Still not given up on the air shock. I have it listed for sale but interest is slim, i had an OK offer last week but was £20 under my lowest, so thought i’d have the air another whirl tonight at FoD.

I’ve now set it this morning to 65 stroke. Although one of you will need to answer if a 62.5 would lower the BB or not compared to a 65mm. I don’t know if you get the 2.5mm more at the top end or the bottom end so to speak.. But it’s not important.
I’m going to take both shocks and swap between them on known trails to experiment and see. But as it’s a 2 minute job to swap i could just run the air for more XC days to shave 500gr off and have it a smidgen lighter, then run it on coil on the bigger harder days… Maybe.

I’ve dropped the fork pressure a bit from 100-90 as i noticed last night that even on the bigger impacts i was only using about 45%. Although yesterday was pretty tame in terms of terrain.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oCwgLo]2023-05-24_08-11-52[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

On my float x if I shorten the stroke it keeps the same eye to eye – you’re just stopping the shock going into the last bit of the stroke. Same on my Kitsuma coil.

Slayer seems to want it fairly saggy.

IIRC eldest_oab’s Altitude was both a bit more sag than we expected AND really fussy about being just at the ‘sweet spot’ of sag. Once there it is brilliant.

If the i2i stays the same then the BB height will be unchanged.

Slayer seems to want it fairly saggy.

I’m running mine at 5% more than the recommended settings. Got TF to help me at Ard Rock, dude knew he onions and talked about all sorts of things I didn’t understand, all I know is it runs sweet as now, just the odd tweak of rebound as an when the terrain requires.

This is on a DHX2 mind.

Don’t get me wrong here, i love the Slayer… me and it get on very very well and i’m really happy. But as we know i’m a serial tweaker and just trying a few things out.

Playing at FoD tonight.

Spent time setting up the Air. But still prefer the coil. Wanted to give it another try though

i just noticed when swapping shock back to the coil i had been trying the Ride-4 position differently to some of my previous riding.

I used to run it in the slackest setting which gives 63.7deg head angle. But it seems i’d swapped to P3 which gives 64.5deg, sure it’s not night and day of course, but it certainly will feel slightly different. Also P3 gives a slightly longer reach of 8mm.

So i’ve put it back to fully slack now and will do some riding at the weekend.

Out today and ooft it wasn’t an easy day. Mates both on Ebikes and in the FoD area the trails are up and down. Rode lots pushed fairly hard.

The Slayer was just awesome, with the coil I absolutely love the handling and it was flying down.

Beers, BBQ, beers, chilling

Dude, you’re overthinking this way too much

I’m under no illusion that any of my bikes have ever been set up perfectly. Just get on them and ride pal, they’ll work for you unless something is drastically wrong or you let something get in your head.

It’s only the pro’s that really need that perfect set up. Don’t sweat it 😊

It’s what I do 😁

But I’m riding plenty, and enjoying it lots, so all good

Another crazy week coming up with 2 days at FoD, a day at Hopton and a day at BPW, need some energy

As always, when you’re a parent you end up neglecting yourself/your own stuff. As it’s half-term and i’m not riding (my own bike) for a couple of days i thought i’d strip the Slayer down. Odds are i’d have any bearings etc i’d need but you never know. The bottom bracket is and had been for a while a fraction less than perfect, but it’s not a complete disaster.

So it was all linkages, bearings, pivots etc, stripped cleaned, greased and made nice. Headset and forks got the same. I’ve left the BB for now as i don’t have a PF30/92 in spares, but as i say, it’s not bad.

