mammal's posts

Posted by: andy-eunson

Posted by: Hepcat

NOT WHEN YOU PUT IT DERAILLEUR SIDE DOWN. 

THE HORROR.

It could be worse. The bike could be upside down.

What's wrong with upside down? I often do that while resting pre-descent style, it help lube the fork bushings and seals for extra smooth action.

I've always run 165 cranks on my DH bikes (at least since 2008), and 175 everywhere else. When I got my new suspension trail bike in 2020, it came with my first set of 170's, and man, I'm glad it did. It was way better for clearance vs. modern BB's, but even at 170 it took a while for steep-ish climbing to feel normal. Getting used to 5mm shorter cranks, plus 29er wheels at the same time took some time, but they feel good now. I've still got 175 on the hardtail, but those feel very unwieldly now that I'm used to my 170's, and I do notice myself bashing things more than I noticed before (same bike). 

In the future, I don't think I'll make the 175 choice again.

Posted by: Endurimil

LOl...Ok. Simple have them and they work as well as came off the cracked frame.  And because I know it grinds some peoples gears.

Great, as long as they work well for you. As someone with 4-piston calipers/180mm rotors on the front and back of my hard tail, I know those wouldn't be anywhere near adequate for me (power or modulation-wise), which is why I found it so shocking.

Posted by: Endurimil

Moving on from the moto assist privilege arguments....

Dear lord, that's not a cable actuated rear brake going on there, is it? This is by no means meant to be an elitist type comment, but if that's what I think it it, why would you do that to yourself willingly?

Posted by: Vikb

Posted by: mammal

All I can say is keep a good stock of hope pads if you're going on a trip, or don't live near a shop that stocks them. I only have one buddy who runs Hopes (religiously), and he's been caught out pretty bad a couple of times on out-of-town trips with the boys.

Good advice. My one set of "weirdo" brakes is on my SS HT that isn't likely to ever come on a road trip and my LBS stocks pads. For my other bikes I stick to SRAM and Shimano so there is no spares issues.

All 3 of my mtb's use the same 4-piston Shimano pads.

Posted by: FLATCH

The problem is there are too many food stations. So many different ethnic stations that you want to try them all.

Absolutely terrible problem to have.

Posted by: BurkeMtnRider

Anyone used the hope tech 4 x2's? I've been a Shimano guy for a long time and Hayes before that. First time trying these so I'm hopeful

All I can say is keep a good stock of hope pads if you're going on a trip, or don't live near a shop that stocks them. I only have one buddy who runs Hopes (religiously), and he's been caught out pretty bad a couple of times on out-of-town trips with the boys.

Posted by: FLATCH

Was given tickets to the Canucks last night. Great seats! They got shut out.

I went to the same game, $1000 seats that my wife got in a work charity auction for $90 each (Club 500, private entrance and the best buffet I ever ate). Not a Canucks fan, so didn't care who won.

But after 3 plates, I had no room for the amazing desert table, and couldn't keep up to my usual 1 beer per period:(

I'd love a Lowdown in no-shock/frame-only.

Posted by: velocipedestrian

Posted by: Kenny

Posted by: mammal

That's really interesting. In my experience with the Diamond and Onyx, the HSC dial is very stiff, and is probably the last adjustment that would ever self-adjust during riding. So stiff that I usually need to use the LSC adjuster, at it's max or min extent, to help wind the HSC adjuster in either direction. Then I reset the LSC to where it should be.

Yeah that's how mine is as well, no way HSC would move on its own. I wonder if he means the OTT?

Nope. HSC.

And yes, it's stiff AF to turn by hand. Unless a buddy has been messing with me, or I've been turning it without updating my note file, it's turned just through use.

I know it sounds super unlikely, and I was very surprised to find it, but just as a data point to check if something feels off, there you go.

Fair enough. I'm on 3 different DVO forums, and two Ibis Ripmo AF forums which are bikes that almost exclusively include Diamond and Onyx forks. I've never heard of HSC self adjusting, although OTT is a bad one for self adjusting (as Kenny mentioned), and LSC is easy to bump out of position by accident.

Then looking at the mechanism itself, if the knob is very difficult to turn by hand, it's going to take a lot of force for the internal assembly to self-adjust, and that stiff knob will turn along with it. If I were you, I'd use a paint pen or silver sharpy to mark the setting position, ride a bunch, and confirm for sure that it's self adjusting. If/once you confirm for sure, that's a specialty question for DVO (they're VERY helpful with end user communications), because your problem itself is "as rare as hens teeth".

That's really interesting. In my experience with the Diamond and Onyx, the HSC dial is very stiff, and is probably the last adjustment that would ever self-adjust during riding.  So stiff that I usually need to use the LSC adjuster, at it's max or min extent, to help wind the HSC adjuster in either direction. Then I reset the LSC to where it should be.

Posted by: Kenny

Honestly PB buy sell is pretty good as far as exposure/traffic, in it's pretty massive these days, I think displacing it is a pretty tall order.

Integrating shipping would be a pretty cool feature, though.

I agree with this. PB is very efficient, and at least in the mountain bike sphere, reaches everyone I need to reach. Shipping options are as broad as the seller is willing to do (as it should be), and in 20 years of using it, I have yet to have an issue buying or selling.

Posted by: fartymarty

Also while i'm having a brain dump - does anyone else soften their suspension for winter?

I was out riding last night and it was particularly slippery and slow and I was thinking that I should drop in my softer springs into my forks and rear shock. I figure you're going a lot slower than summer and are less likely to bottom so you may as well run more sag to get more grip. Damping will need to be adjusted to suit - quicken everything up because it's all moving slower anyway (slower impacts).

I make sure to air up both ends after the bike has reached outside temp, then reduce compression and rebound damping a little bit. I've found if it's around zero or below freezing outside (pressure set inside 20C house), the fork can be around 10psi lower, shock about the same, and then my shock bladder is ridiculously low. So I run regular pressure (acclimatized), or else I'm bottoming out and/or wallowing without support, and then just adjust damping accordingly.

Posted by: Zowsch

Lynx OGT just released a new light specifically designed for activities like night riding.

https://www.lynxogt.com/product-page/ixea-headlamp

"It uses 4 high end Cree LEDs and a large lens to create a combination of a wide 130 degree flood beam and far-reaching spot beam simultaniously"

I saw that a couple days after receiving my second Raven Double. Although it's got 4 LEDs and a wider spread, I find it's interesting that it claims a lower lumen rating than the Raven Double, and the same run time. Just speculation, this leads me to believe that the advantage of the Otus is a wider spread, while having slightly less light intensity.

After a few night rides on the Raven Double, I know for sure that I don't need a wider spread, it's more than adequate. The raven double has a bit of a brighter spot in the middle, but fades nicely to a consistent peripheral spread. Perhaps the advantage of the Otus is that it has a really big spread with even intensity throughout. If so, that could make a superior bar light, while the spot on the Raven Double could be better for the head lamp (depending on preference).

For the record, I'm still really happy with the performance of these lights. They're not nuclear-blast bright like some of the mega units, but it's ample light with 2 lamps, and so convenient.