Scotty T
Walks the walk
My mate has a 2009 Specco Stumpy, he came off it about 18 months ago and ripped the tendon off that holds the thumb on, surgery and recovery etc. He was applying for a job as a postie at the time, that got delayed but eventually he got the job and then moved from petrol bike to e-bike postie, he's the one who built these.
He was entertaining a new bike but didn't have the budget so I gave him the advice that the best things to fix the bike would be tubeless, wide bars and dropper, in that order. We did the work over the weekend, but not knowing what to get for the tubeless since I've only done it on tubeless ready wheels he didn't get rim strips. Watched more Stan's videos on it and found the correct one about the rim strips, went out and paid the Canberra Pushy's in-store tax ($15 more for a pair) then went to buy a beer there and discovered they aren't licensed so the beer was free, good result drinking a free beer drooling over bike pr0n.
The Stan's kit and Maxxis High Roller 2's went on perfectly, he got the cheaper KS external routed dropper which was a bit tricky for him to install because the manuals suck, and on advice passed by me from here, he got Spank vibro-core bars. Had his first dirt ride in 18 months yesterday, we did a short run around lower Stromlo and he was digging the massive tranformation of the bike.
For general speed and confidence, I think those three things outweigh most other advances since 2009, particularly if you were MTB'ing in the 90's. His first impressions were that the bar was making the biggest difference, but I reckon on his first ride with tubeless he's nowhere near exploring what they are going to do for his speed yet. He also came from a low 600's bar width and now running 760 so that difference would be exaggerated. He's stoked and keen to get back into riding.
He was entertaining a new bike but didn't have the budget so I gave him the advice that the best things to fix the bike would be tubeless, wide bars and dropper, in that order. We did the work over the weekend, but not knowing what to get for the tubeless since I've only done it on tubeless ready wheels he didn't get rim strips. Watched more Stan's videos on it and found the correct one about the rim strips, went out and paid the Canberra Pushy's in-store tax ($15 more for a pair) then went to buy a beer there and discovered they aren't licensed so the beer was free, good result drinking a free beer drooling over bike pr0n.
The Stan's kit and Maxxis High Roller 2's went on perfectly, he got the cheaper KS external routed dropper which was a bit tricky for him to install because the manuals suck, and on advice passed by me from here, he got Spank vibro-core bars. Had his first dirt ride in 18 months yesterday, we did a short run around lower Stromlo and he was digging the massive tranformation of the bike.
For general speed and confidence, I think those three things outweigh most other advances since 2009, particularly if you were MTB'ing in the 90's. His first impressions were that the bar was making the biggest difference, but I reckon on his first ride with tubeless he's nowhere near exploring what they are going to do for his speed yet. He also came from a low 600's bar width and now running 760 so that difference would be exaggerated. He's stoked and keen to get back into riding.