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I've just ordered a set of Tech4s so will have some Tech3 E4s up for sale in the next couple of weeks (not sure I'll get round to fitting them before this weekend), if you do find some pennies down the back of the sofa you're welcome to first refusal.
Well funnily i've just spent a while attempting to take the Slayer apart to get the brakes off it... My word what a faff !!!
I've got a little 'door/port' which has 2 tiny 2.5mm head bolts in... sadly you need to remove the shock and pivot bolt to get to them, 1 you can't get to without removing the shock, the other you need the pivot bolt out of the way lol.
Then once you get that i noticed the brake line routes through the chainstay in what is a semi-impossible routing.
The top end near the headstock isn't much better with again, really tight and fiddly routing... I'm not sure i'd get the bugger back together with a brake 😀 😀
Sounds like an excellent piece of design from RM! I’d swear they do these things so people don’t bother working on bikes themselves and just go to a bike shop.
I’m not a Shimano brake fan, but what would either a Code R or Tech3 E4 give you over an SLX 4 pot (other than seals that will hold your fluid in / an easier bleed without a wandering bite point)?
Would think if you’re going to upgrade id hold on and save some money up and go Code RSC or Tech4 V4….
I’m not a Shimano brake fan, but what would either a Code R or Tech3 E4 give you over an SLX 4 pot (other than seals that will hold your fluid in / an easier bleed without a wandering bite point)?
It's more in terms of 'trailing' the brakes which Shimano isn't brilliant, it's a bit "where's the brake, where's the brake, ,.. WHAM" whether or not i could actually take advantage of that in any way is open to debate of course 🙂
Haha - I thought the 4 pot Shimano a were meant to be more subtle / have more modulation than the 2 pot ones which were renowned to be on/off. I put slx 4 pots on a mates SC 5010 which I’ve had a few quick goes on and haven’t really noticed the brakes - more just how much bumpier it is than my bike.
Code R aren’t bad brakes as you know - got them on both bike - but itching to try some RSC and / or Tech 4 V4’s to see how they compare. Not that I want to buy new brakes at the moment.
My thinking was more because i could flog the SLXs for about the same... So it's a no lose idea. But the routing.. well.. it could be interesting and i'd end up screaming 😀
THinking about it though, if i trim the line and don't have an olive/barb on it... maybe i could just remove the line and route the new one.. Sounds like a great theory right up until it's not 🙂
Sram make a double ended barb thing to help with internal routing. Connect the old hose to the new one and pull it through. That’s the theory anyway
joebristol
Full Member
Haha – I thought the 4 pot Shimano a were meant to be more subtle / have more modulation than the 2 pot ones which were renowned to be on/off
They are, but still a long way from the squishiness of other brands. I really like them (if you ignore the leaking master cylinder on one) as I feel like I’m adjusting the power via pressure rather than movement, it’s just different strokes for different folks
It's not that i don't like them or they don't work... Was just interested in trying different things.
Was having a play last night and removed the SLX from the rear and loosly fitted a SRAM GuideR to the bike, when i say loosely, i mean with cable ties onto the bottle cage 😀
However i deffo do prefer the feel of something more GuideR like than SLX like.
But with FoD tomorrow and BPW on Sat, i won't change anything just yet in case the internal routing goes wrong and i end up on a bike i don't want to ride for the weekend.
I have an option on the Tech3E4s from razorazoo above which is a good and nicely priced option into the Hope world. But then part of me feels if i'm buying Hopes, i should really fit them to the boys bike not mine as he'll do them more justice, however he doesn't really need them on the spare DH bike and he seems to like the Codes on the 141... so bit daft.
Some thinking needed here.
🙂
Epic day out yesterday on the Slayer. Starting at Dowies with a small teeny, managed to hang on his wheel on 4/5 trails, losing about 30m on the 5th... But i'd take that... What i do find slightly weird is that somewhere like Dowies i can hang with him, but then at other places he just destroys me, like by miles and miles on a trail.
Me and the Slayer decided again it was man-up time and hit a couple of dad-gaps at FoD in the afternoon, along with a steep and gnarly trail that was pretty eye opening !
