What did you do TO / WITH / FOR your bike today!

Cardy George

Piercing rural members since 1981
Raced it. First time with a transponder and I was looking forward to getting a good idea of where I need to improve.

Unfortunately my rear tire had other ideas. Six lap race and at the end of the first lap I was in third place, with the two guys in front just starting to creep away when the arse end started to go spongy. Dammit.

It wasn't too bad in the twisty bits but I lost top end speed and that was that. Persevered for a couple of laps until it felt like I was going to rip a sidewall apart, gave it a shot of air and it made it to the end of the race.

Still, 5th overall and a $5 voucher to the town's newest bike shop is better than a kick in the nuts!
 
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slider_phil

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Raced it. First time with a transponder and I was looking forward to getting a good idea of where I need to improve.

Unfortunately my rear tire had other ideas. Six lap race and at the end of the first lap I was in third place, with the two guys in front just starting to creep away when the arse end started to go spongy. Dammit.

It wasn't too bad in the twisty bits but I lost top end speed and that was that. Persevered for a couple of laps until it felt like I was going to rip a sidewall apart, gave it a shot of air and it made it to the end of the race.

Still, 5th overall and a $5 vouocher to the town's newest bike shop is better than a kick in the nuts!
Nice work!

I missed out on racing yesterday due to family commitments so I went out early today to ride some semi local trails (about an hour away)

 

Cardy George

Piercing rural members since 1981
Aye aye aye. Don't think it's full Fuckwit spec, but the deflation was a result of not enough sealant :rolleyes: It was the one thing I meant to check yesterday, but forgot.

Found a medium sized cut which may or may not have opened, but either way that tyre has now been disposed of, and a Conti X King from the chew-up-riding-to-work pile is in it's place.
 

Plankosaurus

Spongeplank Dalepantski
Finished building my latest impulse buy, an old santa Cruz blur (first gen I think).

Removed the nasty old 9sp driveline. Upped the forks to 120mm (screw you Santa Cruz, max100 my ass). Replaced the broken 5th element with another 5th element in need of a rebuild, then replaced again with an O2 that works. Successfully bled an avid brakeset (!!!). New "holy shit" grips that I couldn't resist buying. 90mm stem and 740mm bars to replace the skinny bars and stupid long stem.

It's completely different to what we ride these days, took me straight back to where I started. It's an odd feeling bike, but plenty fast enough and my biggest gripe at the moment is the lack of a dropper. Honestly, I can make the rest work for me. Geo is odd, but forces you to be on the ball and it is nimble as fark. Suspension is also odd, the rear feels like it starts hard then softens as it goes through the travel. It feels efficient and lands ok but strange on rocky stuff, can't wait to try a ccdb on it.

Going to be a fun shits and giggles bike


Sent from my F5321 using Tapatalk
 

Spike-X

Grumpy Old Sarah
Took the 29er out to Eumeralla for a spin this afternoon. Worked on being faster and more confident through corners, really focusing on my technique and body position instead of being lazy and just riding around them. Felt like I was getting noticeably better, but there's still plenty of room for improvement.
 

hellmansam

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Shook off the post night shift 'jet lag' on Saturday to fit the X Fusion Trace 36 fork to my bike. The fuckwittery of inadvertently ordering a not Boost fork to upgrade another bike which then took a different direction turned out AOK in the end. Duncan at DIYMTB kindly exchanged the fork (thank fark I hadn't cut the steerer ) and I added some $ to upgrade to the 36mm version. Last week Aust. Post tracking had the fork arriving this coming Wednesday so I was bummed about having to go to Linga Longa yesterday with the OEM fork still on the bike.

I get off the plane on Friday morning and check my emails for a tracking update and YAY it's awaiting collection from the PO. Pick it up and it's a good lookin' thing. Search shed for new Cane Creek crown race. I knew it was there somewhere but couldn't find it until Saturday.
Improvised tools :
an old Bilt stem as a cutting guide (protected with a bit of plywood) after measuring 20 times. I cut many steerers back in the day working in a bike shop but the forks weren't $1K+

a plastic C clip intended for the boat, as a drift to tap the crown race on, over a smear of grease.

a piece of 6mm threaded rod from Bunnings, along with a big washer, small washers, nuts, a couple of sockets, and a holesaw cutout plug to pull the star nut in nice and straight.

Got it all done up and played around on the 50 psi that came with the fork, wound the rebound all the way slow and bounced around a bit. All well, super smooth, so pumped it up to 100psi and got on with loading up the car.

I might have had the rebound a bit slow at both ends (with the old fork) and speeding it up a bit has the bike feeling quite poppy. More time needed to suss out the sweet spot.

Did shuttles all day yesty and the fork is awesome, I haven't got my head around exactly why it feels better - surely the extra 10mm of travel isn't going to make much of a difference, might be more that I arsed a better balance of settings.

It's hard to be sure after two weeks off the bike but I felt more confidence than last time when pointing down steep and twisty technical sections.

Will ride plenty more this fortnight, and doing WAGE rnd 3 at the end of it.
 

rowdyflat

chez le médecin
Hey planko[ forgotten your name we met in Yack] SC Blur v nice frame.
I bought an old 26 superlite , it fitted 27.5 wheels then added 120 fork which flattens the headtube angle and a 6mm longer shock stroke for more travel and make the seat tube steeper and BB higher , eventually made it 1x 10 and its great.
 
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