Cheez1ts profile

Great intro/preview Tim. I'm looking forward to the full-review.

I've become a bit of a Giant fanboy in the last couple years.

Hard to beat Fox or Rockshox to the punch. I’m pretty sure Fox, at some point, had a 20mm spacer in the 40s positive spring that you could move into the negative spring to run it at 180mm. And I think RockShox BoXXers were coming at 180mm on Enduro Evos at some point. 

My biggest issue with swapping brands is it gets harder to track down parts, like your firmer negative spring for example. Everything I’ve ever owned has been RockShox, for better or for worse, and now I have a treasure trove of parts to tune my forks with as a result of all of the coil conversions and damper upgrades and just general spare parts that have accumulated over the years. 35mm stanctions on everything is great.

Just more info: Paul Aston commented on this issue in his Cube 29” review too  

“ I wouldn't want the wagon wheels for constant park laps – I've already had a couple of tire-to-ass connections and I'm a tall rider – shorter pilots might not be comfortable on steep-lipped jumps where you need to let the bike come up closer to your body towards the peak of airtime.”

https://m.pinkbike.com/news/cube-stereo-two15-29-review.html

Rub in the second paragraph is referring to tire contact with your butt/crotch right?

I have this issue with 27.5 DH bike’s and asked Tim if he had the issue on the 29” Intense on his Instagram. He hadn’t. I’m curious if he’s experienced it with more time on the big wheel DH bike. 

I’m guessing riders that are clipped-in are less likely to be as low and far back over the tire though.

My experience with Öhlins is a rear shock that came on my XL Demo with too light of a spring. Dunbar wasn’t able to mount a heavy enough spring on it for me so I replaced the shock with an ‘09 Fox DHX 5.0 “temporarily”. My Öhlins has been an expensive paperweight for the last 6 months as a result of the minor inconvenience of having to go to a shop that can compress the heavier springs to get them on the shock.

Oooooh I like this. I’ve wanted big brakes and wide range 8spd since 9spd.

Thanks Andrew! I will try that. I feel like I always learn something when I comment on an NSMB article

The brakes really didn’t cut it with the stock pads. While riding with those pads in I was thinking every review should have started with “Do you need a downhill brake with not enough power?...” 

It’s still not where I want it with Shimano Pads, but I flatted my front tire second lap after putting the pads in and may have glazed them on the long fire road ride down. I’d need to do on more pad test before stating my final opinion.

I used to love The Ones and R1s back in the day, and still have a couple pairs of pads that would fit these. I’m not even finding the Quadiems to have as much bite as I like (and now that you mention it have been annoyed by their sensitivity to a warped rotor) so these Cura’s are probably not a good fit for me.

That’s great info, thanks! 

Fixing the brakes became I winter project now, but I’ll save your notes.

I’ve noticed a reduction in use of neck braces in the bike park, and an increase in chest armour / the moto chest protector Lacondeguy and crew wear at fest.

Posted by: ReductiMat

Subsequently cased the wee jump before the ending step up really hard twice before figuring it out. Just go fast.

I figured those last two were the same jumps that lead into the creek gap with some nice new dirt in them. I cased the second one super hard as well.

Ooh I quite like invergarry. Having something similar in north van would be excellent 👌

Are you on clips or flats? 

Andrew reviewed a clip pedal with an option longer spindles recently, I think they were crank brothers.

I figured out how to really easily always have my stem line up with the wheel, should probably be a new industry standard

I’ve broken a few hubs and replaced them with a hope to never have another issue. I’m not that big though.

You can order a complete wheelset off chain reaction cycles if you can wait 2-3 weeks for it to get here.

I was riding my 29r cyclocross bike on mountain bike trails for a bit and ended up blowing up the hub. I ordered a hope pro 2 laced to hope’s XC rim and it’s been problrm free for many years now. And I just got hope pro 4 hubs laced to their DH rim for my park bike this year, but haven’t ridden them yet.

^ keeping on Hepcat’s level I was thinking I have binned both brakes OP mentioned. Guide for the piston swell, and XTs for destroying themselves.

I have a pair of formula the ones from back in the day that stopped working at some point too. And I really haven’t fallen for the set of TRP brakes on my DH bike.

I need a 5 second review of the new Hayes.

I can’t figurd out how to add a photo via edit from my phone, so new post with attached pic:

I love my ‘09 Kona Steely and original 2015 Process, but I was not a fan of the 2015 Operator (still 26”, model before what you’re looking at). I came off a Yeti 303RDH that’s probably similar to your cove. The new geo (lower B.B.) was noticeable in the corners, but I just never seemed to click with that bike. It was possibly just because at the time the reach on the Operator was shorter than the Process and had smaller wheels and a longer stem.

I got rid of the Kona and am pretty happy on a longer 2017 27.5 Spec Demo now, but I do wonder about the pulley wheel commencial/gt suspension platform paired with 27.5 wheels for a solid flat-pedal park-bike. I struggled keeping my feet on the demo for months, but eventually ditched the stock specialized pedals for DMR Vaults and stopped blowing pedals as much.

Posted by: DemonMike

Posted by: kiwizak

What about Giant Trance 29, 66.5* and 130mm fork.

x2

x3. I really liked the 27.5 trance that I rented in Salt Lake City last season. It ended up doing several days of bike park duty. If I ever felt the need to replace my hardtail with a short-travel trail bike, that would be the frame I would do it with. I have relatively short legs though, so I’m not the best to comment on the slack seat tube.