I recently bought a Flux and although the bike is fine, well good, I’m just not loving it as much as I expected.

On paper it looks right size wise, but I’m wondering if it is just a geometry thing… confusing though as the HT I had before had a shorted TT and I loved it and the FS I had before that (a Five) had a longer TT and I loved that! So you’d think, being in the middle, it’d be fine! 🙄

Anyway, I’ve just ordered an inline seatpost as although I’ve got the saddle as far forward as it’ll go on the dropper I’m running, it’s still further back than it would be in a mid position on an inline post… could something as little as that make a difference?

My other thought is the forks. Money was a bit tight stretching for the frame, so I just kept my 09 Revs and internally lowered them to 110mm – they are pretty heavy compared to the SIDs I had on my last bike though, so am wondering whether it’d be worth my while swapping them for something lighter, like some SIDs again?

I know it’s not a lot of weight but as I only weight about 105lbs myself, maybe it doesn’t take much to be significant?? Certainly my HT was a lot more chuckable… but then, so was the Five?!

Of course, maybe it’s me and I was just fitter and faster on my old bikes???

All in all, I’m a bit confused and any advice would be gratefully appreciated! Cheers!

Give it a bit more time, you might just need to get used to it. Not everyone loves their new bike from the off, sometimes it takes a bit of time. Don’t worry about it.

Thanks Realman – sounds like good advice , I’ve done about 5/6 rides so far, all local stuff. I’m just used to liking a bike straight away (or not) and this one is oddly in the middle – I like it… just not as much as I thought I would…

Hey MM, sorry to hear you’re not loving the flux, got to admit I didn’t get on my with 6 pack either and have bought a carbon 456 instead 😀 which seems to fit really well, and would be really light, if it weren’t for my fox 36s and my own not-inconsiderable bulk!

Can’t offer much advice on the frame fit, but if it ain’t right don’t just make do as it’ll just put you off riding. I spent my rides on the 6 pack wondering how to make it fit better an missed out on just enjoying riding.

Hope you guys are all well though, will have to catch up soon! 😀

I went up a frame size when I bought my chameleon. It was the right thing to do, but it felt really weird compared to what I was used to. Took a while to get used to it, and I had a few panicky thoughts of “omg have I bought the wrong frame size/bike”. I love it now 😀

Hey Tiboy! Nice to hear from you!

Glad to hear you’re enjoying the 456 – M said you’d got rid of the 6 pack – was it just too short, or was it the design do you reckon?

I think you and RealMan both have good points. I’m at the point of wanting to get rid of the Flux and go back to the Kinesis (it was such a fun little bike!) and put a good chuck of cash in the bank (well that’s the idea!), but M reckons it’s a lot of bike to just throw away – especially as I couldn’t buy another if I changed my mind!

Wish I could have all my fitness back and then ride them back to back, then I’d know for sure!

Wondering whether to try lighter forks anyway as SIDs would work well on whichever frame I end up on and the revs feel overkill or me and the trails I ride… but how much difference does half a pound really make – is it worth an extra £100-£200?!

Different bikes have different characteristics and do some things better than others. Maybe it isn’t suited for your kind of riding? Maybe it accentuates the things you’d like diminished and vice versa,

Hmmm, wise words BigJohn. It just seems difficult to believe when the DW-Link is so well regarded…

5-6 ride prob not enough to get a good feel yet 🙂

Mmmm, it’s a hard one when you don’t like a bike or rather like the last one more than the new one.
Think, sadly, one bike will work for some but not all. I do think fitness does play a part and sometimes think it’s easy to say “the bikes not as good”, and find when I am fitter, I don’t really think about the bike but when less fit I notice everything.
I had a similar experience with a bike last year, a giant anthem, was ideal on paper but never got on with it, for me it was handling rather than fit. I really regretting selling the old bike. In the end sold it but sadly lost quite a lot of cash in doing so, could only afford a hardtail. Thank fully the hardtail turned out to be great, much much better than it looked on paper, faster, more comfortable and more fun than the anthem, for me.

