# Let it be. (x-post 29+)



## mikesee (Aug 25, 2003)

For the two+ decades that I lived on the Colorado Plateau, a consistent theme underlying the bikes I owned was incremental evolution. Probably a lot like you. 

My progression likely only differed in that I switched to 29" wheels sooner than most, but after that decision in '99 I went from 3" travel to 4", then to 5", eventually to 6", and even briefly to 7", before settling back in the 5-6" range for a good long while. Probably a lot like you.

Living on the Colorado Plateau, that 5-6" range is the sweet spot.

Having that amount of travel allows a competent rider to stretch their limits on steep, technical trails and still keep a margin of safety in their hip pocket, all while remaining reasonably light and efficient for a range of ride types.

But since moving to Idaho we haven't found (m)any tech trails. Gobs and gobs of steep ones tho, and by this time of year most of them are loose and rubbly, requiring good drifting and surfing skills. But not techy.

As such, I've found less need for more travel.

I've experimented enough to know that if I go smaller than 2.6" on tires I get too beat up to ride back to back days. I simply need more air volume to keep my body happy. So I spend the bulk of my trail time on 29 x 2.8" and 3.0" tires.

In 2020 I rode a 125mm travel bike. It was way overkill.

In 2021 I built a 100mm bike. Better, but still overkill.

I also have a hardtail that I enjoy riding when appropriate. But after a few days on it, my neck, shoulders, ankles, and wrists all get creaky and cranky and plead for the forgiveness of FS.

Thus, I need more than zero travel, but less than 100mm.

To that end I built up a Trek SuperCaliber and rode it for a few months. 60mm travel. That is a crazy light, efficient, and fast bike. But because it was limited to 2.6" tires, I still got too beat up. Yet the amount of travel felt fine.

I would love nothing more than to be able to swing by a bike shop -- any bike shop -- and buy my preferred bike off the sales floor. Preferably something middle of the road as far as componentry and price. But certain aspects of bike geometry -- reach, rear center, and BB height -- have departed so radically from anything that works in the real world that I inhabit that we're not in the same ballpark, league, or even universe. If I want to enjoy riding my bike, I need to specify the geometry down to the decimal place.

Which is why I contacted Daryl at Funk Cycles and started the process to have him build one of his ubiquitous La Ruta frames for me. 60mm rear travel _and_ 3" tires was the goal, with custom-to-me geometry evolved to over 20+ years of previous bike projects.



This was the rough geo sketch before we finalized things.

I had 5 phone calls, 40+ texts, and a dozen+ emails with Daryl Funk wherein I specified all of the niggling details that matter to me -- not just rider position but brake mount style, dropout type, HS config, threaded BB and seat tube ID -- and wherein he asked me to clarify _why_ I wanted what I wanted. 







The rear shock mount is _different_ and thus requires adaptation via this sleeve. Funk machined one for me for a RS damper and another for a DT damper. Since I've never ridden this platform, and since I know how differently certain dampers perform, I sourced one HV and one LV unit to experiment with in the get-to-know-you process.





Once Daryl and I landed on the same page with the whats and whys, the frame came together pretty quickly.



















All except for the rear brake mount, actually -- and only because I didn't want sliding dropouts on such a svelte frame. I can see the utility in many applications, but I neither need nor want that utility, nor the creaking and maintenance that come with it.





It came together much the way that Hemingway described going bankrupt:

"Gradually. Then suddenly."

On the day that I received the tracking notice from Funk I realized that I hadn't yet ordered the rear caliper adapter. On the day that the frame arrived at the shop I realized I'd never even asked about the length or thread pitch of the rear axle. So to say, my shiny new chariot got assembled _slooooowly_ because there was no point in staying up late when I couldn't affix the rear wheel into the frame for a few days regardless.

But then -- _now_ -- it is built. And I've gotten a few good rides on it to fettle and fine tune and thinker on what exactly I have here.



I'll check back in a day or two to expound on _that_.

Thanks for checkin' in.​


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## Cary (Dec 29, 2003)

Looks nice. There is something special about knowing what you want and need and being able to get it built. I keep saying, people approach bikes wrong, they ask the question of what is the best bike, the answer is there is none. The real question is what bike best matches the rider.

