The new bike has arrived

[Drago]

I don't know off hand chum and not being at work I can't check it easily. They claim to have softened the geometry with new new 2012 frame but I'm hearing its still more of a race razor in character than a forgiving trail machine.

 

[lulubel]

Thanks Drago but I've had a look - I believe the last model was with 100mm of travel up front? this model has 120mm - I'm assuming this will have an affect on the way it behaves on trails now?. Different angle at the front?

One advantage of the Boardman, as regards getting the geometry you want, is you can take your current bike with you to Halfords, put them side by side and see how they compare. It won't tell you what the exact measurements are on the Boardman, but it will show you if the head/seat tubes are steeper or slacker than you've got at the moment.

After a LOT of discussion about frame geometry, angles, frame material, whether I needed a full suss, etc,etc, I ended up buying a MTB that's marketed as a XC race HT. It wasn't what I thought I was looking for, but it's turned out to be the right bike for me. I spend a lot more time climbing than I do descending, so it makes sense to have a bike that will help me in that. If it means I have to descend a little more cautiously than I would on a full susser with a slack headtube and long travel forks, then so be it. So, as well as focusing on quality components rather than overall weight, I'd also advise to look for a bike that's best suited to the kind of riding you expect to do most, even if that means settling for a slightly lower spec. (It doesn't matter how good the spec is if the bike isn't going to be good at the kind of riding you do.)

Regarding Rebas ... mine are probably not tuned properly for me quite yet - it will take me some time to get a good enough feel for them to know what could be improved - but I'd be very surprised if I've done even 20% of what they're capable of so far.. I have no desire to push them to their limits, but once I've got tyres on the bike that I'm happy with, I will be taking them to more challenging terrain than they've tackled so far, just so that I can feel them do something. On my 2 rides so far, I've gone over stuff that would have really jarred me with my old forks (even before they were worn out), and with the Rebas, it's, "What bump?"

Just remind me L...what brakes has your new bike got?

Shimano BR-M505

Here's the link to the bike if there's anything else you want to know about the spec.

 

[lulubel]

Second ride today, and I'm glad I didn't get the next frame size up. I decided to tackle a different route up the nearest mountains today (one that I attempted once in the heat of full summer and had steered clear of since). It's a lot steeper in places, so I was definitely in granny ring territory, and there's also quite a bit of loose rock that brought me to a stop a couple of times when the back wheel started spinning. This resulted in a rapid dismount and much gratitude for the low top tube! (I know it's caused by the large amount of air in the tyres - I still have the Ralphs on because I can't bear to put cheap, nasty tyres on my pretty bike! - and will be resolved with softer, grippier tyres.)

I managed to lift the front wheel slightly on a couple of the steeper sections, which I think was due to having my weight a bit far back. I shouldn't have any trouble learning to wheelie on this one.

I decided to go a bit higher up in the mountains, and ended the ride with a 3.5km descent, dropping by about 100m per km. I should have lowered the saddle for it, but forgot until I was nearly at the bottom, so a dropper seat post is definitely next on the list after new tyres. I also discovered what "light hands" really means - not what I had been doing until then - and how easy it is to hold a line when you haven't got a load of weight on the bars!

It looks like the monsoon season will be making a return tomorrow, so I'll be giving my legs a well deserved break, the bike a well deserved clean, and putting my new cross wheels on the Surly.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Thanks Drago but I've had a look - I believe the last model was with 100mm of travel up front? this model has 120mm - I'm assuming this will have an affect on the way it behaves on trails now?. Different angle at the front?

120mm new 100mm old. Head Angle 69 degree new 70 old Seat angle 73 new 73 old but that's all static measures no sag. Sag steepens it all up.

The new bike should be theoretically more stable on descents and nearly as nimble as the old. But you'll need to adapt to a greater change of steering angle as a result of more travel in the fork. My money says the average mature rider wouldn't be able to tell the difference as much as say fitting wide bars! At least one review says the new bike is ideal as a black run trail bike but then I didn't know I had a problem on the old one doing that until someone told me. My forthcoming works components experiment is exactly that, a lab test.

Only things 'wrong' with the new one, imo, are low bb height and it is a BB30 (yuck) and the front brake rotor is too small for anyone over 12 stone.