If it’s a fit thing you could just try moving things about, stem up/down, longer/shorter, seat forward/back, wider and narrower bars? Shock pressure settings might be worth playing about with. I would think this would be better than buy new forks. You could also try/borrow some light tyres/wheels to see if that helps, would think this would make a much bigger difference than going from a set of revs to sids.

Hi,
Be patient.I didn’t like mine much when i began coming from a horst link Spot.Love it now.Things certainly changed when i upped the pressure in the shock.Was grounding the pedals on a regurlar basis! Experiment with it and don’t always go by reccomended pressures.Hell,i even use pro-pedal in some races depending on the course and thats not reccommended.We are all different.
Thanx Max

105lbs, my dog weighs more than that!

Foxyrider – yes, you’re probably right – patience has never been my strong point though! 😀

CiC – yeah, I keep thinking the fitness thing probably is a bigger factor than I want to admit! I think I perhaps remember the Kinesis through rose-tinted spectacles because I was much fitter then and it was a very lightweight build and also it got stolen so was ‘taken from me early’! 😉

As for the bars/stem, shock settings etc I have played with that quite a bit already. I know I like 70mm stem so not going to change that, same with the width bars, I know what works for me. The fork/shock work fine, I get the travel I want and it pumps nicely over stuff, takes berms and drop offs well – so I don’t think it’s that.

As for wheels/tires – I would agree that’d make more or a difference, but I’ve got a very lightweight combo already. Was just thinking forks as the front of the bike is quite heavy for an XC build and a bit out of proportion to the rest of the fairly light build (and with the SIDs lifting the front was much easier.)

Turnerfan – yeah, good advice again – like I say, I’m not the most patient! Think I’ve got the shock pretty well tuned, certainly in terms of the travel I’m using, but maybe I’ll play around with it a bit again. Think it’s more of a geometry issue than a suspension one though.

105lbs, my dog weighs more than that!

😀

It just seems difficult to believe when the DW-Link is so well regarded…

Maybe it is, but it doesnt automatically make a bike as much fun as anything else.

If your only 105lbs, perhpas you just get along better with a nice light hardtail?

Maybe it is, but it doesnt automatically make a bike as much fun as anything else.

True!

If your only 105lbs, perhpas you just get along better with a nice light hardtail?

Maybe, but I absolutely LOVED my Orange Five when I had that too!? The Five and the light hardtail are the two most fun bikes I’ve ever owned, but utterly different! …Confusing aren’t I! 🙂

You have to fiddle and fettle bikes to get them right. A small tweak in saddle or pressure or something can transform them.

OK, I’m going to go with the consenus of fiddling about with it for a while, but if I’m still not getting on with it in a few rides then I’ll look at making a bigger change… thanks for the advice everyone!

(Oh and Tiboy, yes we should all definitely catch up sometime soon – I think it’s about time you visited Bristol, isn’t it 🙂 )

Why?

Becasue you thought paying a large amount of money for a premium brand would automatically make the bike sooooo much better.

But that ain’t necessarily so.

Well yeah, I did! It’s well regarded, well reviewed and looked like a perfect fit, so yeah I did think think I’d like it more.

But yeah, maybe it ain’t so! Hence me being tempted to go back to my £250 frame hardtail… but your point is what?

My point is exacly what I said. No more. No less.

I found the same thing, FWIW: £1000 Specialized beats £2500 Yeti.

Ah ok, fair enough – thought I was missing something!

Hmmm, interesting about your Yeti vs Spec experience – I guess we’re all different and like different bikes, regardless of RRP. So yep, I’ll give the Flux another go (I would like to love it!), but Tiboy is right – if it’s not the bike for me there’s no point mucking around and missing out on good riding. (Plus, it’s always nice to have a bit of cash back too!)

I bought an Ibis Mojo SL at the end of last year after having one on demo for a weekend. Having got it built up I have been in much the same position as yourself – lots of little tweaks and changes but still not really happy with it – 3 months down the line and I think I’ve got it – running much more rear sag and using propedal is making it work for me – so keep trying – mind you it did’nt work enough to stop me going out the other week and buying a Five 😳

Perhaps its a DW thing then…a bit marmite

Personally I didn’t think my Flux was all that after the first few rides…love it now but it took time to get the setup right. I wonder whether the pivots were stiff initially and took time to bed in as it now gives a very plush ride where’s initially I found it quite harsh but would then bottom out the shock on the rougher stuff.

