Ask the experts

[carlh]

Has anyone used a suction cup bike rack?
We just bought a cheap Nissan Leaf for around town and I am thinking a suction rack to leave in the trunk and throw on as needed so we don’t kill the range with a hard mount solution. Or the parking size with a hitch rack.
Primary use will be a couple city miles home from where I meet the misses and son after I ride there on my bike from work. Looking at the rock brothers one.

[Dee Hubbs]

Has anyone used a suction cup bike rack?
We just bought a cheap Nissan Leaf for around town and I am thinking a suction rack to leave in the trunk and throw on as needed so we don’t kill the range with a hard mount solution. Or the parking size with a hitch rack.
Primary use will be a couple city miles home from where I meet the misses and son after I ride there on my bike from work. Looking at the rock brothers one.

I have buddy with a SeaSucker, who flys with his bike and his SeaSucker rack for the last 5-7?years. No issues ever mounting the suction cups on rental cars to move his bike around.
He swears by it.

[ticketchecker]

Drivetrain setup question.

Took my Next SL crank off a boost Bronson and replaced with an XT 8000 crank. Also went from a 28t oval to a 30t oval. Same chain and same 11-42 cassette. One spacer drive side.

I’m throwing the chain off low and high on the ring. .

Sound like a chain length issue? Limit screws? Other?

EDIT to add I discovered my rookie error, didn't have the quick link completely locked




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[Bushwacka]

Drivetrain setup question.

Took my Next SL crank off a boost Bronson and replaced with an XT 8000 crank. Also went from a 28t oval to a 30t oval. Same chain and same 11-42 cassette. One spacer drive side.

I’m throwing the chain off low and high on the ring. .

Sound like a chain length issue? Limit screws? Other?




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Did you turn you clutch back on after the work was done?

[ticketchecker]

Did you turn you clutch back on after the work was done?

Yessah, couple times


Sent from the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen

[homemadesalsa]

Drivetrain setup question.

Took my Next SL crank off a boost Bronson and replaced with an XT 8000 crank. Also went from a 28t oval to a 30t oval. Same chain and same 11-42 cassette. One spacer drive side.

I’m throwing the chain off low and high on the ring. .

Sound like a chain length issue? Limit screws? Other?




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I need a 28t XT chainring asap if you'd sell it! Decent shape?

Sent from my SM-A600A using Tapatalk

[ticketchecker]

I need a 28t XT chainring asap if you'd sell it! Decent shape?

Sent from my SM-A600A using Tapatalk

The 28 I have fits a Race Face cinch or I would!

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

So, I am going down the rabbit hole a bit on how to make my sb115 more raceable. There are a couple pedally enduros coming up this fall that the 115 would be a hell of a weapon on. The 34 is actually pretty stout, but feels a little too light when on the steeper stuff or hitting jumps. Between a heftier fork and stronger wheels/tires I think I could somewhat quickly beef the bike up and then switch back to stock setup when training/trail riding.

I saw that Graves just put a 140mm 36 on his. Looks like none of them come that short so I would need to lower it. Do all 36 air springs have the ability to be lowered to 140?

Anyone selling a comparable fork in 140mm?

[D(C)]

So, I am going down the rabbit hole a bit on how to make my sb115 more raceable. There are a couple pedally enduros coming up this fall that the 115 would be a hell of a weapon on. The 34 is actually pretty stout, but feels a little too light when on the steeper stuff or hitting jumps. Between a heftier fork and stronger wheels/tires I think I could somewhat quickly beef the bike up and then switch back to stock setup when training/trail riding.

I saw that Graves just put a 140mm 36 on his. Looks like none of them come that short so I would need to lower it. Do all 36 air springs have the ability to be lowered to 140?

Anyone selling a comparable fork in 140mm?

Looks like you can get air shafts ranging from 130 to 170 for the 2021 36.

[Dantheman]

**Warning: Homerism**


Mezzer is internally adjustable down to 140 mm with included travel spacers.