Apart from dirt, mess and slime, i didn’t find anything horrible, all the bearings are smooth and nice.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oDSF6o]2023-05-30_08-15-42[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oDRsia]2023-05-30_08-15-37[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

It’ll be ready for BPW at the weekend 🙂

Plenty of riding lately, not all of it on the Slayer but i did have an interesting day on Sat. We were up at Pontypool trails and a guy rocked up next to us with a Slayer, same as mine but Alu version, however it was in a Large. I know there’s been discussions that the M is too small for me. So i had a little play on his large.. Now i think he’s running a standard length stem and i’ve got a 10mm longer stem fitted to mine. However with all of that in mind, there’s VERY little difference between the 2 bikes in terms of feel in sizing. It’s made me happy that i’m not hugely concerned about swapping frame in the slightest.
I did a week or 2 ago flirt with the idea of swapping mine for this.
https://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/3494920/

Well, I’d arguably have to buy his, fit my Codes etc and then flog the red Medium on after all done etc… but in truth, i’m OK with it now 🙂

The Slayer has been being used outside of it’s comfort zone mostly lately, with most rides being XC rather than anything more gnarly… The good thing is, i really don’t mind it in an XC context, it’s comfy, fast, effective, even with loads of suspension, i don’t feel it holds much back… Sure i’d bet there’s quicker bikes out there, but if i’m cruising along happily, without Strava, i really don’t care 🙂

The good thing is, i really don’t mind it in an XC context

I did similar on my Sommet and realised that it wasn’t the bike that made it feel like hard work, rather my utter lack of fitness 😂

I’m sure this weekend coming at Southern Enduro in Tiverton my lack of both skills and fitness will be seen in full effect. 😀

@weeksy tempted by the 2023 model?

I don’t really see it as any better than mine. It can run mullet of course, properly but not sure I care.
So will be sticking with mine.

3-4 times i’ve bought a Shockwiz, used for a few weeks and then sold it for mostly what i paid for it… It’s cheaper than renting although i admit a slightly weird way of doing things. This last weekend i was bouncing on my forks and thought “are they really slow.” and maybe they are. So i jumped on Ebay and saw a shockwiz for £250…. Bit rich for selling back, but only had 2 days left… in the last 24 hours he dropped it to £210 and accepted £190. I’ll take that 🙂

So it’s now fitted onto the Slayer and will go on the Privateer next week along with my mates 2 new Treks in the weeks following. I’ve set it up for Playful…. so we’ll see what it comes up with.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oJXYqk]2023-06-23_11-48-12[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

That’s a timely post. Been thinking about hiring one but hadn’t considered just going second hand then punting it on. Thanks for the tip

This one was brand new and sealed… Maybe a warranty one, dunno, but still sealed with the circle sticker on back. I’ve already had an offer for it at asking price from my mate with the Treks, but i should really keep this one as they do come in handy for sanity-checking your settings IMO.

I don’t really see it as any better than mine. It can run mullet of course, properly but not sure I care.
So will be sticking with mine.

My thinking too, early reviews aren’t that great, I don’t think I need a longer and slacker bike than I have. My eye has be caught by a Dreadnaught, but I’m still debating.

RE shockwiz, just seen one for £189 on FB Marketplace.

RE shockwiz, just seen one for £189 on FB Marketplace

wiggle were selling them for £175 a few months ago. I picked one up, its been good, my settings werent miles away from what it recommended, but it did manage to improve on them

once you’ve set the bike up they’re of limited use, but I think I’ll keep hold of mine.

After some playing and a 2.5 hour trail ride with one of my favourite Enduro test tracks we ended up at this.

Bike felt absolutely awesome so I’ll take that

It did mean I was 10psi too firm and 5 clicks of rebound too slow (which I noticed on Monday, hence buying Shockwiz ) at last weekends race. Not that it would have mattered but it’s nice to have peace of mind.

Honest question (as I’m a big of a Luddite), but how does the Shockwiz work and know what’s best for you?