Buying bikes is always a gamble to some extent as in the real world test bikes are rarely available in the size/build we would want, if available at all. The experimenting and buying/selling is all part of the hobby for me personally though.

where are you situated – mountainmonkey?

In a few weeks time I will be out on my medium dw-link flux which has SIDs on – you could give it a go if you are near Swinley, Tunnel Hill or Surrey Hills.

Stupid other things, like the rise on your bars, can make lots of difference to the feel of the bike, so keep tweaking.

If your fitness is down compared to when you had good times on your other bikes, you will need to get it back to the same level to be able to compare.

Interesting thread and responses.

I’ve spent six months trying to get happy with an Intense Tracer, thinking it would be an improvement over my prior 5.5evp.

I’d built it up “light” all mountain – 150mm Rev dual airs, thompson, easton, SLX & Mavic 719’s. Other than the forks everything is off the previous bike which I got on well with.

Problem a) – Shock blew through its travel – much internet browsing led to shock inspection (boost valve blown) and coil replacement

Problem b) – Coil seems to have introduced hard initial spike

Problem c) – stiction in coil lower mount

Problem d) – Its not as sprightly uphill….

Problem e) – theres a loose headset feeling I cant get rid of

Anyway, after trying to sort all the above for 6 months I was pretty depressed that I’d bought a premium frame and am not happy with it. T’other bike is a C2W funded Genesis Altitude – I LOVE that bike, train and race on it and it always make be grin / surprises me with its ability and its straight out of the box not a single thing upgraded (other than tyres).

As a last throw of the dice, I moved the Tracers shock from 5.5 to 6 inch travel, just really to see if the change in leverage ratio would overcome the harshness in the shock – it does, probably meaning that when it goes for a service I need to ask TfT/Mojo to reduce the platform / compression (its a Van R so I cant do it).

Now I’m happy with it to a degree but it has left a bad taste in my mouth and makes me think (like you) that selling it on an buying something well reviewed yet off the shelf (ie Trek Remedy or similar)will make me happier.

So you’re not alone, but perseverance is indeed key.

revs arent exactly heavy (IIRC my 140mm Rev Races are about 3.5lbs which blew my mind when I weighed em) so SID wont be a huge amount lighter, certainly not for the expense (can poss ditch half a pound by canny choice of tyre and tubes for a fraction of that?).

Different sus designs feel different (no sh1t sherlock) and some youll gel with, and some might need more fettling to get right for the design and right for you (see kryton’s experiences).

My biggest disappointment was my “dream” bike, a SC Nomad (in Mk1 guise). I hated the granny ring pedalling feedback (compressed the lower link pulling the chainstay and wheel forward about 3/4″ with every stroke). Sold it and replaced it with a single pivot (which was nearly a Heckler, the Nomad’s cheaper cousin) which might not be perfect but is far nicer to pedal on.

I had a few get going issues when I built my Nicolai Helius CC up in Feb.

Fitted an Easton Havoc 65mm stem and an EA70 layback post to go with the Monkey Bars, and for some reason I kept getting back ache after prolonged periods of climbing, the shock was a push’d RP3 off my older Helius.

The shock seemed to sit well into it’s travel and more so esp when climbing, despite setting the sag right.

SO off came the 65mm stem and on went a 90mm EA70 (totally against all the current trends) especially considering I’m running 140mm ‘zocchi Micro Ti’s up front. Boom, no more sore back when climbing.

Off came the RP3 and on went a DT Swiss SSD190L, way better when climbing and traversing and very nearly as good when descending.

It’s taken me a good 12-15 rides to get the bike right and now I’m proper happy.

I may start buggering about with the travel to see if with the forks set at 120mm and the rear at 116mm the bike becomes more of a mile muncher / marathon machine than a trail orientated bike as that’s what I’m spending most of my riding doing with only occasional visits to trail centres for the rad-gnarl-shred

Really interesting last few responses – thanks guys!

If your fitness is down compared to when you had good times on your other bikes, you will need to get it back to the same level to be able to compare.

