No mate, but I’m at bpw with mates that day anyway.

Ahhh bummer. I am hoping it isn’t too gnarly, maybe should have asked before I entered 🙂

Link us up matey. I’m curious even if not racing

Got a 2.2 mile road ride round from the bottom of the off piste to the uplift start so think I’ll get in every other uplift. Hopefully it’ll work ok!

doing it without missing the uplift is possible, but challenging.

Best of luck with that shock on a Spech.
I’ve had two of them shit their pants due to the extra leverage the shock clevis causes.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2muhnUB]Shock let go today.[/url] by StuartBrettle, on Flickr

Interesting. If it does we’ve got a dpx2 and a monarch rt3 spare that’ll fit it.

Spech have now stopped fitting coil shocks to the Kenevo due to this problem.
Heard of a few Stumpy evo’s doing the same thing too.
If you slowly put weight onto the seat from full extension you could actually see it trying to push the shaft into the body at an angle.
Stupid design that’s not needed.
Wish everything came with spherical bushes that don’t put any stress on the shock from unintended directions.

richardthird
Full Member
You just can’t ride properly on clips. The cleats would need to be in the arch to weight properly round corners,

But then you cant use the shock like a MacPherson strut, which of course I’m sure no manufacturer is really doing . . .

FoD Race Link

@Weeksy, here you go

Thank you.

Well, interesting one “I prefer the dpx2” after some testing

Probably likes the pop of the air shock as he’s quite jumpy perhaps? You could try a faster rebound setting on the coil and see if that helps

That was pretty much how he described it yes. No biggy. It’ll be on classified in 10 min

@johnjn2000

If i’d not booked the BPW day with the lads i’d have been all over it !!!

25th Sept race at 417
2nd Oct race at Pearce, Hopton Woods
9th Oct race at Stile Cop, Cannock
16th Oct, race at FoD
27th Nov, race at 417.

That was pretty much how he described it yes. No biggy. It’ll be on classified in 10 min

I think I’d persevere with it a bit longer – speed up the rebound as that’s adjustable on that shock? He has a coil on his GT and he always says he prefers that bike to the Status…

I hear you Joe…. there’s been no interest in it anyway at the moment, i may even fit it and use myself tomorrow with the stiffer spring installed. Depends where we go potentially, if we hit 417 or FoD. I’m not actually sure when he’ll next use the Status anyway as from the above, we’re racing most weekends. The only one weekend we’re not racing, he’s away doing family stuff… So it’ll mostly be the GT getting ridden.

First day back on the bike for daft lad and he hears 3 kids talking about a gap from one line into the other. Apparently it’s a ‘thing’ so the daft sod goes and hits it.

It’s only about 20′ so not really an issue but is off camber and very unknown lol.

He’s daft as a brush at times

Hey, i had to think of a name for the thread…. that’s the best i came up with.

After a random message via an old Pinkbike advert i got a WhatsApp to see if i was interested in swapping the Specialized Status for a DH bike…

Pics were exchanged, messages exchanged and I made the trek to Shropshire today to collect and swap for this.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2nMfVWZ]2022-09-17_06-28-26[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2nMh6Du]2022-09-17_06-28-17[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Like the lads current race DH bike, it’s a GT Fury. This is the ‘expert’ model. It’s 2 years newer than his current bike and a little bigger. It’s also got 10 gears which will help with some of the local rides.

The current plan is to use his first GT Fury as the race bike, but with a view to potentially moving to this by the end of the year, either way, one of them will be the Race bike and one will be the ‘spare’ and emergency bike just in case we have an issue on a race weekend. It’s then just a case of jumping on the 2nd bike and it should be fairly familiar to him.

It’s pretty much immaculate condition and feels pretty nice in the Close riding round, so much so that i think i’ll be the first to test it on a ride tomorrow morning 😀

It was going to be a surprise for the lad, but i had to call him and check he wanted to go all-in with non-trail bike and both his bikes being a DH. He was 100% on this plan.. Whether that’s a 6 month plan or a 5 year plan, well, we’ll see…. but it’s the plan we’ve got for now 🙂

It’ll get it’s first proper run-out at 417 on Monday, i’m curious to see what he’ll be racing on at the weekend..