 

[Motozulu]

I'm sure I won't be able to tell the difference plus my current bike is 120mm. Gonna be a hard choice - I may be able to go up eo £1200 quid which puts me in the area of the Trek 8.6/8.7's...100mm all. It's hard this lark is.

 

[Motozulu]

Lulubel sounds like they are making a big difference those forks - was the rockshox site any good for set up instructions or have you just gone off the advice from here?

 

[lulubel]

Lulubel sounds like they are making a big difference those forks - was the rockshox site any good for set up instructions or have you just gone off the advice from here?

I went with the advice on here in my "Setting up new MTB" thread. I haven't even looked at the Rock Shox website, and if I'd gone with the recommended pressures on the forks, they would have been much too hard. I started out with 50% of me + gear (in lbs) in +ve chamber and 10psi less in -ve, but increased that by 5psi in each chamber because the sag was a bit too much. That might have been due to pressure loss when I took the pump off, though. I've used push on pumps for the last few years, so I was a bit slow unscrewing it.

I've had a bit of a search online, and the recurring theme with Rebas seems to be that tuning them is very personal, so you find a decent start point and then make small adjustments over time until they are exactly how you want them. I'm planning to leave mine as they are for a bit to give them a chance to bed in, and to give me a chance to properly get used to them, and then see if there's anything I want to adjust.

 

[Alun]

Nice bike, Lulubel

You can always check on your forks compression setting after a "typical" ride by looking at the O ring on the fork leg. It will indicate the amount of travel that you have actually used. I think about 3/4 of travel is a good place to start, if the fork bottoms out once or twice on a heavy ride, it should be OK but you dont want it hammering away frequently.

If you dont have an O ring on the fork you can make do with a zip-tie, just don't overtighten it or it could damage your seals.

Make sure you still have enough seatpost left in the frame, with the saddle at it's normal height, there should be an indicator on the post.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Nice bike, Lulubel

You can always check on your forks compression setting after a "typical" ride by looking at the O ring on the fork leg. It will indicate the amount of travel that you have actually used. I think about 3/4 of travel is a good place to start, if the fork bottoms out once or twice on a heavy ride, it should be OK but you dont want it hammering away frequently.

If you dont have an O ring on the fork you can make do with a zip-tie, just don't overtighten it or it could damage your seals.

Make sure you still have enough seatpost left in the frame, with the saddle at it's normal height, there should be an indicator on the post.

Please don't leave it on the fork and go for a ride and bottom your fork out. Wrecking a seal midway through a ride is tedious.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

@lulubel is it a 350mm seatpost or a 400mm one? if the former and if you've the slightest doubt about your seat tube post overlap get a longer one.

 

[lulubel]

Make sure you still have enough seatpost left in the frame, with the saddle at it's normal height, there should be an indicator on the post.

@lulubel is it a 350mm seatpost or a 400mm one? if the former and if you've the slightest doubt about your seat tube post overlap get a longer one.

The seat post is plenty long enough. It's still a good couple of inches or so clear of the minimum insertion point. Buying longer seat posts is a routine thing for me because of my liking for small frames, so I was pleasantly surprised when this bike came with one that was a sensible length.

 

[lulubel]

I have a plan!

I took my old MTB out for a slog around the back roads today because it was raining too heavily to go up the mountains on the Cube and too foggy to play with the traffic on the main roads on the Surly. It was also extremely windy - the kind of wind where you come round a corner into the wind and feel like you've ridden into a wall. I had a couple of slightly scary moments, and realised why I tend to ride with a lot of weight on the bars. It dates back to commuting on my road bike in Cornwall, when I learnt to lean heavily on the bars to try and keep the front wheel from diving out from under me in gusty crosswinds.

Anyway, either of the other bikes would have been even more scary in the wind, with their much lighter forks, so I've decided that's a good reason to keep the old MTB. It's going to be my bad weather bike, and when my new tyres come, I'll put the Racing Ralphs on it and pump them up nice and hard for road use. They should be fine for that, and the bike will go faster too! (When they wear out, I'll replace them with slicks, but I might as well get some use out of them.)