I got a spare in 2021 when fox stopped making top end shocks for 200x57mm despite my bike being a 2018 model

Adrian is quite a small chap (and a quick rider) and is also about as much as a perfectionist as you can imagine.

What’s he a perfectionist in? hiding the warranty weight limit clause on his website instead of making the riding weight limit clear on the product purchase page?

However, he has limited production capacity so he can choose to restrict the warranty to lighter riders and not worry about losing sales.

Bit of a blinkered view – some might argue he’s covering up a design flaw discovered in extremes of testing by applying a relatively low weight limit ‘get out’ in the warranty details.

maybe they should rebrand as dwarf cycles – as if you want to ride his bikes with clothes on you’d need to be near/under the Uk average height of 5’9″ to have peace of mind coverage with the warranty!

the price looks really bad when you dive into warranty details…..max user weight kitted up of 90kgs!

warranty link

The bikes sure do look nice but it’s a bit of a poor design and testing regime if you can’t make a steel frame and stand behind it’s strength unless you weigh under 14stone

@nixie I ended up on ebay – got a stainless S6702-2RS from hendersonbearings costing £4.06 posted.

For all those interested, after taking apart the lever i tapped out the old bearing lightly with a punch using a couple of bits of wood for support, tolerances are certainly no where near frame bearing houses. After a cleanup of the lever the new bearing was able to be pressed in by hand. It’s in there tight enough to not be pulled out by my finger again though. Lever action buttery smooth once again!

Many thanks nixie – will get a 6702 on order!

My wolftooth stainless front ring isn’t compatible with the new shimano 12 speed chains. Any other potential problems apart from losing the shifting under load?

Burgtec mk4 pedals at 110kg have seen me right for almost 5 years with 1 service kit. Was kind of hoping they would die as the new mk5 look a nicer wider platform for my bigger feet but the mk4s just keep going. No longer look black though!

I suffer with something similar, after 2.5 hours intense exercise (biking, running etc) I get severe cramps front and back of both legs. If i got close to 2.5 hours i’d be fine but then suffer with severe cramps at a random point over the next 24hours. I thought my nutition wasn’t right despite using high5 tabs to top salts up and combniation of salted nuts/clif bars, torq bars, bananas and other food sources. I’m mid thirties and quite a salty sweater. Tried loads of stuff over races/long distance events over the years – beetit juice (nitrates etc.) but finally found something that worked for me – saltstick tabs.

I thought it would just be a more expensive alternative to the high5 tabs i was using ut hey have a different composition. I managed to complete a 100miler road ride in warm weather without cramping for the first time in my life last summer – i was waiting for the cramps to appear in the evening or during the night but they never came.

I’m happy as I’ve found a product that works to combat my electrolyte loss – could be worth a go?

The link i posted above took to you to the edit v3 details that looked like they were left on the site by accident.

The ebike appearing is clearly a red herring to cover up their mistake.

In summary the v3 is boost, metric shock 205×60 trunnion (155mm travel) with the refined geometry as above.

edit: and an XL added to the range

https://www.airdropbikes.com/products/airdrop-test-product?variant=12893902438499

Chris, can you share some pics please of your drill hole and cable routing – thinking of doing this myself!

erm, it rained the full week leading up to ard rock, the camping fields were sodden on arrival on friday. Granted it didn’t rain during most of Saturday but it started raining at 3:30 4ish as I finished stage 6. It also hammered with rain into the sunday morning. The field I was camped in – had 2 shower ‘blocks’, one of which was not working at 5:30pm on the saturday when the queue for the 3 working showers was massive.

Maybe it was nice for you in your T5?

Dangeourbrain – I’m not against the organisers making money, but they’re creaming off another £9400 off the saturday enduro riders alone (1000 entries) and going off this years event, not putting enough money back in on facilities.

Ie. they knew the weather was going to be wet at Ard rock but there were minimal showers and the showers that weren’t broken down had run out of water.

The extra 4 quid i paid between 2016 and 2017 got an extra 6th stage – whats the extra 10 quid for 2018 going to produce?

2016 enduro = £58
2017 enduro = £62
2018 enduro = £71.40

It’s just turning into a money making exercise now and they’ve been pretty lucky with the weather. Fingers crossed for the entrants that they don’t get an “ard moors 2017” style washout

I was interested until I saw they’ve whacked the price up again.

The marathon event actually looks more appealing – this would be my 3rd year and whilst I’m no racing god it was really frustrating getting held up by lots of people on the saturday enduro who were clearly out their depth last year.

Paying 72 quid and not having a good clear crack at the stages is too much.

—

I have a v1 edit in large and considered doing the same. I got the same message back from Ed that it ‘should’ be ok. The v2 actually has dropper cable guides on the main down tube so makes a tidier routing solution too.

In the end i went for a fox transfer external dropper which was the tidiest solution and less faff for fitting and removing.

Also,, you’ll probably want to drill a drainage hole in the BB (which the v2 has) otherwise you’ll end up killing BBs more frequently if you ride in wet weather.

the 5:30 time limit is a load of BS. They actually mean (or certainly it applied last year) that the cutoff time is 5:30 from the last rider group to depart which is 11:40ish for the saturday enduro.

I had an 11:30 start time, headed straight up the first climb into a 30min queue for stage 1. At the bottom of stage 1, the marshal radios were blasting out with info that the sweeper (guy K + daughter on his tandem) was catching, sending people back to the event village due to cutoff times etc.

