Bicycles!

robgmn said:
On a tangent: anyone ever used a budget-priced shock-absorbing seatpost?
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Are you thinking something like a sunlite suspension post or more like a thudbuster from crankbros? I've heard better things about the thudbuster than the real cheap suspension seatposts, which tend to rotate and are quite heavy.

If you haven't maxxed out the width of the rear tire, that's usually a cheaper place to start. A wider tire at a softer tire pressure rides smoother than a skinnier one but there's a limit to that. Tubeless further helps as you reduce the chance of a pinch flat from running a lower pressure.
 
seatpost suspension is terrible for mtb, fine for just riding around
 
Ended up doing 8 laps at 38.2 miles. I still had time to go out and do one more, but on my last lap I started to get a splitting headache, went over the bars about 2/3 of the way through then five minutes later clipped a sapling with my front brake lever and came to a quick stop. I had ran out of water and electrolytes on my 8th lap as well so I decided to pack it in before I got hurt and called it quits at the end of that lap. It was set up as a poker run and you could ride in a team of up to five guys switching out every lap, I rode solo and the top rider did 12 laps. I was also the only guy that brought a Fatbike to an MTB race .

https://www.strava.com/activities/1187029478

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finally got some rain, it was a little slippery but nowhere near as bad as it'll be after a couple dry days followed by a little more rain. So dry this season part of one of the trails got singed.






we were saying non pc things because that's what friends do when there's no one around to bust your balls. Always gotta find a time and a place for it and take advantage ;)
 
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A fearsome threesome?

Oops, sorry... Language barrier. I meant, the fearsome threesome :D
 
the first topic of conversation involved alien abductions and how they seem to like their probes, and swiftly went downhill from there
 
Is that a Devinci Marshall in that picture and if so how do you or the bikes owner like it?
 
I think he said it was a dixon. His 6th ride and he was diggin it.
It was great to ride with him cuz I haven't even seen him in close to 10 years. He used to do a lot of trail work out here and built one of the best lines down the mountain, he's a hero
 
I haven't ridden in a year or so due to some surgeries but reading this made me go out to the garage and clean up and maintain my bike! I used to BMX race back in the days of flexibility and more courage than wisdom. I still have my old Hutch frame but I parted it out to my friends after I bounced my face off of the coping on a half pipe and slid down on the other side of my face scorpion style to the bottom. I wasn't a big fan of waking up to a flashlight in my face with some fat dude leaning over me telling me to be still!

The bike I have now is a Felt Nine 6. I had a Bobcat Trail in 27" but when I rode this one with the 29" tires I fell in love with it. Living down here on the coast just north of Galveston doesn't leave much in the way of "hills" or "Mountains" but we have some nice trails that follow the bayous and creeks in various parks around here. There are some decent hills and jumps on some of them. One trail that I used to ride a lot had a series of 30' hills that resembled whoop ti do's and stretched on for about a half mile and then cuts back on itself about 20 times on the flats. Some of the cut backs have a really nice wooden bermed Uturn that you could generate some Gforces on. That trail would whip me everytime! The goal was to make it to the end but I always drug my bike out of the woods about half way through.
 
I've been having so much fun on the fat bike that I have decided to buy a proper mountain bike as well. Initially I thought my fattie would be able to cover all the bases for me, and it almost does, but as all the bike guys here can attest one bike won't/cant do it all. I've been checking out the local bike shops but they are limited to the 3 or 4 major players for the most part, as well as checking out online reviews of brands I cant demo locally. The one thing I have realized is that the MTB market has really changed since I was last involved and the choices can be a little staggering to say the least. I think I have found my new bike though as there is a dealer selling off some bikes at what seems to be a great "deal". The bike I am looking at is a 2017 Intense Spider 275C Pro Build. My dilema is deciding between a medium or large frame as my 5'10" height and 31 1/2" in seem fit right at the cross over point of these two sizes.
Here is a picture of the bike
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and here is a link to the manufacturers website
http://www.intensecycles.com/bikes/spider-275c
 
I always recommend trying to get an extended demo, usually by renting, a bike before purchasing. You don't need to ride the exact bike but try to get something close or at least in the same genre. When it comes to full-suspensions I've realized a couple things: longer travel doesn't necessary mean a slower bike but you can often ride surprisingly aggressive stuff with less travel given your riding technique is decent.

