Anyone have anything they'd like to rant about?

[Boissal]

I don't service shocks beyond air can/seals but this sounds like fork servicing for me. Cycle the piston to get oil out and it shoots everywhere or misses the oil pan you didn't notice got kicked out of the way. Or get a couple steps out of order and have to dump oil you've already added and pull the lowers off again. Still doesn't approach the mess I get with tire sealant though.....

This describes my experience every time I service my fork. No matter how carefully I set things up and how dialed I think I am there's always a pool of oil on the ground and slickoleum in my hair and up my nose when I'm done.

I decided to swap volume spacers in a Fox shock last night. The stupid Stumpy frame brace prevents you from unscrewing the air can with the sock in the frame so I had to pull it off. In the process I dropped an o-ring and crunch washers on the ground. Spent a while on my knees with a headlamp to recover those. I then reinstalled the shock but without the sag o-ring. It usually wouldn't bother me but I'm still dialing in the shock so... off it came again, along with a crunch washer which promptly disappeared. After more headlamp time I found the fucker and reinstalled the shock, this time with the flip-chip in the wrong position. Sigh... Had to pull the shock for the 3rd time. No hardware fell off that time and I managed to reinstall it properly.

To celebrate my victory over the shock I decided to mess with the dropper cable housing which was about 1/2" too long. The internal routing on the Stumpy is horrendous and looks like someone tried to mimic the folds of a human lower intestine. I made the mistake of pulling the housing 1/64" too far and it got into an impossible spot in the frame. I eventually put a solid kink in it trying to get it out of that black hole and figured I'd swap it. I connected the new housing with a hose barb, tried to feed it into the frame, it all went well until one particularly tight bend in the colon and the fucking barb came off. Sigh, again. Off came the crankset and the BB so I could manually feed the housing past the tough post. I thought that would be the end of the adventure but no, the fucking housing decided it wanted to go up the brace instead of up the seat tube so I had to go fishing for it with a bent spoke. That was a fun time trying to shine the headlamp down the seat tube while not dropping the spoke in there and pushing the housing up from the bottom bracket. Took me another 15 minutes of cursing before everything was back in place.

I have to add tokens to the fork tonight, I am dreading it...

[skaredshtles]

This describes my experience every time I service my fork. No matter how carefully I set things up and how dialed I think I am there's always a pool of oil on the ground and slickoleum in my hair and up my nose when I'm done.

I decided to swap volume spacers in a Fox shock last night. The stupid Stumpy frame brace prevents you from unscrewing the air can with the sock in the frame so I had to pull it off. In the process I dropped an o-ring and crunch washers on the ground. Spent a while on my knees with a headlamp to recover those. I then reinstalled the shock but without the sag o-ring. It usually wouldn't bother me but I'm still dialing in the shock so... off it came again, along with a crunch washer which promptly disappeared. After more headlamp time I found the fucker and reinstalled the shock, this time with the flip-chip in the wrong position. Sigh... Had to pull the shock for the 3rd time. No hardware fell off that time and I managed to reinstall it properly.

To celebrate my victory over the shock I decided to mess with the dropper cable housing which was about 1/2" too long. The internal routing on the Stumpy is horrendous and looks like someone tried to mimic the folds of a human lower intestine. I made the mistake of pulling the housing 1/64" too far and it got into an impossible spot in the frame. I eventually put a solid kink in it trying to get it out of that black hole and figured I'd swap it. I connected the new housing with a hose barb, tried to feed it into the frame, it all went well until one particularly tight bend in the colon and the fucking barb came off. Sigh, again. Off came the crankset and the BB so I could manually feed the housing past the tough post. I thought that would be the end of the adventure but no, the fucking housing decided it wanted to go up the brace instead of up the seat tube so I had to go fishing for it with a bent spoke. That was a fun time trying to shine the headlamp down the seat tube while not dropping the spoke in there and pushing the housing up from the bottom bracket. Took me another 15 minutes of cursing before everything was back in place.

