All Things Bikes and Tacos! (...and every vehicle imaginable)

I was wondering if/when someone was going to notice this . I'm a trail rider at heart and have been riding clipless for so long that I've lost most flat pedal skills. Honestly, my main goal with the bike was to get back into dual slalom racing and maybe some pump track stuff too, where I felt like clipping in may be beneficial. That said, I have some flats and associated shoes as I do want to re-learn how to ride flats.

 

Word. I understand for pump track and dual slalom - you'll be wicked fast! I like switching back and forth so the flat pedals keep me honest with technique lol

 

I've always liked Schwalbe tires, but the ones I've run on my mountain bikes never seem to last very long. Is this old news? Are they just as durable as Maxxis now?

I sent them a video of the wobble the first time (also a video of my wheel to show it's true). It's happened twice since and I didn't include the video and no one batted an eye. I'm guessing it's just expected that some percent of tires come out of the mold crooked and they factor that in to the cost. If the wobble isn't too bad, we usually just run the tire on the bike as normal and save the extra tire for a spare.

 

No it's a Select. Their literature says "Updated highly-tunable DebonAir air spring offers a buttery smooth feel off the top and maintains a higher ride height for increased confidence in steep terrain" and it has the same bullet on the Ultimate, Select Plus, and Select product page.

But that higher ride height and extra support in the top might be what I'm feeling. Initial compression seems too firm especially on flatter rolling terrain. Less small bump compliance/plushness.

 

The '21 Select has the newest air spring but not the SKF seals. You can confirm by pulling the air side lower bolt, it will have a red boss that the screw goes in to vs. a silver one.

I have the same fork that I just got on a new complete but I bumped it to 150mm and stuck a Charger 2.1 RC2 in it. I still have the new 140mm air spring if someones lookin for one.

That said, that fork should be absolute butter. The regular Charger is way underdamped for most people. (>150LBs) You could have bushing bind which seems to be common on RS these days.

 

I've had no issues with Maxxis before this one which is a 2.4 DD Maxx grip for the e-moped. I usually run the 2.4 Exo DHR2 /Dissector, been through tons and never got a wobbly one. The MM is great unless you ride a lot of smooth hard, or loose over hard then it's absolute death.

I had a particular shit experience with past gen Schwalbe so I haven't tried them in a while but I just built up my old frame with MM/BB on 30mm Newmans and they look pretty gd chonky. (ps this bike is for sale)

 

I'll try to take a look this weekend. But again I'm probably going to swap my 140 for a 130 so I'll be sure to get the newest one. I would absolutely not describe the top of the travel as butter. Any more details on bushing bind? Any fixes?

 

So I just came across this MTB product while scrolling mtbr, the 9" black mamba

https://www.bikeradar.com/reviews/c...ase-black-mamba-rapid-adjust-seatpost-review/

 

I'm in a situation where I don't know what I don't know. I haven't been riding long and I've found that you can make yourself go nutty when searching for product reviews (no different than truck tires). My bike came with the Hans Damf, 27.5 x 2.6 front and rear. I like the rear traction, seems perfectly adequate for New England's terrain. The front has been decent, but does wash out more than I'd like. I have new wheels coming, my original plan was to take my current front Hans Damf, throw it on the rear and get a new Magic Mary for the new front wheel, hoping the MM will make the front end stick a little better. Going the same size, 27.5 x 2.6, downhill casing, ultra soft compound. I'm sure it'll wear relatively quick, but grip should hopefully be there.

 

Let the air pressure down to like 20psi and check for excess stiction. Also check it while twisting the front with the wheel between your legs. The only way to correct it is to burnish the bushings afaik.

 

I can understand that. I love going between hardtails and the FS bike for the same technique/keep me honest reasons, but I've forgone flats for so long because I'm faster and more confident clipped in on the trails.

 

Yeah, Schwalbe is better these days. I used to run the SB8 in the back and surprisingly, even that tire was relatively durable. The MM's would eventually have some outside knobs begin cracking after a year or so of use as a front tire (but I also get the same life out of my DHFs and DHR2s for the front).

 

New shoes and soles for the bike-transport-taco! I wanted to go with SCS F5s, but as many of your know, they are plagued with a bad case of the covid-supply-chain-itis. I ended up going with FN Wheels Five Star, 0mm offset. They were a piece of cake to order from, and the wheels arrived within a week! The spokes (on the taco wheels... need to specify in this thread ) are a bit skinnier than the F5s, which is why I preferred the F5s, but they still look fantastic I think. Also grew up to a 32" set of load class C Duratracs for all the snow/ice driving I do around here. No lift (yet), which is why I went with 0mm offset, to avoid any rubbing when stuffed. The tires are only a few pounds heavier than the stock rubber, and the wheels are about 6 pounds lighter each, so the overall weight difference was minimal (~10lb lighter), which I am stoked about, since the rakattach swing away and 1-Up USA rack together (seen in that last pic) add about 90 pounds!

+ a few pics from this last weekend in the PNW low lands. There's quite a bit of snow at our normal high elevation singletrack watering holes around here (Tiger Mountain, Raging River, Ollalie), but the lowlands are running nice! I am continuously in awe at the Cascade Link I installed over a year ago on my Kona. The widespread benefits of that amazing hunk of metal are bonkers.

+ a pic of my 18mth old's first Mac Ride! She loved it even more than her 3 yr old brother. What a fantastic product.

I love all the content on this thread - keep shredding everyone!

 

At least you're willing to admit what it really is lol. The first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem

That may be my fault, I mentioned having one of those back in the day in a thread discussing dropper travel.

Queue the jokes, but it was actually a great post for its time. Fully mechanical with 9" drop travel, and a cable coming in at the seat collar avoided cable flex with suspension compression. IIRC no other post available at the time had more than 4" drop. Crank brothers (looked cool but like all their products, would fail....), Gravity dropper (solid but Fugly, and limited travel), and Specialized (limited travel) were the only alternatives I recall. KS hadn't released its first post yet.

 

Small world, or do most MTB riders have to have the lifted Tacoma with OneUp rack? I feel like there’s a trend here.

It was you, I went back and looked. Interesting thread with everyone’s input on their fit once I look past some of the bickering.

 

On this site, there's definitely a higher chance of finding people with lifted Tacomas and the One Up racks are certainly popular. I'm an odd one out here, my truck has blue oval badges.

 

so.....the hybrid or EV toyota's? ;P

 

If the time ever comes for a new truck I may go to the dealer with 600 in my bank account asking where them F-250 platinum's are hiding.

 

Let's be honest, SCS never had stuff in stock even before COVID was a thing.

Truck looks steezy AF though!

 

...no.