-
-
I only recognize my friends from their avatars. Commuter ebikes sold me a front fork he used in his Portland bike class and posted here for sale. My PM was titled: “I'll Play!” For me it is play. The whole will it fit question that dominates everything we do is frustrating work if you are not ready to make expensive mistakes. He has been a good sport being patient with my ignorance and I hope I made a new friend. We exchanged fun emails with pictures. He has a great one of him holding up the guts of the fork like a proud papa.
This 2018 fork is listed as “boost”. WTF is boost? I guessed some extra turbo charged air suspension. Boy was I wrong. It is 110mm wheel hub spacing. Why not just say so? How many wheel spacing standards are there with names instead of numbers?
It is a fork for a 27.5” wheel so I need a new wheel anyways, I will just get it in “boost” or 110mm. But what rim width? I have just tested the Maxis 2.8” wide downhill tire in a 26” and it is amazing. Many reviews that say something is better I can hardly tell when I try it. However this tire is light years better than what I have been using including the 2.35” wide Maxis downhill tire, which looks the same but is crap. I had the 26” x 2.8” on a 29mm internal width rim and it seems fine. Googled all I could and decided on 35mm internal width. Only Stan's Baron and WTB Asym are made in both 27.5 and 26”. (the rear is still 26” and hope to get the rear to match someday.)
Will the tire fit? The fork says 2.5 wide maximum. The 2.8 DHF really only measures 2.6 I find from the interweb, so I am not pushing the width too much. But will it hit the crown or bridge? The crown measurement is listed. The tire is 28.5” according to the interweb. Add 170mm of travel and it won't hit the crown. However nowhere did I find the bridge measurement. The shops and everyone else says to use a mid fat 27.5” I need a 29” fork. Fork them all, I do what I want, so I bought a Stan's Baron 27.5 pre-built from bikeparts.com.
I got the wheel and fork and only then realized I forgot the most important “will it fit” question. Bikes with this new tapered fork have a funny looking head which is wider at the bottom. The old Uzzi is straight for non tappered forks. The LBS showed me the new bikes with bulging heads and said there might be something out there to convert the Uzzi, but they don't have it.
Made a call to bikeparts and got a knowledgeable response with a solution. (Rare for me). He has a headset to make the conversion, I just need to verify the ID of the bike head. Went back to the LBS to remove the headset, because they have the special tool. The mechanic got frustrated and in the end used a screwdriver and hammer. (I could have done that!) 49mm, a call to bikeparts, and a new headset is in the mail.
Ok, it is just play, but I get even more anxious waiting for the mailman when just missing one part keeps me from playing with my new toys. Finally get everything. The Maxis 27.5” X 2.8” fits easily. The fork and conversion headset didn't add to bottom bracket height that I can measure. If it made the bike slacker, I don't notice it. However the bigger wheel and tire with longer travel means no more big ass 7p battery under the downtube.
So my $600 bike now has the newest of front ends and is the envy of the cool kids:
Comment
-
The first time I saw that fork was on a Monday morning when I sent you pictures of the new fork. I was stressed out rebuilding the damper cartridge because I wanted that fork to be as good as it could be for you. I am happy to see this suspension fork out being used so soon after you received it. -
The inner diameter of your head tube is 49mm? That is the biggest head tube I.D. that I have ever heard of! That is really great news for you because you have huge bearings.
-
-
I didn’t read the whole post but here’s some information.
You can get 110 boost to 100 spacers so you can retain your current wheels.
I have a 27.5 x 120mm 110 boost fork on my Bucksaw. With Surly Rabbit Hole 50mm rims I use either 26 x 3.0 tires or 26 x 3.8 Surly Nates.
On my Intense Uzzi with disk brakes,a Magura race fork, I use Surly Rabbit Hole 26 x 50 rims with WTB Vigilante 26 x 2.3 tires. The 2.3 was the fattest tire that would clear the back.Comment
-
You have an Uzzi? Any pics? I have a 2.7 Maxis DHF (2.5 wide, Maxis lie) on the rear. Close but clears. Stay tuned for how I shove the 26" X 2.8" in there.
As long as my post was, there was even more fitment issues. Fork says "xc brake standard". Sounds easy enough, but the Avid 203mm rotor is no longer their standard, 200 only, so brackets I could buy were for 200 not the 203 I have. Screw it, I just bought a new Tektro with their bracket. However the bracket didn't fit. Is this "xc standard" some new standard that is not so standard? Finally kluged some bracket with washers for Avid.
Friggin snow:
Comment
-
-
Here are the guts. The damper cartridge has a huge bladder.
Comment
-
The Uzzi was my first ebike conversion. I'm the original owner, bought it back in the late 90's. I converted it back to non ebike and did a bunch of up grades.
I tried a WTB 2.8" (measures 2.750" w x 27.5" tall on 50mm rims, it didn't clear, too tall and too wide. The 2.8"s put you in the 26+ range and those tires are taller than the 26".
I bought a Manitou Magnum 27.5" with post mounts. My calipers are side mounts, so I bought a 180mm adapter. Unfortunately the posts were so tall that the 180 rotor only went into the caliper about 1/3 of the way. I switched to a 203mm rotor.
