[Calhoun]

Here is my new chiny horse (pronounced chai-neee)

disclaimer: I suck at taking pictures, use your imagination if the pictures don't translate well

So here is my work in progress. Bought it from Chad at Red Barn Cycles. Great guy to deal with and very patient with questions. Thanks for the recommendation CharacterZero!

The frame arrived quick and I didn't have all my parts yet. So it became a bike of borrowed parts. RCC let me borrow his lead filled Marzocchi 66, and another buddy let me borrow his Saint/823 wheelset. First two rides I had a real hard time with the 66, it was either too soft and brake diving or too hard and barely getting half its travel.

When buying the frame I was seriously considering the Banshee Rune. It meet all of my needs but one. It was not entirely Hammerschidt friendly. Sure it would mount fine, but the bike was designed to be pedal in middle ring (36 or so.) I did some searching and found a couple of Terremotos with the Schmidt so I went for it. Install wasn't as straight forward as I was hoping. The biggest problem is that the through-bolt for the bottom pivot extends into the plane where the Shmidt's backplate rests.

trying to show how far the bolt head extends beyond the tabs:

The instructions (yeah I read them) stress the importance of the plate to be mounted flush against the ISCG tabs. But I know better than SRAM so I used some spacers to bring the plate out from that pesky bolt head. I used a .060 inch spacer. Everything mounted up and seemed to work fine. Turns out it was just a little too far out. I went back and tried some other sizes and settled on .040" I talked to Sherwood about the problem and he recommended flipping pivot bolt. Unfortunately the height of the bolt head is greater on the non-drive side. My spacer is a temporary fix until I can get the head of the bolt trimmed down. I plan to lathe off about .050" which is less than a third of the total head height.

.020" spacers meant the bolt touches the backplate:

The cable routing for the Hammerschmidt is tricky because it is really different from your normal front derailleur. The stock cable routing would have been a mess, going from handle bar to top tube to seat tube to the front of the crank, so I used some adhesive backed hose guides and stuck them to the down-tube. This made the routing a lot cleaner. The adhesive isn't holding up as well as I had hoped so I need to go back with some epoxy and mount them proper.

 

[Calhoun]

On Tuesday my fork came in. I had a tough time deciding between the Fox 36 Float/ Talas and the RockShox Lyrik Solo Air. After tormenting myself with the pros and cons for a couple of days I settled on the Float. Turns out the Floats are on backorder for 2-3 weeks. So I went with the Lyrik. The only Solo-Air in stock was the DH version. I knew I couldn't make another ride with that damn 'Zocchi so I went for it. I got it installed Tuesday night and had the LBS bleed the brake. I needed them both bled, but only one got done. Oh well.

I have some fine tuning to get done so I messed with setting up the suspension last night. I have the rear set close to Fox's recommendations, but the Lyrik was way too stiff at recommended pressure. I dropped an extra 10 psi from it and it feels better. Only the trail will tell though.

Should be putting in a lot of saddle time in the next couple of days so I will have some ride impressions to post. But so far the bike is super slack (coming from 29ers) and the bike is plush. Exactly what I was hoping for.

Now for some more terrible pictures:

 

[Calhoun]

Everyone does this, right? I have one with all the weights but it seems to be a couple pounds light.

 

[notaknob]

Nice looking ride there. The flash brings out the sparklies.

 

[FoShizzle]

ooohhh, thats a NICE (and manly) setup! congrats!

and yes, your routing of the HS cable makes sense and hopefully you find a way to make it robust. i am fortunate in that i have guides along the DT, up along the middle top of the DT but same tube anyway which does make most sense

 

[CharacterZero]

Very nice mang (er, cabollero)! I think you'll dig the fork...get some time in on it this weekend in YOUR setup and you should be stoked. Stay light on those brakes at Paj tho...got some flat pedals for the DH days?!
As for the lyrik, yeah, recommended pressures seem to always be off from the mfg. I don't mind running forks a bit soft on the break-in period...they are more active and break in faster that way (what little break in there is).
Nice work getting that HS mounted up there too...that main pivot bolt caused me some head ache too just setting up a stinger - ended up pac-manning the plate that mounted to the ISCG tabs.

 

[crisillo]

Looks great!

BTW, are your headset cups upside down?

I suppose the CK might be symmetric and not cause a problem

 

[Calhoun]

Yeah the headset is upside down. The guy who installed it got real excited and claimed it to be his "signature move." I am just glad he didn't put the fork in upside down.

 

[icegeek]

Nice, congrats.

I'm glad you didn't slap that QR15/32 on there.

 

[Calhoun]

Nice, congrats.

I'm glad you didn't slap that QR15/32 on there.

Yeah that would be a waste, its a 29er fork.

Forgot to mention that I weighed the Marz at the bike shop. 7.02 pounds!

 

[Calhoun]

Last night was my first real ride with the bike. The area we rode has it all. Steep ups, chunky ups, tight turns, drops, logs and fast flowing downs. It really is the best place to test out a new bike.

With the Lyrik up front the bike feels amazing. I don't want to gush too much, but gotta just a lil.