Out of curiosity, did the design run through linkage design? Curious what the antisquat and leverage ratios look like.


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## mikesee (Aug 25, 2003)

Cary said:


> Out of curiosity, did the design run through linkage design? Curious what the antisquat and leverage ratios look like.



Nope. Straight LR = 1.58:1

First few rides have been on the HV RS damper. Awaiting the arrival of the lower volume DT damper -- I think it might suit that low LR better.


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## Cary (Dec 29, 2003)

You may need a custom tune for damper with that low of a leverage ratio. Get me the design sheet and I can import into linkage design and run the numbers which will help inform can volume sizing.


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## mikesee (Aug 25, 2003)

Cary said:


> You may need a custom tune for damper with that low of a leverage ratio. Get me the design sheet and I can import into linkage design and run the numbers which will help inform can volume sizing.



Which numbers are you after?


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## mikesee (Aug 25, 2003)

My lovely wife has this endearing habit of naming her bikes. I don't think it's a conscious thing -- the names just leap forth from her creative subconscious unbidden, and they usually stick immediately. Cherry Pie, Vanilla Pie, and Blackberry may have been revealed to her in the late afternoon when blood sugar was low and cravings were high -- or they may have been descriptive of the colors of each. 



Snow pony, Pink pony, and WyldE pony were a bit more on the nose.



She often names mine as well, but they rarely seem to stick because I'm more in the habit of just calling them 'my bike...'.



She hasn't really come up with a name for this one, largely because she hasn't been around it much yet. Thus I've preemptively been calling it 'the underbike'. It has a certain honest ring, you have to admit...



Enjoy a few complete bike shots for today. I'll start diving into the deets tomorrow.

Thanks for checkin' in.​


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## Cary (Dec 29, 2003)

mikesee said:


> Which numbers are you after?


If possible the drawing, which because it is to scale and has the chainstay and other measurements allow accurately inputting the dimensions. The more accurate the input, the more accurate the output.


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## sandyeggo (Mar 6, 2011)

mikesee said:


> My lovely wife has this endearing habit of naming her bikes. I don't think it's a conscious thing -- the names just leap forth from her creative subconscious unbidden, and they usually stick immediately. Cherry Pie, Vanilla Pie, and Blackberry may have been revealed to her in the late afternoon when blood sugar was low and cravings were high -- or they may have been descriptive of the colors of each.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


She's a beaut! Looking forward to hearing the ride impressions! I've gotten a hold of Daryl and the process has begun...


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## BansheeRune (Nov 27, 2011)

sandyeggo said:


> She's a beaut! Looking forward to hearing the ride impressions! I've gotten a hold of Daryl and the process has begun...


Hmmm, looking forward to seeing some pix and such. Curious as to what you came up with for your build.


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## prj71 (Dec 29, 2014)

mikesee said:


> My lovely wife has this endearing habit of naming her bikes.


Ha!!! Same here.

We have Sheila, Tina, Kiki, Nancy, Tom and Sam. She has not named my FS mountain bike yet though.


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## Sanchofula (Dec 30, 2007)

So short travel flex stay, RS1, ~ 80-100mm rear travel?

How short are those stays?

I'd like something like that in a 27.5 with a Pinion drive, my Pinion hardtail is pretty cool but the back end is STIFF!

Is it Ti?


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## mikesee (Aug 25, 2003)

Nurse Ben said:


> So short travel flex stay, RS1, ~ 80-100mm rear travel?
> 
> How short are those stays?
> 
> ...


120mm f, 60mm r.

Funk has options for more rear travel. May yet explore that if I decide I need a quiver killer that can fit 29 x 3" as well as 27.5 x 4".

16.7" stays.

Yes, Tibonium.


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## mikesee (Aug 25, 2003)

Any bike can become more than the sum of its parts with some attention to detail. Which details? Yours -- the ones that matter to _you_.

There was a time in my racing career when I had the luxury of a big box van that would show up with a fleet of bikes at every 24 hour race. Two of that fleet were my backups, to be ridden if something went wrong with my A bike. And even though by the numbers they were the same bikes, because the fine details weren't the same they never felt, rode, or performed the same when I needed to put in a lap on them. Sometimes the differences were annoying but benign, other times they were downright distracting.

