Ask the experts

[SchralphMacchio]

Awesome, that's a great writeup. I wonder how the Spire does in tight, slower tech? I ride in Whistler/Squamish/Pemby a decent amount, and then we have a few spots around CO that are similar in style. From the reviews, it sounds like the bike is more manageable than its large & long numbers show.

You hit the nail on the head, right now I have a Smuggler / Dreadnought, so the Spire would replace the Forbidden as my big bike.

Sadly the area where they had the demo didn’t have any tech. Or steeps. Or balls out haul ass trails to really test the Spire.

Curious what shock and fork you are running on your Smuggler? The one I demoed had a Float X Factory and a Pike Ultimate, and while both felt spectacular landing big hits, they also both felt like they had a little too much LSC even wide open. The bike felt like a lot of work over small rubble, like how I imagine it is driving a Lotus Elise through the streets of Oakland CA and getting beat up until you can get to smooth sections of track where the bike can wake up and show off its chops. I really think it’s gonna replace my 27.5 Bronson but I want a shock that is more plush off the top and gives up a smidge of pedaling efficiency when compression damping is wide open.

[LeeLau]

The Spire does not do well in janky tight tech. It does better going relatively straight

[smmokan]

Sadly the area where they had the demo didn’t have any tech. Or steeps. Or balls out haul ass trails to really test the Spire.

Curious what shock and fork you are running on your Smuggler? The one I demoed had a Float X Factory and a Pike Ultimate, and while both felt spectacular landing big hits, they also both felt like they had a little too much LSC even wide open. The bike felt like a lot of work over small rubble, like how I imagine it is driving a Lotus Elise through the streets of Oakland CA and getting beat up until you can get to smooth sections of track where the bike can wake up and show off its chops. I really think it’s gonna replace my 27.5 Bronson but I want a shock that is more plush off the top and gives up a smidge of pedaling efficiency when compression damping is wide open.

Well... the Smuggler I had stolen last month had the stock Fox 34 Grip2 and Float X on it. However, the new one I'm building up has a Lyrik Ultimate 150mm and a CC DB Inline Air, long-shocked to make it 140mm travel in the back.

[SchralphMacchio]

Curious to hear your thoughts on going Inline versus DB Air. We don’t have super technical terrain in most of the Oakridge area but the descents are long and sustained enough that older inline shocks would just get too hot and have poor damping qualities after a bit. Am curious about the newer stuff.
Please PM your impressions on build comparisons once you have some saddle time!

[D(C)]

The Spire does not do well in janky tight tech. It does better going relatively straight

Could always run a reverse angleset like Randy.

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/bike-c...ion-spire.html

I have some friends around here (south coast BC) who ride Spires and like them, but they also prefer fast open trails to the jankier stuff.

[LeeLau]

Could always run a reverse angleset like Randy.

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/bike-c...ion-spire.html

I have some friends around here (south coast BC) who ride Spires and like them, but they also prefer fast open trails to the jankier stuff.

Yup. Quite a few try to steepen their Spires. I've always wondered when longer, lower, slacker goes over the top and for many, the Spire is it.

[beaterdit]

A good friend loves his for everything. Definitely more of a steep/tech rider than flat out. He does ride it in the high setting.

[frorider]

Was riding my enderpo bike yesterday & near bottom of the descent the XX1 12 spd shifter no longer shifted down into the 4 smallest cogs. The upper 8 shift up/down perfectly. Tomorrow I’ll take it apart to see if there’s a frayed cable that’s somehow stopping rotation, but curious if anyone has any experience with this behavior? Hard to know how many miles of use, I have a few bikes i ride, but it is a 2019 so its definitely had significant use.

[XXX-er]

yeah could be an inner shifter cable that has frayed up into the cable housing but who knows ?

last time i ordered some thing on line I noticed the site had a 10 or 15 pack of shimano branded inner cables for pretty cheap, even comes with a cable end in each pack and i still got a reel of cable housing,

you wana have lots of them consumable parts fo sho

[Huskier]

Awesome, that's a great writeup. I wonder how the Spire does in tight, slower tech? I ride in Whistler/Squamish/Pemby a decent amount, and then we have a few spots around CO that are similar in style. From the reviews, it sounds like the bike is more manageable than its large & long numbers show.

You hit the nail on the head, right now I have a Smuggler / Dreadnought, so the Spire would replace the Forbidden as my big bike.

I spent 20 hours on the spire trying to answer this question. In anything steep or wide open it is an absolute smashy demon in the best way. Cadillac, monster truck, battleship, etc. But Lee has it, tight switchers and slow tech are a frustrating experience coming from even a slightly shorter, steeper frame. Using it as a one bike quiver would be a mistake but definitely agree that if you already have the smuggler to cover lighter trail duties and your climbing trails Don't involve much tech or you have ample access to a shuttle, it would bring many grins. I still stalk frames on PB trying to justify building up a sexy purple shuttle pig...


Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

[smmokan]

Ha, I have my eye on the Huckleberry-colored Spire too... realistically I think I'm just looking for a reason to build something new, but in all honesty I love my Dreadnought too much to get rid of it.

[beaterdit]

Was riding my enderpo bike yesterday & near bottom of the descent the XX1 12 spd shifter no longer shifted down into the 4 smallest cogs. The upper 8 shift up/down perfectly. Tomorrow I’ll take it apart to see if there’s a frayed cable that’s somehow stopping rotation, but curious if anyone has any experience with this behavior? Hard to know how many miles of use, I have a few bikes i ride, but it is a 2019 so its definitely had significant use.

