Dyedbro kit installed today. Wasn’t a terrible job and did it fairly well. £40, I’ll take that.

When you say Xmas, do you mean Tuesday ?

I can see it being sold on Tuesday but:
weekend to ride.
Monday to find a replacement.
Tuesday morning to start a thread asking advice about the replacement.
Five minutes to wait for a response.
Lunch.
Tuesday afternoon/evening to drive to God knows where and back to buy said replacement.
Wednesday to strip the Rocky.

I can’t see it being for sale before next Thursday. Maybe late Wednesday.

🙂

Dyedbro kit installed today

Please tell me you went for zebra stripes!

Lol nah. But I was tempted to save £15 by going for Turtles. I went clear gloss

How you finding it bud? I’ve had mine since 2020 and am a big big fan.

@relapsed_mandalorian

I don’t honestly know much yet mate. I’ve done 1 outdoor ride and it was spot on. But this weekend plans have been canned for Surrey hills sadly but I’ll try the local tech trails for testing.

I’m more than happy currently though.

What have you done, changed, fixed, ridden?

When you figure out its too small i’ll give you £3 and my 1998 panini premier league swaps for it

Last time I was admiring a Slayer was at the top of a mountain in Utah
https://www.pinkbike.com/photo/23580368/
Freeride typa bike innit? Paint job on that one is beaut.

When you figure out its too small

It’s not.

What have you done, changed, fixed, ridden?

Mine was the C90 build so full Fox Factory / XTR / Raceface Carbon

I’ve made a few changes:
Cranks – Hope Evo: (RF pedal inserts came loose, warrantied and went to alloy)
Bars – Burgtec 38mm risers (RF bars were too flat for me)
Stem – Burgtec Enduro MKIII 42.5mm
Pedals – Burgtec Composite
Grips – REV Grips
Rims/Hubs – Hunt Enduro Wide wheelset. (RF rims got battered)
Dropper – Brand X (Cheap and easy to service)
Saddle – Burgtec The Cloud (WTB cover tore)
Changed up the spring on the shock to something more appropriate for my weight, also added on the SendHit Nock handguards after mashing a couple of brake levers and my hand.

Tyres wise I’m running DHR II/Assegai or DHR II/Shorty.

It’s ridden Revs, Antur, BPW, Barry Sidings, Hammers, Wharny & Greno, and a few other local spots to me.

Be hitting Morzine & Madeira next year along with all of the above (except Revs 😢)

Can’t comment on how well it climbs or not, because I don’t climb well! But it goes down like it’s on rails with a side order of meth.

Thanks! Top write up.

@relapsed_mandalorian – how do you find the Cloud saddle? I like the look of them but haven’t seen many reviews. And which version do you have?

@zerocool I have the CR-MO rails moulded plastic base version. I find it comfy, took a little getting used to after coming of the WTB Volt, took a bit of playing to get the angle right but I’m happy with it.

Ace ride today and once again showed me that the Slayer isn’t going to be an issue for me. I was out with one of the regular riding mates who’s one of the faster ones compared to me. There’s faster, but they’re proper faster lol. But i’ve ridden with him enough to know where i sit in riding with him.

Bike was spot on, although i’ve not really ridden a decent downhill on it yet with twists and turns, the one decent section we hit today we came upon a pair of dogs/walkers so i had to brake and stop lol. But i’m still more than happy with it 🙂

I had the Fabric seat on today… it was better than the WTB Slayer seat that’s for sure, although i do need to tilt it down just a bit.

I did just order a new rear tyre for coaching this weekend.

Considering it’s an Enduro/AM bike, it has remarkably small clearances on the chainstay gaps on the back end. Both at the top and the bottom. It also seems the Aggressor isn’t the best at clearing the local mud, so i’ve gone for a slightly smaller DHR for the back end, should give it a little more clearance and hopefully work nicer at clearing the mud and stuff.

First real proper ride will be this weekend at FoD for coaching with Katy Curd so i’m looking forward to seeing how it’s setup in terms of suspension, spring rate, handling, it’s been fine and happy for local riding, but FoD should push it a little bit more in terms of tech, cornering etc.

Dhr2 is my default rear tyre for winter on the Sentinel – I run a 2.3 in the maxx terra compound so it’s not big and draggy and the softer compound works nicely in the cold.

The 2.4” version is a chunk bigger and definitely gets more grip in slop – but you pay for that a bit with more rolling resistance. Swings and roundabouts. Surprised at the clearance issue there – the Sentinel takes a 2.6” rekon with miles to spare.

First ‘proper’ ride tomorrow with a couple of other forum members at https://www.katycurdcoaching.com/

Doing the ‘descend’ course. 10-4 Should be a long day and plenty of time to get used to the bike.

Also bought a new Shockwiz from a forum member so will be sticking that on the front to get it setup.