[skaredshtles]

So, I am going down the rabbit hole a bit on how to make my sb115 more raceable. There are a couple pedally enduros coming up this fall that the 115 would be a hell of a weapon on. The 34 is actually pretty stout, but feels a little too light when on the steeper stuff or hitting jumps. Between a heftier fork and stronger wheels/tires I think I could somewhat quickly beef the bike up and then switch back to stock setup when training/trail riding.

I saw that Graves just put a 140mm 36 on his. Looks like none of them come that short so I would need to lower it. Do all 36 air springs have the ability to be lowered to 140?

Anyone selling a comparable fork in 140mm?

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Looks like you can get air shafts ranging from 130 to 170 for the 2021 36.

Ok, so this may be an ignorant question as I have done plenty of fork service but never travel adjustments: So even a 19 or 20 fox 36 I can just drop in a new air shaft and don't have to change anything on the damper side?

[toast2266]

So, I am going down the rabbit hole a bit on how to make my sb115 more raceable. There are a couple pedally enduros coming up this fall that the 115 would be a hell of a weapon on. The 34 is actually pretty stout, but feels a little too light when on the steeper stuff or hitting jumps. Between a heftier fork and stronger wheels/tires I think I could somewhat quickly beef the bike up and then switch back to stock setup when training/trail riding.

I saw that Graves just put a 140mm 36 on his. Looks like none of them come that short so I would need to lower it. Do all 36 air springs have the ability to be lowered to 140?

Anyone selling a comparable fork in 140mm?

I raced some enduros on my trail pistol when I had it. So that was 120 rear, 140 front. At it's most enduro-y, it had a 36 on the front and a dhx2 on the back.

Ultimately, it felt slower, even on pedally courses. The only place it felt faster was on extended out of the saddle sprints, but even then, big heavy tires make any bike feel kinda slow (and I've yet to race any enduro that was smooth enough to get away with light, fast tires). And if it was a long enough pedal that I could sit down, I could pedal smoothly and the shorter travel of the TP didn't make as much of a difference.

Granted the SB115 is quite a bit lighter and racier than the Trail Pistol, but I think it'd have to be a pretty damn flat and smooth course for it to actually be faster. My Spur feels fast as shit, but isn't really even close to my Enduro on any real descent.

[D(C)]

Ok, so this may be an ignorant question as I have done plenty of fork service but never travel adjustments: So even a 19 or 20 fox 36 I can just drop in a new air shaft and don't have to change anything on the damper side?

Yeah, you just need to swap the air shaft to one of a different length. No damper changes.

[bagtagley]

**Warning: Homerism**


Mezzer is internally adjustable down to 140 mm with included travel spacers.

After several months on one, I definitely think it's a valid suggestion. Great fork that also happens be exceptionally easy to adjust the travel.

[Boissal]

Experts, drivetrain question.
I've documented my woes with my XT 12 speed drivetrain on here: this spring a branch nailed the derailleur and pushed it in the spokes, bending a whole bunch of stuff, primarily the hanger and the cage. I straightened everything back but the shifting never got back to perfect no matter how much effort I put into it. More recently I mashed the derailleur into a boulder which snapped the hanger. New hanger went on (I checked that it was straight) but shifting remained sub-par. I continued nailing rocks with the derailleur (alpine riding in the Wasatch isn't kind on gear) and it's now looking fairly haggard with gouges all over the cage and the body.

