Ditch the CCDB.
215 x 63 CCDB = 550g + 450# Steel coil at 520g = 1070g
215 x 63 CCDB + 450# Ti coil at 310g = 860g

RP23/Float is 250g – Standard tune was pants but hugely improved once tuned for me and my bike; not as good as the coil CCDB though (860g with Ti coil)… but my 420g tuned DHX Air is better than the coil CCDB 😛

Not sure what tyres you have but run tubeless and use non UST tyres as they are lighter… perhaps use a UST only at the back if your clumsy 😉

Rebuild your wheels with the Light-bicycle carbon rims and Revolution spokes – drop weight from 1900g to 1500g

XX1 type chainring at the front and clutch rear mech so you don’t need a full guide.

Selle Italia SLR 135 saddle = 135g so lighter than the gobi… and more comfy (IMHO)… and won’t snap in the middle like Gobi’s do 😯

Carbon bars – Kenesis Strut is 175g and 745mm… or if you don;t trust that the Easton Havoc is 220g (not a huge saving from a Renthal but every little counts).

Is any of this worth it? Probably not… but its fun

I’ve done this to my Nicolai Helius AM and dropping from 33lbs to 30lbs does make the bike feel better… next up would have to be XX1.

I borrowed tools from Dipper at Gravity-Sports… but having done it with the proper tools once I’d be more than happy to bodge it with what I have in the garage next time. Rocket science it is not.

If your after a Nicolai speak to Dipper at Gravity Sports[/url] (unless our LBS does them).

Top chap 8)

The sound is fine but it has no bluetooth for handsfree or inputs for iPod/iPhone. I could spend £100+ on a parrot and Dension etc or just change the whole lot for a bit more… I knew this would be the case when I bought it so its kind of budgeted for by not paying for a full sat-nav which I really didn’t want. No hurry anyway… personalisation is part of the fun 😉

Brand new and a fortune 😐 … one/two/three year old 4Motions go far nearly as much as new ones (if you can find one). Like my last car I’ll probably keep it 10 plus years so it’s all gravy in the end… but at the moment it stings 😳

I’m loving the looks and the ride so far… but the very basic stereo is crap so it looks like more cash is required 🙄

I’ve bitten the bullet and have swapping the car for this.

Its ace 8)

I’d love to know what the bottom bracket drop is on the 456 EVO.

loughor – would you mind measuring your wheel axle heights and bottom bracket height… and tell me your fork length.

I want to know if the BB is higher or lower than my Mmmbop 😕

This thread

and luckliy its a 16″ so it looks good I Ache 😉

Sorry if you thought I was being harsh OP. It wasn’t meant to come across that way… just advice to see what the shop and manufacturer offer before reacting as it seems like an untypical early life failure.

I said comments.

Give the bike shop and manufacturer time to deal with the problem before getting vocal on websites is my advice.

It’s manufacturing fault, not a design issue shirely?

This^^^

I’d be thinking the company involved would be falling over themselves to get this sorted.

I’ve broken quite a few frames over the years and all manufacturers were excellent once contacted through the shop I bought from… in many cases I worked with the shop and ended up speaking to someone at the bike company to discuss options. I did all this before posting comments or pictures of broken bikes on’t’net 😯 😉

To me many tattoo’s look nasty but some are art which can take your breath away

I read this yesterday but wanted to check my stuff before replying. Sorry for the delay.

I’ve just built a pair of wheels like your planning. 32hole Hope Evo Hubs on the wider carbon Light-Bicycle 26″ rims.

I used a few spoke calc programs to check spoke lengths before buying, and I can confirm that these work since I’ve built and ridden the wheels 😉

Hope Pro II rear 135mm with the carbon rim
32h three cross – 260mm Left (disc) and 258mm Right (cassette)

Hope Pro II front with the carbon rim
32h three cross – 258mm Left (disc) and 260mm Right (cassette)

So 32 x 258mm and 32 x 260mm… easy 😛

I would say these are on the short side as they were a bit of a faff to get the nipples on so you could easily go 1mm (or even 2mm) longer on the spokes and I think they would still build up with no problems.

For the record I built my wheels up with silver DT Revolution spokes and Alloy Nipples (black and silver alternating). Rims where 363g each. Wheels are 683g front (20mm), 811g rear (135×12), which is 1494g for the pair 8)

I’ve built loads of wheels and didn’t use a torque wrench. Compared with most light wheels I’ve built these were a doddle to true because the rims are very stiff; more like building a DH rim rather than a light XC rim (which can be a bit of a faff to true as they flex).

I ended up buying spokes from Rose as they had stock of what I wanted… although having ordered I was in a panic as to whether I had bought the correct stuff as it was a bit confusing; but worked out in the end.

