Show off your Mountain Bike!!!

thats what i was saying haha

 

Awesome, didn't know that was your brother but it makes sense ha ha. Do you mountain bike much?

 

just ordered parts from you had no clue that was your brother he is the man.

 

Hey you're from my hometown! Good ole Radlands. Yeah, don't I look just like him? hahah as for mountain biking... no, I ride a beach cruiser to work everyday if that counts. I'm too sketchy to ride mountain bikes! I will stick to desert racing

 

Hahah yes sirs! I will let him know you said that ^

 

Ha ha, you gotta love Redlands! Don't sell yourself short though a beach cruiser can be pretty sketchy weaving between all those beach people ha ha. I really need to take my truck out to the desert one of these days. I've been sticking to Cleghorn and Big Bear area for offroading. Do you still have family that lives out here?

 

I rode one of Kyle's crazy expensive mountain bikes out to the event site everyday for the Rampage in Utah, that was the most mountain biking I have done and it was 4 miles both ways. And I almost ate it quite a few times. Haha yeah I go to Redlands a couple times a month. It is so freaking hot there! But I love Redlands! Everyone in OC thinks that Redlands is up north, and then they are all like ohhh the 909. Yeah get out to Barstow or Lucerne, there's a night race this weekend!

 

Night race huh? Sounds like fun maybe I should check it out. I just got my 20 inch led light bar put in and makes night rides so much more fun! Yeah its pretty crazy how expensive mountain bikes can get these days. I love mine and it's worth every penny ha ha! I'm actually a mountain bike educator for a clothing company my friend started. You should check it out http://www.bivouacit.com! I'm the only mountain biker out of the group everyone else is climbers ha ha.

 

anyone have any experience with shimano zee? im thinking of pulling the trigger on new brakes and I will go with either XT or Zee, it looks like zee is 4 piston but no tool free adjustment and XT is 2 piston with tool free adjustment. they are basically the same price depending on where you look so i guess my question is which do you guys think will run cooler? my avid elixir 3s had the worst fade on friday and were squealing like crazy, i thought my pads were melting haha.

edit: or do you think XTR rotors with SLX brakes would run cooler? im not really concerned about weight, i just want to reduce fade as much as possible. i know some of the guys i rode with were running XTR and XT and still got a little fade but it was a lot less than what i was experiencing

 

Stay off the brakes

I like the XTs and right now, I'm trying the fin cooled pads in the rear (not sure I buy the extra cooling bit).

 

haha i wish i had the balls to stay off them, i think it was a mix of everything though (rotors, pads, fluid). it felt like my brakes were wet and no bite. even after like 10 minutes of waiting to regroup they were still pretty hot. i know the mineral oil has a higher boiling point too so even if it was giving me more time before fade hits like it did i would be pretty happy.

 

You really can't go wrong with XT or Zee, but if you can afford XT's, I say go XT. I always recommend getting the best your money can afford with brakes and drive train. Make no mistake though, the Zee line is probably the best budget groupset out right now...all of it: brakes/cranks/drive train etc. I've personally had a go on my friends Transition bike with Zee brakes and it was really good with minimal fade.

That said, I've had nothing but great results using the Shimano Ice Tech rotors btw.

I've had all flavors of Avid Elixir brake setups on my personal bikes...and frankly I don't think they perform anywhere near the Shimano XT/XTR setups with Ice Tech rotors that I only run now on my 2 trail bikes. Just my 2 cents.

 

If it's been a while, bleed them and replace the pads. That's always a good thing. And depending, you might have a good selection of aftermarket pads with different compositions.

I don't know whether more pistons are necessarily 'better' either. Maybe someone can chime in with more experience.

 

With piston amount/size on the rear calipers, it's a wash between the Zee and the XT's. Zee's use 4 small pistons to XT's 'oversized' 2 pistons. Clamping power will be identical. The more important thing is how they're cooled. The Zee and the XT calipers use similar heat sink designs.

 

its been like 2 months but not many rides since i put on new pads and bled them so i think that is fine

so you are saying the XT and Zee will perform basically the same? do you know what the difference between slx and XT are?

 

XT is traditional Shimano's middle of the road line. Zee/LX is lower end and XTR is the higher end.

My take is XTR is the best but it comes with a price. It costs more and requires more frequent adjustment to keep it working 'perfectly'. XT works well, you can ignore frequent adjustment and still have good performance. LX/Zee are priced at entry level. They'll perform well but not nearly as well as XTR or XT. They don't use the same quality parts either. As far as adjustments go, it'll be a challenge to get it right.

For most riders, XT suits their needs very well without breaking the bank. I would almost never suggest the lower end line only because at some point, you'll need/want better performance-I'd say you're there right now with your brake setup.

 

In terms of pure clamping power, you won't notice a difference between Zee and XT....at least I didn't anyway. If it's trails you frequent more than the DH stuff, XT may be your ticket.

Think of Zee as the budget cousin to Saint...so they build their components with budget DH riders in mind.

SLX would be the budget counterpart groupset to the XT/XTR line. More trail oriented stuff.

The difference between the XT & XTR is mainly weight.....which as you know is synonymous with more $$ in the mtb world.

 

Lynskey pro 29sl xt build dt350 hubs fox 100mm rlc fit

 

ok, I need the pros here! I just got this today and am clueless as to what exactly it is. I know it is a specialized enduro, and that it has marzocchi forks. it is a dark forest green color. fsr on tailsection.

so anybody know what year it is? anything bad to look for I might have missed in buying? the only thing I can find is that the derailers need a bit of tuning, and something is fucked up in the crank section that makes a racket when you load your body weight on them and spin. this is my first mountain bike.

im stoked on it but was it worth $480?

 

Wow I used to sell those enduros.Early 2000s. Check the BB shell and suspension for cracks. How smooth do the cranks turn. It might need a new bb.