I have to add tokens to the fork tonight, I am dreading it...

I laffed.

[Thaleia]

Hilarious write up. Was laughing already but lost it at:

To celebrate my victory over the shock I decided to mess with the dropper cable housing which was about 1/2" too long.

Thank you for documenting such a frustrating evening.

EDIT best of luck tonight, hopefully no tokens TR follows tommorow!

[Boissal]

I should write a TR about the day I replaced bearings across 2 frames. There were screams, tears, and tense moments watching my linkage boil in a pot of water in an effort to coax a reluctant bearing out of its housing. I started with all kinds of fancy tool and finished with a piece of 2x6, a screwdriver, a large socket, and a mallet. Shred of my sanity and pride can still be found everywhere around the room I was in at the time.

[rideit]

I would like to have heard some of your most choice French strings of swear words!

[homemadesalsa]

Yup, I've done this many times with similarly clean results. And that's about the time you'll discover some issue like an air leak that requires removing the sealant-filled tire to fix. And we all know how that's going to go....huge mess ensues.

Like I said, a mess seems to happen without fail, and it's always something different.

Or that a tire iron got left inside the tire....

I am enjoying this thread a lot. The fall colors were winning the internet, but this fits my snark much better.

[evdog]

Or that a tire iron got left inside the tire....

I am enjoying this thread a lot. The fall colors were winning the internet, but this fits my snark much better.

haha, haven't ever left a tire lever inside because I typically need them to wrestle the tire on. But if anything ever goes on perfectly with no random air leak, you can bet I'll look down and see that the tire is on backwards like Dee Hubbs mentioned. Or I can start the countdown of 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 rides before I break a spoke and have to tear into it to replace.

[evdog]

I have to add tokens to the fork tonight, I am dreading it...

I've had a great week lol.... was lucky enough to score seal kits for both shock and fork that have been out of stock everywhere.

Service shock. Goes well...until reassembly when it won't hold air. Try 3 different shock pumps. So....disassemble, then reassemble. Didn't do anything different, but it magically holds air this time.

Fork - change oil and seals. After tearing into it notice that DVO calls for 2.5 wt oil which I've never used in any fork (including my DVO Diamond) so I didn't have it on hand. Nor did almost any shop in SD. #14 shop I called (including moto shops) finally had a quart in their service dept they agreed to sell me. Continuing on realize the damper bleed I assumed wasn't needed since I wasn't servicing the damper appears necessary after all (possibly...instructions weren't clear). "Pour 2.5wt oil into the bleed cup as shown". Hmm, you mean the bleed cup the manual didn't list under materials needed, that didn't come with the fork, and that isn't available on DVO's website to purchase? Yup, that one. Looks sort of like a shimano brake bleed cup which I can now confirm doesn't work. The syringe I had for a homemade bleed kit did work, sort of, but between the two of them leaked an impressive amount of oil all over the floor. Only had to partially disassemble the fork once after that. #winning

Tire replacement....you've already seen the results.

Disassemble frame to check bearings. I've had an annoying creak and this is about the last thing it could be. Find a few bearings that are notchy but don't have enough on hand to replace.... nor the time or ambition to do it right now. Additional dilemma of whether to drop $150 to replace the whole bearing set (18) which is disappointingly no name-ish with something better. Re-assemble linkages which have the most annoying design I've encountered to date with washers/bearing covers that slip between the two frame pieces before you slide the axle through. Took 4 attempts to get one including forgetting to grease the axle, then loctite threads, then realize you have to put washers on both sides at once since there isn't enough room once one side is tightened down. Will know for next time but still took way longer than it needed to.

Replacing frame bearings will be an adventure since I've got a generic bearing press kit. Need to replace a bunch on my Spur as well.

