxie from 160mm to 140mm last week. I like the shorter travel but now the seat angle is steeper and the reach is a little longer. On the commissioning ride, I shifted my feet forward to compensate and all is well again. PROOF, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!

I’m running 1UP Aluminium pedals and my feet tend to move a bit back (ball over axle) when I’m climbing or powering, then forward (arch-o'er-axle) when descending. I find when I’m in the "arch" position, I have to focus on dropping my heels, or my toes can get caught on roots, rocks, dirt, etc. when I give a few pedal strokes downhill. Any thoughts on toe-dragging?

PS Andrew, your thoughtful and outside-the-box approach to bike fit and componentry make for the best reads in mountain bike journalism. Thank you.

Shift quality aside , how was the operating noise from that cassette?

I had a Garbaruk 11sp cassette a couple of years ago and it creaked badly. I figured it was from the construction, having the 10 steel sprockets on a hollow pyramid, the largest sprocket bolted to that block, the spline contact points at the smallest and largest sprockets only and a spacer between the two spline contact points. The torsion across the cassette would cause the loose spacer to twist and move slightly against the two spline-grab-ends and make creaking noise. 

Otherwise it’s a beautiful piece of kit.

Missed the opportunity to call the first two Stemmy and Cappy

"asdf" - mid-article keyboard check?

I just bought a pair of these at my LBS, they were the only shoe that fit me wide enough in the toe. After a couple of rides I concur that they are comfy, well made, grippy and all around banging shoes.

Thanks for the review!

Sliders are about 1/2-way back right now - they started at full slam and that was fine, although Moxie’s aren’t known for their tire clearance at shortest stay setting. I pulled them back as far as I could go with my current chain length, and when I replace the chain, I will be pulling them all the way back.

So far, I would say the longer stays feel great. It’s a little hard to tease out the effect of my own improved comfort and adaptation to the bike, or the shift alone, but the longer slider position seems more balanced with respect to how the wheels react to the ground on the way down, and, as described by Sam at Naked, there’s more lever or rocker from front-to-back, so the rear wheel shares the fork suspension a little more smoothly (if that makes sense).

Regarding the seat tube - Yes, the effective STA shift is correct in practice too - I am also not a fan of steep STAs (an odd development in progressive hardtail design that I think has gone way too far)  and it is striking how much the seat tube kink corrects for what the Geo chart shows relative to other hard tails (most recent example is from a small local company out of Whistler, something about Chrome, or Mags, can’t quite remember).

The net “knee feel” when seated is more relaxed, I don’t feel pushed onto (and fighting against) the handlebars, and the saddle doesn’t get jammed in my jammer - over all result is that seated pedalling on flat or uphill terrain is comfortable and more efficient.

Vik mentioned the Sirius, and a.funks is talking Moxie, so I'll share my one-and-only here.

Big fork, big reach, big weight, and big fun.

In my many years of searching for Isildur's bane, I have landed on a few potential candidates (depending on the needs of the time), including a mid-2000's Norco Torrent, an early generation Salsa Fargo, a Giant STP, a couple of rigid single speeds, a Rootdown and a Titanium Surface. 

After a bit of fit fiddling and adaptation, the Moxie has taken the crown out of left field. Indescribably smooth, comfortable, stable and inspiring both uphill and down. A reach to seat-tube/stand-over ratio that actually understands what hardtails need. Stack that keeps my neck and shoulders happy. Wheelbase to keep me planted - unless I don't wanna be.

Good fit = more comfort = more confidence = more speed = more fun = the one.

Posted by: Vikb

If you'll indulge me with another bit of rambling about bike nerdery...another thing I have learned [just for my own situation/preferences] is that there is such a thing as too much dropper drop. I swung for the fences and put a 200mm dropper on the Bird. It fits fine so that's not the issue. What I am finding is that I am missing the more useful end point saddle height of my 150mm & 175mm dropper on other bikes. My habit on my bikes is to ride the saddle down until it hits bottom when I drop it. That position is low enough I can attack a descent just fine, but it's also high enough I can sit and pedal comfortably for those intermediate sections where you don't need to stand, but you know you'll need the saddle down in a moment or two so it's not worth futzing with the dropper lever. On the 200mm dropper the low end point is so low it comical and I can't sit and pedal. It's also so low I don't feel like I am getting any incremental benefit with that extra 25mm drop vs. a 175mm dropper.

