RACE FACE 2 RINGS FOR KONA SATORI

For 2x10 drivetrain
Uncommon bolt pattern for the big ring (38t). BCD 120
Granny is 26t
Sticker code for the pack is:

Chris King 142x12 hub and Stan's Flow Ex rim 29 spoke length 32h

32h 3 cross for Chris King 142x12 hub and Stan's Flow Ex rim 29 spoke length

NEXT BUILD I WILL TRY spokes 191mm on both sides.
THE BUILD BELOW HAD 190 and 191mm spokes. A little too tight when lacing

Building costs:

Components bought from Universal cycles

Hub: about 360
Rim: 95USD or so
Spokes and nipples about 40USD
Yellow tape about 12USD
Rim strip about 12USD

Most difficult thing: radial truing of Stan's rim when building

Does the fork leak oil?

One trick I use when I change oil in the fork is to stick some paper towels at the bottom (after the assembly) and leave the fork overnight.
If paper towels are dry the next day then the assembly most likely was properly done and the fork is not leaky.

I find it important to change the oil in such a way that the fork is left overnight before riding.

I remove paper towels before the ride the next day.

Another useful trick is to put a little bit of Slickoleum on the end of the stanchions before sliding lowers on them. This way the lip of dust seal does not roll inwards. Try and see!

Here is the picture:

Components that are reliable on the Shore

This is the list of the components that worked very well for me in wet/dry conditions on the North Shore.

"Worked well" is defined as having survived at least a year of riding

1. Chromag OSX bar
2. X7, X9 rear derailleurs
3. Gravity dropper turbo LP (6 months and going strong)
4. SLX double crank with a Bash
5. ODI Troy Lee grips
6. Hope Pro 2 Evo Front hub 
7. Mavic 719 rim
8. WTB Pure-V saddle
9. 5.10 Approach shoes -very durable for flat pedal use
10. Deity Decoy pedals- very very good for the wet Shore

Practical Suggestion changing brake pads

I always change brake pads one wheel at a time, then go for a ride and then change the other set. Why?

When you change one set of pads you know for sure that at least one brake will work right away and such fuzzy feeling of at least some sense of security is hard to beat.

When you change both sets of pads, at least for some time you are brake-less or the brakes response will be weak.

Best and Economical 29er rear wheel 142 x 12 for a heavy guy

29er rear wheels are expensive, very expensive. IF you are heavy, less than 32 spokes- you will regret it, quickly.
How get a wheel for  $350 or a bit less? You build it.

Dt Swiss 350 hub disc for $200 142x12 Disc
Flow EX rim $100
Spokes 290 Drive side, 292 Non-Drive Side $50

Tensiometer value on DS -around 15
Tensiometer value on NDS- around 12

Tension Correction JULY 7, 2013 after about a month of riding: 
Spoke tension increased to 20 on drive side and 19 on non drive side.
The hub works great and it is still quiet!

Picture of all the needed values for building this wheel:

Disclaimer: This is all personal experience, do it at your own risk as this info is given for information purposes only for myself and my family. The author assumes no responsibility whatsoever, consult professional wheel builders as badly built wheel is a recipe for disaster.  

Dt Swiss hubs are great in that there is almost no rolling resistance, there are no pawls to break by your and my clyde weight and the Flow wide profile gives a very comfortable feel.

Rear hub selection enter DT SWISS 350

I tried: Shimano XT, Hope pro Evo and Easton hubs. I an a heavy guy.

From now on my main hub selection criterion - the hub should have a ratchet mechanism, no pawls. Period.

REVELATION 29 FORK SERVICE HOURS

Dropped Lowers after 40 hrs- oil looked great, can ride more before replacing oil.

SPOKE LENGTH SATORI VICE WHEELS

TOTAL @@RAP for heavy guys

Spoke length rear driveside 290mm

X7 replacement rings

I wore out teeth on my 2x10 X7 crank in 3 months.
I learned that the outer ring

"is wider 4 bolt pattern, it is 120mm BCD instead of the usual 104mm BCD.



I need 38t outer and 26t granny for my X7 crank on Kona Satori 

I decided to try Race face chainrings for Turbine Crank: 
http://www.universalcycles.com/shopping/product_details.php?id=51162

GRANNY 80mm x 26t (Black)-Mfg#:RRT1080X26BLK   -works great, after a month of riding no problems of any kind!

OUTER RING 120mm x 38t (Black) Mfg#:RRT10120X38BLK

SECTOR RL FORK 26"

Just installed SECTOR RL 26" fork by Rock Shox.