From that experience I learned -- and have never forgotten -- how important it is to sweat the details.

In no particular order...

I run 24t chainrings on all of my bikes. I know the steepness of the terrain we have access to within a mile, an hour, or a day, and I know that I'd rather ride slowly than walk next to my bike. Tiny front rings allow stupid torque on the steepest tech climbs, and they also allow recovery when the grade briefly relents. Additionally, if you design the chassis around them you can tuck the rear tire further under your CoG with short chainstays, which allows you to maintain traction on those ridiculous grades.

Note that the flat chainstay blade is notched to allow the 24t ring to clear.



Ceramic BB bearings. I'm super sensitive to drag in my drivetrain -- whether from cheap pulleys, a dirty chain, or bad bearings. RWC BB's last longer than almost anything else, and seem to spin more freely than any of the stock big-box stuff -- both when new and two years from now.



I long for the day when a gearbox arrangement can equal the range and efficiency of a rear der with mondo cassette. And for the day when gearbox weights drop from the thermosphere into the troposphere. Until then I'll be running 10-52t SRAM cassettes with SRAM chains.



I did unspeakable things to my neck, wrists, and shoulders in the aforementioned racing days. Wide swept riser bars are positively mandatory to be able to ride more than a few moments. I love the ProTaper 20/20's now that they come in a 780mm width.



Shallow section singlewall carbon rims are a relatively new thing in Plus widths. They seem to have substantially more compliance than box section doublewall rims of any material. I've paired these Nextie Xiphias 49mm internal rims with Berd spokes to increase that compliance to (sorry...) eleven. I have limited experience with these rims in terms of durability, so I'm running a Tubolight insert in the rear to minimize the likelihood of damage from point impacts.



I run a tiny splotch of friction tape on both my dropper lever and my fork lockout remote.



I opted for a RockShox Monarch because I'm familiar with how to get the most out of them with simple air volume tweaks or more complicated shim stack fiddling. I also have a DT Swiss rear damper that I have not yet ridden, but will undoubtedly spend lots of time on this fall when I've filtered through all of the newness of this chassis.



Most modern brakes work just fine for me, even running 180/160 rotors. Fine tuning the friction material is sometimes needed and relatively easy to do. I chose these Hayes stoppers because they have carbon lever blades and that matters when temps are cold and I'd rather my fingers not be.



VHS chainslap deflectificator. Ugly but effective.



And finally, a Cane Creek Viscoset. Calms down the steering to whatever degree you adjust it to. I went deep, deep down the rabbit hole of showing how these work a few years back. How these are not standard OE equipment on all modern bikes is beyond my understanding.



Don't hesitate with questions if I've omitted something that seems important to you.

​


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## Drew H. (Oct 6, 2017)

Those tires look nice and snug in there, how wide are they? Sorry if I missed it


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## sandyeggo (Mar 6, 2011)

Loving the details and the thoughts behind all of your choices. Thanks for doing this! I don't seem to notice the subtle differences - maybe that allows me to live in ignorant bliss.  

What I'm really looking forward to is the official, detailed ride report! Particularly, how that 60mm of travel feels. Rumor has it the design "feels" like more travel than you'd think for 60mm. For me personally, where I ride, a hardtail works just fine (even though all my buddies are riding 130-140 rear travel bikes). I mostly want a little more forgiveness / traction that a short travel suspension bike can give me and I think this is a perfect fit for nearly all of my rides.


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## gubbinalia (May 11, 2020)

Beautiful build, Mike. Longtime blog-follower and always appreciate you chiming in on MTBR.

Did you do a separate blog post just discussing the wheel build?


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## mikesee (Aug 25, 2003)

sandyeggo said:


> Loving the details and the thoughts behind all of your choices. Thanks for doing this! I don't seem to notice the subtle differences - maybe that allows me to live in ignorant bliss.
> 
> What I'm really looking forward to is the official, detailed ride report! Particularly, how that 60mm of travel feels. Rumor has it the design "feels" like more travel than you'd think for 60mm. For me personally, where I ride, a hardtail works just fine (even though all my buddies are riding 130-140 rear travel bikes). I mostly want a little more forgiveness / traction that a short travel suspension bike can give me and I think this is a perfect fit for nearly all of my rides.



