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Thanks Jeff! I’ve been working at Steed for 2.5 years now and am stoked that I made the decision to work there. If anybody is considering the move, you’re welcome to get in touch with any questions you might have.
Looks like a mid-late 2000s catalogue frame. Could have been a Carrera Banshee or similar.
Just thinking about it too, most shocks are valved to work for a certain weight range. For example the higher your spring rate, the more you need to crank up your rebound damping to achieve the same rebound rate. The same is true of compression. Those damping settings only have a limited range and you’re probably on the edge/outside that range. You would probably benefit massively from a custom shock tune.
I think OP is using a Float X2 by the sound of things.
A coil shock with a heavy spring may work – regardless a 500lb spring as suggested would be way too light. According to the shock set up chart here OP will need something like a 650-700lb spring.
Bear in mind though pretty much any bike is going to bottom out on 6ft+ drops etc. but you certainly want to be more around 30% sag.
Having spent a couple of days on the new 2021 Stumpjumper, I can confidently say that it’s a great climber, much better than the previous stumpies, and descends better too. I was REALLY impressed.
I’m a big fan of the M530, especially over the M520. The extra cage helps clipping in a lot in terms of finding the pedal and adds a bit of extra support. The major benefit for me though is providing just enough platform to put your foot on if for example you unclip through a technical section and don’t have time to clip back in again. There’s just enough there to stay safely on the pedals.
The new XT trail pedals are even better on that last point as there’s a bigger more textured platform, but the M530 is still adequate.
I’ve run a couple and found that they need constant lubing under the sealhead to keep them working properly.
The new C1 reverb is an awesome dropper post, way more reliable than previous versions and much smoother to use.
If I had to choose another one that I’d like to try but haven’t yet it would be the Bikeyoke Revive.
I work in a bike shop as a mechanic. Thankfully the hours aren’t too long and I live in a great area for riding, but it can get pretty busy and it’s very easy to get burnt out on bikes when it’s your living and your hobby. I do my best to get out even when I don’t want to – it’s always worth it.
Okay, so if you’re going to drop the cash, you might as well go with the latest kit and go 12 speed, otherwise you’re spending money on something that’s already obsolete, and honestly it probably isn’t going to cost you any more to do so. Sram GX eagle is probably the best cost/value option. Bear in mind that if you want a full GX eagle drivetrain you’re going to need to either swap your freehub body from a Shimano Hyperglide to a Sram XD driver or buy a new rear wheel – what is your rear hub? If you don’t want to do this, you can always go the cheaper route and get an NX eagle cassette which is heavier and has less range (11-50t vs 10-52t) but fits on a regular shimano freehub body.
If you can do a full GX eagle drivetrain, you get the benefit of the new 10-52t cassette so super wide range and I think the whole drivetrain including cranks is something like $500, pretty reasonable in my eyes.
Okay so pros and cons of doing so
pros:
- Has roughly the same range as a 2x system, potentially more
- simpler – less to go wrong
- simpler – less to think about when riding
- simpler – can fit an under bar dropper remote now that you’ve gotten rid of you front shifter
- lighter (maybe)
- Lowwwwww gearing, it’s awesome
- Better chain retention with a narrow/wide ring and a clutch. Say goodbye to dropped chains
cons:
- In reality none, but I’ll think of a couple… I’d NEVER go back to a 2x or 3x system on a mountain bike. Seriously.
- Longer derailleur cage so more potential to hit things
- Slightly more finnicky to get your indexing dialled in
Your bike geometry should not affect this decision. All mountain bikes should run a 1x system bar none in my opinion. Your Process is a great bike and I’m actually surprised that it came with a 2x drivetrain. The only real consideration here is chainring size, I tend to run a 30t but I do a lot of climbing. You might want to run a 32t if your area is a little flatter (I live in BC).
The MT400 lever isn’t great – it’s designed for entry level riders that are two-finger braking. I think your SLX levers should improve the lever feel massively as they’re designed for 1-finger braking and have servo-wave, which the MT400 levers do not. This is essentially a cam that multiplies the power that the rider puts in and should definitely help with power.
