XC Turner Czar

Cardy George

Piercing rural members since 1981
Why thank you. Two years ago I'd had laughed at myself about building an XC race bike as I pulled up on my 14kg Canfield.

Now I'm a total weight weenie who watches what he eats and trys to train at least 5 days a week.

Sigh, how times have a changed
I see this in my future :confused:
 

slider_phil

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Been running out of gears around the local haunts so I chucked on a 34t chainring I had in the parts bin. Frame says it's doable but it's bloody close. After a ride tonight there's a few little marks on the silver bits but nothing worrying.

Plan is to buy a 32t oval and swap out the 11-40 cassette for something like a 10-46 or 9-46. That'll give me a bit extra range either way since the plan is to race 6hrs on this thing.

The 70mm stem is still playing nice but for the price of these stems I might try an 80mm on it before fully committing.

Also tried so get someone to separate their stepcast 34mm fork off a frame sale on FB today too but they didn't bite, bugger
 

slider_phil

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Took it up to the high country over the weekend due to the wife running the Spartan race in Bright on both the Saturday and Sunday.

Unfortunately the local trails were closed due to maintenance and said race but a local mate and I decided to drive up to Dinner Plain to check out some of the trails they'd been building up there, since neither of us had tried them.

The obvious choice would have been Ignition up at Falls Creek but I have two little kids to look after and old mate I was with has a new born to contend with so an afternoon is what we had and that's what we did.

Dinner Plain at the moment only has about 10kms of trail at the moment so it's not going to be a destination Hotspot but there's more being dug and the quality is pretty good. Mostly aggressive XC style trails at the moment with nothing too gnarly to catch you out.



Funnily enough I felt like I was feeling the limit of the front end of the bike. It's an older fox 32 set to 120mm and it was knocking me about a bit. Whereas the rear end felt super composed and supportive at 100mm. I'm not usually one to suffer sore hands but I was starting to get them on the descents here.



There's a couple of fixes from what I can see, a Fit4 damper upgrade, or a new fork. Since I'm a pretty aggressive descender I'm leaning towards a stepcast 34mm at 120mm which will be the same weight as the current fork, has a better damper and will be overall stiffer. My inner weight weenie is curious about a 32 stepcast due to all those grams I could save

Afterwards I noticed another slice on my rear Aspen tyre. Not leaking but it's reaffirmed my need for at a minimum exo casing tyres. Front Rekon has exo and still looks flawless.



Then today I took it for a thrash on some local trails, with a bit of road on the way back in. Felt good to unwind the legs a bit after a busy weekend.



Going to pull the rear end apart and go over the bushings and try a few things to try and shut this creak up after a few suggestions over on mtbr. Greasing the DW Link axles only gets me a ride and a half before it sounds like a skeleton beating off in a biscuit tin down there.

 

komdotkom

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Don't be tempted by 32 Step Casts, they are like a wet noodle. I pulled a nearly new set off my my 29er and put them on my sons bike and replaced them with a DVO Diamond, couldn't be happier. That said it's not really a fair comparison given the chassis size, weight and travel are not comparable but I could never deal with the flex under heavy breaking on rough surfaces with the 32's - I hated the bike until I changed the fork. And I'm only 73kg ready to ride....
Definitely worth looking at 34's I reckon.
 

slider_phil

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Good to know. I'll aim for a 34. I've got a fox 34 on my other bike and it's plenty stiff enough for my weight (same as you). The stepcast should weigh about the same as this old 32 I reckon
 

slider_phil

Likes Bikes and Dirt
600km update.

Bike is performing above my expectations. I still can't get over that endless rear travel feeling of DW Link. That is of course until you do actually decide to huck it big time. It rides nice and high and doesn't feel like it sucks any of your power.

The front end is a different story and when you get into the rough stuff it can't hold a candle to the rear. Plan is still to change it over to a newer fork at a similar weight. Fox SC34 is at the top of the list



The other components that are finding their limits are the Stan's Crest rims. I've had to true them quite a few times already and there's a few small flat spots in the front and rear wheels from general wear and tear. Light, cheap, strong, pick two. These were cheap and light and although they've seen some big days including a number of races, I think they'll need replacing in about 6 months. The plan would be to go a carbon rim.



The 34t chainring has proven to be too big for the frame so I've got a 32t sitting there ready to go on, but I need new chainring bolts because I decided to buy a Wolftooth one which I've since found out uses different bolts that I don't have .

I'm going to swap out the 11-40t XTR cassette for something wider coming into races next year. Since I'm planning some marathon type stuff I want to be able to limit my power spikes as much as possible so a Garbunk or E-Thirteen is on the cards.



Speaking of changes. I'm trying out a number of different saddle designs to see what my rear end prefers over long distances. I'd heard good things about the Specialized Power saddles and this second hand one came up at a decent price so I jumped on it. A couple of rides in and I'm really enjoying it!



The stem however, I think will need to go. 70mm is definitely the length I want but during a ride up in Dinner Plains I got down the bottom of a rough downhill I wondered why my brakes were pointed further down than I usually have them. Turns out the bars had slipped in the stem. A quick check of the bolts and they weren't exactly loose. That's what I get for using a cheap one I guess.

Otherwise, slowly racking up the kays and doing little things to get it dialed in. Poor Intense is still hanging from the rack, begging for a ride...
 
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Oddjob

Merry fucking Xmas to you assholes
I've read that a SID is actually stiffer than a Fox 34 sc. Simon at Mtb suspension centre doesn't believe it though. He reccomends a Talas chassis as these are significantly beefed up over the standard float ones.

I see a Syntace stem and some Nextie asymmetric rims in your future.

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