Ask the experts

[J. Barron DeJong]

Pretty sure Dee would have an aneurysm if he saw the state of my bench ten minutes into working on my bike. Would love to be that organized.

[nickwm21]

What’s most impressive is how clean the bleed kit is….


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[toast2266]

Pretty sure Dee would have an aneurysm if he saw the state of my bench at any time, ever. War zones are tidier.

Fify.

[Dee Hubbs]

What’s most impressive is how clean the bleed kit is….


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Sealed bleed kit boxes, so no fluid drips in the box, one for mineral oil with the various tips, and one for DOT fluid.
I’ll start a tool thread, and give some details, preference tools/brands.

[rideit]

Maybe you could start a raffle to win that tool kit...

[mall walker]

Yes. It'll be 20mm less.

thanks. does the advertised travel of these forks then just refer to the air shaft it comes with? you can buy a Fox 34 at 120, 140, etc... does the starting travel impact the range of possible air shafts you could replace it with? also, do the GRIP / FIT / etc designations, none of which I understand, impact which air shaft I can use?

I want something ~508mm A-C with 100mm travel, boost spaced, that will fit the biggest tire possible and generally be the nicest option available. it seems like the 34s will take a bit bigger tire than the 32s, which is why I'm looking this route

[toast2266]

thanks. does the advertised travel of these forks then just refer to the air shaft it comes with? you can buy a Fox 34 at 120, 140, etc... does the starting travel impact the range of possible air shafts you could replace it with? also, do the GRIP / FIT / etc designations, none of which I understand, impact which air shaft I can use?

For most forks, the stated travel is just the air shaft it comes with. So yeah, you can generally swap air shafts in any of those forks to change the travel to anything within the range that's available for that fork. There's a few forks that work a bit differently (like some of the older travel adjustable forks), but for pretty much all of the current fox and rockshox offerings, it's just the simple air shaft swap.

The damper side doesn't require any swapping or internal adjustments if you swap air shafts (assuming you're staying within the range of travel that's spec'd for the fork). The different damper names (grip / grip2 / fit4, etc) are just different levels / price points, and have different levels of adjustability. But changing travel via swapping the air shaft won't affect the damper side, regardless of the level of the damper.

[mall walker]

awesome, thank you

[nickwm21]

Any of the 1-side flat, 1-side SPD pedals worth a damn?

Use case would be my commuter. SPD for the commute and flat for bar bike duty. Currently swapping SPDs and flats once or twice a week….

I seem to remember complaints about having to flip them over to to click in…. I’m not sure if it’s more ideal to have the flat or SPD naturally flip up. I’m thinking SPD.

Which one is the least PIA:
- PD-M324 - old school aluminum cage w/ one side SPD
- PD-T8000 - modern big flat w/ one side SPD
- PD-EH500 - medium size oval flat w/ one side SPD.


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[Tailwind]

Kinda dumb question here. I’m having some strange rear shock issues.

I had a race last weekend and bottomed by suspension out pretty hard around hour three. After that, it felt fairly soft and I bottomed it out a few more times when I wouldn’t expect to. That being said it was ‘okay’ And I was able to finish the race without big issues. Does bottoming out your rear suspension hard (or overheating your shock) make it possible to loose some air pressure? Measuring after my sag was off by more than a little.

Second weird thing, the dust wiper pulled out of place. I have a fox float from 2020. This has happened twice where the dust wiper pulls out of the shock body and I need to rebuild the rear shock. I’ve rebuild the rear shock without issues a couple of times but this has happened more often than I like. I’m wondering if it could also be related to bottoming out and or heat.. Any thoughts?

Riding a short travel 100mm XC rig where historically I’ve ridden longer travel 29’ers. So I think I am not being overly kind to the bike itself.

[simple]

Have it rebuilt. They can adjust the compression to be a little more your speed and more bottom out resistant. May affect climbing but barely.

[XXX-er]

Any of the 1-side flat, 1-side SPD pedals worth a damn?

Use case would be my commuter. SPD for the commute and flat for bar bike duty. Currently swapping SPDs and flats once or twice a week….

I seem to remember complaints about having to flip them over to to click in…. I’m not sure if it’s more ideal to have the flat or SPD naturally flip up. I’m thinking SPD.

Which one is the least PIA:
- PD-M324 - old school aluminum cage w/ one side SPD
- PD-T8000 - modern big flat w/ one side SPD
- PD-EH500 - medium size oval flat w/ one side SPD.


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Flat/spd are heavier than SPD only if you care

ime the combo pedals were good for getting newbie GF's who are afraid of SPD's into using SPD

but once they are up to speed on SPD's they never use the flat side

if you wanted to also use non SPD shoes for commuting the combo's would be useful

[dannynoonan]

Kinda dumb question here. I’m having some strange rear shock issues.

