My Giddy Aunt!

I have a whyte 905 mountain bike, and even in my 58th year still love hitting the trails.
Did glencoe before lockdown, and you take the ski lift up the mountain and ride back down....scary stuff.
Anyway, I watched a young girl of about 16 absolutely flying down on her full suspension bike.
I followed her down, a lot slower, of course.
When we got to the bottom she said " I can't believe you did that on a hardtail....respect"
I removed my full face helmet and she laughed...."old guy....double respect"
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry...so I laughed, then went back up again.... :LOL:
@Dale.
When covid's over, I'll take you up....
 
58 in March. Have a full suss (orange 5) and a Kingdom Vendetta ti hardtail. Not having great lung function I struggle on the climbs. I have been asked on several occasions at the top of a climb whether I'm OK by riders seeing me bent over the handlebars, bright red in the face & gasping for breath.:) I can keep up with some of the riders on the downhill tracks on the vendetta. Prefer the hardtail just seems to flow better imo. Even taken it to bike park wales using the uplifts and certainly know I've done it at the end of the day.
 
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Bike park Wales used to be enormous fun. I had a season riding a Giant NRX xc bike that was simply too short - fine uphill with the anti-bob suspension but downhill you'd either mince it or fall off. At the end of that year I went on a trip to Afan with a bunch of students from Manchester uni, and decided to take my old Diamondback (before the XR8). It was wonderful being back on a bike that went downhill without trying to spit me off, and that could catch air and land safely again.
 
Was the NRX similar to the giant NRS? Which I once owned. That had also anti bob. I did take it to the local woods but with only 85mm of travel up front and 75 rear I found it hard work but on the trails it was brilliant. I did the "Wild boar chase" ( a charity XC ride)on it twice posting my best times riding it. I had it for 10 years and maintained it properly. I gave it to grandson, 6 months latrr it looked like had it the bike had been under a bus.
 
plloydie said:
Was the NRX similar to the giant NRS? Which I once owned. That had also anti bob. I did take it to the local woods but with only 85mm of travel up front and 75 rear I found it hard work but on the trails it was brilliant. I did the "Wild boar chase" ( a charity XC ride)on it twice posting my best times riding it. I had it for 10 years and maintained it properly. I gave it to grandson, 6 months latrr it looked like had it the bike had been under a bus.
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Yes - NRS, my mistake. That was my 2001 bike (darn 20 years ago!) & IIRC the was a linkage that could be flipped for longer rear travel, which I did. The geometry was completely wrong for me, and it had a very short top-tube, compensated for with a long stem that made it really frightening on fast downhills. In retrospect I should never have bought it, but it was a weapon in the arms race that we were all fighting at the time, with some of the other guys spending £3K+ on bikes that did help them ride faster. I could only afford about £500, so I bought that bike used, rode it for a year and flogged it to buy the XR8 (again used - 1 year old £2K race bike for £500) which had Mavic Crossmax wheels, XT kit and was completely brilliant once I swapped the original wimbly SID forks for Fox vanillas.

Somewhere I have some pictures of the NRS taken using an old CCD VGA camera, but I can't put my hands on them right now. Here's one of me on the XR8 from 2004.

1611432360324.jpeg
 
Here's a complete noob question - how do you know how to set suspension? I have front on my bike but because I'm mostly riding on road I have it set to stiff, but now and then I do head off road to take some piccies, how do you know how 'soft' to set it beforehand?
 
plloydie said:
This was my NRS 1 2005 model. I think this was the last year they were produced. Upgraded every to XT and mavic wheels. Loved riding it and was quite light for a full suss XC bike 24lb without pedals. View attachment 306403
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That is sweet, is that cylinder under the crossbar for the brakes? I have discs on mine but nothing as fancy as that
 
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Cagey75 said:
Here's a complete noob question - how do you know how to set suspension? I have front on my bike but because I'm mostly riding on road I have it set to stiff, but now and then I do head off road to take some piccies, how do you know how 'soft' to set it beforehand?
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You have a hardtail (reason for name is obvious). What adjustments do your forks have? If just spring preload, you should set them so that the spring compresses about 20-25% when you sit on the bike with feet on the pedals (this is called sag). i.e. if your forks have a 4"/100mm travel then they should compress about 1"/25mm. To measure sag, tie a rubber band around the fork stanchion and slide it down to where the stanchion slides into the lower fork, sit on the bike & let the for compress, then get off & measure how far the band moved up. That will be good for both road and off-road riding, and they will only blow through their travel on the biggest hits. If you have damping control then I can give guidance on setting that up too.