[climberevan]

After tearing into it notice that DVO calls for 2.5 wt oil which I've never used in any fork (including my DVO Diamond) so I didn't have it on hand. Nor did almost any shop in SD. #14 shop I called (including moto shops) finally had a quart in their service dept they agreed to sell me. Continuing on realize the damper bleed I assumed wasn't needed since I wasn't servicing the damper appears necessary after all (possibly...instructions weren't clear). "Pour 2.5wt oil into the bleed cup as shown". Hmm, you mean the bleed cup the manual didn't list under materials needed, that didn't come with the fork, and that isn't available on DVO's website to purchase? .

Yeah, I bought a bottle of 2.5 wt Spectro just for my DVO Sapphire fork. They even tell you not to use Maxima, which is of course the most readily available brand.

The bleed cup thing would be nice, but since I'm full ghetto I kind of make one around the top of the fork with stucco tape. It works but, uh, some oil escapes.

You can definitely do a lower leg and seal service without bleeding the damper, but I agree that the way the service guide just tells you to take everything apart before you know it you've signed up for a damper bleed.
Next time you'll know how to avoid it though--my damper oil stays perfectly clean so I don't change it every time I service the fork.

The cool thing about the DVO forks and shocks, though, is that the actual service is super easy and doesn't require any really special tools. Bleeding the shock and fork dampers is easy. You can do oil changes without replacing any other parts, not even crush washers.

[Spats]

RANT: Fox/Marzocchi will happily sell you a Z1 Coil...but they won't have springs for it until next year, and the stock spring is a "medium" rated for a 150 pound rider who wants to feel the fork move when they run over a quarter.

The internal routing on the Stumpy is horrendous and looks like someone tried to mimic the folds of a human lower intestine.

I LOLed.

The cool thing about the DVO forks and shocks, though, is that the actual service is super easy and doesn't require any really special tools. Bleeding the shock and fork dampers is easy. You can do oil changes without replacing any other parts, not even crush washers.

I've heard that DVO is basically the high-end division of Suntour, in which case that makes sense, since Suntour forks are also very easy to service. Also, Suntour suspension works remarkably well, at the cost of their forks weighing a bit more than the competition and having 5-10mm higher A/C, and their customer service is great. I guess this is a rave, not a rant!

[evdog]

Hmm, I hadn't heard of DVO being part of Suntour, always understood they were independent. Google search pulled up this - looks like DVO products are manufactured at Suntour's facility in Taiwan. Makes sense. https://www.singletracks.com/mtb-gea...-brand-unique/

the SR Suntour factory is rather massive, producing and assembling as many suspension products in four weeks as Fox and RockShox do in a year

So I'm sure they manufacture for plenty of other companies too.

[evdog]

The bleed cup thing would be nice, but since I'm full ghetto I kind of make one around the top of the fork with stucco tape. It works but, uh, some oil escapes.

You can definitely do a lower leg and seal service without bleeding the damper, but I agree that the way the service guide just tells you to take everything apart before you know it you've signed up for a damper bleed.

Good idea on using tape, hadn't thought of that but would probably work a lot better than what I did.

I might still call DVO and ask them about the damper bleed since part of the instruction was to cycle the piston during that process which drew oil into the bladder and released air bubbles. There was quite a bit of air escaped which makes me more confident I was doing what I was supposed to.

[VTskibum]

To celebrate my victory over the shock I decided to mess with the dropper cable housing which was about 1/2" too long. The internal routing on the Stumpy is horrendous and looks like someone tried to mimic the folds of a human lower intestine.

Bummer b/c the shifter routing works great on my '20?!? Admittedly I haven't run a new dropper cable housing yet on it, but bummer to hear it's going to be PITA. My old Pivot was awesome b/c of the shimano battery port on the underside of downtube to route dropper cables cleanly.

Quality rant regardless.

My rant is very first world problems, like most in this thread, my pump track just won't dry out in the roller troughs of a few small but critical sections. Threw some dry dirt on it, hoping to make it ridable again this weekend, meanwhile we have been having great trail conditions this fall so far around here!

