SXy Beast. 2007 40lb Dropship action, SX Trail

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  • Like some other posters i did the classic of over biking myself.
    I really wanted the 07 Enduro but the wait time was 4-5 months and then the shop got hold of the SX and i bought it. However the race scene back around 07 was still wild regarding uplift and it was possible to do more damage to a bike in a single uplift run than a whole season of race runs and practice runs.
    Imagine 20 bikes piled up in the back of a quarry lorry then bounced up hill on rough tracks. Common damage was pulled brake hoses, bent rotors, bent mech hangers, fork damage and i watched a flat pedal with steel pins saw through an Alu downtube. I stuck to racing on steel hardtails :)

    Had a similar thing with the Whyte 46, did a demo day and ordered one on the day, then a week later shop called and stated totally sold out.

    Did consider a Big Hit, the earlier models around 2004 where very very adjustable with multi positions on the shock to linkage mount and the shock to frame top mount, you could play around with tuning suspension a lot. That and the fixings where specced as off the shelf from hardware shops, unlike the dedicated hard to get even from the supplier fastners and fittings that followed.
    Aimed at Privateer racers back then. Couple of locals fitted triple chainsets to them and did xc rides on them to find techy big things to play on :)

  • Hardly anything on youtube.

    Found a 46 with the stock Maverick forks and Hope M4s and the linkage bearings where covered by life time warranty, not many brands have stood by the product like that.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKpJtkQD3Zw

  • Much faffing and chain device lined up, spaced out and no contact with chain set and securing bolts.
    Had a ready mech and shifter from the Hardtail with a full outer cable run. I reckon it needs a couple more inches length but it will do for riding up and down squealing the brakes as they bed in.
    Got some Gore cable sets so can soon run out a slick shift.
    Still got the original X9 mech and SX5 shifters and LX front mech so can easily swap back to dualie.

    Get some tyres on, fit brakes try and centre them, some grips and maybe ride off some kerbs.

    Gone through all the inner tubes, some new, some good, some patched and many pinch flatted, all have been patched up now. Combination of rubber glue patches and instant stick on's as had some of each and had them a while. Nothing to lose so patch all the things. Maybe a dozen 26" tubes so good for a day trip to a bike park flat landing stuff :)


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  • I need to see footage of you doing a drop to stair set manual on this tank when it’s ready to get crashed....

  • That's like riding off a kerb isn't it :)

    (the Bieks ability is way beyond mine)

  • I think it was a Big Hit my mate had. Oh how we laughed talking to him after he was airlifted out of a gap jump at the DH Nationals many years ago. Concussion's a helluva drug...

    He also went to hospital for suspected broken coccyx when he slipped off the saddle doing no-footed manuals down the road at another mate's. Hysterical.. for us. I rode that thing a few times and it was like a fucking sofa that needed 400W just to move it in a slight uphill direction @_@

  • Sounds normal Hippy.

    I went over the bars like a human torpedo, managed to miss the big tree in front of me and slid to a halt.... got away with that i thought.....

    The bike was close behind doing a gracefull cartwheel.

    The point of impact was the top of my coccyx or in laymans terms top of my arse crack.
    It was the bar end (always run with bar end plugs kids) and in the violence of impact it didn't glance off but more stuck in the crack and followed it down and slammed my nut sack.

    I crawled off the track and couldn't get up for several minutes.
    End result, black and blue nuts and not being able to sit down properly for months.

    Consultation with the doctors ended with "how strong do you want the painkillers because that's the only fix"
    As i found out.... surgery is a non goer, you have to let it heal by itself as it's the base of the spine and surgeons don't like poking around down there.