When you ride uphill on an MTB try to select a low gear & spin the pedals, rather than standing up & mashing down on the pedals - it works much better with suspension.

Cagey75 said:
That is sweet, is that cylinder under the crossbar for the brakes? I have discs on mine but nothing as fancy as that
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That's the rear shock absorber.

Discs are either hydraulic or cable operated - cable discs used to be lousy, but now they can be almost as good as good hydraulics. I ran Avid cable discs on my hardtail and they were excellent - didn't drag like Maguras or overheat like Hayes (I once had a Hayes disc turn blue!).
 
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ancient_mariner said:
You have a hardtail (reason for name is obvious). What adjustments do your forks have? If just spring preload, you should set them so that the spring compresses about 20-25% when you sit on the bike with feet on the pedals (this is called sag). i.e. if your forks have a 4"/100mm travel then they should compress about 1"/25mm. To measure sag, tie a rubber band around the fork stanchion and slide it down to where the stanchion slides into the lower fork, sit on the bike & let the for compress, then get off & measure how far the band moved up. That will be good for both road and off-road riding, and they will only blow through their travel on the biggest hits. If you have damping control then I can give guidance on setting that up too.

When you ride uphill on an MTB try to select a low gear & spin the pedals, rather than standing up & mashing down on the pedals - it works much better with suspension.



That's the rear shock absorber.

Discs are either hydraulic or cable operated - cable discs used to be lousy, but now they can be almost as good as good hydraulics. I ran Avid cable discs on my hardtail and they were excellent - didn't drag like Maguras or overheat like Hayes (I once had a Hayes disc turn blue!).
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Nice, cheers, there's just a control switch atop the front suspenstion, I gather it just loosens/tightens the suspension but doesn't seem to be any relevant markings - though maybe I need look closer, bike is all black, including those switches

It's this bike here, 2nd image shows the suspension kind of

carerrabike2.jpg


suspensionVengeance.jpg

In the description this is all the info on the sus:

  • Forks: Suntour XCM adjustable forks with 100mm of travel
 
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If there's only one knob on the top then it will be that leg - yes, just stiffer or softer.
 
Cagey75 said:
So I only adjust the right side? [from behind the wheel] and that balances it out? it's pretty much just stiff or loose then? cheers
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If there's only one knob, it could be the suspension lock out.
Turn it and it locks the suspension for riding on the road etc....
 
The forks on my Giant NRS1 were Marzocchi Bomber ETA. The idea was when climbing a hill you throw a lever and the forks would depress but not return thus keeping the rider "more" horizontal on steep tracks. This was OK as long as you remembered at the top to flick the switch back which on many occasions I forgot, this wasn't too bad on the flat but going downhill the forks could be 85mm shorter and quite a few times I would end up going over the bars. In the end I left the lever in it's normal position.
 
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Dale. said:
Nothing like a good Chopper tale. :LOL:

Lost the front wheel on mine a few times, it hated gravel and a sharp corner at speed in the wet with zero tread on the front tyre was only going to end one way. I literally lost lumps of my elbows.

I wonder would they get away with making and selling such a beast today? :LOL:
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Can't recall the exact year, possibly 1969 or maybe 1970. A Chopper was stolen off our family. A man walking in the park with his son, asked to have a ride of our bike. Foolishly we let him, he rode off with the bike. We walked the streets for ages, asking women on the doorsteps cleaning the front step, ( remember them days? ) we gave a good description to one person, who gave us an address.

We got the Police involved and a Police Jeep came racing out at once, ( again, remember them days?) Anyway, the police drove down the back alley, to get to the thief's house, the police Jeep got stuck and the police could not get out of their car. Can't recall how they freed themselves. Anyway, we did get the bike back and the thief did get done.

