Dammit’s adventures in mountain biking

Surrey hills today, not wet but not dry - the kind of conditions that throw stuff into your suspension and drivetrain that sticks, then grinds it away.

My little mudguard has been doing a great job - makes me much more comfortable riding in these conditions (I had to have the frame repaired around the lower linkage from damage caused by crap getting stuck there).

3 Attachments

Thoughts on the Pembree pedals? Managed to get out on them yet?

Not yet, I’ll report back when I’ve got some time on them.

Does your axs reverb have any vertical play in it at all?
My original one went back under warranty, took a year to get a replacement.
The replacement now has a few millimetres of vertical movement...

I don’t think so

I had a play with the Atherton fit calculator today, this is what it thinks for me:

1 Attachment

Which is shorter and steeper than my trail bike, interestingly:

1 Attachment

Although I suppose that the seat tube angle difference would account for the reach difference.

Have you looked at Lee Likes Bikes fit calculation system which he calls RAD?

@Dammit

https://www.leelikesbikes.com/dynamic-mtb-fit

I was more interested in the thinking behind the Atherton algorithm putting me on a shorter, taller bike with a smaller BB drop. The Pace seat angle is quite slack for a modern bike, but otherwise if you're just looking at numbers you'd give the Pace a higher Grim Donut score.

I continue to fiddle with the setup on this bike, now two rides into a 550lb linear spring and the new Pembree pedals, of the two the spring feels fine - but I'm not sure I can feel any difference to the 550 - 670 I had before. The pedals are definitely better than the DMR V8's I had on there before.

I've not tried a 29" rear wheel in the back since I got the 27.5", the smaller rear wheel seems to make the bike turn much more willingly which I enjoy. When I swapped the progressive spring for the linear one I also swapped the offset bushing into the high position, which has reduced the amount of pedal strike I was getting significantly.

Magura update

My left hand/rear MT7 lever started leaking last year, around August/September time.

I bought a new lever, fitted it, dropped the old one off at Herne Hill bikes - from whom I'd bought the pair of Raceline MT7 brakes that I run on the RC-295.

They received an email on Monday (five months...) from Magura saying that they wouldn't warranty the lever on it's own, but that I'd need to send in the whole brake.

But, that means no bike (unless I fit another brake) and as it's internal routing I'll have to bugger about extensively. And what if they take another 5 months?

I've tried calling the Magura service centre, but they go to voicemail.

So! Looks like I just have to accept that Magura won't help with a set of their (theoretically) pro-level Raceline brakes, without being a massive, to my eyes unnecessary, pain in the arse.

I'm finding it hard to recommend Magura, if I'm honest.

Don't worry, I don't think anyone has gone out and bought Magura on the strength of this thread.

This is the juicy content I’m here for.

Do you still have a set of non fluro MT7’s somewhere?

both you and I have

on our cargo bikes

Do you still have a set of non fluro MT7’s somewhere?

I do, I've got three complete brakes, one unused and the other two which I removed to fit the Raceline set.

But, internal routing.

Three out of four hydro disc brake bikes in our place are magura

Agree coming back five months later asking for the entire brake not just the lever is fucking dreary though. If you have bad news, better to deliver it early. 0/10 magura, 0/10.

Are they? I think mine are Tektro? Or maybe they are Magura, but they work because they were set up by a professional?

Mine work fine, it's just the service/support in this case that is less than amazing.

Helm Mk2 turned up, interesting to compare it to the Lyrik in terms of heights - both are (theoretically) 150mm travel, but the Lyrik is missing the first 10mm or so, but despite this it's around the same height as the Helm, axle to crown. This was just holding the forks next to one another in a dark van, and of course doesn't tell us anything about where the fork rides at dynamic sag.

Internal routing should be banned

Swap your spare lever and calliper onto the hose that’s already in your frame, then put the race line lever and calliper onto the spare hose and return it for warranty.

You get to return the leaky lever for repair/exchange and don’t have to go fishing for hydro hose!

That’s certainly an option. I’d be concerned that I won’t get a Raceline yellow calliper back, however

... or just upgrade to Hope brakes :)