AM RMAltitude Vorsprunged | L-Bicycled | DVO | Shimongrel'd

iUDEX_nCr

Likes Dirt
Not sure if DVO have a tuning guide for their fork, but I find the guide that cane creek gives for the bracketing tuning process is very simple to understand.

very probable that the settings on your 34 aren't matched to your current dvo settings.
They have a basic tuning guide, but not as awesome as what cane creek have.
Yeah, as they should feel completely different... I think it's just at the end of a hard flat land turn I unweight and rotate the front too early, and it slides.
 

iUDEX_nCr

Likes Dirt
Short ride report... apologies no photos, was having too much fun.
Went to Buller with my mate, and his two mates from Florida for a day. Apparently Florida is pretty flat... one of them is an expat and very experienced, while the other had only started on a mountain bike this year. So I was expecting a lot of stopping :)
Last time I was at Buller was 2009, and I crushed my C3 after going into the wall ride with too much speed and over rotating ... so was pretty pumped the weeks before to get on the new trails. Even packed the fullface just in case the others were keen for some DH runs.

My mate and I had our bikes, but the other two had to hire bikes. They were pretty stoked to get an upgraded Stumpjumper with pikes and Tracer for hire bikes!

Despite the 5am start in Melbourne, we got started a little late around 10:30am at Buller. Shuttle was booked for 2:30pm in Mirimbah, and we decided Delatite River Trail sounded like a good trail to begin with. We weren't sure about the fitness/technical adeptness of the new rider, otherwise the Epic Trail would have been chosen. Having never ridden the trails, we just worked off the recommended 1-2hour ride time. Looking back, we could have done it with a slower rider in a little over an hour, and with experienced riders under 45min cruising. We started in the Village and went straight onto Copperhead berms at the top, then a really tight uphill climb I think was part of Snowgums, which lead onto Gang Gangs for some easy flowy singletrack. Plenty of stopping was had so everyone could have a chat and setup bikes. The DVO's just wouldn't leave the ground, but rear liked to float off. I ended up having to reduce Rebound by 3 clicks on the forks, and increase Rebound on the rear by 2 clicks (a pain to get to on the Rocky), and increase air pressure by 5-10psi on both. After which the bike felt pretty dialed. I initially rode the bike in position 2 on LSC, but opened it up to 1 after adding some air. Buttery smooth, amazing traction, and I just love how they ride so high in the travel.

The end of Gang Gangs (I think) finished on the fireroad where there is a seesaw? The end section was fun, but got a little confused on the shouldered turns... they weren't quite berms and it almost looked like they had a trail leading off another direction. I was in trail learning mode, thinking I'd be hitting this again. We had a good break before heading up Picnic Trail, where we had a little healthy competition up the hill, and before we knew it we were at the trail head for Delatite. It starts out with some singletrack, but opens up to a lot of fireroad/super rocky baby headed descents which were fun... zigzagging, woohooing... the bike performed flawless. I didn't have to think about it at all, just focusing on hunting for smooth lines and features. Actually there was once where I did have a look at my rear brake after the -16deg section, where I had rear brake pump after only touching the brake a bit at the bottom. We hit 60km/hr+ and I could smell the isopropyl burning off my rear brake pad.

We decided to session areas since it looked like we'd be able to finish well before our shuttle time. However, the less experienced rider went down... he was a real trooper, went into the left jump towards the end of the fireroads section at full speed, and ate it badly... kinda surprised he went for it. When I approached it, I had thought it was a roll over and wasn't until I hit it that I realised it was a jump, was an oh-shit moment for me. In the end, it was fortunate we allocated so much time, because we ended up just freewheeling at a casual pace with penty of stopping the rest of the way down. He broke his helmet, and tore up his new kit... as well as few battle scars as souvenirs to take home.

After finding first aid and giving him the green light, we were out of time to ride more as the guys had to return their bikes at 5:00pm.
I was hoping to get a few runs in, and maybe do a little exploring, but next time! The Altitude was too much bike for the trails we rode but it performed flawless and just being out riding was great. On some of the climbs I did hope for a little more grip than the Minion SS on the back offered, but they seems to perform well otherwise. The fireroad sections were fast, and fun if you put some effort into picking/creating interesting lines down, although I'd much rather trade them for more singletrack. Although the singletrack was pretty tame, the highlight was still the multiple river crossings. We managed to get a nice pub meal afterwards in Mansfield, and got home just before the sunset.
 
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Mywifesirrational

I however am very normal. Trust me.
Next time you head up with a little bit more time, head past delatite up cornhill, clancys run from the top of corn hill back to the top of delatite is an awesome decent.

bike looks really nice, the DVO's look mint in a subdued way.

Broken helmets are when crashes are getting serious!
 

iUDEX_nCr

Likes Dirt
overdue update!

Picked up a 2016 Transition Patrol frame from Transition's own close out sale. Had a friend who had a friend moving back to Melbourne from the States who shipped it back with their furniture for me. Took a couple months, but it's been built up! Should I create a new thread or continue this for the new bike build? Lots of parts being transferred over.
 

safreek

*******
overdue update!

Picked up a 2016 Transition Patrol frame from Transition's own close out sale. Had a friend who had a friend moving back to Melbourne from the States who shipped it back with their furniture for me. Took a couple months, but it's been built up! Should I create a new thread or continue this for the new bike build? Lots of parts being transferred over.
New thread for sure, it will get lost otherwise
 
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