Truth be told, the next bike I want is a 27.5+ bike, most likely full-suspension with lockout front and rear to play racer-boy a couple days a year (assuming i sell off my giant anthem).

As far as size, ride both around the parking lot at least. Realistically you could probably ride either, assuming intense sizing matches most of the industry, and the difference is how you setup the bars, stem and saddle to get you fitted to the bike. I'm 5'11" and I always go large or x-large because I don't like feeling like the bars are in my lap (awful on some of the early fat bikes I test rode).

And if that is the bike you're getting, that's a heck of a lot of bike and you shouldn't have to worry about out riding it anytime soon.
 
I have been trying out a few bikes such as the Giant Anthem, Giant Trance, Devinci Marshall, Devinci Django 29er and 27.5, Norco Torrent, Rocky Mountain Thunderbolt, Specialized Stumpjumper and a Santa Cruz 5010 which apparently would be the most similar to the Intense, but the problem with this bike is there is no way to test ride one with the deal being offered. The company is "resigning as a distributor" and are selling off their stock and I could get this bike shipped to me for about half of retail. It would still be $600 or $700 more than I was planning on spending but it is a much higher end build by far than anything I have been looking at in that price range and in all reality more bike than I will ever likely need. Most of the trails I ride here are flowing single track with lots of rolling climbs and descents lots of roots and rocks in spots but no real big drop offs or jumps and no crazy downhill stuff so I can't see that I would ever need any more suspension and it would hopefully be the last MTB bike I would ever need to buy. All the online reviews I can find say good things, but I struggle with spending that $ and not being able to test ride the bike. Decisions decisions....
 
buy it. Half of retail is well below wholesale and that is a sick fucking bike
if you like a bike that handles low speed technical maneuvers well, go for the medium
if you like a bike that's comfortable for long rides and more stable at speed, go for the large
 
So I just got off the phone with the "Intense expert" from the shop where the bike is at (he wasn't in yesterday to talk to) and he recommended I go with the medium size. He is very similar in size and dimension to me and he rides a medium, we also went over all the geometry #'s on my Fatbike for reference and the medium was closest in spec and seemed to make the most sense. So I ordered a medium and got the last red one they had in that size !! I obviously would have gone for a white one if I had too but I didn't find it as aesthetically pleasing and felt the red and white scheme clashed. So since it is our thanksgiving weekend here in Canada and Monday is a holiday they won't start the build until Tuesday, it then gets fully tuned and the bars and wheels get removed and then it's re-packed and shipped. It's a one day delivery from Montreal to me so I should have my new bike Thursday or Friday at the latest. Can't wait !!! At least I will have something to keep me occupied while waiting for my second coolest purchase the HDFK !!
 
good call. Around 5K was it?
 
considering you could sell the frame for 1K and replace it with whatever you want more, you did really well jumping on that deal, since 4K is a great price for that build kit
 
So my bike showed up today, only problem was they shipped it without assembling it. At about 9:30 this morning I got a call from Montreal when they realized what they had done and they decided to have me ship the bike back to Montreal for assembly and then they will ship it back to me. It never ceases to amaze me how poorly businesses are being run these days. Hoping this isn't a bad omen.
 
Ta2ude said:
So my bike showed up today, only problem was they shipped it without assembling it. At about 9:30 this morning I got a call from Montreal when they realized what they had done and they decided to have me ship the bike back to Montreal for assembly and then they will ship it back to me. It never ceases to amaze me how poorly businesses are being run these days. Hoping this isn't a bad omen.
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Did you spring the extra few bucks for "full" assembly?
Because generally they're at about 75% and it takes a moderately experienced wrench jockey about 20-30 minutes from breaking it out of the box to rolling.
Not a bad idea to get it assembled by a pro if you're unsure about anything, it should be pretty close to rideable and all adjustments should be dialed in for you.
 
@ Barman 1 the bike was supposed to come fully assembled and tuned with the bars removed from the headset and the wheels removed for shipping. It came in two boxes which I never even opened and it appeared as though one box was the frame and the other box was the components group.
 
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