My bike diary

[crank1979]

Liteville 301 - initial ride report.

I took the Liteville out to Appin to test it on the familiar race loop and the Lost Track.

I'll get it out of the way from the beginning, I didn't want to like the bike. I've been a massive Pivot fan and wanted the new Mach 5.7C. I own a Mach 5 and a Firebird that I have experimented with a great deal; changing settings on pretty much everything, swapping parts around and testing it all on the Appin tracks I'm familiar with. Ordering the Liteville frame wasn't a problem, that went smoothly, although it's not a DW Link like my other bikes. I'd test ridden one a while ago in a size too large for me and it felt okay so I decided to buy one based on this but as soon as I'd paid the deposit I thought I'd made the wrong choice. I've progressed from hardtails to single pivots to Horst Link bikes, then the SC Nomad VPP design and onto the DW Link Pivots. So for me this felt like a step back. I know, stupid thinking.

Then the first set of forks had a scratched stanchion right out of the box, local distributors took a month just to respond with "sorry we can't get that part" and then online shops were out of stock which only increased the build time. The RF Atlas cranks I wanted to use wouldn't work - that was my fault and could have been avoided if I'd researched more thoroughly earlier on. The white grips got dirty as soon as I opened the packaging. My mate couldn't find my spare seat I'd lent him.

So, off to Appin. I forgot my shock pump. I set the sag to the 'soft' setting at home an couldn't fiddle out on the track. I went for a quick spin down the first bit of singletrack, brakes not yet bedded in, handlebars a bit wider than on my other bikes, fork settings pretty well sorted out and just clicking through the gears. Everything is going well so far.

Riding along with some others and the Liteville pedalled extremely well. Better than I remembered during my original test ride. It pedals as well as the Mach 5, yet is a little more plush. Up the first climb and it felt 'fresher' than the Mach 5. The climbing feels more like the Firebird than the Mach 5, it grips up everything and while it feels very active, it didn't at any stage feel inefficient. This was the same sensation I felt when standing and pedalling. There is a little bob but nothing that feels as if it's robbing me of the effort I'm putting in. The bottom bracket is a little lower than the Pivots, but I'll experiment with the rear shock pressure to have it riding a bit higher in its travel and see how that goes. I had one big pedal strike that I knew was going to happen but the frame was just telling me to keep the speed up and pedal! The other noticeable thing that was different from my test ride was, when testing I felt the rear end hanging up on square edged stuff, but not this time around.

The light weight is certainly noticeable when climbing, but also through the turns. It corners and descends very nicely. The front end pops off everything easily, but never felt unsettled. I'll probably slow the rebound down a little for the next ride. The rear shock seems fairly basic but works beautifully. I never needed to flick the lock out lever and slowing the rebound down is easy enough on the track with gloves on thanks to the large dial.

With the integrated chain tensioner the bike was very quiet. It did cause a problem with the rear derailleur though. The derailleur has the clutch mechanism that stiffens up the spring that allows the jockey wheels to swing. When in the 36t cog on the rear it wouldn't shift back to the harder gears. Once I found this out I flicked the release lever on the derailleur and rode the rest of the track like this. Shifting performance felt the same, besides actually changing! No nose from the drivetrain with the lever in the 'off' position either. When it needs replacing an XT will be put on instead. Front shifting was great and my worry about the 38/26 combo was over nothing. It worked great. The brakes bedded in quickly and they are significantly more powerful and grabby than the old XTs I have on all of my other bikes. They'll take a little getting used to.

So overall, despite not wanting to, I really like the Liteville. The small size is perfect. The lower weight makes a big difference, it climbs both smooth and technical stuff brilliantly, accelerates as well as my Mach 5, and the geometry is spot on for me.

 

[spooky817]

Hey Crank1979,

great initial ride report! Make sure you take s shock pump on your next ride ;-) and you take the time to vary the rear shock pressure and try different shock pressure settings, it will pay off ;-)! Also, don't forget to adapt the rebound when you change the shock pressure. Small pressure amounts make a noticeable difference...

Also, with regards to the clutch mechanism...
Be aware that, to some degree you are doubling up with the Liteville. The Syntace SCS chain guide is designed to reduce drive train noise, and a large amount of this comes from the chain whiplashing onto the front chain ring - the SCS removes this happening. You should find that the drive train noise even without the new XTR clutch mechanism is significantly reduced. In essence, the Shimano XTR RD clutch mechanism is there to do something very similar to the SCS... keep down that drivetrain noise by controlling the speed the RD can move at and hence reducing the chain-slapping... you'll probably find, that to some extend with the Liteville you simply don't need both...

Oh, and just a tip if you are not doing it already... put a few drops of lube (even a low weight sewing machine oil would do the trick) on the SCS glide BEFORE EVERY RIDE! It's worth it... ;-)

Ride on... ;-)

 

[crank1979]

Thanks mate.

