Captain Fastbastard Mayhem

At the cost equal to a new fork maybe... Unless you know someone who can do it?

You serious!? I need the 170mm. Wll be glad to show you the Lyrik... PM inbound.

A total, proper, unrefined dumbass. For those who know what I ride, I have been looking for a new fork recently. Namely a RS Lyrik 170mm to go on the front of my Reign X. The current fork was (yes, WAS) a 150mm Revelation which, even though it was a FANTASTIC fork, was too short for the bike. The Reign X has 170mm at the back, and the shorter travel fork was compromising the geometry (head angle, BB height / drop & wheelbase) so it had to go. I had 2 potential options lined up, both VERY good forks with zero abuse and / or wear. I have just SOLD my revelation for the same price I paid for it. Good deal. So I tell the guy that I can come and collect the Lyrik. "Oh" I say "what length is the steerer?" Cue FML moment. Oke responds "185mm on the tapered, 180mm on the straight" FAIL. My head tube is 153mm long, and the headset pokes out another 15mm. My current (old) fork had a 210mm steerer, and that was the lower limit. No spacers. Just fork, headset & stem. Slammed. That means my stem would have either 12mm or 17mm to latch on to. So. If anyone knows of an air sprung 170mm fork with a 20mm TA that is going for super cheap, whether it be Fox, RS, X Fusion or Suntour, and it has Hi/Low compression adjust & rebound adjust, PLEASE let me know. I am currently forkless. FML

ROFL. Never, dude. Only a few select LBS's actually do that. They should do that, yes. Do they? No. They should also fit a quicklink once done. Do they? No. Again, a generalisation

Good point, Yazzo. Noli - let all the air out that shock of yours and check the chain length. adjust, cut and reinflate. It's a pleasure.

They don't. It's also frame size specific. Longer seat stay = longer chain etc. Far easier to just put a generic uncut chain on the bike. Also - it would imply some sort of initiative.

Yes. And in this config the RD must be stretched like hell. Almost to the limit.

Noli - is your chain the right length? I know from personal experience that a chain with even 2 links too many has a dramatically higher chance of coming off than one of the right length.

I don't know, tbh dude. I don't know your measurements etc. But generally speaking, when going for a wider bar one should go for a shortter stem as well. I'd start at 70mm, yeah. And then play from there.

in other words - ride it before you slate it. Or at least have some sort of personal experience with it. And I don't mean licking it either.

LOL. Only if his small ring is a 28. If it's a 26, no way he can have a 42. Past even the 150% SRAM limit on FD's.

EEEEK! That's more than the most blingiest ODI grips.

i would imagine he means 38 / 26. A bit too quick on the keyboard warrior-ing, methinks.

erm, no you can't. For any given chainring size, you will have a 16.67% "bigger" ratio at the low end, and a 10% bigger ratio at the top end when using XX1 / XO1 over a 36-11 cassette. What you're saying is simply not true. Also - in order to be totally safe, you'd need a chain guide (yes, even with a type 2 / clutch RD) which you do not need on XX1 / XO1. In addition, the RD is significantly different in design and application. It does the job properly. Also - your opinion on how a bike's gear spec doesn't taint how a consumer sees a bike brand is, frankly, laughable. If, say, Felt only specced Campag MTB components. Nobody would buy Felt 'cos at the moment Campag's MTB components are shaite. They'd always bring their bikes in and say "My felt's gears are ***" and that would have a negative impact on the bike itself. Same as with the Shimano / SRAM thing. If there is a perception that a certain gruppo is ***, and would break more often than the competitor gruppo, then the bike brand would be stupid as heck to spec it on their bikes. People would not buy them because "they spec *** parts" or "my Felt always breaks" Not "my SRAM / Shimano always breaks" but "My Felt always breaks" The consumer as a whole does not differentiate between gear and his bike. The gear is a part of the bike. Likewise I will never buy a bike that specs CREST rims. For me, they are ***. They're weaker than their FLOW / ARCH Ex counterparts. That rules out quite a few brands. Likewise I would never buy an off the shelf Anthem or Spark, due to their crappy wheels. Until they change them, I would not even consider walking into an LBS and buying an of the peg Giant. And that hurts the brand.

That is indeed Your Roots. The flowy one with the little plank bridge over the stream

With a 90mm!? Fark bro. That's lanky as heck

Hmmm. Okay - on an MTB that you're playing around with, generally it is wise to go for a shorter stem. You should ideally go on your reach measurement. For example, I ride a Large Giant Reign X (All mountain machine) that has a 610mm top tube and it's running a 35mm stem. That means my reach is sitting at approx 645mm on an all mountain frame. For an XC frame it would be slightly more becasue I'm trying to get more pedalling efficiency out of my posture - which means I need to be further forward and not as upright. On trail bikes, the stem length generally goes to max 70mm, but then again with the same effective top tube length. So it stretches out the more "racey" you get, if you understand where I'm going with this. Now - if your reach on your desired bike (let's say XC, now) is, say, 660mm, and hte effective top tube is, say, 610mm, then you could fit a 50mm stem to get your ideal reach. The upside of this is that it will be more stable at speed, and your weight will be more behind the front wheel as opposed to on top of it. Better for technical riding, in other words. The bad side is that you could be sacrificing things like your standover height, and your legs may not be long enough to get around the seat tube arrangement. In short - yes, it is possible, but you may find yourself too stretched out or too short (physically) for it to be a viable option. Give it a shot though - if it fails, you can sell the frame on for someone else to build up a bike. EDIT: I'm 1.83m tall, but the above arrangement makes me very upright and "behind the bars" because I like to play, and I'm not that focussed on pedalling efficiency. For an XC bike I'd probably go XL and get a 60mm stem.

Yes. Some Flows laced to Hope pro 2, a KS Lev dropper and some other bits n bobs. Far better than going the carbon route.

Sjoe. What bike is it going on? Reason I ask is that I have pretty wide shoulders and I find a 760 / 780 to be perfect. Stem length?

you SURE about that? Sure it's not 710mm?

Hairy - for the Van RC2 give Deon a shout. He loves his, and has taken it across to his Sukuma. He should know quite a bit about it, being a fairly technically minded oke as well.

I just see a line coming off the first hairpin to end up down the road... And then again.

Me likey

Dig the coffee ring wheels!

Looks like a kashima DHX air...