Compression damping will help to hold the fork up in its travel. Low and high speed refer to the vertical wheel velocity. In other words the speed the damper is being asked to move.

Low speed comp is useful for resisting brake dive, and winding some on will keep the fork up when climbing out of the saddle. High speed compression is trickier- not least because you’ll not find out the results until you’re hitting things quickly. It’s often why HSC is factory set in many forks.

If you’ve had it a while and not serviced it- do this, it makes a huge difference.

Check your sag- it’s only a start point but worth doing.

If your fork is packing down, i.e. not returning to the sag position after successive hits then you can try speeding up the rebound damping. That is, have less rebound damping. Less is towards ‘-‘ on the adjuster. Just move it one or two clicks to start with and go from there.

Don’t worry too much about the compression damping for now, rebound is the key one to get right.

Is it just a seal service you need to do? I highly recommend doing it yourself if so, it’s easier than forks as you can lay everything out on a desk/bench easily.

This video shows what you need to do
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb8BNsFcINQ

Rebuild kit here with everything you need £18
http://www.mojostore.co.uk/acatalog/Maintenance-Kits.html

There are no specialist tools you need, although i’d get some IPA and lint free rags to clean everything.

I can do mine in less than 30mins including removing/refitting to the bike and it makes a huge difference to the shock performance. I do it every 6months or so to keep the shock sweet.

I looked into them, for road riding i’m not convinced.

Despite the noise Fenix were making about their reflector design it looked like a very similar beam pattern to the exposure type lights (Or indeed any torch) which imho isn’t really good enough- if that’s what you want a cheap Chinese torch from ebay will be just as good.

Woody- good point, the big UTE doesn’t have them either.. hurmm.

I suppose as it’s only 350 I could DIY something…

Thinking/random-purchase-approval cap on..

Quite tempted by one of these as I’ve had my eye on cargo bikes for a while. The Surly Big dummy looks great, but the price is rather eye watering.

Looking at the rear rack design it seems to me the major disadvantage of the minUTE over it’s big brother and similar cargo bikes is that it doesn’t have the horizontal platform bars under the panniers so any heavy loads are supported by the pannier bags alone.

Anyone on here got one? Is it a ‘proper’ cargo bike, or just a normal bike with permanently fixed on pannier racks?

There is a gap between the bottom of the seal and the top of the foam ring on my 36’s.

I machined up a tool to press in the seals, but if you’ve got a suitable socket it should work just fine I reckon.

$35 for a bell? Would you?

No.

Of course not.

Next.

A quick web search suggests it’s a FIT fork, so the oil in the leg is just for lube- the damping oil is sealed in the cartridge. I’d say providing the stanchions aren’t scored now it should be alright. Possibly you could get them to change the wiper seals FOC incase they’ve been damaged by having no oil in the leg.

Gee’s run looked so smooth compared to everyone else’s- like he was riding a different track.

The JPEG compression alone on some of the images is laughable! Particularly their own company logo and the 3 links in the header – free shipping, returns and exchange.

I dislike the overall design in general.

I wonder if they did that post launch in a hope to speed it up?

Welcome to the digital world.

The only people surprised by this are really failing to understand exactly what is going on inside a scanner- it’s not OCR’ing and then magically substituting characters, it’s simply a compression artefact.

Granted it’s rather an unfortunate one- one that should probably be avoided by Xerox choosing an appropriate amount of compression in the software!

Doesn’t seem to show what’s in stock very clearly anymore.

Reminds me of the ‘new’ autotrader site…

I guess there is a good chance the bushes are worn- wor stanchions don’t necessarily accompany worn bushes; especially if you’ve been keeping up the oil changes.

I think mojo will check and fit bushes if you can’t/don’t want to do it yourself.

MSR Pocket rocket stove for me- packs very small, heats water super fast. I use a 2-cup moka-express like the one above to do espresso on it.

It’s great 🙂

If you stuck 24″ wheels in a 26 frame wouldn’t you have to fit mega short cranks to avoid bashing the ground all the time?

You gonna hang that off your reverb? Brave.

Great idea- makes me want a fat bike in fact.

How about a matching trailer for the on-one fatty brant?

Would it be doable on something like a cotic roadrat(rigid) with cross tyres?

Yup, Aston Hill is your nearest place with good steep tracks.

I thought DI2 was a silly idea BEFORE I knew that having a problem meant you had to go to a dealer with a diagnostics machine.. seriously?

It’s a bloomin push bike..

Shirly they could make the firmware home-upgradeable??

Good spot niceandy, interesting change. Having said that if it’s 650b then i’m out if and when I need a replacement.

Bit disappointed with the direction since I bought mine in 2012- some components have been improved but they switched to the 34 rather than 36 fox for 2013 and ditched the carbon seat stay.. if 2014 brings a better linkage but ropey lady-wheels then a shame I think.