But all in all... it was a fab ride.
Only downside, the headset that was a bit dead, is proper dead. So as i was packing up the bike last night, i chucked a new upper bearing in it... only took a couple of mins and should be golden for BPW tomorrow.
The SRAM Codes haven't arrived yet, but i don't think i'll be risking throwing them on the bike today, just in case.. So they can wait till Sunday.
Codes have arrived and it's SOOOO tempting to sort fitting this afternoon. If the routing was either external or even a bike i'd routed before, i'd have jumped on it by now. But that's sadly not the case and i don't know if i can route it easily, or nightmareishly on this bike.. So makes sense to leave until Sunday i guess. Look good though and ready to roll (stop rolling)
This may come as a shock to some... but i doubt it 😀
I was having lunch and thought "i'll fit the front as it doesn't need routing"
So that was done and i gave it an outside in the close type test.... "wow, awesome" so i whipped out the rear as well... and proceeded to route it... fiddly sod of a job actually but more than happy after 5 mins, once you get it through the hole in the bottom of the frame it's sleeved internally so works straight through to the top.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52694552219_62c2f6f564_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52694552219_62c2f6f564_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2ohrmwp ]2023-02-17_02-24-12[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52694288311_d4362073f3_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52694288311_d4362073f3_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2ohq15g ]2023-02-17_02-24-17[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Looks like you need some matchmakers, that's a lot of messy clamps.
Lots? 2! 1 more than a match maker
Double the number required, 😀
Definitely needs a matchmaker 😉
Well despite the weather that was somewhat of an epic epic riding day for me at BPW. There was a light misting of rain for most of the day but the trails were soggy and as you can see, not very clean.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52697454941_e726016658_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52697454941_e726016658_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2ohGepk ]2023-02-19_07-13-18[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
But grip levels were good and we had an absolute blast. The Slayer was epic and has moved to the top of my 'best bike ever ridden' in terms of places like BPW. It just eats up absolutely everything. In previous visits i'd not always 'clean' every part of a trail or two, Surfing Bird being one trail, i always ended with a foot down somewhere, but yesterday i aced it more than once. We also did a couple of tight tech blacks, including Deep Navigation, which is just so so rocky it's actually ridiculous 😀 but cleaned that too. Bonneville i always find hard as it's tight, nadgery, slippy and steep, but again it went down well.
The real thing that completed my day though was setting off down Sixtapod and having my lads mate behind me, he's not as fast as mine, but he can fly along.. When we got to the bottom he says "you were rapid, i couldn't catch up with you at all"... Blush and sigh, that made me feel good. Later in the day on Vicious Valley my lad was following me and afterwards says "you were proper quick through that section"... Again... i felt massively happy. Hopefully it shows that some of the hard work, effort and pushing is avtually paying off.
The CODERs were awesome, love them way way more than my SLXs, so really happy to have swapped them.
Can't wait for the next ride... Although i've got a day of cleaning/sorting first today and need a few days off, i'm proper achey at the moment.
In a moment of madness as a space has come up for this weekends race... I've entered myself and the Slayer for it.
I'll be nervous as a kitten now for the next 4 days !!!! But hey, that's why we do these things 🙂
See if we can get 2nd last... Mmmmmm
For me, after the fail on drop of despair was a little down on myself and almost didn't race. Especially as practice is more serious and I didn't want to hold people up. But I went out and stuck the number on and raced it. It was hard for me in tech context and a year ago I'd not have ridden it. Whilst I wasn't fast or graceful, I finished. I didn't exactly cover myself in glory, but it was a box ticked again of 'racing' a DH race and a bit of preparation for the upcoming Enduro races at BPW and Southern Enduro. So i'm half happy but as always, slightly disappointed in the overall performance
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52728034990_127bc715e0_4k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52728034990_127bc715e0_4k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2okoXMy ]2023-03-05_04-54-13[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Experimenting with bars today.. Looking at the other pics it could be argued they're a smidgen too close. So i've moved the flip-chip from 1 to 3, which makes it less slack from 63.8 to 64.5deg on the head angle but also adds 10mm to the reach.
