Dammit’s adventures in mountain biking

I am aware that Trek have ditched the design for some (all?) of their 2021 bikes.

I think I may have done the right thing for the wrong reasons. My bike was making a clicking noise under load, I thought it must be the bearings in the rear suspension, and when I took the upper rocker apart one of the bearings was indeed goosed. Then the noise came back. I thought, just before I stripped the rocker arms off, "lets just try another wheel in there", and sure enough it's stopped the noise. So - I diagnosed and changed a buggered bearing due to a totally unrelated noise coming from (I think and hope) a loose cassette locking. D'oh.

I’m fucked if I can move this cable armour/sheath- anyone got a suggestion that isn’t cutting it off?

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Full of mud, shifted it in the end.

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This thread makes me scared of mountain bikes with suspension.

The suspension has been 100% reliable though?

Literally only ride mine on dry dusty days so I can put off having to maintain it for as long as humanly possible.

Get a Turner... Not cheap to start with, but suspension's a doddle to maintain. All journal bearings (bushings really). Clean 'em out, wang new grease in, good to go

Same! It's basically a holiday bike

I'm surprised, given your clear love of tinkering and upgrading, that you haven't yet started upgrading suspension to something boutique like an EXT shock.
It's surely ticks all the boxes.

1. Astronomical price
   
2. Fancy anodised gold
   
3. High maintenance (50 hour service interval for race condition)
   
4. High running cost. Potential to spend £100+ per 50 hours
   
5. WRC heritage. So it must be good, right?
   
6. Made in Italy
   
   

Whats not to like? You need one

I'm scared to ask... Are the fluro mt7's functioning correctly?

A chap on the training course I was at on Saturday had an XTC coil shock and XTC fork on his Yeti SB160. Apparently “Boris paid for it”- I’m assuming Covid/furlough loans/payments.

Raceline NT7 are on and cabled (hosed?) but need bleeding. Old MT7 on their way to Magura service.

Fin at Full Factory Suspension has suggested a DHX2 coil shock upgrade for my bike, which would be around £900 I think.

£900

Jesus christ. That probably is the Rrp but Fox shocks can always be had with a bit of a discount. I paid £580 for a brand new DHX2 coil. It pales in comparison to the EXT.

£950 is the price of the EXT shock from Mojo. It also comes with two different weight coil springs and custom tuned to your bike, weight and riding style etc. I think there's a bit of wiggle room on the price if you get in touch with Chris at Mojo. They have shocks they can send out for you to demo before you buy. I highly recommend atleast trying an EXT shock. By far the best suspension product I've ever used.

The customer service from Mojo is excellent too. Very quick to respond to emails and sorted the re-valving of rebound for free after it wasn't quite right first time around.

I'm honestly not sure I'm at a level of ability where I'd be able to accurately spot that my rebound needed re-valving. I suspect a really good shock might be wasted on me!

Raceline NT7 are on and cabled (hosed?) but need bleeding. Old MT7 on their way to Magura service.

I anxiously await the outcome of the bleed.

The old MT7's, I can't see any outcome other than them being replaced under warranty as reasonable.

Yeah but new shiny things! A 26" hardtail with V-brakes would get you round 95% of the UK's trails but where's teh fun in that?!

Oh it was more just the actual speed of the rebound was a tad too slow even in its fastest setting. So they retuned it for free. I think that's part of thier policy, if its re-valved and its still not right they will take it back and re-tune until you're happy.

But being able to tell the difference between suspension, especially rear shocks, is something that's not easy to spot if I'm honest. I couldn't really feel much of a difference between a dhx2 coil and a much cheaper x-fusion coil.
Even with forks, once you're past a certain price point they all feel much of a muchness. Not sure I could tell fox/rockshox apart in a blind test.

But the EXT was the first suspension product I'd used and felt a real tangible difference. Its just incredibley supple of the top, it sags a few mm under the weight of the bike.
The increase in grip is very noticeable, the wheel feels like its stuck to the ground.

I appreciate I'm sounding a bit fanboy here though. The price is hard to ignore but if you were considering £900 on a Fox shock then you might as well go with the EXT for another £50!

Email Mojo and ask for a demo unit

But the EXT was the first suspension product I'd used and felt a real tangible difference. Its just incredibley supple of the top, it sags a few mm under the weight of the bike.

The increase in grip is very noticeable, the wheel feels like its stuck to the ground

Sounds like you need a fork upgrade now ;-)

I've never seen anyone more avoiding of mud on a mountain bike.

Oh don't start me 😂

The EXT ERA fork is currently only available in 29er size.
I'm keeping it real with the fun sized 27.5 wheels.

The ERA fork does seem a bit complicated though, various positive and negtive chambers and even a negative coil spring?

I've actually got a Vorsprung Smashpot coil conversion still sat in the box waiting to go inside my Lyriks forks. Which reminds me I'll need to document the process in my Current Projects thread.

I did ask EXT if they are considering developing a damper to drop into a dh fork like boxxer/40's and they said watch this space...

surely you wan to b looking at
EXT (as already mentioned)
Push
Fast
Formula
for something boutique and suited to your needs?

I suspect a really good shock might be wasted on me!

Anyway, that's the wrong attitude and not really in the spirit of this thread!

If it makes you smile more then do it

Hoping that this is a sign of things to come, I installed the brakes as mentioned, cut the cables, inserted a new olive and barb etc, put it all together - the rear brake doesn't appear to even need bleeding. I'll bleed it, but this is already a significant difference to previous experience.

I might try a top-end bleed, as Magura have on their YouTube.

the rear brake doesn't appear to even need bleeding

Think I'd just leave it

Well, I admit that that's tempting.