The main issue lately has been serious hesitation when shifting from 3rd to 2nd biggest sprocket, and to a lesser extent from 2nd sprocket to granny. Shifting is fine further down the cassette (both up and down shifts) but getting up to pre-granny often takes 4 of 5 pedal revolutions and some serious grinding about, sometimes forcing me to double shift to granny and back down (work well) or push the shifter halfway. The B gap is fine, the cable tension is fine, the hanger is straight, the chain isn't anywhere near worn (replaced at 600 miles due to a missing roller), I figured the accumulated wear and bends on the derailleur was the cause and decided to swap it out yesterday. Putting it side by side with the brand new one though it's hard to find any visible bends and other than the cosmetic beating it seems to work just as well as a new one. The cassette is beat though, much more than what I'd expect after about 1000 miles. The teeth that are meant to move the chain up on the 2 alu cogs are chewed to shit and with the bike in the stand I could see that they were basically too worn to properly lift the chain onto the bigger cogs. The next tooth (1st to engage the chain on the new sprocket) is also worn on the leading edge and the chain slips off and falls back down. The steel cogs are barely worn and the difference in shape is impressive:



So, question: can a slightly bent derailleur explain what I would call very premature wear? Something that isn't obvious to the eye but clearly affects the angle at which the chain contacts the teeth and wears them at an angle? If that's the case I'm throwing a new cassette and derailleur on there and calling it good.
The other options is that these XT cassettes are made of solid butter and 1000 miles is what I should expect out of them. If that's the case I'm going to pay the weight penalty and get a full steel Deore cassette and keep my beat up derailleur...

[detrusor]

Have you replaced the cable and housing?


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[toast2266]

Experts, drivetrain question.
I've documented my woes with my XT 12 speed drivetrain on here: this spring a branch nailed the derailleur and pushed it in the spokes, bending a whole bunch of stuff, primarily the hanger and the cage. I straightened everything back but the shifting never got back to perfect no matter how much effort I put into it. More recently I mashed the derailleur into a boulder which snapped the hanger. New hanger went on (I checked that it was straight) but shifting remained sub-par. I continued nailing rocks with the derailleur (alpine riding in the Wasatch isn't kind on gear) and it's now looking fairly haggard with gouges all over the cage and the body.

The main issue lately has been serious hesitation when shifting from 3rd to 2nd biggest sprocket, and to a lesser extent from 2nd sprocket to granny. Shifting is fine further down the cassette (both up and down shifts) but getting up to pre-granny often takes 4 of 5 pedal revolutions and some serious grinding about, sometimes forcing me to double shift to granny and back down (work well) or push the shifter halfway. The B gap is fine, the cable tension is fine, the hanger is straight, the chain isn't anywhere near worn (replaced at 600 miles due to a missing roller), I figured the accumulated wear and bends on the derailleur was the cause and decided to swap it out yesterday. Putting it side by side with the brand new one though it's hard to find any visible bends and other than the cosmetic beating it seems to work just as well as a new one. The cassette is beat though, much more than what I'd expect after about 1000 miles. The teeth that are meant to move the chain up on the 2 alu cogs are chewed to shit and with the bike in the stand I could see that they were basically too worn to properly lift the chain onto the bigger cogs. The next tooth (1st to engage the chain on the new sprocket) is also worn on the leading edge and the chain slips off and falls back down. The steel cogs are barely worn and the difference in shape is impressive:



So, question: can a slightly bent derailleur explain what I would call very premature wear? Something that isn't obvious to the eye but clearly affects the angle at which the chain contacts the teeth and wears them at an angle? If that's the case I'm throwing a new cassette and derailleur on there and calling it good.
The other options is that these XT cassettes are made of solid butter and 1000 miles is what I should expect out of them. If that's the case I'm going to pay the weight penalty and get a full steel Deore cassette and keep my beat up derailleur...

Some of that could be the result of a shitty chainline.

But I've had pretty mediocre luck with XT derailleurs. They shift really nicely when they're fresh and working well. But my experience has been that they're maybe the most fragile derailleur I've used in recent memory (beating out GX Eagle for that honor). They get sloppy really quickly, and they're very susceptible to minor impacts that will make them shift poorly even though visibly they look fine. And the clutches are super fussy.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

I raced some enduros on my trail pistol when I had it. So that was 120 rear, 140 front. At it's most enduro-y, it had a 36 on the front and a dhx2 on the back.

