Well,

finally took her out last night in the fading light to the forest for some tame trails. Didn’t realise it had rained in the night so it was a bit of a slop fest.

Bike has a little more travel than my other bike, but the wheels make it feel a lot bigger!

Tried the 3rd of the way round on the rebound and charger. Seemed to work pretty well, but did enjoy putting the rear shock into mid mode as it made the whole thing feel a bit more responsive on the not so steep trail and helped me feel whats going on when you can’t see the trail and it’s spotted with slop puddles :/

Anyone got any tips on setting up the Pike rebound and charger + Monarch rebound for various terrain. Heading to Wales this weekend so want to open the taps and let her fly 🙂

BTW, how the hell did they make a bike like this climb so well? Some kind of witchcraft….

Cheers

Rob

Sorry cant help with the setup as Full BOS on mine (not willy Waving) but it sure as shit is some bike !!! Mine has taken me places ive not been at speeds i have not done.. Cracking piece of kit gets better the faster you ride it – be prepared for a permanent silly grin after wales decent’s enjoy

I’ve got a Capra, but its the one with Fox all round. However with any suspension set ups I can recommend sessioning a bit of trail and tweaking till it feels right for you. Takes time and patients, which are not what you want to hear with a new bike 🙂

I set mine up for Sag and then the recommended rebound/comp – fast and slow. I’ve now ridden it about 4 times and I’m have tweaked just the air pressure by 10psi in the front and rear. I reckon you should ride it quite a bit first as some of it will be getting used to how it handles which is always different to your previous bike.

I spent yesterday at Chicksands bike park and let 10psi out of the front. Might put 10psi in the rear, but I will do one adjustment at a time, otherwise it gets confusing. There are no rooty rocky bumps there, so other adjustments will have to wait till a different place.

But I did notice I needed to weigh the front of the bike more than my previous (Covert) to get it to grip on the fast berms. Probably due to a longer front and short stem putting my weight more central. Whereas the shorter Covert with longer stem made it easier to weight the front.

I also noticed it climbed really well, it climbed as easily as my XC Scott, which was quite a surprise. (the marketing does seem to speak the truth for once)

Cheers for the advise 🙂

Yeah…. I nearly wiped out a couple of time until I shifted myself a bit more forward. Once I did that the bike became a lot more nimble and predicable. The bigger wheels are something to get used to as well. Just rolled over roots my other bike kept me honest on.

The bike looks badass as well, which helps 🙂

One other thing – I’ve no idea how you rode it in the slop. When I got mine I kept it in the front room for two weeks all shiny and new. I waited till the trails were dusty before I took it out !

Now I have fallen off it and splashed it, I’m over the “New bike syndrome” so should be fine if it gets wet.

I dropped my front tyre pressure to 18 psi from 25 to get more grip. I also found it rolled way faster than my previous bike – probably due to the Carbon Swiss DT rims allowing me to crank up speed faster.

It was quite interesting to compare it over familiar trails.

As a note of caution, check your mech bolt is tight, some riders said theirs came lose, so perhaps torque it up with a drop of Loctite. Same with the rear wheel axel. I checked both mine and re-tightened them.

I got mine about 10 months ago. Set the sag to 30% and set everything else on the suspension right in the middle with the idea of testing it and tweaking as required. I’ve not changed anything though, it seems great (to me) set like that. I’ve not tried adding any of the tokens either.

I’ve got Lyriks and Monarch Plus HV

Initially started with 60psi in the front and 175psi in the back giving around 25% sag, rebound set half way, 25psi front tyre, 27psi rear.

I found the small bump compliance wasn’t as supple as I wanted and even on quite rough stuff, I was pinging off stuff – despite that, still set a few PB’s.

Dropped the pressure in the front to around 50psi and added a token, dropped the rear a bit , now 30% sag (need to get some bands to play around a bit more and added a few clicks of rebound.