I have been trying to lower the saddle without hitting the bottom of the drop range. That sort of works, but has some issues #1 it takes some extra brain power right when I am getting ready to drop into something spicy [hence lowering the saddle] and #2 the saddle ends up at different heights each time which is annoying and takes a bit of attention to adjust to. So while this does improve things it adds in some new problems that I don't enjoy.

So one of my projects for today is to watch some YT videos on the method for adjusting the drop on my PNW post. I think I can set it between 170-200mm. I'll go all the way to 170mm and see how that feels.

In the future I'll shoot for 175mm droppers. That seems like the sweet spot for me.

Good insight here, I went from 150mm to 180mm dropper in last iteration of bike futzing and I can confirm the experience of "hey that a little TOO low thanks".

Fortunately it's a OneUp and I can adjust the travel as well - I hadn't considered doing it until now, your rambling bike nerdery has given my psychic permission.

This is my first post (and the first time I've read the NSMB.com forums) in several years, but hopefully I can contribute something.

Cam, awesome OP, lots of thought provoking ideas and lots of good replies as well.

It's surprising that in all the comments, nobody has made mention of the most notorious instance of herd mentality from the 20th century, that of Nazi coercion of ordinary people to do horrible things to other human beings. Granted, there could be nasty physical consequences if you didn't do what they wanted, but none the less, a pragmatic modern society somehow allowed persecution of citizenry to run rampant, with very little resistance.
Then take the Milgram experiments - on the basis of the fake experimenter's assumed authority, a lay-person can be persuaded to zap a (fake) victim with electric shocks. Not everyone goes to the peak voltage, but the fraction of ordinary common-sense people who do is significant.
Then take the the Standford Prison experiments - fake prisoners and fake guards go bananas on each other with little provokation other than a license to act.
I'm sure we can all think of instances in our lives, as Cam suggested, where we do things that aren't quite angelic in nature but we justify it in many ways. Hopefully these acts don't involve inflicting direct suffering on others, but clearly that's not so unlikely either.

So what? The point is that, if not all of us, then a huge (majority) fraction of our populace can, will and do behave badly, even brutally given the right conditions. An enormous mob of 100,000 and a handful of cops essentially turns the tables on authority and creates a new social norm of breaking windows (snitching on your neighbour to the SS), looting London Drugs (delivering electric shocks) and stealing mannequins (stripping a fake prisoner and leaving them shivering in a cold cell overnight). Am I (or is Cam) saying that this is a legit excuse and that makes it OK? Nope - clearly there is responsibility and will, in particular with the instigators and provocateurs; I'd also suggest that age and experience can cushion us from social pressures and firm up our internal convictions regarding right and wrong (hence the rioters were mostly young, dumb and full of PnV). But we have to acknowledge that ALL humans (yes, even me, even you) have enormous capacity for good and ill under good and ill circumstances. I share the opinion that a hockey riot is hardly a life and death situation that places such duress on individuals. However the sometime ephemeral nature of our moral compasses is very real, which accounts for why that theme is so prevalent our history, literature and philosophy.

Quote time:
"the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. Even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained; and even in the best of all hearts, there remains a small corner of evil."

Points to who can name the author!

Newsflash, Landis really is a cheating, lying loser!

That pretty boy Floyd article misses the point:

1) Landis cheated - now that may be common, but just like crosschecking, sometime the penalty is called, and sometimes it isn't, and sometimes the consequences can be a big deal. In cycling, doping in the TDF is a pretty big gamble, so you'd better be ready for the consequences and deal with them appropriately.

2) Of course, nobody really is ready for the consequences. however, there have been plenty of cyclists caught doping and they either 'fess up, or slink away with their tails between their legs. To lie vigorously to the sanctioning bodies, the press and your funding supporters for four years is pathetic and cowardly.

3) Now, to confess with the caveat that hey, everyone else is doing it, in particular those colleagues who are more decorated, celebrated and untarnished (lance and george) is akin to a childish tantrum - if I can't play with the toy, no one else can smash

Did Lance (or anyone else) dope? Like in "The Fugitive" when the cop corners the escapee, escapee says "I didn't do it", cop says "I don't care," that is not the issue here. Landis needs to address his own culpability, his own responsibility and his own mendacity. He should not look to the public for any support at this point, having made chumps out of us not once, but twice now. His reputation is garbage, his integrity non-existant and his appeal eroded.

Don't go away mad Floyd, just go away.

yup, that was a pretty amazing experience.
I was totally against the olympics up until the torch relay came through town and I saw what it meant to people on the street.
sure there was elitism, a big public price-tag and limited ticket availability for some major events, etc.
but there was also a lot of effort in making this accessible, relevant and local for the everyman.
oh yeah and we kicked ass.

my highlights are:
VECTORAL ELEVATION - those lights, even if they weren't olympic related, were the best and most beautiful thing that ever happened to our winter night sky. screw symphony of fire, bring those back for four weeks every February and give us something to cheer our dreary evenings.