The bike I rode for the last year before this one had 120mm f/100mm r travel. I built this Funk because <-that one felt a bit like overkill for where I mostly ride.

I've also owned three different Moots YBB's through the years, plus one KHS softtail before those.

After a mere 12 hours of riding time I cannot give you a 'final' ride report.

But I can say that this Funk feels like it splits the difference between the YBB-type designs and a 100mm linkage-driven chassis.

Which is to say that when I stand to power up something steep, or techy, I don't notice any rear end movement. It might be there, but I can't feel it affecting anything in any direction, so I have yet to flip any levers on the rear shock. No platform, no lockout, wide open. It is really nice to be able to stand and deliver up a short stinger that you didn't know was coming, and not feel energy being sucked out by unwanted rear damper movement.

When motoring along on the flats I can feel it taking the edge off of pothole-type hits, as well as g-outs and hard compressions. Can stay in the saddle and on the gas through this sort of thing.

On the descents I can feel the suspension working when I land off of a ledge drop or jump -- because my ankles don't get the hard '_jank!_' that they do when I'm riding my hardtail.

I don't have enough time on it yet to say much about what the rear suspension is doing when I'm just banging/carving down trail. Invisible thus far -- which could be good or bad, depending.

Overall, I think this chassis is great for all-day epics. I think it'll be fantastic for bikepacking missions. And it would make an OUTSTANDING singlespeed.










Don't hesitate if you have specific questions.


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## sandyeggo (Mar 6, 2011)

mikesee said:


> The bike I rode for the last year before this one had 120mm f/100mm r travel. I built this Funk because <-that one felt a bit like overkill for where I mostly ride.
> 
> I've also owned three different Moots YBB's through the years, plus one KHS softtail before those.
> 
> ...


Thank you, Mike! It sounds exactly like what I'm looking for. My geared FS bike is similar - 120/115 and I find I don't really need it for most of what I ride. My hardtail can handle most of what I ride but there are some flat baby-head rock sections that sometimes makes it hard to pedal through while seated. It sounds from your description the La Ruta would help in those sections. Is that accurate? I'm also starting to lengthen my rides so I think having 60mm of rear suspension will be very helpful in terms of letting me go farther with less overall fatigue. 

Thanks to you I was able to get ahold of Funk Cycles and I've started my build. I'm really looking forward to what we come up with. I think this is going to be exactly what I'm looking for in terms of a full suspension SS that will accommodate plus tires - I'm amazed you are able to fit in the plus sized rear with suspension and short chain stays. Damn cool.


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## bigdrunk (Feb 21, 2004)

sandyeggo said:


> Thank you, Mike! It sounds exactly like what I'm looking for. My geared FS bike is similar - 120/115 and I find I don't really need it for most of what I ride. My hardtail can handle most of what I ride but there are some flat baby-head rock sections that sometimes makes it hard to pedal through while seated. It sounds from your description the La Ruta would help in those sections. Is that accurate? I'm also starting to lengthen my rides so I think having 60mm of rear suspension will be very helpful in terms of letting me go farther with less overall fatigue.
> 
> Thanks to you I was able to get ahold of Funk Cycles and I've started my build. I'm really looking forward to what we come up with. I think this is going to be exactly what I'm looking for in terms of a full suspension SS that will accommodate plus tires - I'm amazed you are able to fit in the plus sized rear with suspension and short chain stays. Damn cool.


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## bigdrunk (Feb 21, 2004)

Such a great build. You really showcase the entire reason for going with a custom build. 

I am pretty fired up to learn about the viscoset. I am getting one for my trail bike asap. I have fond memories of the Hopey steering damper I ran on my Turner 5-Spot and Lenz Leviathan back when what seems like a million years ago.


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## mikesee (Aug 25, 2003)

bigdrunk said:


> Such a great build. You really showcase the entire reason for going with a custom build.
> 
> I am pretty fired up to learn about the viscoset. I am getting one for my trail bike asap. I have fond memories of the Hopey steering damper I ran on my Turner 5-Spot and Lenz Leviathan back when what seems like a million years ago.



I still run a Hopey (with a Viscoset, too) on my snowbike.