You can tell it what style you want. I pick poppy/playful usually as I like mine a bit soft. But there’s permutations you pick like normal, firm, soft, planted, etc etc and it obviously has algorithms associated to them in terms of how it rides and settings within

Well that was a fun end of work day… I’ve now got 3 days down in Sussex with my bike and some spare time 🙂 So i thought i’d tick off a few jobs.. My mate brought the bike back after borrowing it for Dyfi and i wasn’t massively happy with the dropper… I’ve not been happy for a month but i then forget.. So off came the dropper post and a new inner installed.
I then remembered the rear wheel had some play… Was it frame or wheel.. Mmmmmmm. So i threw in a spare 29er wheel and checked. Yup, wheel bearings. I’d not worked on a DT Swiss hub before so a bit of it was remembering what little doo-dahs go where, what spacers, the circlip and anything else. It felt like the freehub bearings, so i swapped those first… Nope, they were fine… they were 6802s
Checked the bearing spares and i had a set of the 6902s as well.. So off they went… well sort of !!! the spacer in there was pretty damn stuck that’s for sure… Took a fair few hammers that did… But soon it was out and some new ones pressed in…

Did that cure it…

Yeah it did… So we’re happy.

I had a minor moment of crazy again yesterday and ordered another Float X shock.

Why… well, i was still somewhat curious.

It arrived quickly and happily. It was set to 62.5mm stroke but it’s 3-4 mins work to put to 65mm which is correct for the bike.

Once i’d fitted the hardware, i configured the Shockwiz and went out for 35 mins… It was drizzley so not exactly perfect, but you know by now when it’s time for testing something, it’s got to be done right away.

I don’t know how as it’s only 400gr lighter on the bike which is really a small amount but it does instantly feel more spritely… I took it only to the local simple stuff as work would have got in the way if i’d gone longer, but it gave me some info on Shockwiz to work from

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oMjhRb]Screenshot_2023-07-04-13-01-37-916_com.sram.shockwiz[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Which in simple terms is a pretty decent start point… It also felt really good out there, so i’m going to run it for a while and see.

Air shocks do feel that way, it’s not the weight, more how the air spring works Vs a coil. It’s a bit like an air shock will never feel as plush as a coil. You’ll never truly have it both ways so you need to decide what works best for you.

Out on the Slayer all morning yesterday. Due to being bored at home I decided to leave early and ride to the meeting point, it was about 11 miles.
We then did a fast ride with lots of woods, trails, lanes, nettles and brambles, but it was awesome. The bike is feeling just superb at the moment and me and it are about as gelled as I’ve been with a bike. Handling is spot on, poppy jumpy stuff is excellent.
Massive internal debate with myself as to whether I race Southern Enduro next weekend, but I often come out of the races feeling like I’m wasting my time as I’m propping up the back end. So it’s £50 for a battle for last. Ok, last time was 4/7 but I think even that was somewhat fortunate.
2 hours into ride we got monsooned on which drenched us all head to toe. This then scuppered my plan of jumping in Crusts car to head for beers. So instead, I had to ride home as well. Ouch. One of the hills was a chore I can tell you.

All in all it was over 40 miles riding time, but was superb.

Jeeeez that was a bit of a trauma…. 😀

I’ve spent 3 days in the last few weeks trying to get out the 4 bearings at the back of the chainstay.

They’re 2 back-to-back bearings with a small spacer between them. They sit almost flush to eachother and in a tricky position to remove.

I bought one of these in the right size, but have failed more than once.

Today i had a spare few mins so went at it again… many few mins later and they’re all out… more luck than skill possibly, but i thought “they’ve got to come out one day to be replaced” so needed to get them somehow.

Was then out for a quick pedal round the trails.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oNLxoz]IMG_20230711_133628[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Well, sort of trails… mostly you couldn’t even see where the trails start or end 😀

tingle tingle legs now.

I’m curious where you live (not as in a give me your address/stalker way!) as you look to be in fairly modest terrain.  Aside from the enduros, most of the photos you post of the Slayer seem to show “rolling hills” in the background.   So, comparing stats and in a top trumps style hill rating, my last ride was 13.21 miles and that comprised 1,706 ft elevation gain.  Benchmark round here (Calderdale) is 1,000ft of elevation for every 10miles (unless you stay on the canal towpath).  What sort of numbers do you contend with razzing around on the Slayer?

Obvs, lots of steep ups round here means lots of nadgery descents!