Transit - Translink gave us tons of busses, dedicated lanes and seamless connections and waddya know? we all took the bus and traffic was minimal. Give us a real transit system and people will use it.

Pedestrian ways - as mentioned above, blocking off a few streets downtown for foot-traffic really made people connect. This needs to happen for Vancouver to become a "world-class" city.

Overall, this event demonstrated that Vancouver is hungry for big events that will bring us together. We are only no-funcouver because we have been brainwashed into thinking that serious day-to-day activities are the way to fly. hopefully the long-term change we see is the acceptance that letting the hair down once in a while has a huge cultural value for the citizens and visitors to our city.

Good bye Olympics, we will think of you fondly…

I've used carboard boxes, padded and unpadded bags.
Cardboard is a bit of a pain to pack and cart around, but cheap, disposable and light weight.
Unpadded kinda freaked me out, but hey, my bikes are pretty burly and take the abuse well. The unpadded bag was a bit slender as well, which made packing tedious, but the airline check-ins where sometimes painless.
The big bag was a dakine monster, heavy and big and $$$, but relatively easy to pack and very re-assuring.
I have since sold the Dakine bag and now work on cardboard boxes only. This is primarily because of the non-use storage of said box is tedious, and when I go somewhere with my bike, I don't want to have a big black albatross around my neck. Much easier to ditch the cardboard, ride around whereever you want then dig up a new box for the trip home.

Thanks for the responses, I guess I was expecting too much out of the damping alone. I'll try the higher pre-load and see how the damping feels then. this ties in with option 5.
Max

170lbs
70psi
This has nothing to do with spring preload, boosting the preload is how I avoided diving with my old fork and what I don't want to do so long as fancy dampers are supposed to do the job.

I recently procured a Lyrik solo air for my big bike in the hopes that the mission control damping would help with the diving tendency of the older 66 it is replacing. As in, my understanding of the high-speed compression damping is that it kicks in and "firms" up the motion when you hit somethin' real hard-like, relieving you of the requirement to have a rock hard spring or sky-high air pressure. And that the low-speed would keep the brake dive minimal.
Ok, so I've had the fork for a few months and the compression damping doesn't seem to do SFA when you dial in one or both of the compression knobs from zero to hero. Yeah, there is a difference, but it is so slight as to be almost imperceptible to the typical human. And with both compressions to full "hard" and the air spring pump up to over the recommended range for my weight, I can still bottom it out going off a curb.
I had it serviced recently, complete oil change with a heavier weight oil and a clean bill of health from mechs I trust, and while the overall motion is gushier and more viscous in general, there just isn't the range of feeling in those adjustments. The shop dudes swear that's what they are supposed to feel like.
The rebound does what you expect, makes a big difference from open to close in the rebound speed.
So, my questions are:
1) Am I misunderstanding what these dials and knobs are supposed to do?
2) Am I expecting too much out of them?
3) Do these properties really come out only when thrashing down a gnarly hill at 60kph?
4) Did I blow a hole in $$$ for overhyped damping system?
4a) Should I chase down a warranty from my home LBS?
5) Are lyriks just like that, smoke a bowl and get over it?

thanks!

NSMB weight weenies,
I've read a few times that the Truvativ Howitzer Team BB is lighter than the Howitzer XR, but the only listed weights that i've seen are identical (around 360g for a 68/73 by 50mm CL). anyone out there actually throw them on a scale for comparison? is it significant, or just marketing/consumer-hope?
tanks!
Max

Hello,
I recently found a Lyrik Soloair in my stocking and reduced the travel to 100mm to better suit my STP. Very nice fork, like a mini-66, although at reduced travel I have to run a higher pressure than is indicated on the fork leg (~100PSI instead of the recommended 55PSI for my weight).

BUUUUUUUUUUUUT when I was doing some research into the travel adjust, I found a website/forum (mighta been pinkbike) that indicated that the all-travel spacers were no longer recommended by Rockshox for the Lyrik. I didn't pay much mind at the time, but now looking at the RS website again, there is no more mention of using the travel spacers in the Lyrik or totem forks.

needless to say, I can't find that website again…

???

anyone know anything about this phenomenon? the RS website doesn't have any sort of customer service # to call, so I'm turning to you, wise NSMB boards. comments are appreciated.

tanks!
Max