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

Definitely take it easy, not worth making it worse.

 

Anyone own or ridden an Ohlins 36 fork? Wondering how it compares to Fox 36 Grip2.

 

I have not but I hear the Ohlins has some kind of super powers.

 

I did a 51 mile ride on Monday, it was a beautiful day in the northeast corner of Pennsylvania. It was an out and back route of mostly an old rail bed which a lot of the local municipalities maintain as a dirt road. There are a few unkempt sections which are a little rough in spots. I actually crossed over into New York state in Hancock. I need to explore some of the smaller roads which branch off of this one. My bike is a Surly Karate Monkey steel hardtail fitted with some bags to carry stuff, I don't like wearing a backpack riding.

 

I rode around on my buddy's Ohlins 36 lask week. He loves it and it looks amazing. It felt really good just riding around our camp site, for whatever that's worth.

 

Now looking for a complete wheelset

 

looks like a sweet ride and setup!

 

speaking of suspension, anyone else watch those new suspension setup videos on pinkbike? pretty much the same video they redo every year for the fork and shock, but they also put one out about your fork and shock working together. i didn't really understand it. some comments explained it a bit more as a rocking horse effect. this might be how i have mine setup, that sounds familiar. i think im just gonna need to do some laps with a camera setup so i can watch it back in slow mo or something.

 

I haven't watched it yet but just from experience, especially after riding a bike with more travel, the front to back balance is so important...and hard to dial in haha. I still need to figure out how to get the front and rear balance on my spire. I think as far as damping goes it's fine, but I still need more weight on the front. Part of the issue is probably technique because when I first started riding, geometry was so bad that sitting on the back tire and letting Jesus take the wheel was the only way to do it, not so much anymore haha

 

the whole lean back and hold on is how i learned to ride too. its gonna take some time to unlearn that, especially on real steep/chunky stuff.

 

I've ridden and owned several examples from both brands, and I've been a die-hard Fox guy for ages. I've also set up an unforetold number of Grip2s. In my opinion, the quality of the damper on the Öhlins is a step above Fox. I feel like I can rely more on the damper to keep the fork riding smoothly up in the travel without inducing harshness. With Fox, I tend to run them more open and rely on the air spring for support since adding damper tends to make them spikey. The Grip2s are widely inconsistent, and you really need to know what you're looking for to get them running well. No two forks have ever been the same in my experience. When they perform well, they're excellent, but getting there can be a damn struggle. The sweet spot on the Öhlins is far easier to achieve. The dual air chamber design is much better than dealing with tokens. Overall I think they're just a bit more refined.

 

If you haven't seen the Fox Dialed series on Youtube, I highly recommend it. They mostly just follow the Fox Factory racing staff around the UCI World Cup circuit and observe as the Fox team interacts with all the racers to get suspension set up right. You can learn a lot from how the racers talk about their suspension feel and the ensuing changes the Fox team makes to pressure, compression, rebound, etc. It's also just cool to see behind the scenes at a World Cup DH race.

Getting to the point! The balance of front/rear suspension setup could be pushing you forward/back on the bike and causing you to ride in a bad position and lose some control or comfort or speed. Essentially, you want a balanced rocking horse effect, as opposed to feeling like you're on a bucking bronco.

 

so that new Walden's Ridge in Chattanooga looks really nice... it's just icing on the cake when it's also a free public park catering to many outdoor enthusiasts.
Idk if it's worth me driving 2 hours for, but worth checking out if passing through. May hit this up during thanksgiving.

 

Looks fun. I think chatty is right around 2.5hrs from me. Could be worth checking out sometime.

 

Awesome to see trails in the area expanding! So much more to ride than there was in the mid-2000's when I was going to school there.

 

PMBA is starting to build Bean Peaks Gravity Park this month. It's going to be at the Goldwater lake area in Prescott. Awesomeness!!!!!

https://beanpeaks.prescottmtb.com/

 

My Time Speciale 8 pedals broke after a bad pedal strike in Grand Junction. I've never broken a pedal like this before. They've lasted about 3 years, which I figure isn't too bad for pedals that get smashed a good bit though.

 

jeez! that's a good strike!

 

my first clipless pedals were Time Atacs a while back. They were super nice but after riding them in the mountains of Virginia they died a similar death from rock strikes. I switched to shimano and never worry about rock strikes anymore.

 

I dunno... I broke a pair of Shimano's on a rock. Made one side of them completely useless. I've since gone back to flats for all but the gravel bike and don't worry about such things anymore