Along with that, i've thrown on a 60mm stem. Which is slightly complex as it needs new bars, but we have them in spares box anyway. Right width but slightly higher ride than i usually run. The stem and bar combo are 31.8s, the Slayer usually comes with 35s... but i don't have any longer 35 stems in spares, only 40mm. (same as standard).
The plan all along was to run a 50mm stem, i just never got round to it. But i don't wanna waste £30 on a stem so borrowed this from a mate to test.
As always there is a random 'plan' as well....
https://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/3539888/
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Which also ticks the box of being a race spare... The only downside with it is the spec is really not my preference with Shimano brakes (I have spare Codes) and RS35s forks which i'm not massively keen on either... The rest is nice though.
Hold on, are you considering getting rid of the Slayer to buy a basic spec 141 with rubbish forks and/or converting to old school stem lengths for the sake of £30?!! Madness.
Looks great, but you are not allowed a spare bike for most enduro races.
I would go for the 50mm stem and keep the same bars so you are only changing one thing at a time. Also much cheaper than the 'random plan'.
Hold on, are you considering getting rid of the Slayer to buy a basic spec 141 with rubbish forks and/or converting to old school stem lengths for the sake of £30?!! Madness.
Nope, i'm thinking of both bikes 🙂 with the predominant reason being to have a spare 141... but also it'd be cool for both me and the lad to race on the same bike. The Slayer isn't leaving either way. In reality, i doubt i'll pick-up the 141, was just running it through my head as a potential idea.
I'll happily buy a £30 stem in the 50mm and 35dia, but wanted to test first to see if a little more length is better. Slightly tricky to tell though as the bar-rise on the spare DMRs is totally different though. But i may run it in the morning at BPW with the 60mm stem fitted just to see, then swap to the stock 40mm/35dia at lunch. Although that also depends how many runs we do in the mud/monsoon lol.
edit.
https://www.merlincycles.com/race-face-aeffect-35-mtb-stem-99333.html
Bought a stem so i can test properly 😀
Are you basically confirming you did buy a bike that is a little too small for you 🫣? Just ribbing you a little…
I run a 50mm stem on both my bikes - I prefer how they feel with that length of stem vs shorter ones. I have run a 32mm and 40mm stems on previous bikes and didn’t love it.
Your son might think it’s less cool to be riding the same bike as his dad - and that 141 has slightly crap forks. You bought the Slayer as you wanted more travel than the previous bike (fuel ex) - surely if getting a privateer you’d be better with the 161 to replace the slayer?
You should be able to pick up a half decent stem in that size from Pinkbike for £30-40 with a bit of haggling. That way if its not right then you can move it on at very little cost.
Are you basically confirming you did buy a bike that is a little too small for you
No, yes, maybe.... but we knew that all along and the plan was always to jump on a 50mm stem as it's fairly common on them to feel the stem is a little short. I just never got around to it until now. But as i've just edited, i've ordered a 50mm in a 35dia from Merlin, so hopefully i'll get that by Sat morning and run that.
50mm stem should be fine I’m sure 👌
Looks great, but you are not allowed a spare bike for most enduro races.
lets be honest, no race or category that weeksy snr* is going to be racing is going to know/check/care about enforcing this rule
*or most people reading this thread
lets be honest, no race or category that weeksy snr* is going to be racing is going to know/check/care about enforcing this rule
*or most people reading this thread
Well yeah. But I thought it was spare for the lad... who is at the business end of things. But is it ever enforced in the UK? Dunno.
lets be honest, no race or category that weeksy snr* is going to be racing is going to know/check/care about enforcing this rule
*or most people reading this thread
At most races it’s probably just not practical to head right back to the start (slowly as the bikes gubbed), change bikes, then back out again
Also agree with the “don’t copy the boy” sentiment above. Plus, he’s been given a bike to use by the sponsor, no need to go out and buy another one just in case. I’d imagine even Katy would give you a funny look for that
It was a multi-function idea.... but yeah didn't even think about the fact that Frame and Forks must remain the same. Even though this season he's only racing Southerns and Haibike rather than PMBA and Nationals, i still wouldn't break the rules in that context. So a very good point made.