True, but realistically that’s going to take a while! Mini MM was tiny back that so I had plenty of nap times to get on the Turbo Trainer and I was doing training rides in the week – Now, I’m doing very well to get out once a week!

Different sus designs feel different (no sh1t sherlock) and some youll gel with, and some might need more fettling to get right for the design and right for you (see kryton’s experiences).

Yeah, I know what you’re saying, but as I said above, with me I don’t think it’s a suspension thing – the bike responds how I expect it to, infact it’s great over small bumps, drop offs, berms – the lot. It’s more of a fit/feel type thing. Feels a bit long maybe? Hard to say, but the suspension feels fine really, the rear works differently to single pivot I’ve had in the past, but I’m not suffering on descents particularly, it’s more just how it fits.

When I first (test) rode my Five, I loved it immediately. Sure I made tweaks to the bar positions and pressures, etc. and when I bought mine I lightened it up a bit, but even as stock it just felt great straight away – same with the racey HT, a completely different bike but it just felt spot on. Makes me wonder if the Flux (lovely as it is!) is just not the bike for me… 🙄

Like Tiboy said at the beginning – is it worth all the lost riding time faffing? Because of mini MM and a husband who works long hours, I don’t get out riding that much so even a few rides on a bike I’m not loving is a bit of a sacrifice. 😐

revs arent exactly heavy (IIRC my 140mm Rev Races are about 3.5lbs which blew my mind when I weighed em) so SID wont be a huge amount lighter, certainly not for the expense (can poss ditch half a pound by canny choice of tyre and tubes for a fraction of that?).

Yeah, according to my real world (geek) weights, the difference is only about 300g so probably not the cause of the problems – in fact, almost certainly not thinking back to the Fox Float I can on the Five. (Though there’s no way I can trim off anymore weight on my wheelset/tyre choice – they’re beautifully light already! 🙂 )

Oh and thanks for the offer Turner Guy, but I’m in Bristol and I think being on a medium would probably make it all feel a bit weird anyway. Really appreciate the kind offer though, thank you!

maybe it hasn’t got enough ‘life’ as the HT gave you more feedback courtesy of the hard tail (!) and the single pivot 5 probably had more quirks than the dw-link, not soaking up hits as much.

Maybe it feels a bit sterile compared.

It’s a biggish investment to give up on so quickly though

MM, do you know the dimensions of the bikes you liked (as in top tube + stem length, and bar width) and how the Flux compares? I changed the stem on my new bike to make the effective length identical (ie. from point on saddle directly above seatpost, measured horizontally to middle of stem/bar clamp). With the same width of bar that means the bike fit is identical.

Maybe it feels a bit sterile compared.

Maybe… it does ride well, but just doesn’t have the same grin factor as the other two, so could be that I guess. Obviously it climbs very well, but that’s not really the thing I most desire in a bike!

MM, do you know the dimensions of the bikes you liked (as in top tube + stem length, and bar width) and how the Flux compares?

Yep, as I said at the beginning, the ETT of this frame is bag in the middle of the other two bikes I loved, so ‘should’ be pretty spot on. I’m quite fussy with width bars and always run 600mm low rise. Stem wise, it depends on the bike (and how much travel), but yeah the distance from bars to centre of saddle should be the same as the Five as this stem is 70mm and I ran a 60mm on the Five…

I need to ride it more I think, but I’m wondering if Turner Guy is right – everything works really well, but it’s just not as lively a ride as the Five or HT were (in totally different ways)

Stick with it & let yourselves gel over time. The position might help, & may be try it 5 or 10 psi more in the rear shock – give it a few months rather than a few rides.

yep – I love my flux.

For comparison my HT is a voodoo wanga with decent kit on it and before that an explosif, which are bikes a lot of people seem to like. But the HT doesn’t get a look in now the flux has arrived…

No one seems to have asked you for a bit more info – ie. what is it about the ride you don’t like (twitchy downhill, lifeless, too stretched, too satup etc etc etc) & What sort of terrain do you ride on? How tall are you and what size bike did you buy? A photo of you and bike would be handy.