The shock pump is back in the bag where I thought it was, but wasn't!

I'm a little annoyed with the XTR derailleur because not only was it not what I ordered, but it was the last part to come in and when it was fitted the B-tension screw was left completely undone. I fixed that and the shifting from the largest cog improved and all of the other gears were fine, but I realised what you are saying about the derailleur clutch and the chain tensioner once I flicked the clutch to the open spot on the first ride. One of them is redundant.

 

[spooky817]

Damn XTR ...;-)

One of them is redundant.

ah, but which one... ;-)

You have both... try running the SCS without clutch engaged, and then on the same rough rocky descent, and then the engaged clutch but without the SCS... I would be interested to hear the result... I'm still running my 9sp XTR group without the clutch option ;-)

 

[crank1979]

You have both... try running the SCS without clutch engaged, and then on the same rough rocky descent, and then the engaged clutch but without the SCS... I would be interested to hear the result... I'm still running my 9sp XTR group without the clutch option ;-)

I like the integration of the Liteville frame with the SCS and Rock Guard, so I'm happy to leave the clutch off with the derailleur. Another thing iwth it is if it is engaged, in the three smallest cogs there is the chance that the derailleur cable outer can get stuck on the switch and prevent the derailleur from moving into the 3 hardest gears. This happened on the stand when I was playing with it and would not happen if the derailleur didn't have a larger bulge at that knuckle than non-plus versions. And the shifting feels better without the clutch engaged.

 

[spooky817]

Agreeeed! Good to hear you would do the same, and agree that with the Liteville the clutch function is not necessary... It means I don't need to go to the hassle of trying the "NEW" XTR...

 

[crank1979]

Replaced the fork on the Moots last night with the new warranty replacement. The steerer tube on the original one had a bit of uneven wall thickness.

 

[crank1979]

I thought I'd never buy another hardtail, but while waiting for a commuter (which is taking a little while because I changed my mind on the geometry once and have now finalised something very different to my original thoughts) I thought I'd build this one up. It'll be built as a commuter first but then be changed to run a Hammerschmidt and Alfine or Rohloff combination when the commuter turns up.

This is how it came, with the black stickers.


Then I took the stickers off.

And added a green and purple sticker to one side.

And a blue and red sticker to the other side.

 

[crank1979]

Preliminary build.



I just need to sort out the lever positions, get some bar plugs and maybe swap the chain for a newer one. Mud guards and rack to come too! I'm leaving the rear brake hose how it is because they'll be going soon anyway and the forks are set down into their travel so the front hose isn't as bad as it looks.

 

[crank1979]

Evil commuter



Set up for some hardcore commuting. It should only stay like this for a few months.

 

[agentninety3]

What tyres have you got on that?

 

[crank1979]

What tyres have you got on that?

Schwalbe Marathon Plus. My first foray back into the world of tubes for a long time. I tried to set them up tubeless but they wouldn't work.

 

[crank1979]

A few things I notice switching between bikes.

The Liteville and Evil have 710mm wide bars. The Firebird has 685mm wide bars. It's surprising how much I notice the difference in width. Getting back on the Firebird after riding the others feels very narrow, even though it's only a 25mm difference. The Firebird feels a lot more upright as well. New bars might be coming soon.

The Liteville rear suspension action feels very similar to the Firebird, which I love, but the bike still feels as fast as the Mach 5.

The new XT brakes on the Liteville with 7" rotors are significantly more powerful than the previous XT versions with 8" rotors on the Firebird, especially on the rear. I'm finding it's taking a little longer to get used to the power on the rear of the Liteville.

Royal gloves are extremely comfortable. I have a pair with the velcro wrist tab and a pair that you just pull on and they are both some of the most comfortable gloves I've used. Soft leather palm with no padding and they seem to hold together as well as anything else as well.

 

[crank1979]

I put new bars on the Firebird.


Answer ProTaper carbon AM, 720mm wide. It's amazing how much difference just going from 685mm to 720mm wide bars makes. Instantly the bike felt more comfortable and my cornering improved.

 

[crank1979]

The before use comment
I've modified the trailer to carry the wheelbarrow for this weekends track work. It's not pretty, but it should work. The riding will be slow and I could be too tired to do anything once I get to the site!





The after use comment
Regarding the trailer with the wheelbarrow on it, it was hard going! As soon as I lost momentum going uphill it meant pushing and that sometimes required another person to help get the beast up the hill. Sand was fun too, causing much amusement for onlookers waiting for me to fall off, which didn't happen! One of the other volunteers had a go and described it as riding in a stream, you just have to go where it takes you and as soon as you start to wobble hold on for dear life! I can't see the wheelbarrow being towed on the trailer ever again.

 

[taibo]

love your work Grant!