Spech have now stopped fitting coil shocks to the Kenevo due to this problem.
Heard of a few Stumpy evo’s doing the same thing too.
If you slowly put weight onto the seat from full extension you could actually see it trying to push the shaft into the body at an angle.
Stupid design that’s not needed.

You’ve got your be shitting me… I can’t believe Specialized still haven’t worked out how to fit a **** shock to a bike.

My Enduro ate 4 shocks before I demanded an ohlins on warranty and sold the bloody thing. The fourth shock lasted less than 80km of xc riding.

Unbelievable.

Yeah part of that is why the Status didn’t ever get ridden with the coil. I actually sold it yesterday on eBay and of course the bike itself went today.

It was a shame as I quite liked the Status, I was even considering keeping for myself but that was getting a bit crazy

Looks nice. How’s he going on with the arm.

Arm going well thanks. Still slightly lacking strength but he’s compensated for that with balls instead.

Tomorrow will do a few times runs on race layout to see roughly where he is.
Plus back to back testing between bikes.
This time next week is first race back.

So, how was the day on the bike for the first time. Well technically the 2nd as we spent last night playing with some of the bouncy bits to get it in the right area.
Then today was 417 flyup, with both suspension testing and back to back testing on the GT Fury old 18. The conclusion was, he loves the new purple one, but was only fractionally quicker on it.
Throughout the day he tried a 300 spring, 350 and 450, settling on the 350.

On blue raccoon he was 1.5s quicker on the purple.

He also set a 2s PR on Dubby Skipper and it’s 14th overall on Strava.

I think tomorrow we’re removing the Magic Mary off the back of Barney the purple dinosaur and fitting a DHR.
Along with fitting a spare set of SRAM Guide Rs we have, he wasn’t that keen on the TRP Slate, but could easily just be pads. But we’ll keep things the same anyway and put Guides on.

Then it’s a bit of testing and race next Sunday.

I also tried it and liked it, but with the fork springs I simply couldn’t get it to work for me. Just too soft. But was to be expected

Removing the magic Mary from the rear should make it a bit faster rolling on most stuff. DHR2 is my preferred back tyre even in slop.

Just didn’t have time before this morning. I could’ve fitted his other wheels but that’s a bit of a faff as would need cassette etc.

Was just a shakedown and test day today so no biggy.

New shock bushing installed, the other was loose as a wizards sleeve and you could feel the play in it.

Then onto the brakes and completely ballsed it up… the wheel spun and ripped off the end of the bleed tool in the caliper !!!! It’s not the first time i’ve seen a stripped/broken one, but a bit of a pain as you can’t buy the part on it’s own.

So i’ve thrown some race/kevlar pads into the TRPs for now and that should give him better braking anyway.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2nMTR5D]2022-09-20_11-56-53[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2nMUpyh]2022-09-20_11-57-04[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

And that’s one of the reasons why you bleed brakes with the wheel / pads out. As well as making sure you don’t contaminate the disc rotor / pads with brake fluid.

So annoying / but at least you’ve got spare brakes!

If you have to buy a new calliper you could get the old style Code ones and then you’ll have a Guide RE which is a good chunk more powerful than a guide R / RS etc. although you lose the bleeding edge bit with that older caliper

That caliper/kit only goes on the turbo bike anyway usually… so as long as i can get teh TRPs happy for him it’s all good. Hopefully the better pads will sort that for him.

If not you can buy the caliper rebuild kit, but that seems excessive as i only sodding need a tiny part of it.

Not exactly a lifechanging amount.

Question Weeksy.  Why buy Guides when much better DH brakes from SRAM are available – Code R or RSC depending on budget. Appreciate that they may be ok whilst your son is light and races locally.  But show them a decent length decent and they’re quickly overwhelmed.

