Poodle style...a second vision

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
This may be the fastest build I have ever had! I present my new dirt jumping, street shredding, stair gap slaying, dead beat attention grabbing, free ride slope style whatever I feel like riding bike!

The proof is in the pudding:
Frame: Pivot m4x with Fox Float, 100mm.
Fork: fox 36 talas 160/120mm, with special-k. (Adj low and high-speed compression and rebound)
Stem: fire eye talon
Bars: control tech CLS
Headset: nuke proof depth charge
Grips: DMR lock on
Brakes: Shimano XT with Ashima rotors (160mm)
Wheels: Hope hubs (blue) with Sun MTX33 rims. Yes I took up the brass nipple option.
Tyres: street - Halo twin rail 26x2.2. Dirt - DMR moto digger 2.35
Pedals: DMR v12
Crank: saint 170mm (Zee 36t ring)
Chain guide: e13 LS1
Chain: KMC gold number
Shifter: SRAM x0 (10speed)
Rear dérailleur: SRAM x9
Cassette: Shimano Ultegra 11-28t
Seat post: Nuke Proof warhead
Seat: DMR
Seat clamp: token super light thing (with titanium bolt!)
Grease: Lannox (my hands are so soft right now...)

That's pretty much everything I can think of...there is a few headset spacers, wow. Anyway 13.5kg as presented in the photo, I've since cut the seat post. So bye bye 37g...

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pink poodle

気が狂っている男
Had the first ride today. The bike performed much the same as the predecessor, being awesome. The fox forks are really nice. I still miss the Marzocchi butter...

Stand out components:
- clutched rear mech (a ride free from chain rattling pimp slaps was nice)
- v12 pedals are really comfortabe and secure.
- DMR seat is surprisingly unintrusive. I generally like to y box style seats as they don't get in the way. This seat was never causing grief.

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I was a little over excited about the colour scheme on my ride out this morning!
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pink poodle

気が狂っている男
How does it fly?
With a lot more grace than the pilot! The bike has very short stays, but a longish and low top tube. I don't feel cramped in the cockpit which assists in stability and manoeuvrability. The short stays help it feel stiff and keep the tyre out of the way when doing tricks like whips or transfers.
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
if Camo was still around, he would roll you for those shoes!
I'd be safe, they aren't Nike...

The bike rolls so fine. I had the dmr moto tyres on for my sunday ride. They delivered solid results. Given the rain on saturday they were shedding mud at a ralid rate! I have a wheel currently being built at the lbs out of an mavic 729 rim and a da bomb hub. Both are brand new. The rim has been in my spares pile for about 5 years! I will soon have dirt and street wheel sets.
 

link1896

Mr Greenfield
I'd be safe, they aren't Nike...

The bike rolls so fine. I had the dmr moto tyres on for my sunday ride. They delivered solid results. Given the rain on saturday they were shedding mud at a ralid rate! I have a wheel currently being built at the lbs out of an mavic 729 rim and a da bomb hub. Both are brand new. The rim has been in my spares pile for about 5 years! I will soon have dirt and street wheel sets.

Ritchey slicks?
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
Totally #Nduro...

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Smashed out a couple of shuttles of a local enduro fan boy trail today. Did the first lap running the forks low and popping off many a rock and water bar. With the flick of a switch I was at 160mm and everything was much smoother. The bike rode seemlessly all day, I rediscovered an old section of trail I'd not ridden for many years, and nobody got hurt.
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
Ride update...

I took the bike to Ourimbah for a session on the DH track. This is usually a pretty solid test for a short travel bike, and it performed very well.

While I didn't attempt the 2 biggest jumps on the track and almost ate shit over the first small rock drop at the start, the bike was comfortable in the top section of the track. It felt superb through the sequence of whoops and step down to small double to small table (the b-line). Corners really well in the berms and the dmr moto tyres provided plenty of tread (I was running 40psi out of fear of pinch flatting).