They should be pretty easy to fit, likely no need to cut the hose, simply unthread the compression nut and thread into the new lever. If you’re careful you be able to do it and only need to perform a top bleed with the funnel.
Clipped in for me 100% of the time regardless of the situation (with the exception of dirt jumping/street/skate park type riding)
I don’t know a whole lot about the YT or canyon but I do know that the trance has very outdated geometry and is not even close to being any real kind of contender these days (I mean it wasn’t particularly good even when it was first launched)
I disagree with Bike Nerd on a number of points.
First, I think everyone should learn on a hardtail, you’re cheating yourself out of valuable and necessary skills by jumping straight to a full suspension bikes – they do a lot of the work for you and while, yes, I ride a full suspension, there’s a lot of value to be gained from riding a hardtail, and I still enjoy riding hardtails now.
Full suspension is not necessarily ‘more fun’, it’s just different.
Also I disagree on his point regarding wheel size. I’m 6ft tall and prefer 27.5″ wheels. That’s just my preference. Try a few bikes and figure out which wheel size you like. The notion that 29″ wheels are for tall people and that folks our height shouldn’t be riding smaller wheels is a fallacy.
I do agree however that going used is a good idea. His point that you stand to spend more than you need to by buying new is fair. I think it is useful to buy a cheaper bike to learn on – you don’t want to spend too much on your first bike as you’ll likely crash it a lot. Buy a used hardtail and you don’t stand to lose much money when you inevitably upgrade – then buy something nice and new once you know what you want, so you can take care of it and have a good warranty.
Good luck!
Good job! The CS is a real sweet spot in terms of value vs performance. I miss my nomad!
The Motobecane has a better spec, but the frame looks like a cheap catalogue frame (ie not designed by the people selling it, they simply slap a badge on something cheap designed and produced out east). I’ve seen a few Motobecane bikes come into my shop for repair and they’re not good quality.
It’s better to spend the money on something with a better frame from a reputable company in my opinion. Marin and Giant have large dealer networks with good support in case anything goes wrong. The frames are also likely better quality and better handling since the brands selling the bike in this case design the frames and geometry themselves. Since the frame is one of the last things you’ll upgrade, if ever, it’s worth spending the money for a good one. To me the Marin looks like the best bike of the bunch by far.
I’d recommend taking it to a shop for a service – the seals shouldn’t easily pop out. The foam rings should be soaked in suspension oil so that’s fine.
When you say real, do you mean as opposed to a Chinese (or similar) copy?
Serial number is probably on the bottom bracket shell. Unlikely that it’s a fake, sounds like you just got a good deal. Those frames are a few years old now and bikes depreciate pretty quickly. Take care of it and enjoy it!Also upload some photos so we can all bask in your good deal fortune 🙂
Is it an air fork? If so, it’s likely that the seal on the air piston is compromised, meaning air has snuck past it into the lowers, pressurising the lowers and blowing the dust seal out. You should check the air pressure in your fork- if the pressure is dropping this is for sure what’s happening.
Best thing to do is get it serviced. Best case it just needs some new seals. Worst case, the inner stanchion is also damaged and it needs a new CSU too.
I used to work at a shop that sold them, so I worked on them a bit.
They’re actually not bad – the quality is what you’d expect for the price, not amazing, not terrible. The suspension runs mostly on bushings rather than bearings so it’s not quite as plush feeling as some higher end suspension systems, but they ride well enough. The geometry is pretty up to date and they’re great value with a really good component spec.
We didn’t see many broken frames, but getting warranty frame parts can be tricky depending on the country you’re in…
The bike shop that I work at is still open – we’re only allowing 1 customer at a time through the service shop entrance, and it’s 1 customer per staff member in the store. All repair bikes are fully cleaned & disinfected before coming in.
We’re also doing a lot more online sales and offering curbside pickup. We also lowered our free shipping threshold.
As for personal sales, I’ve been trying to have as little contact as possible, either shipping things or e-transferring money and leaving the part in a safe place. Seems to be working well so far.
