MTBwrench

The end of today's work. Kinda slow-going because one of the voices in my head told me the motor would look better with a fresh coat of paint on the dip stick tube and black coolant lines.

 

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Wow... that's pretty. Kind of starts making voices in my head tell me the same thing.

Can I join in the party?

Damn... You bet you can! That shop looks super high end.

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Where would you move Mike? Arizona?

I would like petition for the south side of Chicago. Just sayin...

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I'm here, in the south side.

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Got my bike a little dirty this morning riding at Sun Peaks for the weekend. Got one more day tomorrow and it doesn't look like it's supposed to rain which should be sweet.

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I'm jelly, you have a big boy bike that you get to take on big boy trails! All I have is glorified dirt paths...

I did a bad thing the other day... I cracked a couple chainring bolts on my Stumpjumper. They popped when I was racing a few friends up a rather large climb. I originally thought they were spokes, but unfortunately not. Sad part is they're super proprietary milled Ti with a coarse threading... Only sold by SRAM. yay. I guess it's back to my Surly for now

(Totally smashed my PR for that climb though!)

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popped radiator on my 5eat. ordered new aluminum Koyo unit. I run my trans with external cooler with derale plumbed in the climber D preferred routing.

 

any ill affects from not having a cooler built into radiator, and just having the external unit?

Technically, yes.

1) in cold climates you don't have coolant to heat the trans up quicker.

2) the external can cook the trans too much, but thermostat should help.

Just watch your trans temps and make sure it stays safe.

Swapped my Hope Hoops with Evo2 hubs back onto my bike. Need to hit up my friend that works at Kenda here in Ohio to see if he can get me some Small Block 8s cheeeeeep.

 

 

 

Also grabbed a couple pictures of my hub... Wrench, can you tell if this is a 10s compatible hub from these? Sram 9s cassette on there now.

 

 

 

I love these Hope hubs... bees... so many bees. They're no i9 or Kings but still.

From the looks of it, 9th gear looks like it's hanging a few millimeters off the edge of the hubshell. With a 10 speed cassette you'll most likely either not be able to thread the lockring down, or you'll have issues with 10th slipping since it'll have barely any purchase on the hubshell. That's all assuming there's no spacers behind 1st gear to move the cassette out, though. If there's any spacers behind the cassette you'll probably be just fine for 10 speed! The Pro2 Evos were weird because that's when Hope started making both 9s and 10s shells... Making things complicated. Easiest way would just to call/email hope and ask them how long the hubshell should be if it was 10 speed and then measure!

And yes, they definitely make an amazing noise.

I 110% highly recommend a wideband. It quite literally saved my motor when I was having fuel pump issues. IMO for an upgraded turbo setup it's one of those "you should get it if you wanna do it right" type of mods.

My recommendation is PLX devices. They have a sweet multi gauge system and they use one of the much better calibration free Bosch sensors.

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Boom

Boom is right! In for the first impressions.

Yeah that and almost any other IFHT video!

 

 

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^Agreed!

I did a thing today...

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By far the most ridiculously powerful brake I've ever ridden. It's kinda scary on flat land.

How would I know if it's 10s compatible? Have a set of beater wheels from Bicycle Wheel Warehouse built with some XT guns circa 6-7 years ago and a set of Hope Hoops with Pro2 non-Evos circa 5-6 years ago. I have a feeling I'm SOL unless I want to build some.

There are two easy ways and some harder ways to tell. The first easy way of finding out would be removing your cassette to see if there is a spacer behind it. 9sp cassette + spacer = 10s freehub body. The next easy way would be to install a 10sp/11sp cassette and make sure that 1) you can tighten the lockring down & 2) the lockring does not sit outboard of the axle endcap(if it does extend outward, that means it would hit the frame). Harder way wold be removing the cassette and measuring the freehub body to see if it's long enough(I surprisingly don't know that measurement...)

I'm pretty sure it'll be compatible though. Just make sure the last gear has good enough purchase on the freehub body, as the ProII uses aluminum for that, and it strips easy. There's also dishing to worry about because the 11s stuff uses standard 10sp hubshells and dishes 1st gear over the hub flange, meaning closer to the spokes, but with a standard(aka non-fat/plus) wheel build it won't matter.

Wait, what??? I need to google this..

Yep! Fox bought them out, and it's up in the air as far as what they're going to do with Marzocci. From the looks of it... they are staying around for now, I hope.

lol I've got Avid XO trail 4 pistons calipers on my Nomad. Always look at my bike having 4 pistons and wonder why I haven't gotten a set of 4 pistons for my car yet

I literally think the same thing to myself all the time...