Tip: Always check oil in the lowers and the damper before using a new fork.
This particular fork had only 3 drops of oil in both lowers combined! (15w oil)
Foam rings were dry!
In the damper there were 100cc of suspension oil (5w oil) vs advertized 125.
125 cc did not fit in the damper, very strange! Nowhere for a Sector fork the damper volume is advertized in 100cc.


Moral: always check fluids in your new fork before using it. You may be surprised!

Cleaning the bike, not washing the bike!

When the bike is dirty what do you do? Wash it, right? Bad idea!
The best way to clean your bike is:

• Let it dry
• Use a BRUSH to clean it
• When you clean it with a brush you may also see what repairs/adjustments (if any) have to be done

Washing the bike is bad and is for the lazy!

Priming syringe for fork oil change

If the syringe has a long tube (attachment), hot to make sure you get the right amount of oil?

• Disconnect any extension tube you may need to push the oil into the fork hole (eg. Rock Shox Revelation). Fill the syringe with MORE fork oil than you need. Intentionally more so!
• Attache the tube. Push on the plunger until oil level aligns with the mark indicating the amount that you need. You are done!

DUAL AIR NEGATIVE POSITIVE CHAMBER EXPLAINED

HERE IS THE DIAGRAM THAT EXPLAINS DUAL AIR- NEGATIVE POSITIVE CHAMBER OF THE AIR SPRING

1. The problem with air spring is that unlike coil, it does not return to Zero energy state.
     If you initially pumped 130 psi in the positive chamber of the fork (the valve is at the top facing 
     the rider) you will still have these 130 psi when the fork or shock fully returns. Coild spring will
     have zero pressure as it fully returns. Therefore with air spring the return will be harsh and abrupt

2. Therefore we need a cushion that will make the return softer, something has to slow down this
    return, some counteracting force must be introduced for the gentle full return to happen.

3. Enter the cushion or negative chamber (the valve is at the bottom of the left leg of the fork. As the
    spring returns it "hits" an "obstacle", a cushion, like your face hitting an airbag, making the impact
    (extension)  less violent.
4. More pressure in the negative chamber makes this "cushion" bigger shortening the legs reducing
    fork available travel. Big fat cushion make riding "softer" for some.

5. For big guys it seems that it is better to have a little bit more pressure (10 psi or so) in the positive
    chamber compared to the negative one.
6. Some say that such DUAL AIR fork will work better if in general the difference in pressure in
    positive and negative chambers is small (10 psi or so).
7. My numbers so far: rider weight 240. Positive chamber pressure 130 psi, negative chamber
    pressure 110 psi. I will tweak it from there.
8. To set the rebound, dial the knob so that the ride is a POGO STICK. After that little by little turn it
    so it becomes comfortably soft but not too soft. For rear shock ride off the curb and the suspension
   should bounce only once!

Now the diagram:

   

Basics of body position

Here is the most important idea about body position:

Butt back, chest down! (chin over the stem, same idea whether you stand or sit, no round back, do not hunch, chest pushes towards top tube)

When you are in attack position, check that your chin is over the stem! You should not feel like you have weight on the handlebars. The weight is held by the core and legs, not your hands and arms. Don't round the back but engage lats. Chest pushes towards top tube

Elbows out is the "side effect" of good body position that happens by itself as you assume a good body position, it is not a goal in itself




Here is a link to this (last video on the list)

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Improve-Your-Body-Position-100-in-30-Days-Blueprint-2013.html

Bike sounds (bad ones)

This is my database of creaking and other unpleasant sounds:

1. Seat collar creaks! It seems that the sound comes out of handlebar, pivot, crank, chain, pedals, BB. You freak out and think you bike is falling apart. It may be that it is your seat-post collar that is the culprit for this nerve-wrecking experience of yours! Symptoms:
1. Stand up and pedal- no creaking
2. Stop and push on handlebar- no creaking
3. Compress suspension while moving and not pedaling-no creaking
4. Tighten seat bolts- still creaking
5. Take of seat-post collar, lightly grease it and try now. No more creaking? Then the culprit is the seat collar!
2. You hear a loud single click when starting pedaling up a steep section or putting a lot of torque on your crank trying to go over an uphill obstacle
1. It is possible that your freehub (if it is an XT hub) is loose or your freehub broke down (Hope). In either case, the freehub may jam and you will have to walk.

My lights setup

As it gets dark early, lights are mandatory to ride after work. My setup?
Magic shine 1000 lumen from deal extreme on the handlebar (battery mounted on the toptube)
Serfas 1000 on the helmet (battery is in the backpack)

So far this setup works really well for me.