But I just never cared for the Hopeys on dirt. They made the bike feel less predictable instead of more.

Think how easy it would be for any/every manufacturer to offer their own version of a steering damper like the Viscoset, built into their integrated headset.

Reference how Trek forced every customer over the past 5+ years to run Knock Block, even though literally no one was asking for it.

Look at how Canyon (and others) now have proprietary shaped headset spacers and top caps. No actual benefit to them, just different.

An integrated damper would be simpler to achieve and could be adjusted/tuned/deactivated as desired. And with an actual benefit -- unlike Knock Block or proprietary spacers!


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## prj71 (Dec 29, 2014)

What advantage do you find for the viscoset on dry land? Your snow bike blog post it makes sense to me. Trying to wrap my head around dry land riding and the benefit.


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## mikesee (Aug 25, 2003)

prj71 said:


> What advantage do you find for the viscoset on dry land? Your snow bike blog post it makes sense to me. Trying to wrap my head around dry land riding and the benefit.



Damping the steering calms down the front end of the bike.

Next time you're out riding, just pull over on a straightaway somewhere and turn and watch other riders move toward you. Observe how very few people are riding a straight line even when a straight line is available to be ridden. Most people are weaving side to side, sort of unconsciously (but constantly) correcting for front wheel wander.

Damping isn't necessarily beneficial there, it's just that the symptoms are easily observable there.

Where the symptoms are also observable, and where damping _is_ beneficial, are steep, loose, technical, not-sure-I-can-make-it climbs. Damping keeps the front wheel from wandering, which means more of your energy and momentum are used to propel you forward, instead of fighting the front wheel's tendency to wander.

Don't have steep climbs that you sometimes fail to clean? Don't have loose, scrabbly, technical pitches that require precision and luck and 105% focus? Then you probably won't benefit from steering damping.

The beauty of the Viscosets (and the future OE-spec units) is that you can turn them on or off or anywhere in between when you travel to different locales to ride.

Adapting to damping takes a few minutes for most people, and then it becomes invisible -- until you take it away from them.


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## OldHouseMan (Dec 7, 2006)

Nice bike. What are the travel options?


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## prj71 (Dec 29, 2014)

mikesee said:


> Damping the steering calms down the front end of the bike.
> 
> Next time you're out riding, just pull over on a straightaway somewhere and turn and watch other riders move toward you. Observe how very few people are riding a straight line even when a straight line is available to be ridden. Most people are weaving side to side, sort of unconsciously (but constantly) correcting for front wheel wander.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the explanation. I do have some steep climbs on my home trails, but nothing that I've failed to clean but I sometimes do notice a little front end wander. I will have to think about this some more.


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## mikesee (Aug 25, 2003)

OldHouseMan said:


> Nice bike. What are the travel options?




Early in our discussions Daryl mentioned that in addition to the 60mm standard, there was an option for 'more'.

I'm not sure 'more' was ever explicitly defined, although my fuzzy memory is that it was not into the triple digits.


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## PHeller (Dec 28, 2012)

Final weight?


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## mikesee (Aug 25, 2003)

PHeller said:


> Final weight?



About 26 with dual XR2's and 27 with dual XR4's.


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## steadite (Jan 13, 2007)

mikesee said:


> Reference how Trek forced every customer over the past 5+ years to run Knock Block, even though literally no one was asking for it.


I don’t think that was for the customers, that was for Trek’s warranty spend. People crash their nearly-new bike, then expect the company to warranty the broken frame, and are indignant when told it’s not a warranty issue. Trek are also frequently (around here anyway) used as rentals which get crashed a lot.


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## Sparticus (Dec 28, 1999)

mikesee said:


> Reference how Trek forced every customer over the past 5+ years to run Knock Block, even though literally no one was asking for it.


I don't want to divert this thread, just stopped by to catch up on latest comments and mention that IMO, the best thing about Trek's Knock Block is that it is fairly easy to defeat it.

As for the Viscoset damper... hmmm... should I try yet another (probably expensive) product only to discover I simply HAVE to install one on ALL my bikes?