[toast2266]

My rant is very first world problems, like most in this thread, my pump track just won't dry out in the roller troughs of a few small but critical sections. Threw some dry dirt on it, hoping to make it ridable again this weekend, meanwhile we have been having great trail conditions this fall so far around here!

I had similar problems. Ended up digging a drainage trench adjacent to the line so all the troughs could drain into the trench.

Just built a bunch more pump track without much drainage, so we'll see how much more trenching I end up needing to do.

[VTskibum]

Mine is built into an embankment and it's the high side of the track that's staying wet, so would be hard to build a trench. Maybe it's fall morning dew and lower sun. Bottom of track is where I had few issues this summer and added more drainage there.

Going to try and soiltac/equivalent parts of it to see if that helps. If that doesn't work, maybe have to put in some french drains in above the top roller troughs.

[Canada1]

New bike day and I am at work, bike showed up six days earlier than anticipated and I didn’t plan for it!

[Wes Mantooth]

After 2.5 years of chasing creaks and servicing my pivots every 2-300 miles to keep my stupid bike quiet I finally rode with headphones on and it fixed everything


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[plugboots]

After 2.5 years of chasing creaks and servicing my pivots every 2-300 miles to keep my stupid bike quiet I finally rode with headphones on and it fixed everything


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Timely post. I’m in my 3rd day of tracking a creak/grind.

[climberevan]

After 2.5 years of chasing creaks and servicing my pivots every 2-300 miles to keep my stupid bike quiet I finally rode with headphones on and it fixed everything


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah, I usually ride with earphones when alone, so when I ride with my lady I hear every creak my bike makes. Even nice bluetooth earbuds are cheaper than replacing random shit all of the time.

[Spats]

RANT: 98% of Bluetooth earbuds sound like someone pissing into a trashcan. I have found literally one set better than the disposable wired earbuds airlines give you for free. It was cheap, too. And zero reviewers online seem to be able to tell the difference, so I can't go by anything anyone says online.

[Thaleia]

.. finished with a piece of 2x6, a screwdriver, a large socket, and a mallet. Shred of my sanity and pride can still be found everywhere around the room I was in at the time.

Ugh repressed memories flooding back of me ruining my Giant Trance's rear triangle when 'installing' new bearings. ~450 CAD mistake.

[Boissal]

Ugh repressed memories flooding back of me ruining my Giant Trance's rear triangle when 'installing' new bearings. ~450 CAD mistake.

Luck is the only thing that kept the frame intact honestly, I was wailing on it pretty good by the end.

Latest rant: took a break from messing things up on the Stumpy and moved on to the Occam I'm going to sell shortly. Decided to take the whole thing apart to really make it shine (except for cables and bearings, see above). I disassemble the linkage, very carefully lay all the pieces on a shop towel, clean each one individually, clean and regrease all the bearing faces, reinstall the linkage, and sure enough a washer is missing. I spent over an hour looking for the fucker, combed the entire area on my knees with a headlamp, eventually emptied the trash to see if it wasn't stuck to a greasy towel, nothing. The thing grew legs and fucked right of. Of course it's a weird size (15 ID x 19 OD x 2) that isn't available from any of the big box stores or specialty retailers and I had to buy it directly from Orbea. $2 for the washer, $12 for shipping, now I'm angrily drinking a beer waiting for the washer to reappear since it must know I've spent the money so there's no reason to hide any longer.

[XXX-er]

always look at the floor or carpet, not for what you dropped

[rideit]

Magnet?

[Dee Hubbs]

Mrs Dee Hubbs is a pro at finding small parts. After an extensive solo search, I'll call her to come to the garage and look for the part 'with me'.
She'll pick up 4 chain pins, 2 cable crimps, and a loose ball bearing that I never saw in my search, before she finds the part I've been looking for.
Me "Can you come down to the garage and help me for a second"
Her "Oh boy, what part am I looking for on the floor?"