Recently gone from aGary fisher hi-fi deluxe to a 2009 prophet, built up the frame with bntrager rhythm elite wheels, Minute elite absolutes race face evolve am bars but it feels terrible compared to the hifi. I've taken it on Inners xc, glentress xc and freeride, ae xc and downhill and haven't found anything it does better or more comfortably than my hifi.
Would I be right in thinking the float r shock with constant propedal might be to blame or perhaps the fork? In comparison to my girlfriend's old fuel ex7 the suspensions feels awful, like one of those argos bikes.

back to the gary fisher i think

hired a giant trance once, was horrific, it never suited my riding no matter where or what i done with it. Some bikes i guess you just dont click with, some you do. Time to sell, classifieds >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hmm, thing is I really don't want o take the gary fisher to the megaavalanche or dh days it's really not up to it and I'm nowhere near skillful enough to compensate nor do I have the funds to keep replacing parts. From all the reviews the prophet sounds great but I'm just not feeling it.

What do you mean by 'horrible' 'terrible' and 'awful'? You're not really giving anyone a clue as to the problem.

Is it the seating position, does it feel perched, is it nervous, does the suspension feel wooden & not wanting to go into its travel, or does it bob. What length are the forks, what sag do you run up front, does the front and rear work together or feel detached from each other and see-saw? How much sag are you running, what is the shock tune (should say on the air can), does it rattle, are the bushes new or well worn, did you buy the prophet frame 2nd hand, has it been crashed, is it straight?

In my experience, Prophets are great do it all with decent suspension akin to an Orange 5. The basic Float R isn't always the best and should have its compression/rebound factory set tune to match the frame. I had a Nicolai Helius FR with float r that just wouldn't go into its travel and took 30 seconds to reach its sag when sat stationary. It felt horribly wooden on the trail. It turned out to be a combination of sticky/over tight bushes and mounting hardware, and wrong compression tune (it basically needed no compression damping at all). It was sent to Mojo who set it up specifically for the bike and sent a new set of mounting hardware and it worked fine after that.

I had that fork on a hardtail, it either blew through its travel or was too stiff, couldn't get it to work right.

I got one and it felt horrible to start with. Then set it to fr mode and rotated the riser bars back and now it is great.

are the forks from the fisher, and are they the G2 version?

nope the fisher is still here only been offered £550 for it so am reluctant to sell. they are the 140mm absolute ones with 20mm axle. I also have a 60mm stem if thgat would make any difference to weighting suspension?
I run about 20-25% sag. seating position feels O.K. front end maybe a bit low in fr mode. It's really just the suspension that feels, as you say 'wooden'. However I don't see the point in spending the costs of a replacement float (second hand off a brand new bike lots out there) to have some guy stick some plastic inside it and grease it up a bit when I can buy a rp23 for £150.

Would I be right in thinking the float r shock with constant propedal might be to blame

Yes, probably. I got rid of the one on mine straight away and fitted and rp3 so I could switch the propedal off when going downhill. Makes a massive difference.

p.s. it was doubly bad on my bike as C'dale fitted a heavy damping tune shock, since it was a large frame. However, I'm not actually very heavy (just tall), so it was way over damped for me (fork was also too heavily sprung and damped).

Another option is to get the Float R PUSHed – and then it should work better than an rp23.

If you're not sure why the bike feels rubbish, could you get some other riders to have a go on it and see what they think? Might help you suss out what's wrong.

first time I've heard the prophet descibed as terrible, but I haven't ridden a hifi to compare.
Which shock setting (XC or FR)are you using on the prophet?
I found the XC setting to be a waste of time, but put into the FR setting to get the best out of the frame IME.
Yes you'll get more pedal 'clonking' (lower BB) but it's well worth it, and I've never felt it harmed the climbing ability.

I have the stock Manitou shock, which I've never thought really 'fantastic' but it definitely doesn't make the frame feel dead. I'd like to get my hands on a Vanilla – I'm also desperately trying to ignoring Si and his CCDB offer.

Slight hijack, what's this CCDB offer you speak of? 🙂

Slight hijack, what's this CCDB offer you speak of?

I have a 200 x 50/57 new style CCDB available, mail me if you fancy it?

shhhhhh, shupup! I don't need one… I might want one, but don't need one!!!! ❗

Cane Creek Double Barrel, dogs doodahs of the shock world, takes a bit of fettling to set up but very adjustable and excellent once you have it sorted.
Pretty pricey though, if Si send me one through for free I'll let you know how good it is. 😉

As for the Manitou minute 140 20 mm TA – its an awesome fork, but if it is feeling wooden it may need the lowers dropping off, cleaning and relubing and filling with clean oil. Makes a world of diference and only takes half an hour or so. Good manuals to be had on the Manitou website explainign all.

Have you tried 30% sag ?, especialy if the shock has a firm Propedal tune.

I thought the prophets weren't designed for coil shocks, or will the myriad of adjustments on the CCDB control for that?