I had a race last weekend and bottomed by suspension out pretty hard around hour three. After that, it felt fairly soft and I bottomed it out a few more times when I wouldn’t expect to. That being said it was ‘okay’ And I was able to finish the race without big issues. Does bottoming out your rear suspension hard (or overheating your shock) make it possible to loose some air pressure? Measuring after my sag was off by more than a little.

Second weird thing, the dust wiper pulled out of place. I have a fox float from 2020. This has happened twice where the dust wiper pulls out of the shock body and I need to rebuild the rear shock. I’ve rebuild the rear shock without issues a couple of times but this has happened more often than I like. I’m wondering if it could also be related to bottoming out and or heat.. Any thoughts?

Riding a short travel 100mm XC rig where historically I’ve ridden longer travel 29’ers. So I think I am not being overly kind to the bike itself.

Depending on the shock, a hard bottoming event can push air from the positive chamber --the one that holds you up-- to the negative chamber -- the one that tends to compress the shock-- and that will result in lower air pressure in the + chamber. Sometimes a shock will get "stuck down" which is this situation taken to the max. So, that might have been all that happened, although a stuck down shock is kinda dangerous if you aren't careful. A rebuild is probably the safest thing to do.

[Dantheman]

No suggestions, but I wouldn't want something that doesn't default to the SPD side. You'll be using the SPD side way more, and you don't want to be screwing with flipping the pedal over while trying to get moving in traffic.

[anotherVTskibum]

Any of the 1-side flat, 1-side SPD pedals worth a damn?

Use case would be my commuter. SPD for the commute and flat for bar bike duty. Currently swapping SPDs and flats once or twice a week….

I seem to remember complaints about having to flip them over to to click in…. I’m not sure if it’s more ideal to have the flat or SPD naturally flip up. I’m thinking SPD.

Which one is the least PIA:
- PD-M324 - old school aluminum cage w/ one side SPD
- PD-T8000 - modern big flat w/ one side SPD
- PD-EH500 - medium size oval flat w/ one side SPD.


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How far is the bar? I've found that pedaling clipless pedals with regular shoes really isn't all that bad for short distances. I'd think something like the PD-M820 would work fine for that use case as long as the bar isn't really far away or accessed via gnarly trail.

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[nickwm21]

How far is the bar? I've found that pedaling clipless pedals with regular shoes really isn't all that bad for short distances. I'd think something like the PD-M820 would work fine for that use case as long as the bar isn't really far away or accessed via gnarly trail.

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Bar/grocery would be 3mi.

That’s another option…


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[sethschmautz]

Any of the 1-side flat, 1-side SPD pedals worth a damn?

Use case would be my commuter. SPD for the commute and flat for bar bike duty. Currently swapping SPDs and flats once or twice a week….

I seem to remember complaints about having to flip them over to to click in…. I’m not sure if it’s more ideal to have the flat or SPD naturally flip up. I’m thinking SPD.

Which one is the least PIA:
- PD-M324 - old school aluminum cage w/ one side SPD
- PD-T8000 - modern big flat w/ one side SPD
- PD-EH500 - medium size oval flat w/ one side SPD.


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I have the PD-324s. Bought them originally to ride fat bike in the snow. They work fine but are really heavy. They have been moved to the spin bike in the basement where nobody cares about weight.

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[VTskibum]

Bar/grocery would be 3mi.

That’s another option…


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Shimano XT trails or Saints in particular would be fine for a casual 3 mile pedal to a bar sans cleats. Ridden around with my kids on my trails in vans plenty and would be even better on saints from doing the same.


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[skaredshtles]

Bar/grocery would be 3mi.

That’s another option…

How far is the commute? Just get proper flat pedals and use those to commute?

[nickwm21]

11mi. I have some Amzn cheapo flats I will try next commute


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[El Chupacabra]

I used to use old Shimano DX SPD/flat pedals for my commuter bike. Heavy. Didn't matter on the commuter.

Not great as flat pedals, but give a little more platform for your shoe to step on.

[cydwhit]

11mi. I have some Amzn cheapo flats I will try next commute


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Personally I'd go with something like this.

Yes. They're stupid, but this is one of those places where stupid makes a lot of sense. Clip 'em on when you want to ride to the bar/grocery store/whatever and then twist them off to commute. No, they are not a performance product, but this is not a situation where performance matters. And they're a lot easier to use and cheaper than switching to pedals with a bigger platform, swapping out clips and flats every ride, or most of the other options.

[toast2266]

X2 for just commuting on flats. The performance gains that you're getting from commuting in clips is pretty marginal.

[plugboots]

Personally I'd go with something like this.

Cool, thanks. This might be the ticket for our tandem when we visit friends for cocktails.

[Cocximus]

My frame cable adjusters keep slipping. They have a spring but that does not seem to stop them from backing. What's a good fix? Vibratite?