Thursday, August 19, 2010

LIke a ballerina in combat boots


I searched the web for a simple picture of a ballerina in combat boots, and got nothing. Tutu+combat boots got me a little closer to what I was looking for but still no cigar. Lots of pictures of Reverend Tutu, if that's your bag...
Anyhoo...
I bite the bullet and bought a suspension fork for my Swift. I love the Singular rigid fork, but until my hand is closer to 100%, I need a little help with the rough stuff.
I found a used Manitou Minute 29 with 100mm of travel for a decent price, contacted the seller, and said if you ship it today I'll take it.
Read through the reviews at mtbr.com, and they were mostly favorable.
After I sent the money to the seller, shot he me back an e.mail about how he never actually rode it and how his friend fixed the problem with his.
Ut-oh...what have I done!
The box shows up today, I take the fork out, compress it release it...CLICK. Compress, release, CLICK! CLICK, CLICK, CLICK!
After the scary e.mail, I read about how the original Absolute Dampers clicked on rebound, and I guess this one had never been updated.
I hope I can live with it until I get the fix.
On the ride over to the Rez, I mess around with the damper settings. Each of the 6 positions really changes the platform. Each setting other than locked really clicks loudly.
I hope I can live with this...
Then I hit the trails, and the clicks magically stopped.
The only noise the shock made was that qweefing sound. I can definitely live with that!
On the platform settings the click came back but open, which is what I prefer, it was silent. I'm guessing it originally was clicking in the open position because it needed oil to be worked through it from just sitting for so long.
The shock is much more laterally stiff than a Reba, and the height and offset is perfect for the geometry of the Swift. Every pound of pressure seems to make a great deal of difference, and I'm quickly zeroing in on just right for me (somewhere between 72-75 psi).
I wish the rebound knob was notched, because it too is quite sensitive to input.
I used 96 of 100 mm of pleasure with the greatest of ease. So much so that I had to stop and add more pressure in my rear tire to keep up with speed of the front end.
So although I love my Swift as a rigid, suspension's not so bad...
My wife is Lithuanian. Every year the Knights of Lithuanian have a pancake breakfast to raise funds (Kim's parents are members), and since Kim went to art school, she gets asked to make the posters for it. The colors of the Lithuanian flag are green, yellow, and red. Kim made the posters with flags that were green yellow and red; just like the sticker on the fork. Only problem is the flag is YELLOW, GREEN and RED. So Manitou is in on a little family joke of ours.

3 comments:

MMcG said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MMcG said...

That fork complements that frame really well. Looking good Charlie!! Much fun on it!

dougyfresh said...

And I just went back to a rigid fork. What are we doing?