That meant maximum pressure and a cycle straight past that pub and minimal resting before stages. I chatted to someone on the transition from stage 4 to 5 that had a start time of 7:30. This was at about 4:45pm – He’d had a lovely days riding with max stops, resting before stage attempts and a drink at the pub. The total opposite of my experience, I was fubared by the end of the day!

It’s all about early start times – I got 8:45 this year and am looking forward to more relaxed transitions and enjoying the race a bit more.

Ive got a fox transfer which is a million times better than the reverbs I’ve had before. I bought the wolftooth lever which has to be the best cable actuated lever on the market in my opinion.

My mate bought the brand x post which also seems top class for the price.(although the lever is a bit flimsy/naff)

If i was starting out from scratch again I’d defo buy the brand x post and upgrade the lever to a wolftooth one (integrating it with my brake lever)

I can only answer question 2: I have the CCDB inline coil and it works really well. I bought the v1 frame and fitted my own shock before Ed started supplying them with the inline coil.

I needed to go up 50lbs in spring weight over the various spring rate calculators and Ed actually advised this when i chatted to him about using the coil.

I had issue with the cane creek springs though, they are quite long for the 550lbs spring and difficult to fit/remove. I ended up buying a Super alloy racing enduro spring which I would recommend!

I have the rims, got them for piece of mind toughness and they use ‘normal’ spokes and nipples.

The rim is supplied with a removable insert for a presta valve so it doesn’t wobble about.

Use my rims with procore successfully!

If you can get away with a 150mm post – fox do their transfer in external flavour at 150mm

iainc – i missed this yesterday. I have the same setup! A fox transfer with wolftooth remote. So easy to set up – The lever action is very light and it’s easy to modulate the post actuation for a partial raise.

You’ve made an excellent choice!

I’ve used both. RR is definitely wider/taller with a larger overall volume. I think (no real evidence) that it rolled faster as the edge knobs don’t contact as much as the minion when the bikes upright.

I used the standard snakeskin RR for the ard rock enduro so it coped with my 105kg on some nasty terrain. Procore and stans sealant definitely helped. In my opinion the minion feels/looks a bit more resilient but i’ve yet to truly test it out on the same terrain as i ran a RR through.

I bolted my asgard shed to the slabs it was sitting on.

I’ve not installed a ground anchor on the fact if someone is determined enough to break into the shed they will likely get the bikes.

Out of your 2 options I’d go for the double doofer bolted directly through the shed floor into the slabs. An 11mm chain is cropable if the thieves are determined and tooled up. I wouldn’t bother with the concrete block under the shed.

I did the last ‘original source’ sponsored one and then the first wiggle sponsored one at eastmoor. They just seem to be stripping the costs out the event yet charging more for it every year.
as a team of 4, its now £75pp to ride an uninspiring track.

They could do with using Ard rock as a model for the revamp!

onzadog – my CCDB IL coil is the 200×57. To fit the 550lb official cane creek spring (approx 127mm free length) was doable by hand because of the angle you slip the retainer plate on at. THere is quite a large overlap of the retainer plate on the inside of the spring. With the spring collar wound fully off there was about 2mm free movement of the spring which isnt enough to get the retainer off. Hence compressing and zip-tying the spring to shorten the free length.

My SAR spring is 116mm including the POM spacers making it possible to remove the spring by just backing off the collar.

I agree, not really an issue unless you want to change springs mid ride

Just to chip in with my experience – I have one on an airdrop edit frame and love it.

For the springs though, they are a bit tight on the free length (for the correct 2.25inch stroke i need for my shock). I ended up using a superalloyracing “enduro” spring where the free length is significantly shorter than cane creeks standard/valt springs.

They are also available in 25lb increments:

spring link[/url]

I’m no way linked to the company but after i had to compress my shock whilst on the bike and use loads of strong zipties to enable removal. The SAR spring is a godsent!

just to throw it out there: Airdrop edit – i love mine. A standard pro build is available at 3k and A conversation with Ed will get you as custom as you like

linky

I’ve been running procore for over a year. As a heavier rider (100kg) I love it. It gives me rim protection and opportunity to run lower pressures which normal tubeless couldn’t for me because of burping issues. The weight of moving to procore from a conti mtb tube is almost comparable. In short, I love it.

Airdrop edit!

I’ve got an inline coil on my airdrop edit and love it. Have always preferred the feel of coil to air.

The climb switch works great on it for the long slog climbs. It does come with a weight penalty though. My 200x57mm shock with standard steel spring +mount hardware weighed in at 740g.
I was comparing it against my other potential option of the DBAir CS with claimed weight being 510g + 40g for the mount hardware.

I thought the extra weight was worth the try and I’m not disappointed with the performance.

my lad moved form an islabike rothan to the belter. The lighter weight is definitely worth it for him and as said above, next to zero maintenance because of the belt which also means it stays cleaner!

I looked at the frog first and it was nice, but when i saw the belter in a shop you notice how much of a better build the belter is. I’m really pleased with it.

Thanks all, hadn’t realised that mounts were all over the shop. I’ll look at shimming up

So is rotor shimming common practice for a lot of people??

I’ve tried searching on google briefly for hub dimsneions that show the distance from the edge of axle to the rotor position but am having no luck.

i just want to see if my industry nine hub dimension is different from other peoples!

to answer northernmatt, the price has not gone up on the frame fork combo. I think its a stonking deal as the rear shock is a £500 shock.

Planet x have only reduced the frame on its own to about 600 at its lowest so to add the forks for a total 750 is great.

I’d buy it if i was in the market for a 650b enduro frame/fork

bump for the morning crowd

rock razor front and rear if dry!