Ultimately, it felt slower, even on pedally courses. The only place it felt faster was on extended out of the saddle sprints, but even then, big heavy tires make any bike feel kinda slow (and I've yet to race any enduro that was smooth enough to get away with light, fast tires). And if it was a long enough pedal that I could sit down, I could pedal smoothly and the shorter travel of the TP didn't make as much of a difference.

Granted the SB115 is quite a bit lighter and racier than the Trail Pistol, but I think it'd have to be a pretty damn flat and smooth course for it to actually be faster. My Spur feels fast as shit, but isn't really even close to my Enduro on any real descent.

Good points for sure. The 115 is faster on anything pedally according strava vs the 150. The Helena race (think Archery to Little Moab) has sections where a light bike can make up 20-30 seconds on a stage. Ashland, OR as well. Lots of pedaling.

Ashland was won last year on a Spur.

I will bring both bikes and ride stages back to back and see which one times out better.

[Boissal]

Have you replaced the cable and housing?

Yeah did that yesterday before I started taking things apart, didn't make a difference

Some of that could be the result of a shitty chainline.

Chainline is pretty tough with 12 speed, those cassettes are so wide. Not sure how I could remedy a chain line issue either. Spacers somewhere?

Edit: I have an ISCG05 adaptor mounted on my BB since the frame doesn't have tabs to mount a bashguard. It's supposed to be the same thickness (2.5 mm) as the spacer that is installed standard on the BB so it shouldn't do anything to the chainline but I'm going to confirm that. I could see the chainring moving a tiny bit further out with the adapter and that could affect things.

[dfinn]

But I've had pretty mediocre luck with XT derailleurs. They shift really nicely when they're fresh and working well. But my experience has been that they're maybe the most fragile derailleur I've used in recent memory (beating out GX Eagle for that honor). They get sloppy really quickly, and they're very susceptible to minor impacts that will make them shift poorly even though visibly they look fine. And the clutches are super fussy.

I've only been on Shimano 12s for a little bit but this has been my experience as well. I killed an XT derailleur pretty quickly, a ton of play developed between the top half and bottom off and it wasn't shifting right. I switched to SLX because that was all that was available, so far so good but it hasn't been that long. Definitely not as durable as the 11s SRAM that I had been using, I could smash that thing into all kinds of stuff and it always shifted fine.

[toast2266]

I will bring both bikes and ride stages back to back and see which one times out better.

That'll be interesting. I'm curious to hear what you end up going with. And the 150 is a big bike. Realistically a 130 would probably be the best bet, but who knows.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

I'm on my second Shimano 12sp XT rear mech. The first went to shit and I couldn't figure out why. Current one is now making weird sounds only in the second to largest and third to largest cog in the cassette. I also replaced the cassette and chain when I replaced this rear der only like 200 miles ago.

They shift amazingly when brand new.......then they go downhill pretty fast with dusty/hard enduro racing.

Sram Eagle is crappy from the get go IMO, but maybe the crappiness is more consistent lol?

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

That'll be interesting. I'm curious to hear what you end up going with. And the 150 is a big bike. Realistically a 130 would probably be the best bet, but who knows.

I am slowly coming to realize I probably need to just round out the quiver and get the 130. I have a serious bike addiction.

[toast2266]

Chainline is pretty tough with 12 speed, those cassettes are so wide. Not sure how I could remedy a chain line issue either. Spacers somewhere?

Edit: I have an ISCG05 adaptor mounted on my BB since the frame doesn't have tabs to mount a bashguard. It's supposed to be the same thickness (2.5 mm) as the spacer that is installed standard on the BB so it shouldn't do anything to the chainline but I'm going to confirm that. I could see the chainring moving a tiny bit further out with the adapter and that could affect things.

I've had good luck with just getting my chainring as close in to the chainstay as it'll go. So biasing the chainline slightly to the inside. Which obviously makes the chainline worse in the smallest cogs, but that doesn't seem to have any noticeable negative effects, and it definitely helps things out a bit on the larger cogs.