New bike day. The hand me down. (MTB)

So I jumped on the Fuel today and WHAM it was off like scalded cat.

I bet at least half of that is tyres… People keep running ‘enduro / downhill’ tyres as trail ones and then wonder why their bike feels sluggish on anything not pointed downwards.

I bet at least half of that is tyres…

Not impossible, it’s running Bontrager XR4s, i did have a Super Soft DH Conti Kryptotal on there for a while which didn’t help, but i then also ran a few versions of a Magic Mary, an older High Roller 2 and also a Specialized something or other, throughout all of this it was running a Butcher on the rear in standard trail compound.

So i’m not disagreeing with you, but i also think there’s a bit more to it.

I will be fitting a Conti on the front this weekend for BPW though but that’ll be on a spare Hunt wheel we have here.

I think in simple terms, Gen5 is a trail bike, Gen6 is an Enduro bike.

The Slash is Treks enduro bike.

The G6 Fuel EX is what a modern trail bike is these days. The older one is more in line with current XC bike geometry now.

Apart from the hideously slack seat tube angle that older Treks were renknowned for.

So i’m not disagreeing with you, but i also think there’s a bit more to it.

Oh yeah, hence ‘half of it’. Sometimes you’re just on a really good day or the bike has a quickness to the way it pedals or you just drank a load of coffee before heading out 🙂

Lunchtime = playtime 🙂

So headed to the ‘local’ which is actually nearly 5 miles away so not that local 🙂 but it’s more interesting than the really locals.

I slowed the rebound by 4 clicks on the shock, i seem to have 16 clicks of rebound and it was on the fastest, on some of the roots i could feel the rebound was too quick. Deffo felt better and on the fun DH (closer to a low level enduro really) trail it was spot on, really good and poppy.

It’s not without faults though, i’ve got a bit of a creak still so a little bit of narrowing down on that, it’s as always a bit of ‘try this, try that’ and eventually you get it. I’m currently torn between it being the BB (which I took the cranks off and cleaned today), the bottom/main pivot (which i regreased yesterday but wasn’t perfect) or the chain (which was cleaned in citrus cleaner fully today). If it’s not one of them, i don’t know what it is yet 🙂

I then wanted to sort the brake on the back end. One pair of pistons was 5mm out, the other about 1mm, as you may have gathered i’m quite fussy and this is also often a symptom of the pistons not being 100% in terms of movement. So it was out with the piston block from Ebay, the bleed kit and the pistons were moved out 1 at a time, cleaned and pushed back in till they were silky smooth. Then back on with the pads, caliper etc and get them both set evenly… Job done.

Won’t get a chance to test it any more now until BPW at the weekend, but i’m more than happy it’s good to go 🙂

i don’t know what it is yet

I had an absolute bugger of a creak on my trek fuel exe, I tried everything, it turned out it was the threads on the shock air can that needed greasing. Probably not the same issue on your bike, but just putting it out there just in case you hit a dead end.

LOL can’t say i’d have ever ever guessed that one !!!

After all the cleaning it now seems fine… but we all know that things always seem fine when you test them in the road, as soon as you leave the house for a trail ride they come back 😀

Had one with the rear axle pivot being completely dry.

IMO, the status is a bit of a plodder, heavy, slack and a short back end.

IMO, the status is a bit of a plodder, heavy, slack and a short back end

Yeah I’m not selling it in here after this thread am I ??

All pivot/axles were done the other day.  It now seems silent, but we’ll see how that lasts.

Sadly the weather has decided to turn for the weekend. Which is somewhat disappointing

Every time I see your local riding pics I’m desperate to ride it on my gravel bike

Every time I see your local riding pics I’m desperate to ride it on my gravel bike

Well I can’t show pics of the downhill bits as I’m riding them.

But arguably of course you’re not far off the mark, I live in West Berks which isn’t exactly renowned for elevation or trails that are steep and tech. The pic was taken at the bottom of the trails but even the trails are not exactly rampage. (Unless hitting his 35′ gap) Even the rest of the Local is just a bit much as it’s built by the teens, so it’s 15-20′ gaps and steep 8-10′ North shore drops.

A lot of it is Ridgeway around here and local walking trails, which is why we’re at FoD, bpw, Dyfi etc so often.