    Also done both shoulders, did argue in A&E with the doc as he decided it hadn't popped out because if it did he would have popped it out again. I still maintain it popped or was half out the socket and i popped it back in again and finished the race run then got some one to lob my bike in the car because i couldn't pick it up and drove myself to A&E :) happy day's

    Cracked hip as well and broken some helmets. This bike is going to be a magic carpet ride of soft suspension and bail my ass out of trouble when i run out of skills :)

  • Yours sounds especially nasty, especially black and blue balls :S

    I regretted mocking him all those years ago when a car plowed me (yes, I mean it to sound filthy) from behind just near my old office (and near my old orifice) last year. Thankfully I have a well padded arse but walking sucked for a while afterwards. I was still seeing physios for my lower back six months after that - at the time of impact though I thought she'd fucking crippled me. Actually you just reminded me that the insurance company needs a reminder email... if I'm going to be attacked by a front grill it ain't gonna be for free.

  • Joy of getting older is how long it takes to bounce back.

  • There was an old dh/freeride guy that used to show up at the skatepark when I was a kid who used to do bonkers gaps out of the half pipe into the bmx track and drop to flat off everything available. He used to hurt himself a lot. Took a chunk of meat out his hip once when he ripped the front end off some hulk of an old norco.
    /csb

  • There was also a kid who was doing somewhere between street trials/dirt jumping/bmx stuff. He had a really tricked out hard tail with a ridiculously short rear end, maguras, a rear peg, big chainguide/bash ring and loads of 24:7 parts(Possibly even a 24:7 frame iirc). This was around 1998-2003ish, was that a scene back then? Not really seen stuff like that til DannyMac came along.

  • Street and Trials have been around way before D-Mac.

    Magura HS33 hydro rim brakes pushed things along. If on the cheap it was a case of scuffing the rims with an angle grinder and applying rim tar for maximum grippy brake action.
    Was a couple of specialist shops dedicated to it, Billys was one of them.

    CSB time.
    I got wind of a Trials only super sticky continental tyre, and did find them for sale (might have been Billys)
    I was chatting with Cambrian Tyres the importer and asked about them, was it a limited production run, why no press or info.

    Turns out to be quite the story.
    A pro rider (never found out who) asked the proto dept for some tyres. They made a stack and sent them to rider. If your a pro rider on Continental then this was doable.
    Word went round and Conti UK get enquirys after these tyres. According to conti UK and German HQ they don't exsist you can't buy them because we don't make them.
    Uk importer gets the lead about shop selling them, they actually buy a pair to see if they are fake and for evidence.
    They where blown away when they got them. If you left them flat on the floor you had to peel them up as very sticky (which equates to short lifespan)
    The plot thickens, they have tyres which officially they don't make.
    Tyres go to Germany for inspection
    The proto dept did it through the back door then the rider flogged them to a shop. Who sold the lot quite quickly. Conti never made them openly (might have changed) i assume someone lost there job over the affair.

  • Riding track style bikes around Romney Marsh has made me weak.

    Only been up and down the road and lactic burn in the legs and a desire to use an inhaler. idontuseinhalers.

    What Hippy said about a big hit :) yep, and to think I used to do xc rides looking for off piste action on this monster

    Complete rideable bike. Got light 2.35 xc tyres on just to pedal about on for now. Brakes start to squeal when warmed up.
    Gears work, need some tuning, might just swap out cable for a longer run.

    Wondering if my scales are out as coming in around 35.4lbs I was hoping around 34 as using a smaller lighter cassette and mech and dropped a shifter/front mech+cables. Found old notes the Stock bike weight was 39.81lbs so depending on tyres and fine tuning might get down to 38lbs The SX II which had a Fox Vanilla R fork came in at 38.71lbs only a few other spec changes and the biggest weight saving was in the fork, which at the time the heavier Bomber fork was the more reliable choice and getting the cheaper bike was better value, unless you really wanted Vanillas up front.


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  • Oh yeah I know trials has been around for ever, my dad still rides classic 250cc twin shock trials and told me about making bicycle trials bikes out of kids bikes and old town bikes back in the early 70’s when he was a yoot long before trials frames or even mtbing was a thing in the uk.
    I grew up standing around in the rain with mum watching him crash into trees and slither down muddy woodland streams all over southern England. He’s now over 60 and still smashes it every weekend with his mates over in France where he now lives. Mostly Bultacos and Ossas but he’s got a rad Onza 20” for mucking around the log pile on.

