456 evo 2 (formerly inbred) 26” budget forest—botherer

Oh, and flats back on for now because I nearly came a cropper about 5 times with spds!

Looks great. What forks?

Just tora 302s. If I can get them working, they’ll be fine for my needs I should think. They’re currently on lockout till I can be bothered to take them apart though.

Didn’t take any photos as my hands were covered in oil, but I took apart the forks last night. I’m no expert on these things but I would have expected some oil to have come out of it - May well explain why it wasn’t holding air. Gave everything a clean, seals all looked fine so I popped some new oil in. Just checked t this morning and it’s held air over night which it wasn’t doing before. I’m tentatively marking this one in the win column for now.

Neighbour who popped round with oil also let me know he’s got some SLX brakes I can have to replace the avids.

Not done much to this to warrant an update, but I’ve been having lots of fun with on the trails. Still feel like it’s not set up exactly right for me, but I haven’t worked out what needs to move yet.

I took it out last night after a day of pissing rain and had a blast. Got utterly soaked, slipped around loads, nearly came off a few times, got the bike nice and muddy for the first time. The Ikon on the front felt slidey so I’ll be getting a similar sized high-roller or minion on there next I reckon.

Photo looks about one megapixel as it was actually pretty dark by then.

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Switching from Icons to High Rollers made a huge difference in terms of confidence..great bike!

Good to know. My neighbour has high rollers and mentioned swapping one for an ikon so we’d both have ikons rear and rollers front. Seems like a sensible idea.

Not done anything else to this bike to warrant an update but I am thinking of doing some sort of off-road Bikepacking overnighter for the first time this year hopefully. Nothing too taxing - perhaps one of the South Wales loops on Bikepacking: probably the Gower one (not been there for years and it feels about right in terms of difficulty for a beginner!).

This bike is going to be be fine for that, right? I've only ever ridden it for a couple of hours max and I've no real experience of riding anything other than a road bike longer than that. I'd raise the saddle a little, probably put SPDs on.

This bike is going to be be fine for that, right?

I'd ask the local bikepacking expert, @platypus

To be honest, it’s rarely the bike that’s the problem in my experience - some are more ideal than others but nought more than that. As long as it’s well maintained it’ll be fine I’m sure.

Best thing to do is make sure it's comfortable by taking it on some longer rides

you will be fine.

Cheers all. I think with some minor set-up tweaks it'll be fine for longer rides.

I've been thinking about finally getting round to toying with the idea of potentially upgrading the forks on this. Something with longer travel to suit the frame (so 120-140 I guess). What am I looking at for sub £100? Lock-out would be nice, but I'm not fussed about remote.

Whenever this thread pops up I'm shamed into looking at my inbred under my desk and at least mildly galvanised into putting the parts on it together into a bike

That's the only reason I own this bike - to guilt you in to building yours :-D

Ok, I'm mulling over the idea of selling this bike at the moment. Anyone in the market (would be up for splitting)?