Incredible looking bike and the view is nice too!Bob the Wheelbuilder said:I rode my Moment on portions of the Virgin River Rim Trail and on the Lowder Ponds/Sidney Valley Trail yesterday. Got chased off the VRR by a thunderstorm, but the weather at Brian Head was better. Saw elk, deer and marmots. Rode 20 miles at 8500 - 11000 feet elevation with 2800 feet of climbing. Kicked my butt. I haven't been to high elevations much this year.
The DHX shock has a LOT of adjustment range. Even though I was undersprung, I was able to completely eliminate bottoming with the bottom-out adjustment. I had about 170 psi in the boost valve and I didn't come close to using the full travel, so I decreased the pressure to 150 with still no bottoming.
I finished right at twilight. Made it home to find the 600# spring waiting for me. I plan on setting the bottom-out and propedal to minimum. I'll then set the sag, adjust the boost valve (which controls compression) and rebound. Last, I'll mess with the bottom-out and propedal settings.
Ride quality was great. It'll take quite a bit of playing around to run through the range of adjustment in the shock. I'll post again when I've got the shock figured out.
The first two pictures are from the VRR, the next 2 from Brian Head.
Since you seem to be the DHX guinea pig be sure to let us know what you think so I can want one even more.
Hmmm... some interesting comments there. I'm considering doing something similar, in that I have an XCE, and I am planning on buying a Blur without riding one (none available for test ride unless I happen to make a trip back to the states before I buy). However, I am still keeping the XCE (at least for now).Bob the Wheelbuilder said:I ordered the Blur without riding one. Once I got it, I felt that it was only slightly better than my Turner O2, but I was comparing 4.5 inches of travel on the Blur with 3 inches on the O2. The Blur is a great bike and I plan on keeping it, but if I could have done a month long demo, I probably would have just kept the O2, or moved up to a Turner Burner.
The best pedaling while standing bike I've ridden was the Maverick, but I felt it wasn't supple at all: it felt more like a softtail than a real full suspension bike. The Blur pedals a little better than my O2 did, but it has a 5th element (platform) shock. The Blur rides a llittle more plush than the O2, but it didn't feel like there was 1.5 times the travel, just a "touch" more. It feels like a lot less than my 5" RFX or 6" Moment.Tullebukk said:Hmmm... some interesting comments there. I'm considering doing something similar, in that I have an XCE, and I am planning on buying a Blur without riding one (none available for test ride unless I happen to make a trip back to the states before I buy). However, I am still keeping the XCE (at least for now).
You mentioned that the Blur was only "slightly better than my O2". Can you expand on that a bit? What performance characteristic(s) were you referring to exactly (i.e. overall performance, rear suspension performance, pedaling performance, or ???)?
What I am looking for (in switching from the XCE to the Blur), is better pedaling performance when out of the saddle. So, I'm not sure how to interpret your comment. On one hand, if the 4.5" travel Blur is "slightly" better pedaling than the 3" travel O2, that alone is somewhat impressive I suppose. However, on the other hand, I'm not looking for slightly better pedaling performance, I'm looking for significantly better. I am hoping that I will get near hardtail like pedaling performance out of the saddle, and still have the benefit of 4.5" of travel the rest of the time. Am I hoping for too much?
I figure I could get fairly close to the pedaling performance of the O2 with my XCE, by going to a stable platform shock of some type, and running a bit less sag. I am hoping the Blur will be significantly better in this (one) particular area. No?
Boost adjusts the compression damping throughout the shock stroke and the propedal decreases the movement from small initial inputs, decreasing pedaling "bob." The two do seem to interact somewhat, so tuning involves small changes in one with corrections in the other, then back and forth, etc. To make things even more complicated, the bottom out adjustment changes the linearity of the compression damping with more ramp up at the end of the stroke. I'm actually having fun with this, but I think the massive adjustability will drive some people crazy.rroeder said:How does the boost valve and propedal adj. differ? Seems like either one would handle the top of the stroke, while the bottom out adj. handles the bottom of the stroke. Just curious.
Thanks for the info. Several people have recommended the Maverick. I suspect it must be a pretty good bike, but the proprietary nature of the rear suspension has kept me from getting interested (to this point anyway).Bob the Wheelbuilder said:The best pedaling while standing bike I've ridden was the Maverick, but I felt it wasn't supple at all: it felt more like a softtail than a real full suspension bike.
Yep, I suspect it's pretty tough to tell how much of the pedaling difference is due to the 5th element. Probably a significant amount, I would guess.Bob the Wheelbuilder said:The Blur pedals a little better than my O2 did, but it has a 5th element (platform) shock. The Blur rides a little more plush than the O2, but it didn't feel like there was 1.5 times the travel, just a "touch" more. It feels like a lot less than my 5" RFX or 6" Moment.
I'm definitely keeping the XCE for now. I plan on leaving it setup as more of a rough terrain trail bike, and setting up the Blur for smoother trails.Bob the Wheelbuilder said:The VPP design should pedal more efficiently with an equivalent shock, but I feel that my Turners and Moment ride better and more consistently overall (power on or off). There's a rough section at the end of a local racecourse that I can pedal over at full speed on my 4 bar bikes, the Blur is quite a bit more jarring, and the Maverick felt like a hardtail on this stretch. Climbing hairy stuff under power is another area where the 4 bar bikes outshine the Blur. I don't know if chain tension makes the suspension less effective or what, but I swear the Moment has claws when I'm climbing.
If you could get a platform shock on your XCE, I think you'd probably like it at least as much as the Blur. My wife had an XCE that we sold after she rode my daughter's Blur and pronounced it satisfactory. After a few more rides on the Blur, she said she wanted her XCE back (the buyer wasn't going to sell it back). She's now riding an Ellsworth Truth that she feels rides very much like her XCE did. It has an AVA propedal air shock and is about a pound lighter with discs than the XCE was with v-brakes. Riding around here has lots of sharp edged hits and edges: I hit the chainrings and pedals a lot on the Blur.
I would say that I spend at least 50% of my time on paved and gravel roads. There was a time when I looked for the roughest, most technical trail I could find. However, lately I find myself doing just the opposite. I find myself gravitating toward faster, smoother trails (old age setting in, I think). It's starting to get harder and harder for me to justify riding a bike setup for rough trails.Bob the Wheelbuilder said:If you ride buffed singletrack without big transient-type hits or ground clearance issues, the Blur would be a great bike. The 4 bar / Horst link bikes are better in the rougher stuff in my opinion.
Yep. Thanks for the suggestion. It's on my wish list.Bob the Wheelbuilder said:If you have the Vanilla RC, look at the PUSH industries modification. Also you should see if the DHX 5.0 will fit. I can dial it so my Moment's standing pedaling performance is at least equal to the Blur's with that shock.
Another reason I'm keeping the XCE for now. I'm just not sure that I will like it better.Bob the Wheelbuilder said:If you're like me, you won't dislike the Blur, but you won't feel like it is a real step up either.