    It was just this particular lads blend of street/trials was completely alien at the time compared to anything I’d seen in the flesh or mbuk(loads of bmx and trials kids at my school). He was also minted and his bike was worth x10 anything anyone else in town was riding which made it stand out in my mind even more.
    /csb over. I now want a bike I don’t have the skill to ride.

  • Front Rad meter goes to 160.

    I scored 115 today, leaving 45 rads of bail out ramped up damping for bike park duty.

    If you look real close you can see a fine oil line on the leg, near bottom of photo, that line is 115mm up from the unsagged wiper seal.


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  • No where near full travel out back.
    Shoved the rubber bump stop forward and it's around half way back, so loads of travel left for the projected flat landing.


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  • The big hit was the original mullet bike 👍

  • Didn’t the rear wheel weigh more than some hardtail XC bikes?

  • I had a friend who bought the frameset and had some boat anchor of a rear wheel made from a 24"atomlab rim. I remember the off the peg version of the bike needing about 3 people to heft into a car. I was a beast.

  • got a 2004 catalogue here (and 06 07 08 too) with big hit specs :)

    Would have to research to check, i think the 24" was a quirk of the suspension design and not enough space for a 26" wheel and tyre. BETD used to make conversion kits for the linkage or was it just the old enduros...
    At the time an advanced design with adjustable height and geo and leverage ratios by moving the shock mounts. Lobbed a few onto uplift trucks, made sure i wasn't in the queue behind a big hitter as they where hefty.
    Kinda a Sam Pilgram bike in that it could be fixed with a brick hammer and threaded rod from B&Q :)

  • Watched many vids :)

    At the moment the reality check can be summed up by this one.
    I would be happy up to drop 6 which is a gap/drop not rollable. I would have to stop and have a look, although the video looks like a low speed run in so not a big gap to clear. Biggest issue is the mental block in the head..... Takes a very long time to bounce back now days if you crash land.
    The big air stuff.... no thanks :)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH8RHg4X7hU

    Think i have found all old notes now. Need some paper to print off Fork service manuals from PDF's.

    Been sat looking at bike and other MY06/08 specs. Have a random 35lb note next to the 2006 bike which came in at a much higher price with a 66VF fork and single ring set up.
    Strangely the 07 Sram X9 rear mech is 221g i have a Tiagra mid cage as well at 280, you would think a 105 short cage would be lighter but thats 229g.
    Got an old hope seat clamp that would knock off another 25g if it fits (should do) then stem spacers, maybe some weight off a seat post but not much unless i go to a very short Park only post. do have a very light 400mm WTB XC post but don't really want to chop that as it may be handy in the future to have a long&light 30.9 post.
    I reckon it will end up in the 37-38lb area which is allright for a fun bike with this much coil sprung travel.

    Really should start watching Welsh park videos over Canada :)

  • A poke about and freshen up for the fork.

    7.5wt Oil.
    Accurate measure.
    Big spanner.
    Cassette lock ring tool.
    Fork manual.
    Blue roll.

    Going to whip off the top caps one at a time. Drain a leg of oil, and a spring and spacer should drop out.
    I think there is too much oil already so see what colour and how much comes out.
    Then add fresh oil at the lower amount as it's easier to add more than remove small amount.

    Fork against radiator at the moment as warmer oil flows easier.

    Not doing a full tear down as manual not printed out and might need a special socket to remove foot nuts. As these forks are fairly basic inside there is nothing to play with as compression is fixed and not a tuneable shim stack that user serviceable.


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  • Top cap covers off and slot in cassette lock ring tool to undo cap.

    Neat bit of thinking to use an available tool standard.


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  • Have stored the bike was upside down some crap has dropped and stayed on the cap.


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SXy Beast. 2007 40lb Dropship action, SX Trail

Posted by Avatar for 853Superfly @853Superfly

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