I’ve been riding them for a few weeks now and was hammering them properly at the weekend and they were great. They feel like a good pair of wheels should. I’ve had them tubed and tubeless with no problems although they were harder to set-up tubeless than Flow’s due to the deep center well… I’m going to swap tyres soon and will use Bontrager Remedy Rim strips which are meant to work better than tape or Flow rimstrips with these rims.

Enjoy!

The stiffness of the Middlebrn cranks never bothered me but the way the crank arm protruded and rubbed my shoes/foot near my arch had me hating them… but this is a while ago and think they were RS3’s but the current designs look similar.

Did anyone go?

Conditions were awesome on Saturday despite the snow higher up. I had a nosey round the “paddock” but since I was already on my dream bike I didn’t feel the need to demo anything 😉

First release from the geek 😳

FORK

Installation was easy as I followed the instructions… and I did indeed need the blowtorch to release the Loctite on the rebound cap. Heat then twist, heat then twist, etc as it’s a very fine thread and took a while. Once installed filling with oil was easy and getting the fork back together was no bother. I bought some MAXIMA Race Enduro fork oil from ebay as Avalanche recommend using fork oil designed for cartridges. Going from the FOX RC2 Cartridge to open bath Avy its gained 150g… which means it now weighs only 100g less than my Marzocchi 55 RC3 Ti. If I’d realised that before I might have got the cartridge for the Bomber but the 250g of the 36 was calling the weight weenie in me 🙄 .

So far the fork is a huge improvement over the 36 RC2 (older 2010 FIT cartridge). It feels overdamped in the garage but on the trail it is superb. I used to run about 55psi as a compromise pressure; this gave 20% sag which is less than I wanted but it prevented wallowing, fork dive, and end of travel harshness(packdown?). I’m now running 50psi which is about 30% sag and I think I will go lower still as I’ve yet to feel dive is a problem and the fork is not yet as plush as the Bombers (I doubt it will ever be but it’s fun to try… should I have bought the kit for the Bombers though?).

REAR SHOCK

Easy to install 😉

After the first ride I reduced the air volume as I found it was wallowing in the early travel (I’ve done this with my other Float shock so expected this to be the same). It was a big improvement and now the DHX feels really well suited to my AM. It feels better than either the Float or the CCDB which is high praise. The TF/Push tuned Float I have is a great XC shock as it has plenty of compression damping so doesn’t give up its travel easily (unlike before it was tuned). Where my simple Float is outclassed the CCDB takes over and is my more AM and doonhall choice. I love the CCDB on the downs as it soaks everything up but for techy climbs it can wallow deep in the travel making you feel like your falling over the back. The Avalanche DHX Air so far feels like a great combination of the two. As with the fork it feels overdamped in the garage and sitting on it I’m getting 30% sag at the same pressure I do with the Float (and the same sag as the CCDB). Out on the trail it feels little different to my Float at low speed and in the normal stuff, but when the speed increases it seamlessly gains the fluidity of the CCDB.

FORK & SHOCK

So far so good. I’ve not done everything I want with them yet but so far they feel better than the other forks and shocks I’ve tried (Yes, even the BOS stuff!). As good on the XC stuff as the Float/Float combo I have and as good on the doonhalls as the CCDB/Marz set up. Where the Avalanche combo has amazed me so far and really feels special is when you start attacking and pumping trail features. This is something I love about hardtails but some full suspension set-ups just don’t work that well at it. I loved my CCDB/Marz combo at speed but for low speed and pumping they felt too soft. I think CCDB’s are quite slow to rebound from deep in the travel which is why they don’t pump too well, and perhaps why people say they” feel a bit dead” or “lack pop”… and Marz forks are always a bit softly sprung and underdamped which feels great but isn’t overly responsive (IMHO etc). The Avalanche combo feels amazing when being pumped… much better than anything I’ve tried before almost like a great big hand is shoving the bike forward with each pump. More testing and riding required but so far I’m very very impressed.

I’m enjoying the geekery

Have you considered Light Bicycle Carbon Rims?

I’m very impressed with the pair I’ve built up onto some Hope Evo hubs. Less than 1500g for the pair (laced with DT Revolutions and alloy nipples).

Keep your CK hubs?

I’m going to be selling my CCDB shortly; but it’s a 215 x 63 as my AM has the later levers. I’ve really enjoyed owning the CCDB and it’s a great toy for learning about different damping adjustments and how they effect how a bike rides… but it really is a heavy lump to have attached to a bike for long days out in the hills (even with a pimpin Ti spring 😉 ). I bought it for more DH orientated days… but after getting a Float tuned to where it works nearly as well I’ve not been using it as much… although the Float gets very hot sometimes and is not as good for the silly stuff I like hence the DHX Air.