We started the ride with some good climbing. The trail has a good mix of sweeping turns, and chunk. Coming from the 29er platform I am not the best at picking clean lines. I mostly just see what I can get my tire on and pedal. My experience with the 29ers was that working for clean lines was real cumbersome, and not very smooth. The larger wheels just turn differently. So on last night's ride I kept true to form and picked stupid lines. But the TM didn't care. I am very impressed with the slow, technical climbing ability of this bike. It really feels like I have a pause button, I can stop mid-stroke, evaluate and change lines while climbing. It is just awesome. Unfortunately it didn't make me any faster (wtf!) so my buddies had plenty of wait breaks.

The BB feels like it is the perfect height, I rode my buddies Spitfire a couple of times and had tons of pedal strikes. So many that on the drive home I was afraid to get pedal strikes in my Jetta! So it was a little timid while climbing the steps, or rises but once I realized that I wasn't close to striking my climbing improved.

Also I was real worried about the fork. My old fork (the one icegeek was afraid I would put on the TM) was set to be plush. So much so that when climbing I would turn the lockout knob in just a little to stiffen up the front. I ended up with the Lyrik DH which has no floodgate/lock out feature. My concern was that the front end wouldn't be stiff enough for climbing. I was way wrong.

Going downhill was the best. The TM really smooths things out. Not saying that it paves the trail, but it makes technical chunky downs much easy because you aren't fighting the travel. On my RIP9 fast downhills would push you forward on the bike. You would start out way back and then you would notice how upright your body became and how close you were to endoing because of how far forward your weight got pushed. Not the TM. Also body english seems to transfer better through the frame. Little bit of push on the outside crank rails the corner, quick push forward on the bars really sets you up great on drops. I love how responsive the bike is.

I need to make a couple changes to the suspension, maybe 5 more psi in the shock and maybe 10 less in the fork.

I am not sure why the TM doesn't get as much press. It truly is an amazing bike.

 

[LncNuvue]

Nice bike and write up.

 

[CharacterZero]

With the Lyrik up front the bike feels amazing. I don't want to gush too much, but gotta just a lil....
I am not sure why the TM doesn't get as much press. It truly is an amazing bike.

Awesome write-up man. Yeah, you have a very fun sled at your disposal. Sounds like you are feeling pretty confident on it already! Have fun this weekend getting it dialed. :thumbsup:

 

[icegeek]

nice welds

 

[RCC]

Last night was my first real ride with the bike. The area we rode has it all. Steep ups, chunky ups, tight turns, drops, logs and fast flowing downs. It really is the best place to test out a new bike.

With the Lyrik up front the bike feels amazing. I don't want to gush too much, but gotta just a lil.

We started the ride with some good climbing. The trail has a good mix of sweeping turns, and chunk. Coming from the 29er platform I am not the best at picking clean lines. I mostly just see what I can get my tire on and pedal. My experience with the 29ers was that working for clean lines was real cumbersome, and not very smooth. The larger wheels just turn differently. So on last night's ride I kept true to form and picked stupid lines. But the TM didn't care. I am very impressed with the slow, technical climbing ability of this bike. It really feels like I have a pause button, I can stop mid-stroke, evaluate and change lines while climbing. It is just awesome. Unfortunately it didn't make me any faster (wtf!) so my buddies had plenty of wait breaks.

The BB feels like it is the perfect height, I rode my buddies Spitfire a couple of times and had tons of pedal strikes. So many that on the drive home I was afraid to get pedal strikes in my Jetta! So it was a little timid while climbing the steps, or rises but once I realized that I wasn't close to striking my climbing improved.

Also I was real worried about the fork. My old fork (the one icegeek was afraid I would put on the TM) was set to be plush. So much so that when climbing I would turn the lockout knob in just a little to stiffen up the front. I ended up with the Lyrik DH which has no floodgate/lock out feature. My concern was that the front end wouldn't be stiff enough for climbing. I was way wrong.

Going downhill was the best. The TM really smooths things out. Not saying that it paves the trail, but it makes technical chunky downs much easy because you aren't fighting the travel. On my RIP9 fast downhills would push you forward on the bike. You would start out way back and then you would notice how upright your body became and how close you were to endoing because of how far forward your weight got pushed. Not the TM. Also body english seems to transfer better through the frame. Little bit of push on the outside crank rails the corner, quick push forward on the bars really sets you up great on drops. I love how responsive the bike is.

I need to make a couple changes to the suspension, maybe 5 more psi in the shock and maybe 10 less in the fork.

I am not sure why the TM doesn't get as much press. It truly is an amazing bike.

Nice Calhoun:thumbsup: I think today and tomorrow's rides are gonna be even a better test for that bike:thumbsup:
RCC

 

[Internal14]

Yeah the headset is upside down. The guy who installed it got real excited and claimed it to be his "signature move." I am just glad he didn't put the fork in upside down.

Well, he might think he's got a signature 'move', but I know of more than one shop that deos that. Yube Expeditions in Downieville set all their bikes like that. Drives me nuts. As a mechanic, there's a right way and a wrong way to do things.

Why the heck am I obsessing about this? I'm just jealous about your HammerSchmidt!
Nice ride!