I did spot the thief a couple of years ago, and I remembered the antics. Not sure if I was more angry with the thief, or more humorous about the police getting stuck.
 
I've enjoyed reading this nostalgic thread so thought I'd contribute to it. :) I never had a Raleigh Chopper but very much wanted one when they were the 'in thing'. A couple of years later I had a go on one that belonged to a friend and found out just how crap they were to ride, having the front wheel wash out from under me on a muddy patch when riding across some grass! I was really glad I didn't get one after that! Also, I'm sure that gear stick was only put there to do as much damage as possible to male genitalia in the event of an accident! ;)

I think the most fun I had on push bikes was on a home-built bike, which we used to call a 'tracker' round our way. This was usually built on a second hand touring or racer type frame, with (home) straightened forks, cow-horn style handlebars, a low geared (20 or 22 tooth) front cog and a large rear cog, speedway wheels (reinforced), and knobbly tires. The rear wheel on mine could be turned round to give me the option of a freewheel hub on one side and a fixed cog on the other side - the fixed cog was good fun and you could cycle backwards if you practiced enough! I also had an air horn (jubilee clipped to the handlebar stem) on my bike for a while (until the gas canister ran out), which was great if a vehicle pulled out right in front of me... you could see the occupants jump out of their skin when that got blasted at them, so much more effective than a bell! :giggle:

Those home-made trackers were the fore-runner of the mountain bike really, but I'd have killed for a set of front suspension forks as a kid! One or two of my mates experimented with derailleur gears on their trackers, but they weren't really up to the job in those days and would soon pack in after a few days use in muddy conditions and getting snagged in undergrowth and damaged. Mountain bikes didn't become mainstream until I was much older and had switched to cars by that time.

Mid-life crisis syndrome made me go out and buy a mountain bike eventually though, which I used quite a bit, but then it got stolen from my garden shed. I got a replacement and kept it in the house under the stairs, but it was too much faff cleaning it off before bringing it in each time, so it very rarely got used. Hence I still have a very low mileage and virtually mint 1997 Specialized Rockhopper Comp with Marzocchi Bomber Z2 forks and Flite titanium saddle, which is probably a collector's item these days! I must take a better (and les perspective distorted!) photo of it one day!

 
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Mr Badger said:
Mid-life crisis syndrome made me go out and buy a mountain bike eventually though, which I used quite a bit, but then it got stolen from my garden shed. I got a replacement and kept it in the house under the stairs, but it was too much faff cleaning it off before bringing it in each time, so it very rarely got used. Hence I still have a very low mileage and virtually mint 1997 Specialized Rockhopper Comp with Marzocchi Bomber Z2 forks and Flite titanium saddle, which is probably a collector's item these days! I must take a better (and les perspective distorted!) photo of it one day!
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I remember the Rockhopper, almost bought one but ended up going for full suss instead. A friend had a hopper though, an excellent bike.

Mr Badger said:
having the front wheel wash out from under me on a muddy patch when riding across some grass! I was really glad I didn't get one after that! Also, I'm sure that gear stick was only put there to do as much damage as possible to male genitalia in the event of an accident! ;)
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Anybody that hasn't suffered this experience, hasn't lived. ;):LOL:


I remember the seat post coming away from the seat on my Chopper, a common fault apparently. A bit disconcerting mid wheelie. :runaway:

I remember my dad took it to his work and got it welded, it would never break again.
 
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None of those in the video were all that cool though, as they didn't appear to have the optional, round-faced, motorbike style, speedometer fitted to them, which if I recall correctly, went up to 40mph! Also, no mention of the Raleigh Chipper yet, the small single speed version of the Chopper, made for younger children.
 
Mr Badger said:
None of those in the video were all that cool though, as they didn't appear to have the optional, round-faced, motorbike style, speedometer fitted to them, which if I recall correctly, went up to 40mph! Also, no mention of the Raleigh Chipper yet, the small single speed version of the Chopper, made for younger children.
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Yes, I had one of those, often bent the needle past 40 but was probably more mid 20s in reality. Mine was a Huret, the round one.

I remember Chippers too, I was probably too big for one of those at the time, although I had to wait for the Chopper as I got mine at Christmas.

Ahhhh, happy days.
 
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