All of this is why in about 12 months time the house goes on the market and we move to FoD area. We’ve been looking for a while

Well that’s the bikes ready for BPW this weekend. I’m not sure which i’m looking forward to most, riding the Fuel or the Session, i guess both equally as they’ll be being used on completely different tracks, although i’m tempted to ride say Surfing Bird and Vicious Valley on both, or maybe AC-DC just to see how both does in terms of time and speed, as well as how they handle the terrain differently of course.
If i can get on well with the Session i’ll be racing it a bit next year for sure.
Pressures are done on forks and shock, rebound set, both bikes all lubed and ready to roll 🙂

Have fun

Well now those weeds will not do.

Well now those weeds will not do.

Not my wall/drive 🙂

 i’ve got a bit of a creak

I always start every creak-hunt with cleaning, re-greasing and refitting the pedals, 9/10 it solves it.

Well this could all be interesting or could be a bit of a “what else would you expect” type post.

Today was BPW and i started the day on the Fuel, the thing felt excellent in the morning, i’d forgotten to fit the spare wheel on the front with the Conti Kryptotal so i was running the Bontrager XR4 rubber both ends, 21.5 and 22.5 pressures. I’d set the pressure and rebound and didn’t adjust it in the morning at all. But the bike felt lovely, plush and happy. I was running about the same pace as my mates, but arguably slightly less than them and losing a couple of seconds on a track. This perplexed me slightly as it wasn’t just on the bigger techier stuff but the proper flow stuff like Sixtapod as well. Even though i felt good on it i did have a couple of front end moments over roots/rocks, but it was at time slightly damp and that happens, everyone else was getting the same so they told me.  We finished our first session with roller disco into the left after the tunnel down to the cafe and while my mate was getting breakfast i scooted down to the van.

This then came out and first impressions (with the pressures all round set) was WOAH that’s a massive front end… high, wide and just a bit nuts. On the run to the uplift van though it mostly made sense though and felt good. “you were shifting on that” said my mate.. Which i didn’t think was the case as it all felt a bit normal.

So we jumped onto Vicious Valley into Surfing Bird and the Session blew me away. I could basically pic any line I wanted, ignore the roots, rocks drops and everything in it’s way. My riding mate was about 5s behind me by the end and started with “where the hell did that speed come from” , but again, it all felt effortless on the Session. Then into surfing bird with the same outcome really, there’s a couple of rock ‘overs’ where you need to pull/pop to make sure you’re not hitting a chainring etc and this thing just blew everything away with easy. Then down into Insufficient funds and i was feeling really happy.  They seem to have reprofiled the back of the drops so they’re a bit of a longer distance to the nice landing part, but the Session didn’t care, so i hit the 2nd, 3rd, 4th a bit harder to make sure i was OK and yup there was a gap to my mate again.

We tried AC-DC, Wibbly Wobbly and Rim Dinger… Rim Dinger was the real eye opener in the fact i could just ignore the brakes on section i’ve always braked, but it just cruises through the rocks !!!

Lets just say as you’ll have gathered, i’m blown away by the Session. Although how much was the frame, forks, geometry and how much of it was better rubber, that i don’t know… but as my mate said “you were night and day quicker on that”..

Don’t get me wrong, the Fuel is still awesome around here and places like FoD will come into it’s own… but BPW, well… Hmmmmm maybe the DH bike is King !!!

Imagine going there on something like, perhaps, a spesh Status or something similar!

Hmmm buying a win are we weeksy

I would put an enjoy emoji on there but ….

It’ll plough through BPW like that, they’re reds arent they? but is that fun? Guess it depends how fast you go. But if it makes you happy go for it. I am very average in all respects but biking for me is more fun underbiked.

Imagine going there on something like, perhaps, a spesh Status

Done that 3 times?

but is that fun?

Heck yeah, it was ace

Great review of your trail bike when you’re conclusions are that a DH bike is better on reds at BPW. 😉

If I’d started another thread about the Session you’d have found a reason to bitch about that too.

I really despair for this place these days, it’s full of bitter angry little men with nothing better to do than have digs when all that’s being posted is bicycle stuff on a sodding bicycle forum. Honestly it’s pathetic it really is.

Hopefully you’ll get to read this before the mods delete the thread as I’ve requested.

Call it a flounce or whatever but I’m done here.

Sorry if my comment caused you offence Weeksy. I was merely stating that (as you said yourself) a downhill bike on the reds will probably feel incredible and will be quicker as it’s probably overkill, ypu dont have to hit a perfect line to go fast etc.

But as I said ride what you like and do what you like, so long as you are enjoying it go for broke.

Hopefully you’ll get to read this before the mods delete the thread as I’ve requested.

Hurry up mods, it I been 18 hours since the toys went out of the pram

I feel like I’ve missed something somewhere where the session now seems to be handed down (up?) to you. Isn’t that james bike?