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

I’m not super smarts, but pretty sure bringing your stem way up with a ton of spacers can alter the bike geo. That’s all I was meaning.

Between the longer travel fork and spacers, you just shortened your reach...I think.

Standing by for those with better bike geo wisdom to correct me.

 

You’re not wrong but @stronghammer is just playing with the spacers before he cuts the steerer tube. Never hurts to see if you like a shorter/longer reach or higher/lower bars.

 

Or, cut back on the Happy Hour drinks with dinner.

Talking about myself of course.

 

Facts.

What I should have said is there’s the option adding spacers on top of the stem for pre-cut test runs as well. Allows you to keep your geo more inline with what it was and to potentially pinpoint any ride differences to specific variable.

 

Measure three times cut once. Or, try out the reach and stack height before cutting anything. Same goes for bars. Once you cut, you cant go back.

 

Ignore this. It's monday. Oops

 

Yep what Johnson said

 

My plan is to ride with it setup with 1 spacer up top as it was previously, and all the extra below. Then shift the stem down 1 spacer, then shift it again, and again, and so on. Find the sweet spot I like and then cut the tube down.

 

I have fabbed up an easy way to carry one bike and a PITA way to carry two bikes...

Easy way: I removed the two tie-downs at the rear of the bed (the 2 that are threaded in the truck frame). I cut a piece of redwood 2x4 to fit across the rear of the bed. I notched out two places in the 2x4 so that it would sit flush over the two silver bed bolts (see below).



I marked the threaded hole location from underneath and drilled two holes for carriage bolts (I used a Grade 8, 7/8" bolt (if I remember correctly)). Lined things up, threaded the two carriage bolts and then mounted a RockyMounts HotRod.



This is my size LARGE Pivot Mach 5.5 mounted in a SHORT BED with a cab-height Leer 100 shell. It was tricky to figure out the process of getting the bike in there and lining up the forks, but now, it takes about 10 seconds. I would say a dropper is a must-have with this set-up.

The PITA Way:
You can see in the photo above that there is another mount at the front of the bed. That is a 2x6 that I mounted in the bed using one of the drain holes as a carriage bolt-hole. Same idea, but with the fork mount at the front of the bed. This saves quite a bit of space...the bike hugs the side of the bed.



In this configuration, I can carry two bikes, both mounted at the front of the bed. This is the PITA part...getting up there to mount the thru-axles through the HotRod. It's not terrible with two people, but much tougher than the one-bike-back-in-method. There is also much more usable space in the middle of the bed for luggage, gear, etc. when mounted at the front.

I mainly use these mounts for long-distance travel. 90% of the time I'm using a hitch rack. It's nice to have the bed mounts if I want to stop for some errands after a ride...everything is locked up and out of sight.

So there you go - mountain bikes in a short bed Tacoma with a cab-height shell. I don't think you'll have trouble if it's just your XL 29er. It can go diagonally across the entire bed and have plenty of space. Length is not your problem, but depending on your stem/bar height, it could be close. Nose-in might be your only option. Good luck!

 

it's nice building overlooking Bellingham Bay. Maybe I'll go back when they are actually open? LoL

 

hahahaha. we like to talk?

 

This sucks. Don't buy offbrand shit

 

Seths bike hacks did a video on some knockoffs, at least the ones he found had different branding haha. Those guys didn’t even try

 

I still laugh at the "pedal-philes"

 

He’s got a creative sense of humor haha

 

I used to haul my mtb ariund like that. You’re doing it backwards. I mounted tge fork mounts on the back side of the bed. The area closer to the number for lack of a description, far less hassle dealing with the

Years ago I has a 1988 4-Runner that had the removable top. Basically the same as a short bed pickup with a topper when the back seat was folded down. I never removed the top, I did however haul my mountain bike around identical to this. The fork mount was on the end near the tailgate. This was before droppers hit the market. I simply pulled the seat off via a quick release seatpost collar. Worked great, and as you said tricky at first figuring out how to get the bike in but once figured out it only takes a few seconds to do it. I didn’t even mount the board in the truck. I cut a 1x12 the length to fit the width with very little clearance. The bike sat stable on the board and it never moved because of the wider platform of the board. And the bike is the length of the bed so it had nowhere to forward or backward. And if you remember those old 4-Runners they had a roll bar in the back. I simply bungee corded the bike up close to it through the roll bar.

 

alright guys, testing the new fork out this afternoon. give me some guidance/direction on what to do and look for.

obviously the geometry is slightly different, so what sort of feelings should I notice? I haven't ridden many bikes, so I honestly don't know everything to look for in how something feels.

 

You test riding it without air?

 

see how it feels when you're doing a drop, does the nose dive? aka is the reboudn too slow?
when you're going down fast, rooty sections, does the front end buck up too much? aka, is the rebound too fast?
how does it feel on the small bumps especially when you're pedaling? is there too much low speed compression happening that you're feeling everything?
do you tend to bottom out the fork quickly when you're doing some really rooty or chunky stuff? maybe add some air or adjust your high speed compression.
is there enough tokens in there? do you like the linear feel of the fork or do you want a more progressive feel as you go through the travel?

these are just some of the things you should look out for. IMO. Others might have other opinions and thoughts on the matter.

perfect. this is what you want to do. hehehe.

 

I got air in it, and have a buddy bringing a shock pump today to fine tune it.