Let's offroad / mountain bike / mtb / ride dirt

@hippy try moving the lever inwards for better leverage with your index finger only. The grooved end part in the lever is the most powerful point to brake with. Also, maybe experiment with how the brake is angled? When descending you lean back more, and that changes your hand position. So if you get problems descending, rotation upwards could potentially help.

Re Grips, are you wearing gloves? I always do now, full finger but without padding, and I initially had trouble with the grips that were on there. Swapped for some more chunky Oury grips and it made a world of difference.

I'm still happy with my Nukeproof Neutron pedals. Switched from DMR years ago and haven't felt the need to change. They're a little slippery at first but that goes away quickly.

The foot pain thing is just being new to flats - I had the same thing when I switched, it goes away and then you forget about it ever happening.

Just thought I'd let you know there's a bit in the Pink Bike Podcast episode 103 about running coil shocks in bikes that aren't designed for them, but in a nutshell he's saying that the frame can flex so much it causes the coil shock to distort and ruins internals. Might not be applicable but something to bear in mind. It's also an interesting one.

I have not listened to the podcast, but that would make sense only if the coil spring was a lot stiffer than the air spring, and therefore the frame was flexing rather than compressing said spring? My coil is softer initially, then (currently fitted progressive coil) gets toward equivalence with an air spring (although not mine, I had it stuffed full of tokens, so it would have been stiffer than the coil by quite a bit).

I'm pretty sure it was more to do with shear stress with the swing arm and frame flexing and the mounts not remaining paralel, and the shaft of coil shock being comparatively weak compared to the shaft of an air spring.

Have you seen the most recent Vorsprung video?

The levers feel good for braking - it's not like I need more index finger power. They're not rotated as far around forward as I would normally like (see Inbred pics) which might be contributing to cocking my wrists up and out and doing something odd with my other fingers.

I need to rotate them forward a bit and move them in, to try and shift my hands further in on the grips.

I have some old, trashed Northwave gloves. I'm looking for replacements.

£55 and 105mm x 105mm. Will bear in mind after shoe test.

the shaft of coil shock being comparatively weak compared to the shaft of an air spring.

….possibly if all things are equal.

Fwiw air shocks can be killed in the same way - the stiff outer tube applies an off kilter force on to the bendy damper shaft that then gets mullered by the bushings it slides in.

Just interrupting this suspension chat with 15kg of pig iron

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^Bike for the young

Bike for the young

Nah, @Kidneys has the same bike and he's ancient

Needs a bigger tyre on the front

I'm almost 36 btw
Pig iron rules

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As the great Sid Snot once said

Some people think these shoes are crepe: but I don't think they're that bad.

possibly

Mostly

2 things-
When was it not night?
They should have just got Jonesy on the case.

They should have just got Jonesy on the case.

He was in league with the acid-blooded fuckers the whole time!

Cats: dicks

I found a club! Bad news is they aren't running off road rides super frequently. Good news is I've been invited to organise some and they're apparently completely guaranteed to 'sell out.'

https://www.hubvelo.cc/

@pascalo is right on moving the levers in a bit- that often helps.
Also has @hippy seen the GMBN video on making your xc bike more downhill friendly? Some good tips to try in that including levers up a bit, thinner grips to reduce hand pump, wider pedal axels and wider then typical xc bars which you already have sorted it sounds like

I've not watched much MTB stuff at all. Probably should start.

New dropper has arrived so that needs to go on. The OneUp is already 20mm lower due to its design so I may in fact be running a 180mm seatpost instead of a 175mm seatpost that was too long. #fkndroppers

I used to ride with HV did a few off road rides with them. They were alright, but a bit XC rather than fun. When the weather gets better I'll take you out for a loop of the best of the forest in my opinion, with or without @platypus favourite decent.

For anyone having problems losing traction on techy climbs:
https://twitter.com/TotalMTB_/status/1490943255575658496

Could do with one of those :)