It took me 3 frames to get it after a I wore out my first FS bike – ti456 hardtail first, then a 5 spot, now a flux. It was more about me not choosing a frame that suited my skills, desires and chosen terrain than anything wrong with the frames.

fwiw – I think you are sending out mixed messages. You are using light xc wheels and are considering a lighter fork i.e. you seem to want a very racy setup. Yet you are proposing shoving the saddle a long way forward and use quite a short stem for a xc frame which are more trail orientated traits.

I’d also say that on relatively placid terrain in my experience the orange 5 is a bike you can just sit on and it will get on with it in a comfy armchair type way. The flux is a stiffer shorter travel steeper angled bike that will give a more clattery ride and needs more riding on the same terrain.

To add one other thing – I’m aware that DW is sensitive to setup.

Recently I rode for a short section of trail a Pivot Mach 4. It was setup for the owner – 2st heavier than me. Becuase of that the Suspension just felt “dead” to me – not even hardtail clattery. I imagine it was muting the bumps but not moving enough to give the bike any character.

The actual owner (mudpup, he may be along in a minute) loves the bike and when I’ve ridden behind him I can see the bike being very active.

That could be an issue for you also, so play with the shock pressures a bit maybe.

No one seems to have asked you for a bit more info – ie. what is it about the ride you don’t like (twitchy downhill, lifeless, too stretched, too satup etc etc etc) & What sort of terrain do you ride on?

Good point, but to be honest, I don’t really know. I think it is possibly a bit stretched out, but hopefully moving the saddle to a more central position will help this… I’m not sure what my problem is really! 😯 Oooohh, just had a revelation – I made the transition from spds to flat pedals at the same time as buying this bike – maybe it’s the lack of security from not being clipped in that’s causing me to not love the bike as much because I’m too afraid to push it as much as I normally would….arghhhh! How silly of me not to think of this!! I feel like a right idiot now! 😀

I think that’s it! I think it’s maybe a bit stretched out because I’ve been running a layback post (as far as I’m aware all dropper style posts have laybacks) and I’m not finding it as lively because I’m riding more conservatively because I’m afraid of coming off the pedals!

How tall are you and what size bike did you buy?

I’m just under 5’4″ and have bought the extra small 13.5″ frame (with a 21.7″ ETT). It should fit pretty spot on, I think fit wise – it could simply be that I’ve had the saddle too far back!

fwiw – I think you are sending out mixed messages. You are using light xc wheels and are considering a lighter fork i.e. you seem to want a very racy setup. Yet you are proposing shoving the saddle a long way forward and use quite a short stem for a xc frame which are more trail orientated traits.

In fairness, I don’t think that’s true, but let me try and explain why… I’m using light wheels and kit because at 105lbs I’ve always been able to get away with light kit (even on bigger bikes) and also being light I find that heavy kit makes a real impact – as a percentage of my body weight even a light bike is heavier than some of my friends riding heavy bikes. As for the stem – I like the handling of 70mm stem on short-ish forks and having quite a short body, a shorter stem helps reduce the reach as well. As for the saddle, I’m not proposing shoving it a long way forward at all, I’m just proposing putting it in a central position on an inline post (as although it’s far forward on the current layback, it’s still further back than it would be in a central postion on an inline post). I understand how that could have all come across a bit mixed up, but I hope that explains my choices!

Stick with it & let yourselves gel over time. The position might help, & may be try it 5 or 10 psi more in the rear shock – give it a few months rather than a few rides.

Yes, I think that’s what I’ll do – I think the pedals could explain a huge amount as although I like the proper technique flats are teaching me, I’m loads more conservative going into dropoffs or hoping over rough stuff than I was in spds. I’ve been blaming it on the bike, but I think it’s my riding due to the pedals!

I think the lack of liveliness I also alluded too, could (depsite my earlier denials) could possibly be running the shock a bit soft too. I figured, it’s not blowing out and it doesn’t feel squishy, so it’s fine, but maybe a little more air would make it a tad more lively.

All in all though folks I’m a bit of a muppet who didn’t think about my pedal changes! 🙄 Sorry for wasting your time, but I still really appreciate all the advice – I’ll pop on the inline post, go back to spds, put a little extra pressure in the shock and let you know how I get on!

Cheers!