The really rocky chute not far past turtle rock was surprisingly smooth. I had expeceted to crawl though, but had a brain fart at the first pallet...and hucked into it flat out. Suddenly I was at the end doing a mad skid waiting for my buddies. Speaking of skids, I'm running 160mm rotors on xt brakes and had no issues all day. I don't doubt that the small rotors will bite cock on a full run, but today they were sweet.

I chugged through the Nduro switchbacks and up over the roller coaster as well. This bike could be good for such riding, but the rider is not. Needed a nap at the start of the roller coaster descent. Lots of fun in there though. I also rode Swaz's berm. It was cool, currently faced with slabs of rock/concrete. I can't wait for the kicker into it!

The final section of the dh track - the fun bits - was really sweet. The bike loves jumps and fast smooth trail. I gapped the berms comfortably as well. Those last 2 berms have been trashed though, which was really disappointing. Some pole smokers have been over them in a car, probably a 4wD. That kind of shit is so frustrating.

Also noted a sick new feature at the start of the track...

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Why did the bumper not burn? Or did the arsonist/s bring a spare bumper from the wreckers to confuse everyone? I suspect it will be there a while.
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
Time for an update...

It's been quite a few months now, so plenty of time to wear in the bike and know what is good and what is not so good.

General
I love the overall ride. It is smooth, low, light and really manoeuvrable. There is a lot of jumping done with this thing and it has handled it all perfectly. It is a lot of fun for tricks too. It also bunny hops with ease, something I attribute to the short rear end.

Good bits
- I'm really happy with the drive train. x0-x9 shifting is crisp. I recently replaced the cable after the sram original snapped. e13 chain guide delivers security. Saint crank is...Saint crank.
- The pedals (DMR v12) are light weight and really comfy. The paint is not so durable, but I can overlook that.
- Sun mtx33 rims to hope hubs have performed perfectly as my street wheels. Combined with the halo tyres there is plenty of fast rolling and grip on concrete tar etc. I've ridden dirt on these tyres a little as well and they have done ok. The off-road wheels are a Mavic 729. It dinged recently when I hit a small tree stump. I felt this was a bit poor for a rim of such high reputation.
- Fire Eye stem is going really nicely.
- DMR seat feels the goods. A few chums now have the same.

The not so good
- The shimano XT brakes are delivering enough power, and the low maintenance is great, but sometimes I would like a more powerful brake. I will probably not bother upgrading though as the XT work just fine.
- Fox talas 36 forks...I love the look and the feel, but have suffered the dreaded creaking steerer. No issue it was all swiftly resolved under warranty and I now have a complete set of the same fork. Though my preference was for a refund so I could get some Marzocchi...if these ones creak I shall be unhappy
- Frame bearings. It seems I have destroyed my first ever bearing. It only took a few months. Got the bike booked in for repair as I don't have the tools. Once this is resolved I expect much zen happiness.
- The DMR grips feel awesome and look nice. But they don't have much longevity. I was sworn off them until they were on sale for $3 a pair. So now I have a few sets.
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
Some recent changes...
- Bearing repair is chugging along. I do fear it happening again so will hopefully get my finger out and find a roller bearing to suit. Just in case...
- I wanted a smaller dirt jump/bmx style seat (like I had on original version). CRC recently had this Blank seat on a hefty discount so i decided to give it a try. Works ok so far, I'm not too keen on riding it far on it. Not sure the colour works with green either...it is part horrific part success. Seat may end up on the DH/FR pig.
- New green pedals to install. Se Fire-eye plastics I grabbed for the pig. Shaving off crazy grams!
- Added a few grams as well. I fudged out the Ti bolt in my seat clamp. While I love the seat and post security that bolt up was offering I'm going to run a qr collar for a while. Good bye 7 gram seat clamp. I attended the local specialist bolt shop to get something hi-ten to replace the Ti bolt but was unsuccessful. I ended up with a similar thread with an imperial head.

Some pics...because bike porn:

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The bike continues to deliver great rides. I dropped a bunch of air out of it last weekend. Was riding the dh at Ourimbah and was finding all the brake bumps, ruts and rocks a bit rough with 120/100mm.
 
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