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

Has anyone on this thread broken a fork in a crash/other misadventures?

Yes. I destroyed a RockShox Quadra in a crash. However, the fact it was a RockShox Quadra and I was alive at the time, let alone old enough to ride a bike, does emphasize my, ahem, maturity.

i broke a pace rc41 fighter fork. it’s steerer cracked near the crown race. i’m a complete fucking fool though so it might have been my fault. I also sold the fork having not realised and the buyer was very upset with me, and i was upset with myself.

Also broke a Pace RC41 fork (and bent a surly chainring) at FOD back in the day

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I thought you were good in Trainspotting.

I once bent a chainring doing Lieferando.
No one took such a good picture though.
And it was a very old aluminium chainring.

I stuck my mullet wheelset on the boat yesterday so I shall be re-united with it in around 3 months.

What frame shall I obtain to put said wheelset on?

Mullet wheelsets will be out of fashion by the time they arrive

Which means I’ll be achingly fashionable when they come back in again

What frame shall I obtain to put said wheelset on?

No.. by that time 69ers will be all the rage

No.. by that time 69ers will be all the rage

Fucking yaas, that's what my new project is!

Talking which, got some parts in today.

Fork send to be in decent enough nick. I’m going to do a lower leg service anyway.

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Looking good! So what is the actual plan? “Hardcore” hardtail a la Marin El Roy and co?

No, full sus.

Paisley freight are collecting this on Wednesday.

It’s an LTS 5000 which is all steel so I can easily chop it up and modify it.

Rear travel ain’t going to be huge but just enough to take the edge off stuff I’m hoping.

It’ll get a new 44mm headtube, much slacker hta, new top and down tubes, possibly new seattube too if it’s a) not possible to get a good sta and bb drop with how it is and b) if it’s some silly size that I can’t get a dropper into.

Disc tab/chop the rim brake tabs on the swing arm I think though I am half tempted to keep the v brake for some real business up front, party in the rear mullet-ness!

Tyre clearance might need some work as I’ll want to get at least a 2.4 in it, maybe I’ll see if it’d be at all possible to fit a 27.5” wheel in the back.

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Isn't LTS all aluminium?

Not that one.

I think the top link is ali but everything else is good old brazeable steel.

genuine question; why wont you buy something a little more modern that just works?

Because where's the fun in that?!

I guess I enjoy being the weirdo on the weird bike. I like getting asked about my bikes, I like that they stand out and I know that maybe makes me narcissistic or vain or whatever but even when I'm out riding by myself, away from other people, I'm still much happier riding something that I've made or modified.

Also as much as a modern bike would "just work", there's things I don't like about them. Namely low bottom brackets but I'm not a fan of huge droppers and the low frames required to run them either and the Cotics I've been looking at for example have about 75 pivots with bearings that need maintenance, that LTS is (I think) all bushings so should be a lot less to keep on top of.

fair enough

absolutely buy into the fettle and weird bike vibes, just my ‘always buy mass made bikes as they just work’ brain can’t process it

I think I enjoy the building/fettling as much as the riding to be honest!

Droppers have changed off road riding completely. You will struggle to ride a lot of terrain if you can’t get your body lower because there is a saddle in the way. Your arms and legs are still the main suspension on a bike but if there is a saddle in the way you lose a lot of the potential travel. But each to their own

Remember before disc brakes when you couldn't stop so you had to ride forever?

Oh I like droppers, I just don't feel like 200mm travel is necessary (for me). 100mm seems to do me fine so I'd rather not have a super low frame that struggles to take a bottle cage etc inside.

No, you just stopped by crashing every 30seconds because the suspension didn't actually do anything, and the wheels were too small and got stuck in the very first compression you rode into

Or you'd either stop by going OTB, or from your genitals getting trapped between the rear wheel and your V-brake, because the bikes were too short