Yeah don’t buy the worst Guides going – they aren’t even cheap on that link. If staying sram at least go guide RE or Code R.

Yeah don’t buy the worst Guides going

This unfortunately. Definitely an odd choice of brake for a DH bike that’s heading towards nationals and the like.

There’s a budget fellas I’m afraid. I have spent a bucket load lately.

Guide Rs are what he’s running in the blue GT and happy with them.

I’ll bow to your knowledge though if there’s better for not crazy money.

Weirdly we had Codes on the Status and neither of us were impressed.

I prefer Shimano these days after using on my Trek, but the lad likes SRAM.

Obviously being from CRC I can easily can that order.

Merlin for example have some Shimano and Magura at not crazy money.

Maybe the TRP will do now they have new pads… Dunno.

But yeah, link me up with alternatives please fellas. Remember, I’m no expert to this game, so I often just go in half cocked

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325348392713?hash=item4bc0467f09:g:XSoAAOSwN75jJDuT&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoBMViCeah8AaJofD%2FmgdnHDE6dCAEV0dQYHtDCZDDggoIzsaipbWHsnEyC8zQ7bmDdA7Vc%2FVozwbbAn6BtVRifvnlnbBnpgbaGZ6uxke74f3VYV2PSKT%2B3t9OtyiYYPwKmjS%2Blkd%2FR%2BO%2Fzxmiv6Hq6P9scpx7Gbto0VTp99w%2FJsd6FrHeMjMXVE2New3mYVKw7%2FUO%2BL2XpE4qLwffHtxqwE%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5iT4MTrYA. ??

For that money you would get Guide REs. Which have the older Code caliper. Looks like chain reaction have them in stock and should save you enough for a drink

We have them on the older ebikes and have never let us down. Used in all conditions in the UK and abroad.
The two newer ebikes bikes have Code RSCs and Magura MT7s. The REs are on par with them and our Saints for power.

https://www.tweekscycles.com/uk/sram-guide-re-hydraulic-disc-brake-1349931/

Do the Guide re have bleeding edge port?

Not being a regular contributor it’s quite difficult keep up with this thread and work out what’s happening and what bikes are actually owned on any one day!

Whilst I’m all for change I do sometimes wonder if having a bike for any length of time might help with your lads riding, something he really gets used to for a season and knows inside out.

Maybe it won’t but it worked for my lad, luckily he loved the bike I first got him and progressed massively on it over the season before moving on.

Seems your lad is a decent rider but I’m not sure all this chopping and changing will be helping him too much.

Well the purple bike is a spare bike, rather than his race bike. But he’s testing it to see if he actually prefers it over the 18. I don’t know which of the 2 will be his race and which will be his spare, I think timed practice will decide that
We’re being a little ridiculous having 2 DH bikes I’ll be the first to admit, but I’d hate for example to turn up at Pearce on a Sat morning and do a full day of practice, then warm up Sun and something break before the race meaning we pack up and go home without racing. Excessive yes, but hey, why not.

We’ve only swapped bikes due to sizing before now, from the Liv to the Spec, etc, they were swapped when he grew out of them. We sold the Sworks when he decided to race DH but it was getting too small by then anyhow.

The GT/both DH bikes are expected to stay, again until/if he grows out of them.

Surely it’s worth giving the trp a go with new pads and a bleed before buying new brakes?

For what it’s worth, if you are replacing I’d echo the Guide RE love. I’ve run them for a few years on one bike and 18 months on another when I got fed up with leaky shimano zees. Plenty of power, more modulated feel than shimano, cheap and reliable.

I think the problem with the TRP is as much the lever shape as anything, they’re quite a long lever, so I’ve moved them inwards on the bars to try and give better leverage for him. Despite him being tall, he’s still a bit weedy and especially with the recovering arm, a bit lacking in grab power. So even if the TRPs are at their best, I’m not sure they’ll be ideal.

I was just kinda preempting the conversation before we go out tomorrow and he tells me he’s still not impressed and it’s then too late for weekend.
But he’s got the other bike anyway