Vikb profile

I'm closing in on 200lbs ready to ride weight and have years on a few pairs of carbon cranks with no issues...despite riding some low BB bikes in rocky terrain and the inevitable smashing that results. I do use rubber crank boots, but beyond that I don't baby the cranks and they are fine.

Shouldn't be a problem only a few hold outs will still be human powered MTBing in 5-10 years so we might as well kill flats and just amp up the HP of the motor/battery.

"When you hit something and the rim deflects, the lower spokes lose tension yes. What does the shape of the rim do though? It ovalizes, the spokes at 9 and 3 o'clock actually see an increase in tension, I would guess more so than the spokes at 12 o'clock. These rims sound like they're uber compliant though so maybe there's a very little increase in ovalizing?"

The rim doesn't ovalize. Only a small portion of the rim deflects upwards at the bottom the other 95% of the rim doesn't change shape and the tension on those spokes stays essentially unchanged.

Perry Schebel - this is correct. The hub is supported by the tension in the spoke or two at the bottom. These lose some, but not all tension when the rim deflects upwards at the bottom. The remaining spokes do not support the hub. A wheel being a tensioned structure has highest tension with no load on it. The loads applied by a rider lessen the tension on those bottom spokes.

Yes that'll be interesting to see what happens long-term. The rider's weight is supported by a few spokes at the bottom of the wheel not by the rest of the spokes in the wheel. So those spokes have to have enough tension that when the rim deflects upwards they are not fully de-tensioned or they will fail.

Zipp presumably put wheels through extensive machine testing and trail testing so they should be fine, but that photo showing the bent spoke doesn't look like it's a sustainable wheel design. Time will tell.

"Like loads of SRAM stuff, some people have great experiences, loads have shocking ones - that inconsistency in QC is the real problem."

Read up on the last generation of Shimano brakes. Lots of people [myself included] had issue with them so design/QC problems are not just a SRAM issue.

Yes I've had zero issues with the Codes and frankly all my previous SRAM/Avid brakes, but the last generation Shimano XTs gave me fits with that inconsistent braking point issue. If I have to buy new brakes I'll just get another set of Codes so I can stock one type of brake pad for multiple bikes.

You make a good point. I rarely buy complete bikes, but I did last year and it came with GX Eagle which has been flawless. So I have wheels with XD drivers and the older Shimano splined freehubs. I'm not going out of my way to buy something new that's incompatible with my existing wheels. The existing SRAM 11/12speed and Shimano 11speed options with hacks meet my needs pretty well.

Same goes with brakes. That bike came with Codes and they worked so well I haven't had much interest in going back to Shimano.

From PB's WBP opening day survey. SRAM was #1 in forks, shocks, brakes and derailleurs. Shockingly at 77% for brakes and 71% for derailleurs. 

Shimano has a solid hill to climb to eat into SRAM's market share.

People seem pretty hung up on Reach and ignore Stack when comparing bikes. Since Reach depends on Stack to make any sense that leads people to make erroneous fit assumptions. And while Eff TT has fallen out of fashion on the geo chart it's still pretty vital to pay attention to it  to understand how a bike will fit seated.

And I'd add that STAs are getting steep enough that you need to understand how your body feels about them because I think we've gone far enough in the steep direction that they are causing issues for some folks who never paid much attention to STAs in their slacker days. I'm in that camp, but I notice comments popping up on forums expressing the same sentiments so I am not alone. To be fair the same was true when STAs were quite slack. It was just different people who were complaining. I bring it up because if you are one of those people who don't get on with steep STAs and find out you need/want a slacker STA and say install a 1" setback dropper on your bike it's like going up 1 full size in a lot of brands for seated fit.  So that's something you need to factor in when selecting a bike.

To your point about rim + tire combos being variable. It comes down to manufacturing/design tolerances. If you have an undersized bead seat and and undersized tire you could get a nice setup, but really that's a fail on both products that just happens to work.

If you own both and like 'em sweet, but that's not something to shoot for.

Posted by: Kenny
With ebikes the only cap is technology. if ebikes are not a motorbike loophole currently, it's pretty tough to imagine they won't be in the future. It's the nature of capitalism and "progress" that makes this inevitable. That'scary.

Yes. That's the problem. We would never have been okay with gas motorcycles on MTB/hiking trails, but because there is an electric motor and a lower powered stock configuration as "get the foot in the door" product it now makes sense to mix motors and human powered recreation like that? The process of getting faster/more powerful e-motos on these trails is inevitable.

If riders/MTB companies don't care and think that's a good idea we can agree to disagree, but please don't come back in 5-10 years and act like they couldn't see this coming.

Posted by: Hepcat

Dismayed to discover during yesterdays ride that both the guys who ride e-bikes at my local (highly sensitive) trail have now pulled the cranks off. 🤢

Just throttle.

