Mountain Biking

XC, Trail, All-Mountain, Enduro, DH, DJ/Slope, Urban?

Is there a type of riding you wish you could do/do more of but don't have it locally?

I’ve got some old Shimano SLX brakes from around 2002. I’m having problems with them in that the pistons aren’t reaching all the way out to the pads. I understand that after a bit of pumping they should sort or reset to near where the pads are, like a car does, but they aren’t doing it. I’m assuming the old seals are seized up or something. In order to fix this do I need to replace the inner o-rings or can I just replace the seals on the outside? I can find the seals for £5 but to replace the o-rings I need to buy the pistons and it’s more like £25.

Hi everyone, I got a full suspension MTB this summer and am trying to plan storage for the winter. Right now I am storing it in the house but I won't be able to in the winter. If I can keep it covered and away from moisture will that be good enough? I'm worried about the cold temps.

I bought this bike for my son. When riding with him I hear his chain slapping all around. So I'm thinking about switching out his derailleur for something with a clutch. It currently has a micro shift 8 sp. Has anyone put an acolyte derailleur on this bike? The M5185 has a clutch and I think will work with his freewheel cassette.

What do you think?

Ozark trail 24

Does anyone have recommendations for replacement pads on shimano 4 piston calipers? Existing pads are oem sintered metal N04c, looks like $40 per pair on Jenson, on sale.

Galfer or MTX are a little less, ~$31-35 per pair.

Hi everyone, I am a beginner with MTB. I just recently got a polygon T6 and have been loving it. I'm doing research about all the new aspects with MTB and quickly finding out how pricey this hobby can be. My boss recommended that I get specific shoes made for MTB. I did a quick search to find that they are really expensive. My question is: are these necessary? Or can I find a good pair of skate shoes for a cheaper price? I don't do hardcore riding yet and only go a few hours a week.

EDIT: thanks everyone for the responses. I will keep shoes on my to buy list, but I will wait a little until I find a good deal.

Mostly a road and gravel rider (Specialized Diverge Comp E5) but just got my first mountain bike. I like in FL so nothing too intense and as a noob I decided to start simple with this Talon 2 29er. Stoked to take it out this weekend!

story; i got my first mtb last year. i got a GT avalanche 27.5 [i started with an ozark trail] buddy gave me a rockshox recon fork. fast forward to now, i purchased a thru axle wheel, i did not know hubs where different sizes. so my fork is 15x110mm and the hub in the wheel i got is 15x100mm.

am i fucked? do i have to return the wheel and shop for another brand? [i matched what was on my bike which is WTB]. so i get a new hub and have a shop put it on and true the wheel? or can i get 2 5mm spacers for each side?

thanks. im still learning.

We grew up Mormon and weren't allowed to drink coffee or tea, both left the church as adults and I was saying how I wanted to find a mug that resonated with me. They made me this and I adore it. Hopefully it helps me through the winter when I can't mountain bike! About to head out to a trail now though. As soon as I finish this London Fog.

The increase in pervasive commercial surveillance has me wanting to stop uploading my GPS MTB ride data to places like Strava and Trailforks. But I still want to be able to see easy to use trail maps with my data overlaid, like Strava or Trailforks. Bonus points if it can integrate with a Bluetooth (or ANT+) heart rate monitor and show basic fitness stats like duration and average speed. Double bonus points if it integrates with something like ProBikeGarage to track distance and hours of ride time for monitoring parts service intervals.

Does that exist anywhere with data privacy? I’m happy to spend some money on a dedicated device if I can sync and view the data on my phone, but still don’t want it in the stupid cloud. Outside seems to be trying to turn Trailforks into a social network and it’s giving me huge Facebook creepiness vibes.

Website doesn't exist anymore, CRC doesn't have their frames, and search online don't show anywhere to buy. Another Brexit victim?

The leather, and maybe synthetic feux leather too, causes palm sweat. I like my glove design, but my palms always end up gross into rides, even though I hand wash my gloves.
It would be nice to have a fingerless option of a rip-stop poly-wool merino felt palm with gel pads and loose and open knit top with a subtle minimal strap.

Anyone find anything without the leather palm, ideally not so much synthetic polyesters, that doesn't make the palms so clammy?

Hey all, do we have any suspension nerds here?

I have some annoying troubles with the rear suspension on my 2017 Focus Vice trail bike. The shock is Rockshox deluxe select R with max tokens inside and 250psi air pressure (~20% sag)

Long story short, I keep bottoming out the rear suspension regularly on jumps and drops way easier than I'm comfortable with, but with the amount of pressure in the shock the ride starts feeling pretty harsh as well

So what I've thought as options, but might need some more validation:

• bigger bike and/or bike with more progressive suspension curve

Eh, don't really want to replace bike I otherwise love

• different shock?

Not sure what I would look there tbh, also gets pricy but not as bad as a whole new bike

• messing with the shock tune

The shock doesn't have externally adjustable high/low speed compression, but perhaps could adjust the shim stack? This is completely alien stuff for me so some ideas/advice would be appreciated

• there's a megneg air can upgrade kit available for the shock

This increases the negative volume giving more mid-strike support, plushier initial feeling and more bottom out force using less tokens as claimed by rockshox. This upgrade kit is not terribly expensive, but is it worth if I'd better be going with a new shock anyways?

After I had to abandon my Giant because of frame issues, I got this sweet 1999 Bergamont Virus with a steel frame and a Rockshox Jett fork. Put some parts on it to match the frame colors as well as Schwalbe Billy Bonkers. It's currently being used as my commuter/city bike and it's zipping through the streets quicker than my modern 29er XC. Love this thing.

I spend some time editing a video for the volunteer MTB club in Bermuda, Fattire Massive. This video highlights footage from 3 races and posts the season results.

So, it's about time to replace this derailleur, it's served me well but honestly the problems never really stopped with GX eagle.

I just don't know which route to take, since I run a helix cassette I could possibly jump to Shimano deoreXT for about $130 while keeping the SRAM chain. It should be compatible, but concrete information is sparce when mixing so many brands.

Even less information is available about the other option, LTWOO TX. Apparently for $50 shipped I can get a 12 speed shifter and derailleur. Every bike shop guy will tell you to steer clear of LTWOO but the stuff I've seen in person felt good quality. I can't find any food reviews on the TX group and even aliexpress shows maybe a dozen orders between multiple vendors. Really my biggest gripe with them is that spare parts seem to be impossible to find, everything seems to be disposable instead of rebuildable.

As far as I can tell there's no ultra reliable mechanical 12speed. Shimano is probably the best I can afford, but the mismatched parts are likely to lead to issues. LTWOO would save me enough to upgrade my brakes but I have no idea if it's just going to be a pain in the ass or actually usable. Honestly I really don't want to buy another eagle derailleur. From day 1 I've had nonstop issues, yet it's the option that makes the most sense to me.

If anyone has real experience with 12 speed outside of the usual setups your knowledge would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the ramble.

TLDR:

1. Just replace the derailleur ($100)
2. Upgrade to Shimano ($130)
3. (Maybe) downgrade To LTWOO ($50)