The reality is, the Slayer is what most people would say is completely the wrong bike for my riding. People say, “buy the bike for 90% of your riding”. The fact is, mine is the right bike for 10-15% of mine. But the problem is, that 10-15% is the important part 🙂

Every 10 miles i’d say maybe 350-450ft of elevation would be about right. Mate of mine did 230m which is what say 600ft in 17km yesterday. Weekend from another mate was 450ft in 26km….

I live in West Berks. I could in reality stick in more elevation, but it’s really not a hilly place.

So yeah, you’re not wrong… but it cracks on at a decent pace 🙂 Saturdays ride even with some woods sections seems to have been 11mph average and that wasn’t completely crazy, 90% offroad and some decent trails.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oNSWdT]IMG_20230711_140745[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

rolling hills indeedy 🙂

Out today and just really wasn’t on it at all. Couldn’t get things ‘right’.

I need to go again tomorrow as i’m wondering if it was just me or whether the air shock really is more suited to different riding. I’ve had it on for trails, but they’re more trails rather than closer to ‘enduro’… Today was on the tracks i know well at our local riding, but it’s more Enduro than the Ridgeway for example. 🙂
So i do wonder if swapping for the more bumpy days to the coil is necessary.

Or, of course there’s the possibility i was just on a rubbish day

Went out this morning early doors, there’s a dad-gap and then into root fest at our local spot. I’ve not hit the roots in about 50 runs, i always go low and avoid them, but my lad has been telling me how much quicker the straighter root line is… but last night, as always i bottled it.

So this morning i went with the intention of hitting the roots. There was a secondary purpose which was trying the coil shock on the runs i rode last night. I wasn’t quite on form last night and i was wondering if it was just me or a bit of the air shock too.

So i did a few full runs and first run i avoided it… Second run i started on the back of the gap and rolled gently into the roots, went OK. Then i went 10m further back for a bit more speed and did it again, went OK again, so finally on the next few runs i did full trails and hit it both times at ‘race’ speed… race being completely a relative term for an old fat bloke of course.. but was still at ‘my’ speed. It was all good, even a little pop on root1 can make it a bit cleaner.

What i did notice on the rest of the trail though is that the coil is a gazilion times better than the air on tech. Even though i’ve set the air up the best i can now, it’s still not even close in terms of tech. I was hitting a few of the braking bump areas which have worn in in the last few months, but today they didn’t really exist or bother me at all. Super happy.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oQDKC9]IMG_20230720_093143[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Coil is way better for roots. Even just a daft test like dropping your back wheel from a foot up in the air with no weight on the coil just sticks, the air shock bounces. There’s a trail in the Mendips that’s a bit bumpy on air, but on coil I can ride it totally like a smooth blue flow trail. Other than weight I don’t think there’s anything my float x does better than my Kitsuma coil.

Other than weight

Yeah weight really and in some ways ‘feel’ in terms of feeling more sprightly. The air just feels a bit more ‘get up and go’ rather than plush and planted.

Idyllic ride out today, beers, tuna, trails, mud, laughs and gap jumps. What’s not to like

Today showed me something important, I’m not 30 any more.

After a fast paced ride on Saturday chasing [smention u=84]crust[/smention] on his ebike I had today off and Mrs Weeksy wanted to spend time with the boy so 9am I went out riding. With a few aims, plans and goals in mind. Within 2 miles I knew it’d be a tough one, the legs were just not recovered from the last week, especially Sat ride.

However I still stuck in the best part of 50 miles on the Slayer today, it was only 50% or so off-road but my favourite trail locally of Grims Ditch from Nuffield to Wallingford, there are parts designated as footpath only but being a rebellious MTBer means I don’t much care. From there it was over to Didcot way, then Harwell to meet the wife and boy and finally a slog back from Harwell which really wasn’t my best moment lol.
I felt old old old by the last few miles. But 6 hours out even with allowing for stops, is still 6 hours. It was epic fun, loved it

What you need is…. a new bike! You need an xc bike – 50 miles would be much better on one of those, that Slayer must be hard work!