Whos the others weeksy? Looking forward to the meet-up although worrying a long way into the Gloucester beers already 😀

Bikes propped up in my Premier Inn room after a receptionist eye roll as I wheeled it in.

@couchy

Long time mate of mine who I got into MTB.

He’s bloody gone to bed. I’m drinking Peroni on my own

I’ll be over there tomorrow with my son and some of his mates. Will keep an eye out for you lot.

Nice one. I expect we’ll be down for lunch at 12.30-1

I’ll be in the RM, kryton in an Orbea, my mate on a Trek Eeb in Burgundy

Well that was excellent – thanks Weeksy for offering the invite to the course and good to meet everybody! I got quite tired toward the end and my head didn’t want to do any more. I’m exhausted now – 5am yesterday, stress of work, too much beer and a heavy day on my wrists. But lots learned!

Crouchy wanted the Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/8141057223

I enjoyed the Forest of Dean trails very much and will plan a return to cycle the Blue and Red properly in the future. That was me tooting at you Weeksy in the White BM.

I was massively impressed with your commitment mate. It was easy to see how much of today was pushing your boundaries and what you need to focus on as a ride to get better, but you did it, time and time again. well bloody done sir

As for the skills compensator, it was quite simply astounding. Riding Corkscrew is a proper techy root fest and the Slayer made it mostly effortless. It enabled me to ride stuff I didn’t think I was able to ride. Obviously I had to hold on and do a bit, but it was superb.

When I took it down launchpad, it was again just fab! Really impressed

Had a blast mate, great to see you

You coming on the next one? I’d guess Jan/Feb.

Yup enjoyed that, mostly 😃

@weeksy, it’s the bollocks mate. I knew you’d have a good one.

Yeah that first technique really opened things up for me, I need to practice. But also how the Orbea took everything in its stride and with my weight now in a better place it felt super capable.

I’m definitely up for another one coached or not.

I’ve just watched the videos back, man they do not not do justice to the trails at all do they! Your point about us having under-whelming tech trails here in the SE is a good one, i think several visits a year to the FOD for skills practice is a must for me.

@Kryton, come North good Sir, some steep Yorkshire tech helps no end. 😉

Dunno mate, I’ve not seen the videos, but generally yes they really make trails look easy and riding slow. But some of the stuff we rode was proper tricky.

Relapsed, it was just exceptionally good. Some of the tech stuff I looked at and thought “have I got to ride that”

But it went well

Not got out yet this week, COVID vaccine has killed me off. So just been in the garage and installed the Shockwiz on the fork. Will be interesting to see it’s report as I was really happy with how it rides.

Initial settings say “bit soft and fast”

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2o26DW8]2022-11-24_10-56-39[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Shockwiz testing today.

Was going ‘neutral poppy’ instead of my usual ‘soft poppy ‘

It’s pretty close and was just 11psi off on the Lyrics and 3 clicks of rebound too fast. Although I guess 11psi is pretty much 10-12% overall so a significant difference. I don’t think it was night and day out though by any means.

I may go 500 on the rear from the 450 I have in currently.

GRRRRRR i can’t for the life of me get 12 consistent gears out of this setup

It’s all Shimano which i don’t generally run… but that said, the Trek was Shimano and worked sweetly.. I’ve checked and re-checked the B screw, indexed and indexed it… I can move the ‘skip’ higher or lower, but DAMN i can’t completely remove it from all gears, i generally end up with gear 7-8 not existing unless i go back to them in reverse clicking…. it’s not a disaster in any way, but it is a minor irritation that’s for sure !

I may need to get a gear hanger alignment tool i think.

Gear hanger alignment is your first port of call. I had this with deore 11 speed with the new style mech and the hanger needed a tweak and it was instantly perfect. Before that I had what you had. I think there’s a cheap ish lifeline one.

GRRRRRR i can’t for the life of me get 12 consistent gears out of this setup

yep, hanger alignment issue most likely.

Cassette loose?

Another vote for hanger alignment here, and/or the mech is slightly twisted. I had the same issue, got the alignment bang on but it took a new mech to sort it even though the old one looked fine

Yeah it’s a weird one as the bike was brand new. It’s not been right since day 1…. I’ll get one ordered up.

It’s not rare for brand new bikes to have misaligned hangers. Or bent mech arms. Depends on which gorillas preparing and boxing them up.

-Check the cassette isn’t moving on the axle.

-Hanger alignment, even new ones can be wonky.

-Shimano mechs are bent from new to improve the chain alignment, so be careful with that one.

Eldest_OAB’s rocky had a touch too much paint at the dropouts – we cleaned up with sandpaper and the hanger sits in better.

Confirmed at LBS Rotec Cycles this morning as a bent hanger… We did have a little try at straightening but it wasn’t going to fly and risked breaking, which as i can’t get one before the weekend, wasn’t a good plan.

So i’ve ordered a new one, but with postal delays i may not get it in time, so will suffer with ‘most’ gears most of the time for now 🙂