Bos

Sigh. It didn't. I was all packed and loaded up the night before and woke up feeling 50 shades of not ok yesterday. I was convinced I'm coming down with something as my whole family has been fighting the flu. I pulled the plug as I didn't feel up to a wrestling match with the plumber and thought it's not with taking the chance . On the bright side I'm not sick yet, and get to fight another day. And can try a 2:30 ride this weekend if I don't get to the valley of milk and honey. The ugly truth is as a bit of fitness will get me just as far as a course recon will right now. Although if there's one trail to recon, plumber is the one. I won't feel completely comfortable racing that thing blindly. Although..We've hit some pretty gnarly sections blind at full commitment at Witfontein in the passed.

I think I know what you're referring to, it's a roll though, scary as a drop as it's rough there. Actually lank dangerous in my opinion which is why it's usually taped off. The kind of thing that will send riders over the bars. If not checked out first. The little drop and jump thereafter is just mind over matter and carrying enough speed. Don't go in tentatively, although the worst that can happen is a bad case.. kind of. But I'm taking about 3 years back, so let me give feedback after Wednesday.

The drop at the top of Plumber is only scary because it's blind. It really not that hard. The biggest thing on that trail is holding your line through the rocks in the middle. I'm due for a bit of that. May check it out on Wednesday morning. The drops at IM is not so hard but they come at a place where one typically does not took to far ahead and there's no lip on them which caused more than a couple of OTB's last time. I'm thinking it's time to check Both of those trails out asbI have not done the top half of IM or Plumber sinceb2019 SA Champs 🤔

Entered as well. Wonder which stages we will be hitting, probably sections of all of them, Unless we hit the DH track, which is looking pretty sick after some work recently. Its actually cool not knowing the stages, It evens it out a bit, like Witfontein, only a handfull of locals gets to ride the trails beforehand, the rest of us ride blind on the day. Bike is running sweet right now, the Mezzer is sick. It took quite a while to get it set up right. A fork is only as good as its set up, and that's the reason I got it, because everything is tunable on there. Running 30mm sag but only used 120 out of 160mm last night and Its making bumps disappear. I use full travel on "proper trails" but It doesn't give it up to easily. LSC+HSC without harshness. I've always been overdamped on forks which are aimed at 75kg - 90kg riders. I'm seriously excited, and chuffed I was able to get to this point with it. The only think I need to sort out before the race is my ghost shifting, which almost had me over the bars on the little double line on Iron Monkey the other day, And perhaps fine tune the tires.. Nox111 gave me a Fomo insert, which I may use for the rear, but at lower pressures the sidewall is actually to flexable to push through berms without burping anyway. Even the EXO+ I have in front is notably more stable at lower speeds and doesn't squirm much, although I've only used it in the rear. I may just get a new DHF for the front and run the old EXO+ on the rear, I've noticed a lot of guys doing that on Insta. Pitty they don't make the Agressor in EXO+ and softer compound as its not a bad tire. Ive got 1500km on mine at the moment, and its doing an OK job..

Good news 👏 Thanks for that. To be honnest, Very vew guys can actually "race" even 4 full stages in Jonkers. But I'd be keen for this. Although my favorite part of pretty much all of the trails are the top halfs.

So I found the actual thread Meezo. Have you entered? Ya Jonkers is a bit more Physical than Witfontein. You have to be prepared for that thing. It will eat you alive. By the bottom of most trails I have armpump and struggling. Its full on stealth squad training from now on, and you'll still be losing 2-3 minutes to the "pro's" down Armageddon.

I'm not aware of a Thread on this yet.. If I missed It, appologies in advance. Does anyone have any more information on the stages? https://www.entryninja.com/events/78086-western-cape-enduro Western Cape Enduro hosted at Jonkershoek Sun 25 Sep 2022, 07:00 @ Stellenbosch, Western Cape Race Information: Full Race - 5 stages 25km Lite Race - 3 stages 17km I'm very excited to get the opportunity to do a race as I couldn't attend Witfontein this year. However, 5 stages.. One month of training to go, Im not exactly going to be fighting fit.. Even If I manage to get a couple of big rides in, I think I'd be at my limit If I had to pedal up to Red Phoenix twice, at the moment not to mention, two of those + saaltjie x2 (pretty much) and on top of that, another stage, which the only other option is Firehut. Is it just me or is that beyond 80% of riders looking to partake? Unless they break the trails up in shorter stages, but I'm not sure they would want to do that.