Nobody should be surprised. This idea that someone is going to inspect every electric moped/motorcycle to see if it meets some arbitrary authorized standard is fantasy. If you let motors on the trails you let anything even remotely resembling what's legal onto the trails. That's just our new reality. Pedaling is now optional. If pegs catch too much attention that same throttle equipped moped will get the pedals reinstalled just to get past any parking lot scrutiny and on the trails he can happy pin the throttle and shred.

Posted by: tungsten

Uh oh....

I just dusted off my GG Smash [metal frame] after riding my older MTB in the winter. I'm trying out a -1 deg headset this season which is similar to the front end geo of the new carbon Smash. Climbs great and descends like a champ. It's a nice all rounder with enough travel to tackle anything I have the courage to throw myself down without punishing me on big climbs and all day rides. We ordered up a carbon Smash for my GF so I'll get to see the new design. I have no plans to get rid of my metal bike or upgrade at this point. It just works too damn well and it's paid for!

For those who don't like the shock placement I have to disagree. Not on aesthetic grounds, but because I can get a waterbottle above the shock and then a decent sized frame bag below the shock so I can ride packless and still help fix other people's broken down rigs on the trail. My frame has a 2nd bottle mount under the DT so I can skip the pack on 99% of my rides which I love.

You mean bikes I would buy if they held two water bottles and a frame bag! I'm not going backwards on H20 and tool storage onboard the bike. :)

I'm 200lbs ready to ride and I have only noticed stiffness issues with some carbon wheels and some 35mm carbon bars. Both of which can degrade the ride quality by transmitting more vibration than less stiff alternatives. As far as cranks go I have over 5yrs on Next SLs with no issues and just got a set of Next R's at the start of this summer. The cranks and RF's BBs have worked well for me both threaded and PF varieties. 

I just got a Boost bike and can't tell any difference from my 100/142 bikes that I can trace back to the wider hubs.

I'm shopping for a hardtail at the moment and I am doing my best to find one with a pleasant amount of flex for my weight/power and avoid an overly stiff frame.

The MTB industries constant marketing spew about more and more and more stiffness is stupid. You don't want the stiffest bike possible. You want the various components of your bike to be appropriately stiff for your needs. That gets too complicated to discuss in an advertisement sound bite so we are left with "MOAR STIFFERER THAN EVER!" ;)

I've run the 2.4" Conti Trail King as a winter tire the last 6-7 years on Van Isle. Great traction. Rolls fast.

I had been wanting a 29er for a few years. I demo'd a bunch of bikes and remained intrigued, but never managed to settle on a wagon wheeler that checked all my boxes. So I bought a couple 275ers and rode those. Fast forward 5yrs and I stumbled across Guerrilla Gravity bikes. They look great. Have all the features I wanted and my 29er stoke was high so I pulled the trigger.

A couple blog posts about the build and why I picked the Smash:

https://vikapprovedblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/05/guerilla-gravity-smash-29er/

https://vikapprovedblog.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/guerrilla-gravity-smash-build/

3 months in I'm really happy I made the choice. This bike was fun from the first pedal stroke [unlike my 29er demos] and has exceeded all my expectations. I knew it would be a great a descender, but the climbing capabilities of the Smash are a nice surprise. I'm glad I took a chance on GG and finally got a big wheeler. It's been a blast to ride.

I'm working on a review, but I have been feeling lazy. I'll post a link here when I get 'er done. :)

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/vikapproved/sets/72157691878835305

Posted by: PSY

for you guys that use waist packs...do they ever move around a lot while going through chunder and stuff?

Our rides all seem to start with big climbs so the fanny bag is no issue for that and I will empty the water in the fanny pack first so usually when I am headed down and things get zesty the fanny bag is empty or nearly so and I don't even know I have it on.

Posted by: PSY
thanks for sharing this - good tip on the soft bottle. definitely gonna try this setup out
what's inside the timbuk2?

I carry my phone in there...mostly to take photos with.

Posted by: grambo

Semi thread jack -- what fanny packs are people running? Anyone using ones with built in bladder? For longer rides, I have an Osprey hydration pack with a 3L bladder (never use 3L except Chilcotins -- usually 1.5-2L for long hot days). For after work shore rides I am dumb and just carry a multi-tool in pocket and my 500ml water bottle on bike, if I flat I walk/trail run out. Fanny pack with 1L seems like it could eliminate my need for the pack on pretty much all rides.

I've tried a number of fanny packs. My favourite is this $15 MEC bag. Holds a 1L soft bottle plus a couple extra things. With 500-600ml on the bike plus tools on the bike I rarely need more than this. I drink from the bottle on the bike and refill from the soft bottle in the pack. That means by the time I am ready to get shreddy on the descents I don't have much weight in the fanny pack I don't notice it at all.