thaaad profile

So that's exactly what I was referring to when I was mentioning air / nitro ingress but wasn't sure how technical we wanted to get in the comment section. Failed IFP seals are easily one of the most common failures we saw in rear suspension when I was a tech.

Glad to hear that it wasn't as bad as it could have been and that you're confident in your assessment of the bike! I really like those bikes so I'm glad to hear that it was a killer ride regardless of the blown shock :)

In terms of blown shocks a massive majority of the time people are (knowingly or unknowingly) referring to 1 of 2 things which are loss of oil from the damper, or air/nitrogen ingress in to the oil volume.

Neither of these are independent to rebound or compression. If you lose oil or you have air in your oil this is going to affect both compression and rebound. If you have no oil, or your oil volume is say 50% air due to both oil loss and air ingress then your damping and compression are both going to function incorrectly, objectively.

See this video below for an example of how most twin tube shocks function.

https://vimeo.com/130459969

The perception of the ride is also highly dependent on the severity of the failure as well. If it is just a small amount of oil loss or air ingress you will likely perceive very little change but if it is a ton of air in the damper or complete oil loss then you're looking at a potential loss of 100% of both compression and rebound damping which of course would severely impact your ride feel to the point of being potentially dangerous.

If your shock is not functioning as it should due to a high volume of air in your oil then you might have the impression of the bike being "lively" since the damper is providing very little resistance in both directions and will feel very soft and active.

I do not personally agree that the damping is as low down the priority list as your post makes it out to be, but that's a subjective opinion. I am just one guy and I am comfortable being proven wrong.

I do think there is still value in the review and I do agree that you can definitely feel a bike out with a blown shock it's just unfortunate that the impressions were (potentially) affected by an improperly functioning shock.

TLDR: Edit - I mostly agree with you, but I think it's more nuanced than proposed. Aaaaand my statements are presented entirely on the idea that this is a run of the mill seal failure (which is most likely) rather than something catastrophic.

In no world would I endorse discounting your experiences or what you said in your review so I apologize if that comment came across that way. Am just musing mostly, not trying to undermine your opinion at all.

Shock performance is just such a massive part of how an FS bike rides (goes wihtout saying) that even a perfectly functioning shock that is just set up poorly could greatly colour our experience on a bike.

Either way I still enjoyed the write up :)

I'd be interested in how much the blown shock contributed to the impressions of the bike. No disrespect to Dave but I am highly skeptical that someone could get an accurate impression of how a bike rode with a blown shock, no matter how objective one was trying to be.

I'll never stop saying Rad. Even when I'm an old person.

I have a pair of the low top Trailcross. For walking around and casual use they are some of my favorite shoes I've ever owned. Super light, super comfy, grippy, they dry super fast, I love them.

For riding? Not a chance. I took them for one casual ride around the neighborhood to feel them out and the soles just do not have enough support. I can feel the individual pedal pins in my feet. If I can feel that just around a flat road I can't imagine how bad it would be on a trail.

I do love them I just could never ride MTB in them.

He's an alien, confirmed.

I spent about a year on flats around 2015/16 with good shoes and pedals and never felt as good as I do on clips, which doesn't surprise me considering I've been riding clips since the mid 90's lol

I got some DMR Vaults and some Freerider Pros, wish me luck!

Who knows, but they're staying on until I feel great on them. Could be a week (lol) could be a year.

I am hoping this will help me overcome my largest riding weakness which is jumping, since I think this weakness stems from fear of being unable to ditch the bike in the air if things go... poorly.

If you have complaints about the moderation please save them for the appropriate channels. This thread is not one of those channels.

It's perfect.

Posted by: AndrewMajor

I have what I'd call an above average number of experiences with Lefty strut systems

I mean this completely in jest, but that could still be in the single digits lol. Most people I know don't even touch them.

I kid, I kid. I worked at a Cannondale dealer back in the day and when it came to their suspension products the word from Cannondale was basically "swap the cartridge, or swap the fork, those are your only options". We had a bunch of cartridges and I probably only swapped like 10 during my 3-4 years at that shop.

I went from my 27.5 Chromag Wideangle to a 29 Norco Torrent and it was the worst bike swap I've ever done.

#opinions

wow, critical mass. That's a blast from the past.

Can we get back to complaining about Vancouver instead of complaining about each other?

Posted by: AndrewMajor

The price of a Corvette only really matters to people in the market for a Corvette.

This really says it all to me.

I just can't afford the best of the best.

Even as someone who currently does / and has worked in the industry for years I've rarely had top of the line parts aside from suspension. With the money I've earned "good enough" has always been good enough for me. Maybe that says more about the pay in the bicycle industry than it does about my desired standards of parts. I dunno.

I ride clipless when I want to.

I ride flats when I want to.

There are some things I'm better at on clipless.

There are some things I'm better at on flats.

It's as simple as that for me.

Excuse me that is offensively nice wtf