Haha, Nice bro. Its good that you dont mind the abuse. Each to their own.

Ya I think you describe most of our problems well. And that hardly ever completely goes away. The more expensive forks just has better LSC which helps keep the front up without adding harshness, and even those have to be tuned to your weight, or they will be overdamped. Some also have more "tuned" airspring. The Debonair 2 spring (Rockshox) tried to address that a bit at the cost of a bit of small bump sensitivity. https://www.rideformula.com/technologies/neopos/ I experimented with these, to try get a more linear progression curve, and they made a huge difference. I'm a fan! Being a lighter rider I already struggled getting full travel (RS PIKE) So these allow you to run 20% sag while the support from the airspring and added volume spacers helped the bike stand up but then they get compressed through the last part of the travel, making full travel attainable, instead of running into a wall of progression, and getting a harsh feeling fork. I ran 2 full NEOPOS spacers, and lower pressures. (they are the size of 4 normal volume tokens!) I now have a Manitou Mezzer which has one built in, much like the "RUNT" aftermarket one.

Those things are Ugly AF.. BMX Wheely Kids vibse 😁Nee man! I wont be caught dead.. More spacers under the stem?

Its obviously specific to where you ride, but I don't like to mess with air pressures once they are right. In general though, I think we typically run forks to hard. Listen to the Pinkbike Podcast with Jesse Melamed... Comfort comes first, even for those strong guys. I typically air up my fork to much after a service(cause I often cant remember the exact pressure it was on) slightly to firm feels about right in the garage.. but after riding something like Armageddon (top to bottom)the first time after the service I go down a couple of PSI for best result. It actually feels a bit to soft in the parking lot test, but experience have taught me to leave it alone. I don't necessarily think the fork should bottom on each ride, unless you hit big g-outs every ride, one wants to reserve some travel for special occasions

No racing for you this year @Christofison? Top 10 mostly new faces I see.

Where's the results of this? Sad to have missed it this year, but will be back!

Cool. The nice bit about it only being 26 km is one can walk the last climb, like most of us did. It got pretty hot in that little kloof. But It really wasn't all bad. I was training for the W2W at that stage but somehow didn't have the strength or will power to pedal that last steep part. All in good spirit though! I think 2 years ago, the #NOTARACE version was spread out more, so had more exposure. and you definitely would have felt pretty lonely if you walked those climbs.. the traverse to "Dream on" and 2x tower+some for the last stage took some commitment. But that's the nature of Enduro. Jonkershoek is same story. At least there's an event to look forward to as it doesn't look like the EWC races are happening this year.

Wow, only 3 months.. I am going to have to get going.. What are we in for @Christofison?

I hope her heart is in it, or she might regret it. Pitty as she was doing really well. 4th at the World Champs 2 years ago, Swiss Epic.. definately at the sharp end, Seems like she's just been on a bit of a lonely road with regards to teams and sponsors. Shes been one of my favorite local racers, will be missed.

Is Robin coming towards the end of her racing career? Anyone with more insight?

Please.. Not Claudio.. Off topic.. Wasn't Enduro also suppose to go livestream sometime?

I have wasted hours on MTBR -Pike forums, there are some curves and models I will post some when I have the time. I half recall it was also part of the origional marketing(less ramp) With regard to the grease, plain old "copper slip" ? Cool thanks. https://www.takealot.com/spanjaard-copper-compound-additive-100g/PLID36957528?gclid=CjwKCAiAv_KMBhAzEiwAs-rX1Eh_lkF3TvP93hx70mZzFbUkikEsLYWhUHuTUIc_L4uRjU0mw-7vVBoCZy4QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds#:~:text=Share-,Spanjaard - Copper Compound Additive - 100g,-Spanjaard

Droo, Are you sure you dont have those the wrong way around? It makes more sense that you have to put more pressure in C1, as it sags 10mm under its own weight aswel as have a larger negative spring, therefore it will give that first inch up very easily. Thats why I find I have to put more PSI in the old spring (A1). Am I right in saying, the flipside of the smaller negative spring on C1 is the larger positive chamber, which allows for slightly mellower ramp at the end? Anyway. Off topic, but on the grease.. one. My everyday red grease that I use for everything else does not seem to last on pivots. The chumps at the W2W made short work of blasting my pivots clear of any wanted grease and I had a very squeaky bike on day 2. What is a good tough grease, like that white stuff the factory often uses on the first time builds for pivots? My red grease is obviously not the right stuff.