Attached FilesComment
-
-
The WTB 26 x 2.3 measures 2.525" wide. I figure a 2.6" actual width would also clear.Comment
-
Hub or BBSHD when it was motorized? Much older Uzzi. My 2006 has the VPP rear which may not be better, but does the BBSHD 2.75" clearance thing and any chainring you want with no problem at the chainstay. I looked hard and long for this kind of clearance and a straight down tube.Comment
-
BBSHD with the Luna Elipse 42T and 9 speed cassette. The photo is when I first finished it with the stock chainring.I later moved the mighty mini battery box below.
Comment
-
A fender for the new Boost forks! Boost being 110mm wide forks. Big O was a fender I probably read about here. The 4" fender just squeezes under the bridge. Won't fit my 100mm forks. He was kind enough to send two sizes of p clamps for the fork. I used the bigger clamp and the hardware from the smaller one.
Pretty easy. However I knew I was going to discover why off road motorcycles use the high fenders. The main thing seems to be the exit angle going down rocks. So the lower part of my fender is one big mud flap. It takes a lot of abuse over rocks and stairs. It also does the bulk of the work. Without the flap, everything gets wet.
The whole fender is close to the tire so I spent the day trying to jam it up with snow and mud. No problem today anyways. One thing for sure: it is 100% effective. I ran through big puddles and not a drop on me or the bike.
My 1-up rack is not very fender friendly. I was afraid I didn't have enough fender over the front because I made room for the rack. You can see how close the rack comes in the picture.Comment
-
Good to hear you think it is handsome, this attempt was done assuming it would look stupid. My other bikes, even the Townie has the dirt bike fender up on the crown. I can not say enough about how functional it is. I ran through a 50' puddle that was 4 or 5 inches deep. I couldn't find even one drop.
What size are your tires? The fender is called 4" but comes in at 3.8". It doesn't look as silly on 2.6" as I thought. I think he makes the fender for bikes like yours, not mine.
The mud flap is just vinyl base board. It weighs twice as much as the fender. I have to come up with something else. Do they make the naked lady emblem you see on trucker's mud flaps in 3"?
I went to the beach to try fouling it up with sand. Tahoe beaches are softer than ocean beaches. No problems. At the beach I saw the first ebike in town since I started this months ago. A couple had Sonders. I have rented the Trek and Levo, but never seen one on the trail. It felt weird approaching them and asking if I could stare at their bikes. The fender was the first thing they wanted off my bike. Really, that is all you see on my Frankenstein? As always I offer up the bike for them to ride. It took some persuading, but his curiosity finally took the best of him. Plush is what he noticed. Yup, $1,000 fork on a $600 bike makes things plush, thanks commuter ebikes! I hung around long enough for my company to get awkward, but he never offered up his Sonders. I really wanted to try it on the soft sand.Comment
-
My Vee Snowshoe 2XL tires are 31.5" in diameter and 5.05" wide.
You are so lucky that there is no salt at your beaches. I won't even ride on the beaches here after I went there once and it caused rust in the bottom bracket and motor. Salt is really destructive, as you know.
You sound like you are having a fun time spending time in the snow, mud, water and sand. If you keep hammering on your bikes and spending years modifying them to handle all that activity, you will end up with nearly indestructible bikes.Last edited by commuter ebikes; 11-18-2017, 02:33 PM. -
I had to chime in here because of a recent experience. I do go to a local beach but I stay away from salt water like it is the plague. A couple of weeks ago we had a wind/rain storm but the next day was good so I went to this beach. I couldn't make it though because a huge salt pond was blocking the boardwalk. The parking lot which is higher was full of puddles "big ones" from the rain so I wasn't careful in the parking lot.
A few days later I am having shifting problems, mostly ghost shifts in my highest gear. My new plated KMC chain with less than 100 miles was rusting and kinking. A good cleaning and lube job fixed all of my problems. From now on I will stay out of puddles even if I think they are fresh water.
-
-
You can use an old 3 ring binder for fender material for your fender flap, it'll weigh nothing and be practically indestructible. The 3 ring binders that are just a sheet of plastic, not the padded kind, some people use the thin plastic cutting boards too.Comment
-
There is only one way to do a budget, add a zero. Although the figure is accurate, I am talking about taking a chance with the money. Hubs are rated at how many degrees they rotate before engaging. I like the faster ones and the Onyx hub is zero, so it should be perfect. How many things on your bike are perfect? Worth a shot?
I asked here about the Onyx, nobody replied, so I bought it and am taking the chance it will work and not break. It has lasted one day, stay tuned. Is it perfect? Not really, there is still a tiny clunk. However having no clickity click gives the bike some serious character.
The story is long and convoluted. I wanted the 2.8 downhill tire, but it is too tall. Years ago they wanted the bike slacker so a machinist made dropouts that are slacker, but he had to go a quarter inch longer. He still has a website and sent me a pair! Perfect, with the quarter inch the tire will fit. Might as well get the 150mm dropouts, and the hub in 150mm. Years ago the 150mm dropout created a chain line problem with the 73mm bottom bracket, biased to the inside. Now this is a problem I like having!
The pics are stupid, but here is a link to a video of the test run. I can't figure how to embed the video or even make a link so you have to copy and paste. At the end I coast up to the camera with no clickty click.
Comment
-
I have added the Eclipse 48t to the Ex-1. Throwing in the gear ratios:
11 4.36
13 3.69
15 3.20
18 2.67
24 2.00
32 1.50
40 1.20
48 1.00
Comment
Comment