bringing my 26er up to date, some advice please… (Tubeless,dropper,slackness)

Looking to bring my mojo sl a little more put to date with a few changes and after some advice

Got stans crest rims and love high roller tyres, can I tubeless using a stans kit and some new high roller two exo 2.4?
Heard maxxis kevlars weren’t great at tubeless once upon a time ……

Should I look at procore?

What effect does running lower pressures have on the feeling of stiffness in the bike?

Are there any options to slacken out a mojo sl, I think the answers no right?

Any reason I shouldn’t buy a Thomson dropper?

Any way to get a stronger rear axle through a Chris king qr rear hub?

1. Never had any problems running Maxxis tyres tubeless, even non-tubeless ones. Get some 25mm yellow rim tape and tubeless valves from superstar, some stans spaff and away you go with your existing tyres, just watch all the instruction videos on stans website first.
2. I wouldn’t bother personally, however having never tried it can’t really comment.
3. Lower pressure will give you more grip and less jarring. Go too low though and you’ll feel the tyre squirming under you.
4. Assuming its a standard headtube, works components do a 1 degree headset for it.
5. No.
6. Pass.

Any way to get a stronger rear axle through a Chris king qr rear hub?

Get a 10mm DT RWS skewer – the stiffness is determined by how tight you can do the skewer up and the RWS ones go a lot stiffer than normal QR, and also stiffer than the 10mm QR action ones such as from SS.

Is you rear triangle flexy though – my flux is a normal QR (so will take a 10mm RWS) and later ones were 12mm (or whatever it is) but the triangle is built like a tank anyway so the bigger axle is just for marketing purposes.

An image of what I’m working with!
http://flic.kr/p/rBPo9F

When you say ‘great at tubeless’ do you mean how well they seal ?

If you’ve got a compressor, you’ll get pretty much any tyre to seal. I use Stans no tubes strips, and they’ve been fine, though I’ve not tried them with Stans rims – presumably they’ll be a good match won’t they ?

My main issue with having gone tubeless/lower pressures was ripping holes in the sidewalls. But this was on ‘normal’ tyres like basic High Rollers, Mountain Kings, Nevegals etc..Since going to Schwalbe SG tyres, no problems. Those Maxxis EXO 2.4s look tough enough.

I wouldn’t say lower pressure makes the bike feel any more flexy. Large volume tyres with lowish pressures make the bike a bit more resilient to bumps and deflections, so if anything, it could make the front end feel more in control. If you mean does it make the bike feel flexy when you’re climbing out the saddle, then I’d say it’s negligible and suspension bob will make much much more difference.

Personally, I wouldn’t worry about slackening the bike. There’s a lot of marketing hype out there aimed at making you buy new bikes, and they always have to think of something. Slacker front angles probably do feel more stable down-hill, but unless you’re racing Enduros and aiming to get on the podium, is it really worth messing around with the geometry on your frame ? It’s not as is Ibis didn’t know what they were doing a few years ago. In my view, jacking up the front end just raises the BB, and I’m not convinced the overall gain is positive. I guess there are angle changing headsets out there, but don’t they just give you like a half degree or something ? Seems pointless.

I’m replacing my really old dropper soon, and will be going for a Thomson.

As for rear axles, the only thing I’ve come across to stiffen things up when you’ve only got 9mm QR dropouts is a 9mm thru-axle/bolt. These aren’t common though. I’m running a Hadley 9mm thru bolt on the front of one of my bikes (with Hope hubs) and it did make a slight improvement over QR, and to be honest, I don’t notice all that much difference compared to other bikes with 15mm/20mm thru-bolts. I believe DT Swiss do a 9mm thru-axle/bolt kit for their 240s rear hubs that I’ve considered getting. Not sure if CK do something similar or not.

You’ve got a top bike there, so why worry 😉

What length stem and width bars are you running?
If it’s old school, i.e. 100mm stem and narrow bars, go shorter and wider.

Just looked at the photo posted of the bike – looks pretty recent to me 😉

The stem looks about 70mm, bars over 700mm. It looks like it’s got 140mm travel too ? That’s damn fine!

Looking at that picture…

I would start with a new saddle. 🙂
Set of 150mm pikes. (From France cheap)
Dropper post Thomson or reverb
Pair of tlr maxxis tyres
Have fun. 🙂

Most Maxxisses work well tubeless, they have decent beads and quite a bit of rubber in them. But there’s a TR version of the Highroller 2 as well.

I don’t think you can fit any anglesets to the SL as it’s an integrated headset, could be wrong.

I’d do tubeless and dropper post and call it good. If you like the current tyres, I’d just tubeless those tbh. And maybe get some titaniums, because titaniums are faster.

You can change the whole axle for the heavy duty one, which comes with some chunkey bolts. (Fun bolts I think they call them) costs a bit to do.. Unless bits come up on eBay.

It also has a better method of preloading the bearings.

Could you get some offset bushes for your shock to make it slacker if you can’t change the headset..

In the same boat as you with my 2010 Mojo SL, though more thinking about straight steerer fork availability at 150mm. So if I’m not blown away by my demo on a HD3 and a Ripley at the end of April I’ll be looking for CCDB inline on the rear and an avalanche damper for the revelations on the front. Already gone 1×10 and tubeless and 80mm stem and 645 bars. Bike rides amazing, but just thinking longterm and availability of upgrades to componentry

Interesting dreednya

Nice looking build, do you find it flexy? I’m noticing it more and more through the bends

Ccdb is a bit too spendy for now and my shock is pushed so I don’t mind it

I went 1* 10 over summer and it’s much more reliable at holding the chain and still climbs fine

Off set bushes from burgtec is my thought, depending on bushing sizes you could drop 1/1.5 degrees and drop your bottom bracket height by around 8/10mm for £40. Cheep tool of eBay £10 ish and about 30/45 minutes to fit.
Did it on my orange five was a marked improvement.

I have one of these, a 2011 sl and everywhere I read people are making them 650b. I’ve got the wheels from my hardtail and I can confirm they fit. I’ve put a 2.3 in the rear and my forks easily take that size too. It ups the bb height but lots in the mtbr forum say it’s a great ride. That is updating it in my eyes!

Thanks – forgot to say I also have the burgtec offset bushings which made a good difference when descending the steep stuff. Don’t notice the flex unless the bearings are worn and then you can

Thomson dropper, new saddle and tubeless conversion complete.

Fun bolts and off set bushings may follow, we will see how this rides 🙂

added just under a pound so its at 28lbs now

Do like that colour, is it original?

Yup, original colour but they didn’t offer it for long because the rubberised paint doesn’t last well

Thanks titusrider, it looks pretty good from your pics.