I’m not interested in changing shock setting like Pro-Pedal or CTD… its marketting bullsh!t; a shock (and bike) that works well shouldn’t require the crutch of adjustable settings (or travel)… all IMHO/E etc. So often we faff and change things on our bikes when the best thing to do is change how we ride (guilty 😉 ).

I’ve just had a great weekend riding the Avalanche Tuned DHX Air and so far I’m really impressed… it sucks up the bumps like the CCDB but feels like it pumps better as it doesn’t use as much travel from weight shifts and is able to return quicker from deep in the travel. It feels completely overdamped in the car park much like VIPr’s and my Float do. Pretty much my only complaint with the CCDB is that it sometimes feels like it runs deep in the travel and rebound from down there can be a bit slow (why people describe them as having no “pop”?). This feels like a great trait much of the time especially for fast doonhall trails as it lowers the bottom bracket and makes the bike manual through rough stuff superbly well; the back end sinks through the travel with a rearward weight shift and the shock keeps working deep in the travel tracking the terrain. But for steep techy climbing the similar rearward weight shifts push the shock through the travel and again it likes to stay there which does have a feeling of near falling over the back… and you get more pedal strikes!!! A heavier spring doesn’t seem to help much and I was thinking my CCDB could do with a bit of a custom tune as twiddling the adjusters doesn’t help with these traits… but seeing as I also wanted to lose weight I figured trying the Avalanche tune on a DHX Air.

Clearly I’m a fussy analytical geek 🙄

I’ve still not had a chance to try the tuned DHX Air on all the terrain types I want so I’m not fully convinced of its absolute greatness yet, but I’d be surprised if it falls at the last hurdles.

Best shock so far for me is the Avalanche tuned DHX Air… although the TF/Push tuned Float I have is also very good and probably all I really need 🙄 .

What exactly don’t you like about the RP23?
Speak to a tuner to see if it can be made better before giving up on it.

Of what I’ve tried on my AM. My tuned Float is a great shock… although my CCDB coil is better, and the VIPr was great on the short ride I had.
Very impressed so far with my Avalanche tuned DHX Air… feels better than the CCDB.

Never mind the Kingdom Foia… have a look for the Brigante 650b they posted on Facebook. Plan is to do 26/650b/29er versions *drool*

I can see the point in a reasonably light 150mm forked hard tail, which is why I run an Mmmbop that’s about 25lbs. I’d. Like to change the Mmmbop to something with a lower bottom bracket and a little slacker, but most options are steel and considerably heavier… and I’d rather not add any weight as I like it how it is for where and how I ride.

456 EVO Ti is tempting… but I can’t see if the bottom bracket is lower than the mmmbop since on-one’s listed geometry doesn’t say 🙄
Brodie Holeshot also tempting but the odd head tube standard is confusing and I like 1.5 and taper forks.

Spacer does not push the pistons far enough back sometimes in my experience. As Lord Felcham says bleed a little fluid out carefully while pushing the pistons all the way back in.

Money no object… Brodie Holeshot Ti or 456 EVO Ti.

Watching with interest… 😈

Cromarty Atlantic Drift was lovely, the DeMolen Veer & Vlam I had after was nice.

Tonight is red wine with the wife night.

Dried mud as a protective coating which prevents my bikes paint from getting scratched.

Read the press release in “tongue-in-cheek” mode and it’s enjoyable… I think they are taking the piss from the more more formal and stiff Fox performance orientated (i.e. racing) marketing… calling something a “CONNECTAMAJIG” shows they are being playful.

Why are we so down on the “marketing” guys? It’s bike bits used for having fun… lighten up.

What a great idea… halfway between a Lyrik and a Revelation in terms of weight and travel.

I’ll be interested in how they perform… ignoring all the annoying sales BS.

I don’t do GPX etc… I’m old skool 8)

Route I have used is over Macdui; more carrying but more fun than Feshie (IMHE etc).

Fording the Avon a few years ago… nae dabs 😀

5 would be my choice… and I would be taking a different higher route back 😉

Give Jamie at Balfa UK[/url] a call as he replaced some bearings in one I had.

If you had some Bruichladdich Port Charlotte PC5.

PC5

I like that.

Some of the Ti bolts I’ve seen have really shallow Torx heads which makes torqueing them up difficult, and removing them extremely awkward if they have been rounded off.

Brewdog Lager

Cane Creek’s new CHURN rear shock

Last summer at the top of the lightning strike.

Cromarty Brewing Co’s “Happy Chappy” which is very nice.