Hello Vital MTB Visitor,
We’re conducting a survey and would appreciate your input. Your answers will help Vital and the MTB industry better understand what riders like you want. Survey results will be used to recognize top brands. Make your voice heard!
Five lucky people will be selected at random to win a Vital MTB t-shirt.
Thanks in advance,
The Vital MTB Crew
(I know this is not made by Scott)
If anything, the WC mechanics shouldn't have a say in it, they usually have a bit more time to do the servicing and, more importantly, are there to do a good job. Ordinary bike shop mechanics need to have a high turnover/low turnaround and good servicability is probably worth a lot more to them.
Based on the bikes that have gone through my hands from different brands, some are basically pure garbage, there are such oversights with some designs it's hard to imagine the designers ever saw a bike from up close. One example of that would be Giant's Maestro (judging from the 2015 gen Reign) where you have to remove the crankset and chainguide plus the lower link pivot bolt to remove the shock from the frame. 6 bolts and lots of fiddling for what should be a two bolt job. Then there are pivot bolts behind chainrings, etc.
The 17 Trance's were on the current bolt setup and they were first available in 2016.
- a coil spring isn't 100% unsprung mass, somewhere between 50 to 100% in a fork application with no definite answer to this question. But yes it is more even with Ti coil vs Air and silentblocs.
- I would take unsprung mass if it means reduced dynamic seals (not even counting the spring curve).
- less dynamic seals and lowered unsprung mass means better ability to filter chatter so while it may not replace 100% the effect of silentblocs it would be interesting to see by how much.
Current bike is 100% air, new one will have a Ti coil shock and maybe home made converted Ti coil (of an old Marz for exemple) fork if I find the time and money to do so. Either way I will be happy to ride my bike but not drinking the sales pitch and keeping some critical thinking when they come up with shit is good practice I believe.
Regarding unsprung mass, a coil is literally 50 % unsprung mass. The lower single coil (a 360° section of it) is 100 % unsprung mass and the top is 0 % unsprung mass. And it's basically a smooth transition along the length of the coil - the further up the coil you go, the less it travels and the slower it does it compared to the bottom oft he fork. Therefore, when you integrate everything, you should come to a 50 % ratio when looking at the spring as a single element.
Granted, I ignored buckling, any oscillations and the like, but it's close enough.
As for coils... I've seen how smoothly a shock starts moving. It's tempting. But the adjustment of an air shock (or fork) is just too convenient to me. Spring too soft? Add some air. Too stiff? Take some away. No need to buy multiples of springs to fine tune it. When it comes to shocks, Sprindex is a good solution. But still. Also, frame manufacturers (and sellers too!) could probably do a much better job here, there are very few frames where it's specified which spring you should choose based on your weight. Even the frame size fit is lacking in some regards...
"What a mechanic finds easiest to deal with" and "what makes a good bike" don't necessarily intersect.
Maybe have another short spring inside the main one for the last part of the travel or what Push does with ACS3?
https://editmtb.com/what-is-sram-airwiz/
There are fair criticisms of the system in practice but this is about whether what's best for mechanics is also best for riders, and if two extra cables pisses off your mechanic, well...
If it was limited to XC race rigs I could get behind it, but it has no place on a Ransom for example.
Ever worked on a Ransom eride? Kill me now.
@ rampage 1st hits
source : giant rep at the shop I helped out at.