Bikes and Tundra

Again though...
Your frame,wheels and all your other components are vastly improved from years back.
While yes the single gear bikes are simple without the advancements in materials your bike would be way heavier and thus slower.
As I mentioned...I was really involved in riding.
I rode my Nishiki Cresta from South Texas to The Canadian Border in Washington state.
Took me me a couple of months.
Enjoyed every mile!!!
There's something about being able to travel long distances by muscle power alone.
Camped in a lot of places designated or not.
Would I do it again?
Absolutely if I were younger!!

 

If I was a bike manufacturer, I'd be pissed at Fox, too. Poor suspension can ruin their entire bike.

 

Big time! I was looking at new bikes before I swapped to Rock Shox and how I am completely content with my bike.

 

got to ride this today


In the PacificNorthWet

 

I completely understand the frustration…I find it incredible the price tags given the level of performance. Not in line at all.

I have a Fox 36 that I had custom tuned by Fluid Focus in California. FYI, great customer service and support, highly recommended. I spoke to them for about an hour over the phone before purchasing…not many people will do that. I did upgrade to the GripX2 because they had better results tuning them vs my old Grip damper.

It was expensive (cheaper than a new fork) to say the least HOWEVER I am highly impressed. Much better control and comfort in the constant rock gardens here in the northeast. Worth every penny because mountain biking and drooling over my Tundra are my only hobbies in life.

They also tuned my Fox DPS…the results were shocking (no pun intended). I didn’t have much hope because it’s a low end shock. Nope…I was completely wrong. That shock is now butter, the rear end just disappears under me…an incredible feeling. No need to tinker at all with the settings.

…as you can see I now swear by custom tuning.

 

That video was awesome

 

I actually went to this guy here in Tucson to have him revalve my stuff. He has a great reputation in the MTB community from what I researched. And coming from Motocross, I know suspension is everything. Anyway, we were talking about him revalving both fork and shock. During the conversation, he mentioned about the Fox 38 actually being better for small bump sensitivity. I said that I actually had a brand new one at home. He said let's try that first, since I already have it, it'll be cheaper. So that's what we did. And he was correct. It was way better. After him going through it all of course. And I may still have him revalve the 38 anyway, probably starting with upgrading to the Grip X2 internals.
But, it totally change the bike in a good way for now. I did gain about 1/2 pound, but oh well.

I bought the Fox 38, because Jenson USA was blowing them out around Black Friday. 2023 Fox Factory 38 for 27.5 was only $300.

The 36 my bike, 2023 Yeti SB140 27.5 came with was also the Fox Factory fork, so component level was equal.

But, it stills blows me away, that like Breytundy also mentioned, it a very well known issue with Fox that these things are leaving the Fox factory with such poor quality control issues. This is Fox's top of line components we're talking about, too. Yet, they seem to do nothing about it.

 

Here's the only pics I have of my bike.

New bike day!


Race day!

 

No doubt that the 38 is better. And it’s great you scored a Black Friday deal.

I had a tuner in Long Island basically said the same thing about the 36…that they can only make them so good. I could only imagine what a stock, let alone a tuned, larger volume 38 would feel like!

The known grease issues from Fox is ridiculous. There is a high end local bike shop and they suggest to service (grease removal and new oil) all new Fox forks. At first I didn’t believe them until I did it. Completely different fork after that…was not expecting it. Still too harsh in the chunk though hence the tuning.

 

Yeah, chunk is all we have in Arizona!

 

Where I ride in norcal it's a lot of chunk. I don't really seek out flow trail type stuff. I look for backcountry, highly technical rocky shit. Think Downieville if you're familiar with that type of riding. I have the Fox 36 on my Hightower and Heckler and find it to be leaps and bounds better than any of the Rockshox stuff I've used. I did have the grease entering the transfer port issue on my Heckler but once that was resolved it's been great. I guess some of this is subjective too, as something that might be harsh to one person might not be bad to another.

 

Thanks for that! I was on the fence about sending them my float X2, but I definitely will now.

 

The X2 provides more adjustments, you will have the ability to really fine tune it which is awesome. Their settings are pretty spot on for air pressure, rebound, and compression.

 

Sounds like everyone needs a Redshift stem to smooth out the bumps! My wife and I are running them on our gravel bikes!

 

The fleet gets more well equipped! The youngest boy was clearly lagging on family rides with his 24” grip shifted GT that is far too small for him as well. So, the xs Range went to him and my daughter sized up to this size small 2014 Giant Trance. It’s in decent shape. Went through it yesterday and set both bikes up for their respective new riders. Everyone was highly stoked last night on their maiden voyage test flights. Dad, of course, is the most stoked ha.

 

I feel it looks fairly decent.

 

The kids have been killing it. We rode Valemount last weekend with a gang of other dads and kids. We’re 11 of us. It was a blast. A good bud of mine and I rode baseline mountain in Rocky Mountain house the weekend before. Also awesome. I have noticed switching from my previous all carbon dh bike to this all aluminum, I have less grip strength, presumably from less dampening of aluminum. So, as per usual, I made an upgrade to try and alleviate. Went with Raceface Chester 34mm grips and One Up Carbon bars with a 50mm rise. I’ve always felt the factory rise was too low for my riding position. These feel great so far. Can’t wait to try some washboard out and see if I can notice a difference

 

Anyone got any experience with angled headsets? Found a push 11.6 for my old Hightower Lt and contemplating modern-izing it…it’s been a backup bike / Mac ride kit for years now but I’ve been reaching for the SS hardtail or 429 so thought maybe if I could make it a little more modern I could give it more use on some gnarly-er days

 

What are you doing over here homie?!?

 

In all honesty put that money towards a new bike that is designed around a steeper head angle…

I am not trying to be a wise a$$ or argumentative, I just believe it’s not going to transform your bike into a “modernish” bike.

I rode older bikes until about 3 (Edit: 4 m) years ago and modern geometry feels like cheating in comparison to older high end bikes.

 

had a third kiddo- made the move to the 5.7 when wife was expecting- still hang on TW because it’s more active- probably for the above lol… I wondered if someone would notice my similar post on both sites- I’m trying to increase post count here- I joined TW well before the post count requirement so I got slapped with a week long ban when I first joined due to my ignorance.

totally agree with you, I absolutely love my 429 in enduro version. At 140/120 paddles so well and is such a capable defender, probably similar to backcountry’s spur… but it’s no 150/150. Idk I figured that was such a great bike for its time maybe it would keep it alive… but your thoughts were also in my mind. I just don’t plan to ditch the pivot or its SS hardtail friends and seemed overkill to add a big bike for how little I’d use it. But… n+1 I guess is how I’ve lived until now