A: I love the tag's for this thread

B: Thoughts on converting my old (1997) Voodoo cx bike to 1x11 and disc? I've only found a few disc compatible forks for the old 1.125" headset, but the bigger issue is the rear triangle doesn't have disc mounts. I could braze mounts on, but I'm afraid that the thin wall Columbus tubing wont be up to the forces on the seat stay. I could stay with rim brakes, but it seems silly to upgrade the drive train/rear wheel and not go disc.

C: I picked up a stages left only for my road bike. Time to try to get more serious. /Fred

 

Anyone need a set of 25mm GP4KSii? I gambled on them fitting, didn't work out on my old-*** bike. They are new, $50 takes them.

 

I'd love to try them but not sure if they would fit my tarmac either. 700x25 specialized tires are a tight fit and the contis run bigger. Hmmmm

EDIT: that's if I try to install while tires are inflated. Worse case I'll have to deflate these to install. I'll try them.

 

Sold those tires to Tim, which paid for half the purchase of new-take-off XT brake levers and calipers for the Top Fuel. That bike now has XT brakes, GX RD, X1 shifter, Maxxis Icon rubber and total out of pocket cost is $1640. lol I still want a Re:Aktiv shock though, will probably never happen though. Now I must learn to corner without fear.

 

I cornered without fear until the first time my tire washed out and I wrapped my body around a tree.

 

watch all the old Sam Hill videos:


He is/was the best ever at turning a bicycle.




Get your weight forward and lean the bike over further than your body. If the front starts sliding shift weight forward, if the rear starts sliding, shift weight to rear. Outside pedal lower than inside pedal. Don't front brake. Look way ahead. Get some flat pedals and go slide around in a dirt parking lot.

 

I know nothing of riding bikes, only tens of thousands on sport bikes (so I realize the physics/styles are different).

Why push the bike down lower than your body? That's the complete opposite of motorcycles. Hanging toward the inside of the turn (on motorcycles) decreases lean angle for a given cornering speed leaving a larger contact patch.

Not trying to being snarky or anything, just genuinely curious.

 

Heh.

 

You can't lean a mtb nearly as far as a motorcycle on pavement due to traction differences. Leaning the bike more gets the cornering ***** (on a normal mtb tire/wheel combo) edged into the ground better and makes it easier to catch yourself if the tire starts to slide. If you try to corner like a motoGP rider and a tire starts sliding you're done.

 

OK, gotcha, just figured there would still be more traction keeping the bike as upright as possible.

 

Nope. Off road bicycle tires are built to roll over and increase contact patch when leaned. As in the photos, a rider will lean the bike in but keep weight more centered. The more grip you have, the more you lean your torso in with the bike. In the photos, the main rider mass is still well inside the radius described by the contact patches. The ride can still make adjustments for sudden losses or gains in traction/slip angle. On a bermed turn, the ride can position them selves much lower like on a motorcycle. Also keep in mind that in pro level DH, the rider is doing a lot of pedaling in 400-800 watt bursts. On steep rocky sections, the rider mostly coasts with little half pedal strokes here and there. On more wide open sections like the one above, the ride is pedaling out of the turn. A super low hanging off position would make that impossible.

 

Thanks for the education guys.

 

Let's be honest- ratboy doesn't pedal very hard or very much:

 

The best may not always pedal a lot or on every course but for the World Cup overall, the best riders need to be pretty damn good pedalers.

 

This is very helpful for me. I recently had a shop bro go through the bike to find I grossly under-torqued the adjusters on my hubs and that the rear through-axle reciever/coupler thingies were under-torqued as well. Luckily there was no wear in that joint but now that the bike is solid now so the ~3* slop on weight shift is gone, so the bike is turning way better now but I'm still kind of on the mental limit of what I can process as the trees fly by. I assume this will get more manageable as I get more accustomed to cornering hard.

Am I insane for running 18/22psi on this bike with Maxxis Icons? I've gone lower and lower, now the tread sits flat on the pavement when I'm on the bike, handling feels great, nowhere near bouncing off the rim.

Also, going to buy a proper torque wrench that maxes at 40Nm.

 

This isn't the same bike shop bro that worked on your CaadX, is it?

 

Probably not. What was wrong with that bike? Is it still serving you well?

 

The axle jam nuts on all 4 wheels were finger tight LOL WRENCHES right? Which was fine, I had to take them apart to clean/grease/rebuild anyway.

I haven't ridddden it since my CX race. haha.

My wife did buy me a baby trailer for christmas, must create a way to attach the 'hitch' to the rear dropout .

 

Oh, that was all me, lol. Getting torque right with those is a challenge for a retard like me.

 

Yeah. The torque on the inner nut (the bearing race) was too tight on all but one, but the jam nuts were all loose. So it would have sorted itself out, eventually.