I have a 2012 Strive, great spec and price. Rides very well, playing with volume reducing spacers at the rear (non-ctd shock) at the moment to get it how I want. Seems really sensitive to air pressure changes too.

Ride it everywhere- XC loops, DH at Aston Hill, taking it to the Alps next month. Best bike I’ve owned.

Ikea.

Buy brackets

Buy shelf planks

done

Who sells chains that long?

I’ve always thought that one of the best properties of chains was the ability to add and remove links in order to get the correct length for almost any application.

From watching the vid, not only can it find your stolen bike- but it finds love too… augghhhhhh. Lovely.

I’d hire a bike out there if I were you (Your mate).

Getting it fixed is going to be a nightmare- and what if it breaks again while you’re out there? It’s going to eat into your riding time to sort out.

I’d like to try a Fat bike… but they’re so damm expensive for what you get.

Just because it’s got 3″ tyres you want me to pay £2000+ for a rigid MTB? Riiight.

I had my 2012 SX front bearings and the 2 in the freehub changed by Broadribb cycles in Bicester, oxfordshire.

Mavic dealers, seemed to know what they’re doing. Bearings were approx £10 each + labour.

I’d do it myself but you can never be sure how these OEM style wheels go together/come apart. I’ve never been able to find the correct tech docs for them

No experience with the company.. but their name always made me laugh.

Alan.

Chortle.

You certainly see plenty of stumpy evo’s on the trails. Friend has one. Lovely bike, but definitely more xc orientated than the enduro which in my mind is a true do-it-all bike. Ride it from your house, ride it at trail centres, take it to the alps in the summer.. Rip up some dh tracks etc etc. My kinda bike 🙂

I’ve never really understood the way specialized spec their bikes in the UK. Great frames, but some interesting choices. Not many good colours available either.

Like you say they should be pushing the enduro hard at the mo- and yet what do you ever hear about them?

I met a guy with one at Swinley about 6months back- it was a great colour and spec and we got chatting about it. He’d got a friend to import the frame and built the rest up. It was pretty close to the way id spec it if it were my bike- I remember looking on their uk site when I got home and being disappointed with the lack of choice.

I head out to Aston hill quite a bit, it’s the nearest place for some proper gravity riding without going to wales ime.

Personally I think the window vans such as the berlingo are hard to beat for bike transporting duties. 5k would get you a new shape one. Theryre not cool like a transporter but are significantly more fuel efficient, more car like to drive, take up less space and easier to daily drive..

ph – It will mean infinitely adjustable rather than pre-set heights.

Oh, rubbish.

I had visions of pressing the remote and seeing the saddle disappear up into the clouds Jack-in-the-beanstalk fashion 🙂

Why does it have a travel indicator O-Ring?

You’ll need a bearing press to insure you do it properly. You can risk it by banging them in with a mallet and drift. I did that and they didn’t last long, but perhaps I’m just ham fisted.

The other trouble with these OEM style wheels is you can never be sure what you’ll find inside. The bonty wheels have been based on various hubs over the years. When I had them I tried for ages to find a tech manual; every one I found online described an obviously different hub design so wasn’t much use!

Not intentionally.. I mean it’s not like I set out to change them that often.

Both my current bikes are around a year old (One about 13months, the other about 11) Both headsets had knackered bearings. The commuter admittedly only had cheapie bearings and I do give it some stick off road with a rigid fork and skinny tyres, but the amount of play in the lower one was comical.

The MTB on the other hand.. it’s the grit I guess. Hopefully the SS bearing will last longer.

Not sure a boot would help me much; it’s an integrated lower bearing so the fork crown is right up against the frame. I think a boot would just ride up. I do try and use the bender-fender guard when it’s really wet though.

#ExpensiveBusinessRidingBikes

If there is rust in the bearings they are worn out.

Who makes the headset? Cane creek, hope, another? Replacement bearings should be available. Cane creek standard 40 series bearings are about £15 for a set of 1.25″ or about the same for the 1.5″ lower bearing.

I change mine about yearly. Stainless bearings are also available which will last longer but are normally about twice the price. I’m running a stainless lower bearing and standard steel upper bearing at the moment, based on the fact the lower bearing takes more of a beating from water and grit I’m hoping it might last a bit longer.

Something like this?

http://www.exposurelights.com/product/000084/boost-cable/

Doesn’t look as melted as the last one. Wouldn’t mind a go… Wonder if it’ll be as hard to buy in the UK as the old one?

I was wondering why I’d never seen one despite all the exposure GT are getting from the Athertons.. they’re hard to get hold of are they?

The wicked 160 is supposed to be great, so I imagine the 650b wicked will be just as good.. just with less selection of tyres available.