This means not enough cable is getting out so sounds like the housing popped out of it's stop or out it's ferrule and is jammed out there making the the housing effectively longer. Look for that on the derailleur loop especially but possibly at the shifter end.

[Ottime]

Anyone have any experience with Fireeye bikes? Sister company to Nukeproof and sold on CRC. I'm looking at a Fireeye Burning AM for my kid but can find little info online other than some geometry numbers. It looks like a long travel bike with a XC/ Trail geo - so curious how it might ride. Bike is very well prices and with mid level components. But I can not find a single review online.

Hahahhahahahaha.

Yo C, how old is are the cassette and chainring? I usually do the chainring when I do the cassette. If it’s a GX cassette it should be fine for 2 maybe 3 chains.

I always do the cable and housing when I do the chain. Do you have a cable cutting tool? Electrical pliers or other snippers will not work well for cutting shift cable housing.

Have cable cutters. No problem there.

From what I understand, the chain ring wears more slowly than the cassette. Clearly the chain needs replacing.

I guess my question is how can you tell when the cassette and chain ring are worn? Chain is super stetted at 1%, so I assume the cassette is trashed. Still, shifting is still quite decent - and I don't want to replace parts that are not fully worn.

[beaterdit]

Chainring wears more quickly than the cassette. I usually go through three chainrings per casette at least. Some wear longer than others. Steel ones might outlast a cassette but most are alloy. The teeth will look worn down and 'spikey' instead of flat on the top, also thin like a knife blade rather than square when viewed from above. If your chain is at 1% I'm sure your ring is toast. If you put a new chain on that ring it will grind noticeably. Sounds like you're gonna have to replace it all.

[Ottime]

Should I go oval then? I do do a fair amount of steep/tech climbing.

[SchralphMacchio]

I’m a fan of ovals on older linkages and an especially big fan on hardtails.
I’m not against them on newer bikes but I think the difference is less pronounced and more subtle on newer bikes.

[beaterdit]

I did oval for a couple years and went back to round.

[XXX-er]

I wanted to drop 2 teeth on my 5.5 so I tried an absolute black but I couldn't say for sure it was good or bad cuz since i had also dropped 2 teeth was it the 2 teeth or the oval ?

and on my e-bike there is no point in an oval cuz the crank is not fixed to the chainring

[Yukonrider]

I have a 31.6mm seat post and an looking for some type of locking collar I can put on it so when I remove my seat post I can just drop it back in, and the collar holds it at the correct height. McMaster had some options but seemed way more heavy duty that what I want.

Anyone have any ideas? And don't say sharpie.

[sfotex]

I have a 31.6mm seat post and an looking for some type of locking collar I can put on it so when I remove my seat post I can just drop it back in, and the collar holds it at the correct height. McMaster had some options but seemed way more heavy duty that what I want.

Anyone have any ideas? And don't say sharpie.

I got my daughter a used Orbea and it has this fancy 'digit' seatpost on it:
https://stories.orbea.com/en/dropper...se-seatpost-2/

If you could find a used one cheap it could be the ticket.

[Dee Hubbs]

I have a 31.6mm seat post and an looking for some type of locking collar I can put on it so when I remove my seat post I can just drop it back in, and the collar holds it at the correct height. McMaster had some options but seemed way more heavy duty that what I want.

Anyone have any ideas? And don't say sharpie.

A 31.6 diameter seat collar, and clamp it to the seat post.

[Yukonrider]

A 31.6 diameter seat collar, and clamp it to the seat post.

Well this makes a lot of sense, why didn't I think of that.

[zion zig zag]

This is where I ended up on my last 36 (It was 130mm travel, new is 160mm). I felt like with the factory number of tokens I had to run pressure so low to try and use the travel that I just wallowed in the mid stroke all of the time. I'm still less than 10 rides in on the new fork and I haven't even opened it up to see how many tokens are in there so I'll do some more futzing around this weekend. Strange though that the Shockwiz kept wanting me to lower pressure and add tokens, I knew that didn't seem right.

Update, not that anyone cares, but if someone else goes searching: I found out I was running two tokens in the 160, comes from the factory with one, so it was definitely too progressive for me. Removed one token, upped the pressure to 74 (still 8psi below rec) and it definitely feels better. Going from 67psi to 74psi didn’t really seem to change the sag much, because I think it’s just that inaccurate. Changing your position slightly seems to change sag measurement more than the 7psi did, so it’s a little hard to be consistent.

[frorider]

This means not enough cable is getting out so sounds like the housing popped out of it's stop or out it's ferrule and is jammed out there making the the housing effectively longer. Look for that on the derailleur loop especially but possibly at the shifter end.

Sorry, I should’ve mentioned that I already checked the obvious things like these ^. Been wrenching for 30 yrs. Anyway I disassembled the shifter, used compressed air to make sure everything was clean inside, it’s working great again. It’s possible that the reassembly process itself just got everything aligned again correctly.

[singlesline]

I have a 31.6mm seat post and an looking for some type of locking collar I can put on it so when I remove my seat post I can just drop it back in, and the collar holds it at the correct height. McMaster had some options but seemed way more heavy duty that what I want.

Anyone have any ideas? And don't say sharpie.

Cut a narrow strip of gorilla tape (or electrical tape, or duct tape, or whatever take you think will hold best), wrap it around the post a couple of times.

It will be thick enough to stop the post in the same spot every time. Won't hold weight, but that's what the clamp on the seat tube is for.