Took my new shiny spesh rockhopper comp out for a spin last night over Chinly, and came across a couple of issues that I'm wondering whether it's just a newness problem, or something I need to take back to the shop.
I've never had a (semi-)decent bike before, so I'm not sure whether the components are behaving as they should, so any advice is welcome.
Firstly, the fork, a tora sl. I tried to set up the sag via the manual I put a cable tie onto the leg, then sat on the bike whilst it was held, and measured the difference between the seal and the tie which was about 2cm. This was the most I could achieve and this was with the preload set to minimum. The manual says it should be 15-25% of the total travel, and I assume this is the height of the shiny bit of the leg?
When I took it out for a ride, the fork seemed a little hard, but I did manage to move the tie 80% up the leg after finding a small drop to go over. Does the fork get more supple with use?
Secondly, its the first time I've had disc breaks, and there seems to be a bit of play in the levers before the pads engage, then it seems very sensitive to being either slightly "on" or pitching me over the handlebars "on", is this normal? The bloke in the shop said something about the cables internal dimensions changing with use, and that they'd get a lot better over time.
The fork should get more supple with use. If it's a large frame size it may have a stiffer spring in it thus preventing you from achieving full sag.
The disc breaks will get better as well. The pads and rotors need to be scrubbed in just like on a car to start to behave normally.
Brakes not breaks btw
Yeh it sounds like it needs time to bed in and for you to get used to it. The first time I used disc brakes a clipped a root and to slow myself thought I would just tap the brake lever - however with the disc brakes I managed to catapault myself over the handlebars. Youll get used to it with time!
What Tora model - air or coil?
What discs as well?
As above, all forks 'bed in' a bit and get more supple.
Discs usually get more power and feel to them, although the 'loose lever' feel may stay. You will get more used to them, and be much better at using them subtly - especially so if you are coming of V-brakes or canti's
Its the tora Sl, I think it's just a coil.
The disc [i]brakes[/i] are juicy 3s
Thanks for the reassurance 🙂
The bloke in the shop said something about the cables internal dimensions changing with use, and that they'd get a lot better over time.
The cables shouldn't affect your brakes though 😉
the shiny bit of the fork leg (the stanchion) is not nessecarily full travel.
there may be some of this left showing at full travel. hope that makes sense.
Sorry, that should have the hoses.. I'm used to good old fashioned V brakes, and these new hydraulic thing-amy-bobs are leaving me confused 🙂
My wife has Tora sl forks on her new bike. Its taken a good few rides to get the forks supple - they were initially hard enough that I struggled to get full movement out of them (and I am a lot heavier than her). The forks are now fine - shes had the bike about 6 months, but I'd say after the first 4 or 5 rides the forks began to bed in and work better.
Brakes will take a while to bed in. Some will be more on/off than others. You may be able to adjust the lever reach a bit to help the feel. You will get used to it though and soon you will be able to control it perfectly. It just takes time if you have been used to v-brakes...
In summary - just get out and ride 🙂
