Having recently helped a friend diagnose and replace a problematic bottom bracket and crankset on his Litespeed Ocoee, I was once again befuddled by the vast array of styles and sizes of bottom brackets.
We replaced a mushroomed drive-side crank riding on a square taper Shimano LX with a used but clean spline-axle Shimano LX Hollowtech. It was a painless swap, but digging through the parts bins in search of possible donor BB’s, we just had to shake our heads and take another swig of Samuel Smith Taddy Porter for courage.
All Mountain bikes like the Specialized Enduro, Santa Cruz Blur LT or Yeti ASR-7 are very versatile machines, capable of performing well in a variety of riding situations, disciplines and styles. But all of the possible adjustments can be intimidating if you don’t understand how they affect your ride.
We’ll talk a little about shock setup. Shocks absorbers and suspension forks, regardless of whether they are air sprung or coil sprung, generally have 2 main adjustments:
Spring Preload: this adjustment affects the stiffness of the shock or fork, and to some extent determines ride height. Higher preload will make the shock more resistant to travel in response to bump forces.
Rebound Damping: this adjustment determines how quickly the shock or fork returns after being compressed by bump forces. “Slower” rebound settings cause the shock to return more slowly to its original position.
Higher-end shocks may also have:
Compression Damping: slows the shock’s response to bump forces, and also may be used to “lock out” the shock so it firmly resists all bump forces.
Compression Gate: adjusts the point at which compression damping resistance is overcome, allowing the fork to move through its travel in response to bump forces.
Travel Adjustment: changes ride height of the fork or shock, which affects both the travel length of the shock and the geometry of the bike.
Sag is a measurement of how far the shocks compress when a rider’s weight is on the bike at rest. Shocks perform their jobs best when they are sagged properly; this is adjusted by either decreasing preload, or on more expensive shocks, by adjusting a negative spring which pushes against the main spring.
Yes, this is what it looked like in the old days of the early 90’s… rigid hardtails, neon lycra, body armor and plenty of bright anodized parts… only the top factory riders got the advantages of 60mm travel forks.
Check out some video footy of the brutal crash-n-action:
The shop will be closing @ 3:30pm on Saturday during the month of December.
We hope this doesn’t inconvenience anyone to much, I hope everyone has a safe & happy holiday season.
(Y)OUR RAFFLE RAISED
$47,330
TO FIGHT CANCER
Nice work people, all you who donated give yourselves all a pat on the back and a tip of the hat. Our raffle ended last night and thanks to your kindness, we put another $47K in the coffers to fight cancer. We sure appreciate it. Our winner lives in Colorado, is [...]
Well the Pre-Order is in, thanks everyone who ordered.
Unfortunately, there is nothing too quick about a custom kit. We should be expecting the stuff in early January if all goes according to plan.
For all of you who had to try it on before ordering, well there will be a “fit kit” in the shop by the end of next week. Hope this helps, hope this doesn’t delay the order too much.
28 days ago.
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