Maybe ignorance really is bliss.
=sParty


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## mikesee (Aug 25, 2003)

Sparticus said:


> I don't want to divert this thread, just stopped by to catch up on latest comments and mention that IMO, the best thing about Trek's Knock Block is that it is fairly easy to defeat it.
> 
> As for the Viscoset damper... hmmm... should I try yet another (probably expensive) product only to discover I simply HAVE to install one on ALL my bikes?
> 
> ...



Visco's are cheap.

It'd be an easy choice to run it on your Rail, but it won't fit, so the choice becomes even easier...


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## mikesee (Aug 25, 2003)

Way back when I was feverish with the racing thing, every too-long training ride was an opportunity to dial in the fit and contact points on the bike. If the fit was off by even .001% I'd be courting an overuse injury. If the contact points were off I'd have numb hands, feet, or, um, _bits_. Suboptimal across the board.

If I could have all of the money and time back that I'd spent improvising, experimenting, and testing different grip solutions through those years, I could probably have paid for this complete bike and then taken a month-long vacation to ride it.

Nowadays I just make sure to start with ~780mm bars with ~20* of sweep -- tilted just so -- then install a twist shifter and I'm already sooooo close. I finish my bars off with a long-discontinued set of ergo grips -- also tilted just so -- and then the finishing touches are two tiny pieces of grip tape on the fork lockout and dropper actuator.



The grip tape might seem superfluous from a certain perspective. I enjoy NOT thinking about the bike when riding it -- would rather ruminate on the birds I hear, or the story being told by a riding partner -- and so if that $.07 worth of tape keeps a thumb from slipping at some inopportune moment, then that's another moment that I wasn't thinking about the bike. Those moments add up.



I rarely ride long enough these days that hand/feet/_bit_ numbness is much of a concern. If any of those do happen it's more a result of poor route choice (read: flat road of some ilk) than anything else.

But when I do ride, it is so nice -- priceless, really -- to have the bike fit and feel like a proverbial glove. No pressure points, and I don't have to think about or look for anything -- it's all right where it's supposed to be.

That doesn't mean I don't occasionally think about the controls. On yesterday's ride I consciously smiled (_okokok -- maybe it was more of a grimace..._) a few times when a short, steep stinger appeared and -- without thinking, or shifting -- I slowly rose from the saddle while my right thumb pressed the fork lockout, then stood and slobbered my way up without suspension monkey motion slowing me down.

It's the little things.​


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## Pipeliner (Oct 30, 2018)

Looking at this frame design, I wonder what keeps the top of the rear triangle from moving laterally? Just the shock? Thinking about this, I know that another flexible stay design with no top triangle/seat tube pivot is the Supercaliber but it looks like the shock assembly on that is meant to handle side loading. Is there any concern that heavy pedaling or other sideways load on the seat stays will wear or damage the shock?

Pretty innovative build. To get a full squish bike with 29+ sneakers under 27 lbs is appealing, especially to an old and pokey guy.


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## mikesee (Aug 25, 2003)

Yes, the shock is acting as a structural frame member. Load/wear is a concern. I will update this thread if/when problems happen. My guess is that's going to take some time.

Worth mentioning on the build -- there are lots of ways to make it lighter. I know what I like, though -- and noisy hubs, round/small grips, throwaway pedals, and pinner low-knob tires aren't among them.

So to say, it could be a pound to two pounds lighter, but for me that wouldn't make it better in any way.


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## mikesee (Aug 25, 2003)

gubbinalia said:


> Beautiful build, Mike. Longtime blog-follower and always appreciate you chiming in on MTBR.
> 
> Did you do a separate blog post just discussing the wheel build?



I didn't, but in response to a commenter asking about why I chose the rim width I did, how long they'll last, and how they roll/feel on the trail, I just wrote this:

Ask me in ~a year about rim longevity/durability.

For now, after a month, what I can say is that I'm glad I went wider, and I'm glad these light/wide rims exist.

Re: width -- every width is a compromise somewhere, right?

I used to like 40mm internal paired with whatever 2.8" or 3.0" tread made the most sense when I lived on the Colorado Plateau. 

But the CO Plateau gets monsoonal moisture -- and sometimes a lot of it -- most summers. So the trails hold together pretty well.