 

[crank1979]

I'm not convinced of the reliability of the Revelations on the Liteville. They've been rebuilt twice now. When they are working they are great forks. Much nicer feeling than the Fox Floats and a little stiffer too. I put a set of Marzocchi 44 RC3 Titanium forks on it to see how they go.

 

[crank1979]

I realised the other day that I didn't have anything in this thread about my first real mtb, so here goes...

I started with this bike here in 1996. It was my very first mountain bike after riding road bikes for a few years. I custom made it as my DT hsc major project with the help of 2 frame builders, Frank Paino and Kerry Hopkins. I had the idea to bend the seat stays into an S shape but Frank didn't like the idea and wouldn't help me if i bent them how i wanted so i bought a second set of stays from him but all he had was road tubing and they ended up snapping after about a year of abuse. Frank helped me braze the front triangle together on his jig, Kerry helped me braze the chain stays on and i rode 20km from Liverpool to home with it under my arm when it was done and then i brazed the seat stays on at school because i didn't need a jig for those ones. Guess what all of the new model bikes came out with the year after i made this one? That's right, S bend stays! I was a year ahead of the game! Now it might look like pink, but the colour is actually Amethyst from the 1995 model Ford Festiva catalogue and it originally had Judy Yellow staight blade steel forks. You can't beat the beauty of a fillet brazed steel frame, although titanium comes awfully close.



It was originally built up with a full Shimano Deore LX groupset, Velocity Aeroheat AT blue anodised rims (absolute garbage), Kore stem, Kalloy seat post and bars, Wheelsmith 14g spokes, Zoom bar ends, no name tyres, SDG Bel Air seat I think and Tioga Surefoot IV pedals.

The first frame broke just in time for me to receive my first scholarship while at uni. Some of the scholarship money went to buying the Assama on the first page. It was fully tricked out with the latest 24 speed gears, cantilever brakes and Rock Shox Mag 21 suspension forks that had no damping by the end of every ride and spewed oil everywhere! It went through a few different builds including running the Marzocchi Z1 Drop Offs that I later fitted to the Norco VPS. It had done pretty much everything from XC racing (slowly), commutting to work and a stint in the Sydney CBD as a bike courier! I ended up giving it away about 3-4 years ago when we moved house.

Then as a uni assignment i made this next one. I was devastated with it not turning out because i machined the swingarm shock mount at the wrong angle. It was heavy and needed some fine tuning but the ideas i had for it have shown up on other bikes since so i'm glad that the ideas were at least good ones. I went for a very brief ride on it and liked the slightly slacker head tube angle i used that has now become a bit more of the norm. I took night classes at TAFE to be able to tig weld aluminium, made up a prototype jig and machined everything at uni. It was a great learning experience but at the time i wasn't happy at all, until i bought the next bike! (The Norco VPS on page 1)

 

[crank1979]

I've had a few issues with the commuter but I reckon I've got it sorted now. Being the only bike that runs tubes I naturally have had trouble with the tubes! When I first set it up the rear tyre was flat. I didn't pinch the tube and guess I just got unlucky that it had a hole in it from the box. No worries, I still remember how to patch a tube, so with that done I chuck it back in and it's good. The tyres are a nightmare to remove and install though. It all went well for a few rides, but then the rear tyre started losing air throughout the week. I left it for a while and rode other bikes but eventually I had to check it out. Fearing I'd done a dud patch job I filled the bathroom basin with water while the wife wasn't home and held the tube under. The valve core had loosened enough to slowly let some air out.

I also wanted another position on the bars for cruising down the freeway, and remembering that Phantom Cycles had some old Cinelli Spinaci bars in stock, and always wanting a set, I ended up with a silver mtb set and a limited edition anodised purple and blue road set! The mtb set wouldn't fit onto the bars so the road set went on.

I wasn't super keen on hanging the rack with a loaded bag off the seat post and Kerry also had a Freeload rack in stock so I've put that on too. Much nicer and I don't need the rear mud guard. While the rear mud guard is gone I've fixed the mounting of the front guard by modifying the plug to fit inside the Marzocchi steerer.



I've also been fiddling with the Liteville. The waterbottle cage is useless. Even fitting the smallest bottle I have still means the linkage hits the bottle so the cage has been removed. Locking up the rear brake accidentally isn't a problem now that I've put a real tyre on the back. A Conti Trail King UST 2.2" on front and a Maxxis Ardent 2.25" on the rear has got things going very well. The Marz 44 fork is excellent as well.

 

[crank1979]

I got my first puncture with the Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres this morning. I'm now not convinced they offer any significant advantage over the Maxxis Re-fuse with tyre liners set up I was running when I was riding my road bike down the highway. At least getting the tyre off the UST rim wasn't too hard in the dark this morning, although pulling the truck tyre belt wire out of the tyre was hard work.