Got rid of the horribly draggy HR II’s and replaced with Spesh Purgatory rear/Butcher front, dropped front to around 20psi, 25 in the rear. It’s loads better now, but I’m still experimenting after around 90 miles. Might try another token in the front.

Also stuck an e-thirteen 9-44 cassette on the back, which helps with climbing.

Overall though, the bike rocks

I did the same as “centralscrutinizer” (with a Pike and Monarch) on my Capra which I’ve had a year. I either don’t ride enough, or don’t have the feeling to spot the difference in 5 clicks of rebound adjustment…

I did pop in a bottomless token, that seemed to make it feel nicer.

Great to hear from other people who own the bike.

Wondering what the tokens really do? What kind of riding warrants them etc?

BTW, I thought the trails were going to be dry, but it had rained in the night without me knowing!!! Ended up a right state! Spent a good while cleaning her up though and let her stay inside for another night while she dried off 😉

I’ve set it to a third of the way on the rebound for everything as a starter. Guess I need to hit the same trail again and again to feel the difference.

BTW, does the middle setting on the shock still use all the travel? Just firms it up a bit. Nice little setting for more flowing stuff.

Wales / The Beast here I come 🙂

Wondering what the tokens really do? What kind of riding warrants them etc?

They reduce the volume of air in the chamber. So, if you set the fork so that it is as supple as you like it, but find it’s bottoming out, add a token. Adding a token will make it ramp up more towards the end of it’s stroke.

Likewise if the fork is too harsh, but you are using the right amount of travel, add a token and drop your pressure.

The general concensus with these forks is that you get the best performance with 2 or 3 tokens total (it already comes with one added)

BTW,

just to make sure I haven’t set my fork really terrible.

I’ve put the rebound on full turtle then done about a third of the clicks back to rabbit.

I have done the same for low speed compression.

Is that about right for starters?

Ta 🙂

Just play around on the same run and see what feels best. I generally have my LSC pretty much turned off to make it supple on the small stuff – turning it to slow will have the same effect as using the climb switch

Ah, good point 🙂

flick of a switch and you get the best of both worlds…. unless its a trail that goes up and down a lot then dial it in.

Gonna be like Lewis Hamilton at the wheel soon 😉

Cheers

To be honest I only use the climb switch on long draggy fire road, or tarmac climbs. The suspension design of the bike means it stiffens up under pedalling forces on the rear. Leaving the shock wide open will give you extra traction on techy climbs. The middle setting is probably good for flattish undulating pedally trails and maybe for railing berms, where you don’t want to sink into all of your travel

Capra AL1 arrived on Thursday, only really has time to swap the brakes, fit magic Mary up front and set sag, before tweedlove international on Saturday!.

I was worried about the sizing, as you always are with direct order bikes, but it feels good, pretty bang on. My mates a mech for one of the top EWS guys, he was there on Saturday, and gave me some pointers on the lyriks and monarch, which seemed to work okay, but I defo had too much air in the monarch, il get some bands fitted and play with the pressures.
Forks feel wicked, sit up in their travel which is great on the steep stuff, I never used all the travel though, I’d say 150 of the 170, as STR says above, I’ll get another token in there and drop the pressure a bit.

Given that I hadn’t even bedded the brakes in, I was well impressed with the bike. Seems nice and long so rolls over stuff easily, yet pretty bloody nimble too. Guides even seem good, which I wasn’t expecting.

This Nobeer is a happy bunny.

That replacing your Yeti Greg?

Aye, still to sell that.

Selling a 26er is not something I’m looking forward to.

I’m trying to keep my ’08 S-Works Enduro hidden in the shed until Mrs STR forgets I was supposed to be selling it. The X-Fusion Vengeance forks, Hope Tech M4’s, KS Lev and a few other bits can then migrate onto a Privee Shan for winter

I’ve a Covert that I should sell, but reckon its easier to sell the bits off it. I don’t want to sell it for a few hundred quid just because its 26 inch flavour.

The Cane Creek will be worth that.