Where I live these days we get very little rain from June through October, so by ~mid-July the trails are loose, powdery, rubbly. Lots of moon dust. Little or (at best) inconsistent traction. And all of our loops are on the longer side -- so you can either commit to the loop, or do an out-and-back. I hate out-and-backs. Because the loops are longer, I choose to run low-tread tires for the sake of efficiency. Low tread tires don't grip loose terrain very well -- they slip and spin. The wider the rim is, though, the better they grip.

So I'm running the widest rims I can, with the most efficient tires I can, as sort of the best-of-most-worlds solution for the particular trails I ride these days.

Make sense?

As for how they feel and roll? Grippy. Comfy. Compliant -- in ways that can't be accounted for just by mentioning the Berd's. So, is it the shallow section rims? The width alone? The rear insert? The angle of the dangle?

I think it's the whole package, and (unfortunately) I'm too busy with enjoying riding it, and paddling the local rivers, and spending evenings on the deck enjoying the breeze and the birds with my wife, to want to pull everything apart and put things back together one by one to say what % each component is contributing.

Even if I did that, it'd be one subjective opinion, and some/most here would largely miss the point regardless.

Don't hesitate if you have a specific question rattling around in your brain pan.


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## mikesee (Aug 25, 2003)

Among the many fine-tuning details I've been attending to the past few rides is dialing in the rear shock. The RockShox Monarch RT3 that I started with was good, but it seemed a little overdamped on the compression stroke. Diving in and reshimming is doable, but I wanted to try something else, first.





That something else is the DT Swiss XR Carbon rear shock, circa 2010. I've ridden a few of these on a few different bikes and loved the light compression feel. They feel impossibly slippery and supple on small stuff, which is where I was unsatisfied with the Monarch.



Removing the rear shock from the La Ruta frame isn't difficult, but it does require some patience and care as you lever the lower mount open to release the pressure on the shock shaft.



Daryl Funk had noted how light the DT damper was, so while I had both of them off I weighed them -- something I very, very rarely do. The DT weighed _exactly_ half what the Monarch does. 

Coincidentally, I ended up with about half the pressure in the DT that I was running in the Monarch, too. Currently at 37psi (not a misprint) in the DT, and I can't see a need to vary that by much.



Only 3 hours of riding in on it so far, but the lighter compression feel is quite welcome.

Note in the pic immediately above that the lockout lever is in the open position, and it'd take a fair bit of fiddling and holding the housings out of the way to flip it closed. I oriented it as such because I never feel a need to lock things out on this bike, and because if the shock was rotated 180* (lockout lever pointed down toward the bottle) then it'd likely interfere a bit with getting the bottle in and out. Since I never use it, I just stuffed it up out of sight and out of the way.

Next up? Dialing in the steering damping.

Thanks for checkin' in.​


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## mikesee (Aug 25, 2003)

A few years ago I would prattle on breathlessly about steering dampers to anyone that happened to be unable to climb fast enough to escape the verbal assault.

I've even shared a few tidbits about them online.

Nowadays I just spend my time enjoying them on techy trails, then cursing/fighting them whenever we need to hit a bit of flat road to connect into more tech trail.

I use a Hopey steering damper on my snowbike, in tandem with a Cane Creek Viscoset. Both set to max, because you cannot have enough damping for the kinds of snow we ride.

But on dirt, doubling up is overkill, so I just ride with the Viscoset. 

The Viscoset can be 'tuned' by interfacing (or not) a certain number of friction plates to have anywhere from zero damping (like every other headset) to _*Holy %$#&ing Sh!t!*_

The more I ride with damping, and the techier the trail, the more damping I want. Sort of a self-energizing cycle.

Since building The Underbike I've been riding the stock Viscoset, set to max damping. That amount is good most of the time, but if some is good, more is better, no?



Last night after riding I finally set aside the time to pull the plates, clean them with denatured alcohol, then apply some of the damping-paste-du-jour.



The only way to truly understand what damping feels like is to ride a bike with a Viscoset. Not everyone gets that chance.



Short of inviting you over to ride my bikes, the best I can do to show the effect is this:






See?!

It is, without a doubt, an acquired taste. Not so much like Jagermeister or Laphroaig -- more like smearing gooooood peanut butter onto your favorite french toast.

Bon appetit.

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