Suspension setup order, compression and rebound damping

This page is made up from quotes from two articles. It reflects what I think is important to know

According to FOX published in Pink Bike article quoted here verbatim
Source:
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/To-The-Point-Rebound-Damping-2013.html


The order of setup should always be: measure sag, adjust spring until proper sag is attained, adjust rebound, adjust compression damping. This follows the order of importance of each element: the correct spring rate is the most important, then the correct rebound setting, then
the compression setting.[end quote]



 ABOUT REBOUND
Don’t trust that the person at the demo booth or shop did it correctly. If they ask you for your weight, and don’t measure sag, they are doing it wrong. If they change the spring pressure and don’t check rebound, they are doing it wrong. And don’t forget to check the tire pressure! Tires can have a huge impact on how suspension feels. [end quote]

If rebound is set too fast, it will result in your wheel falling into more holes, instead
of skipping over the top of them, as it should. It will result in a bike that feels skittish and
uncontrolled, and will be scary off of jumps. You will get bucked, you will bounce upon
landing (even if you kept it rubber-side-down), and it will be a wild ride. At high lean angles
it can result in loss of traction. [end quote]

If rebound is set too slow it can “pack down,” where successive hits result in the wheel
getting deeper and deeper into the travel. This will result in not having enough travel to
deal with subsequent hits. Most people don’t realize that a symptom of too much rebound
damping is harshness on compression. This is due to the bike riding deeper in the travel,
and your hands and feet working against higher forces in the springs. A common fix for
harshness is to reduce compression damping, but if you are packing down, it will exacerbate
the problem. Another symptom of slow rebound is your bike sitting too deep in turns
(especially fast berms). If your bike has the rebound set properly, you won’t be thinking about
rebound while you are riding.[end quote]

There is a very limited range of rebound velocities that result in a good setup. Some
people may prefer rebound on the slower side of this spectrum, and some on the faster side.
This is worth repeating: the useable spectrum for a given rider is only about 3 clicks wide. [end quote]

...in general, rebound damping is much higher than compression damping and rebound shaft velocities are about one-third of compression velocities. [end quote]





 Ok that FOX article was great but........

Second article  http://www.sportrider.com/tech/146_9608_tech/viewall.html

From the second article:
The fundamental difference between compression and rebound velocity profiles is due to the fact that compression is forced by the shape of the bump, while rebound, though affected by other forces, is pushed mostly by the spring. [end quote]

This means that, for compression damping, the shape of the bump is far more important than its size. A square-edged bump results in extremely high shaft velocities, while even a big dip will typically cause fairly low velocities. [end quote]


Now definitions in the third article: 
http://www.cyclemonkey.com/suspension_101.shtml#Compression%20Damping

Compression Damping

Controls the speed at which the fork collapses or compresses as it encounters an obstacle. Too little compression damping (fork moves too fast) and the fork will go through all its travel on smaller sized bumps and bottom out. Too much compression damping and the fork will feel harsh and will not achieve full travel. Some forks offer this as an external adjustment while others are pre-set from the factory. Those forks without external adjusters can usually be adjusted internally if necessary. Additionally, many of the forks on the market intended for more aggressive riding will have two external compression adjustments: high and low speed.

High-Speed Compression Damping
Controls the motion of the fork during high shaft velocities such as large impacts or sharp/sudden impacts. This adjustment can be used to reduce bottom out (higher/slower setting) or reduce spiking during sudden impacts (lower/faster setting).

Low-Speed Compression Damping
Controls the motion of the fork during low shaft velocities such braking and small bumps. This adjustment can be used to reduce brake dive and wallowy feel (higher/slower setting) or make the fork more sensitive to small bumps and track better in loose conditions (lower/faster setting)

Rebound Damping

Controls the speed at which the fork opens or rebounds after it has hit an obstacle. Too little rebound damping (too fast) and the fork will open too quickly, possibly bouncing the wheel off the ground, throwing the rider off balance, or providing poor traction. Too much rebound damping (too slow) and the fork will not open fast enough to respond to the next impact and will give a harsh ride. It will not have reached full extension before the next bump and will move further and further into the travel until it gets to the end and has packed up. Try adjusting the rebound knob so that the fork is as fast as possible without feeling uncontrolled. Alternatively, have a friend watch you ride off a curb, seated, and adjust the rebound so that the fork bounces exactly once.

 

TROUBLESHOOTING

http://www.foxracingshox.com/help.php?m=bike&ref=footer

Islands of Safety

Ruben from Endless Biking via Fred tip:

Recognize islands of safety as you ride. On such safe stretch of the trail you can:

• Safely brake
• Abort the maneuver
• Get low and push on the pedals for emergency stop