Or a Marzocchi 66 RC2 ETA. Oh wait, no longer made right?

I'm curious to see what FOX does with their new acquisition of them...

I have some time on a Pike. And with performance for price, I'll take the Auron all day long. It sucks that you have had issues with SR. They have been nothing but helpful, but slow to respond. If I could get a 36 for a reasonable price I would definitely give it a go.

 

On another note. I too also ordered my dropper this week after being on the waiting list for 5 weeks. And I'm on the fence about ordering a carbon wheelset.

Taking MSRP into account, the Auron may be a better bang for the buck, but my concern is what will still be serviceable and functioning properly five years later. SR likes to stop selling replacement parts(or at least they've done it in the past) and screw their customers.

Congrats on the dropper post though! You'll never want to ride a rigid post again. Screw the carbon... there are better ways to blow your money. Get the best hubset you can afford, and get regular alloy rims, and have a set hand built, it'll be 100x better than anything you can buy off the shelf.

Here I am on 1x9 and now there's 1x12?

 

Talked to a local at a paintball tournament the other day and he said he tried out 2x11 for the first time recently at his LBS and immediately bought it. I'm thinking about it but keeping my 1x front ring.

Everyone we've showed the new 11s stuff too (particularly Shimano) has just fallen in love. I thing the 2x11 is a little bit crazy unless you have a LOT of elevation change going on, but I can really appreciate that it exists. It would be great for touring. Get an M8000 1x11 group, you won't regret it a bit. (make sure you have a 10s freehub body though)

An update to my earlier post, after a few calls to Magura I have a set of those crazy yellow MT7 Racelines on the way. Can you say #waytoomuchbrakingpower?

This years ride

 

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I can dig all of that, except the fork! SR will forever be blemished in my book after filing dozens of warranty claims on their stuff every year. You need a Fox 36

I'm currently torn between getting Goodridge SS lines for the wagon or buying a set of MT7 racelines for the AM hardtail. I just recently switched to Jagwire SS housing for all my shifty bits and I'm not a big fan of Shimano servo wavey stuff. I also got to ride the new SRAM eagle 1x12 last week... and gentleman, let me tell you it's some good sh*t!

Future plans for the instigator are Chris King 40th anniversary olive hubs/BB/inSet, Eagle 1x12, DVO Sapphire, and dropper post. Time to start pestering my suppliers to give me first dibs!

Don't be scurred! Mine has 177k on it now and going strong. Sees 6k RPM at WOT multiple times a day. This was a trip home not too long ago

 

 

These motors don't like being babied. Keep fresh oil in it, run good gas, stay up to date on maintenance, and drive the car like it's meant to be driven!

Looks like many of my drives home. I, for one, am a firm believer in the 'ole "Italian tune up".

What suspension did you put in???

Bilstein HD's paired with JDM pink springs

Just approaching 209,000.

After my recent suspension swap, the wagon is now the 4th best feeling vehicles I've ever been in. 1st - Ferrari California, 2- STi 3-BMW Z4.

I'm pretty happy with it. Time to save up for an alignment, trans fluid drain & fills, and other little tidbits.

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Are we still recommending Subaru ATF-HP for trans fluid? I'm going to be doing a flush and fill this weekend and want to stock up.

Probably so... I vaguely remember JMP telling me switched to Amsoil full synthetic and started getting a little slippage in 3rd.

Maybe it was a bad combo with the engine mounts. I just ordered a pitch stop , center drive shaft bushing and a a comfort trans bushing but with the stock engine mounts. See how it goes.

They make a driveshaft bushing too? Link please!

I have group n motor mounts, Perrin pitch stop, Rallitek race bushing, and Whiteline diff inserts. It feels so tight, the way it should've come from the factory

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Installed a raliteck 'comfort' trans bushing and new mount today.

 

Car already has group N engine mounts and pitch stop.

 

I would not install the bushing again, I'm getting a vibration through the peddles/floor now that's minorly annoying, and it didn't improve anything over the engine/pitch stop(would do again)

Interesting, I have the hard(race) version and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love the feedback it provides and how it just stiffened everything up.

For me, it made much more of a difference than the pitch stop.

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Guy claims IPT did it... Not sure if true.

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Theres a guy selling a built 08 trans with a VB mod on the FS thread, sounds fishy.

I don't buy it, I posted and told him he should offer up details in his ad, because he has a unicorn trans there if it's legit.

"Can hold 600hp" that's a wild claim, but would be awesome if someone figured out how to do it.

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