Well Its like for like.. (the grease I use) It must then be the O-ring. I will take the o-ring off the old spring and put it on the new spring to see if the friction is less. I do put a little bit of oil in the air spring although I only have 10W. With regard to the two airsprings: I don't know If it is just placebo, but to me the newer C spring has a better mid and end to the stroke. I mean, I just had the B1 on and did 1000km now, I installed the C1 footnut which will, in essence give back the 1cm that you lose with the sag on the bigger neg spring. But I could never use all the travel and the ramp up at the end of the stroke is quite harsh. The C1, has less small bump for sure, but it deals better with midsize and bigger hits. If you tell me there should be no difference, then its down to air pressures I am willing to live with. I do feel the B1 gives up its travel easier going down steeps, and perhaps because of that, perhaps I put in more pressure, since the smallbump does not suffer because of that. As for the C1, I end up running less pressure than what I typically think I need, and It ends up being perfect.

I've been wondering about this for a while, but I'm now convinced after riding my old airspring in the pike for the W2W the last 2 months (better smallbump performance) and then installing the newer Debonair3/C spring again. The new spring has much more friction, I can actually hear the oring slide while pushing the fork in and out. @drooI do wonder how much oring sizes play a role? Like I mentioned, in my specific case, my fork had 2 years of use with the old Debonair B spring, and the new spring only about a year, but there is a marked difference. I'm sure there is variation in seals? Have you seen a lot of this? I will open mine up again and measure all the seals and parts to see where and why there might be differences. Also, If the oring from the old spring installed on the new spring feels better.

Might have found the answer to my own question here. I checked the "dynamic seal grease" tub last night and discovered its for rear shocks. Somehow I completely missed it, although its right on the front of the tub. Meh. I do wonder how much oring sizes play a role. Like I mentioned, in my specific case, my fork had 2 years of use with the old Debonair B spring, and the new spring only about a year, but there is a marked difference. Im going to get some sram butter and open it back up. Measure all the seals and parts to see where and why there might be differences. Also, If the oring from the old spring installed on the new spring feels better. Good luck with your fork bro.

Interesting. But also frustrating I watched a clip on Instagram from thesuspensionlab NZ where they managed to get a zeb to slide under its own weight. I was like, WTF.. my 2019 pike needs a lot of help, I went looking for solutions.. hub spacing (sanded my hub down) but In my opinion the new airspring definatly has more friction than my old Debonair 2 one. I had a formula 35 fork before and that thing was butter.. more like the Zeb on insta. I could slide it up and down with one finger, when the airspring was open. Also, Rock Shos's dynamic seal grease, is not as smooth as Manitou prep. I just changed over and can notice a marked difference in stiction just from that. Anyway, back to your issues.. Did they install new dust wipers? because those might need to be ran in. I doubt its the damper, unless they serviced it, and put heavier weight oil in. with lowers off, you should be able to push the damper rod in and out very easily. Last chance.. one of the plunger rods, could be misaligned and not in their actual cup in the bottom of the lower. But I dont think so, as the oil will drain out.

Knysna: I didnt look at your routes, nut a couple of quick pointers from me. I grew up there and go back about twive a year and over Xmass. "Kom se pad" is a great route, a little rough at times, but its proper, depending on which way you do it. Big climbs, indigenous forest etc. There is a township at the Noetzie turnoff (off the N2) so be careful. Remember, people get bored over holliday times.. From Personal experience, there are so many riding groups leaving from the Shell garage on Laguna Drive( where the Oyster festival rides finish) That I would be hard pressed to do to many long solo rides, when you could have guided rides through the best routes with great company, daily! Its mostly MTB, However, Im sure there will be a GG group this year too. Otherwise. Just take the MTB