Even if it's not enforced, i'd still not like to do it.
But when i was thinking of 'spare' it wasn't necessarily on that day of racing, but you know, the day before or days leading up to it, something went wrong etc..
But i've pretty much moved on from the idea of the 141 anyway.
Well yeah. But I thought it was spare for the lad… who is at the business end of things. But is it ever enforced in the UK? Dunno.
At one of my sons CX races (Under 9s) a kid had a puncture and there parents swapped the bike and he got DQed. Seemed pretty pointless really - I think he was last anyway!
Yeah the rules are generally enforced in races as well, they're the rules. It came up last Sunday when a youngster (18ish) crashed and the public were going to pick up his bike for him to get back on, but if they touch his bike, then he's a DQ.. It's harsh, but the rules are there and will be enforced.
Buying the same bike to have a spare to match one provided by a sponsor is baffling.
EWS put stickers on frame, forks, wheels to stop swapping parts. I'm not aware of anyone else doing that.
It's different for pros, but as someone who pays for their own race entries I would 100% use a spare bike / part regardless of the rules if it meant I could continue riding. I wouldn't cheat, but I would happily ignore stupid rules.
Buying the same bike to have a spare to match one provided by a sponsor is baffling.
Well, i also think it'd be a cool bike to ride myself too, i've ridden his a couple of times and even with it being way too soft for me i still think i'd really like it... But i've pretty much shelved the idea at the moment anyway. I do love the Slayer and it flatters me lots (not that you'd know it)
FWIW, if you do come back round to a Privateer, the way to do it would be through the team to see if there’s a bro deal available (assuming you’d have mentioned that already if you’d looked into it)
Edit: or hold off until the end of the season and buy Jnr’s off them
FWIW, if you do come back round to a Privateer, the way to do it would be through the team to see if there’s a bro deal available (assuming you’d have mentioned that already if you’d looked into it)
Edit: or hold off until the end of the season and buy Jnr’s off them
It's been thought about yes and buying his current one at the end of term has also been considered yes. The reason part of this thought came about was last weekend with the Privateer guys and "we've got to get you on one of these" came up... I then started thinking "mmmm not a bad idea"
But i wouldn't be cheeky and ask for assistance personally as i don't know them that well. A few circumstances this year may change that and i may get a bit cheekier... but at the moment... No.
But i wouldn’t be cheeky and ask for assistance personally as i don’t know them that well.
you do realise that you’re doing marketing work for them, frequently, for free, on at least 2 threads on this forum plus the YouTube/Insta stuff? There’s nothing cheeky about it, if a bro deal doesn’t work for them they’ll let you know. If anything I’d go as far as to say it’s pretty normal. Katy could also enquire you’re your behalf if easier. (I have a long history of such things through my other half in her old career)
Of course, this is only if you actually want one
you do realise that you’re doing marketing work for them, frequently, for free, on at least 2 threads on this forum plus the YouTube/Insta stuff?
Of course, but that's what you sort of sign up for when all this happens, you (he) has to give a certain amount back to 'earn' the bike... As we all know, that's how the world keeps on turning.
I think the 'want' thing is all well and good, but the reality is that we've got enough bikes in the garage currently so really it'd have to be 1 in 1 out... I'm not done with the Slayer yet, me and it have plenty more adventures to take on together. Something like the 141 will make more sense in a year or two when the boy goes off racing every weekend without me and i'm at home riding more locally with mates... Then it'll be more of an option.
For now... the skills enabler still rules 😀
Stick with the Slayer. You know it's the far superior steed. 😉
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Of course, but that’s what you sort of sign up for when all this happens, you (he) has to give a certain amount back to ‘earn’ the bike… As we all know, that’s how the world keeps on turning.
You aren't the one that's sponsored though. In no way are they expecting his Dad to be hawking their kit for them, thats just a nice bonus for them. Anyway, wait for the 171, get one of them, sell it to me 😉
LOL we're waiting for the 201 😀