Gave up waiting... RR of my new Giant VT2

Ezookiel said:

Well, when the LBS told me the Merida Matts Pro D, had been delayed yet
another month and wasn't due till the end of March, I declared enough
is enough.
I'd actually have preferred a FS bike anyway, so I cancelled the order
for the Merida and picked up a Giant VT2.my way along never before
travelled paths.

It's about time! I believe we told you to do that months ago.

Quoted message said:

Now time to take it out for a serious test. Cool of the evening, on a
warm summer day, it was time to take two friends out to try some single
track we'd never heard of before, that was featured in the current
edition of "Australian Mountain Bike" magazine, but was only a 30Kms or
so from home.

There's an Oz MTB rag? You only have 12 million in that country, how do
they sell enough subscriptions? Do they have a URL? I'd like to check
it out. I used to work for Goodman-Fielder (Uncle Toby's, Wonder, etc.).

Quoted message said:

Several Kms in length, and only a few hundred metres wide at it's
narrowest, this is one amazing peice of forest, with what was fairly
accurately described as having "riding options [that] are
near-infinite" With every style and type of riding covered.

Now I have to take out my English - Metric conversion dohicky. Ok, few
hundred meters, so like 300 gozinta something something and comes out as
984.252 feet! Are you sure about the few hundred meters or did you
mean centimeters. Cause at 984.252 feet across I think you have
something other than singletrack.

Quoted message said:

Never having ridden such tracks, I was over-the-moon. Piles of logs
across the track, wooden plank crossings, narrow deep gullies with
steep sides, just awesome!

At 984.252 feet across that ain't no gulley, it's the friggin Grand
Canyon! 🙂

Quoted message said:

First thing I discovered was that FS bikes are WAY different to ride to
Hardtails.

Duh!

Quoted message said:

I came to the first little hump on the track, I gave the bike a little
bit of a "lift" off the top of the hump, only to discover to my dismay,

A Little words of wisdom. Don't use the "h" word unless you want to
bear the brunt of every possible sex joke on the Internet.

Quoted message said:

Hmmm... the pain wasn't just physical, it was financial... I had to
take 3 days off work, at my own expense as I don't get paid if I don't
work, and replacing the lenses was going to be $100 .... but it didn't
stop me today going in search of some body-armour

You don't need body-armor, you need more skill. Don't waste your money.
You're not hucking off 8' drops.

Quoted message said:

So, any suggestions on how to set up a manitou swinger for an 85Kg
6foot 2inch male? The manual suggests that for that weight I'd have
180psi in the top, but doesn't really say what to set the bottom
chamber too, other than between 50 and 175psi (which is quite a range).
What would be a good general "XC-all-terrain-riding" setting be for
the bottom chamber?

Yup, not enough air in that rear shock. Now you really confused me.
You used english and metric in that sentence! I have found that I am
more comfortable running the shock pressure higher than the recommended
settings. For instance, I am 145 pounds but run the shock at 170
pounds. at 187 pounds run it higher. Also, your rebound pressure is
way too low, which is probably what is lauching you OTB. The LBS should
have set these up for you. The bike is new, take it back to the LBS and
make them tune it to your dimensions.

--
o-o-o-o Ride-A-Lot o-o-o-o
www.schnauzers.ws

Ooops, sorry, forgot to comment on your reply regarding the body
armour.
The fact is, I'm not going to put my income at risk. If I don't work, I
don't get paid, because I don't get sick leave in my job.
I'm never going to learn new skills if I don't actually attempt new
things. And I will be most unlikely to try the new things, or not go
into them with much confidence to try them if there is the least risk
of injury.

I wasn't planning on buying the whole flamin suit. I just meant some
arm, knee, and shin guards. And I'm debating the full face helmet. I
very literally smashed my face fully into a log at the bottom of the
gully. It's just damned lucky it was very rotten and simply crumpled
under the force. The bike helmet I was wearing took some of that blow
for sure, but a full-face would possibly have been better. But then
again, at something like $350 Aus, for a full-face, as opposed to $50
for a normal bike helmet, it's way too much extra. I could do some nice
things to the bike with the extra $300, and the normal bike helmets
seem to give some pretty good protection in general. Besides, I'm never
going to fall off my bike again 😉

Ezookiel

Thanks for those observations, and especially the tips on setting up
the shocks, but I seem to have misled you in my original post.. or at
least not made it clear... I said:
"....Several Kms in length, and only a few hundred metres wide at it's
narrowest, this is one amazing PEICE OF FOREST...." Note it's the
FOREST, not the TRACK that is several hundred metres wide. The 30 - 40
tracks are all in one small forest area that is a few Km's long, and at
it's narrowest only several hundred metres wide.

The actual "track" rarely varies from being about one bike width in
width. At times you fear hitting handle bars on trees either side.
And again, in reference to the gully, it wasn't the gully that was
"984.252 feet" across, that was again the above mentioned forest area ,
if you read my post again you'll see I say that the gully is little
more than 2 or 3 bike LENGTHS in width.. i.e. you hit the bottom of
the vertical drop in to it, and within 2 bike lengths you're going back
up the opposite vertical side.
This was even more fun where the "bottom" is a wooden plank (missing it
wouldn't be a good idea), and the middle has a built up mound, so
you're thrown forward as you go over the edge, backward as you hit the
mound, forward again, then backward again as you go up the opposite
vertical side, and all in a a space of a few metres, and all having to
be done with enough speed to be able to get up the exit wall - FUN!!

And I especially must add, I've never denied I need more skill, that's
why I frequent this group to pick up ideas, download all the videos to
watch how others do it, buy "techniques" DVD's, and go and ride with
others, and especially - when time permits like it might today if my
injuries will allow - simply spend TIME and lots of it, on the bike
itself. Just getting to know it - Which is something I hadn't been able
to do and contributed to the crashes on the weekend, having only picked
up the bike the day before.
I usually only get to ride about once every few MONTHS, and until this
weekend had never ridden single track, only firetrails, so OF COURSE I
need more skills.
That's what CORC is for (Canberra Off Road Cycling) who meet at the
above mentioned forest every Thursday Evening apparently, and will now
have me along as a new member on the very few Thursday nights I'm not
working (the bummer of doing 76 hours a WEEK, not including the times
I'm required to sleep the night at work). The magazine don't appear to
have a website, but I know CORC do, but don't have the URL, just search
for "Canberra Off Road Cycling" or "Canberra Off-Road Cycling" etc.

Thanks for the shock setting tips and general advice.
Especially for the rebound pressure. I'd have thought that a lower
pressure in the bottom would mean slower rebound (not pushing it back
up with such force) so left it at the 50psi it was on when I picked up
the bike.
I'll get it out to the shop and see what they can do.
Very much appreciated.

Oh, and at 40 years old, I speak both metric and imperial at times
because I'm old enough to have first learned imperial then had to
change to metric part-way through life, and so find some things like my
height which doesn't change - 6 foot 2, easier to deal with in the old
terms, and my weight - which changes and so is rechecked pretty often -
gets quoted in the measurement that the scale uses... which being new
is metric, and hence the 85kgs. And as for psi, well I've never gotten
the hang of the newer form of that, and nor does anyone much else I
might add, as almost all everyday things such as tyre pressures etc are
still usually measured in psi, this is one area that metric never
really seems to have taken hold over here. Sorry for the confusion

And yet again, thanks heaps for the help.

"Ride-A-Lot" wrote in message...

Quoted message said:

There's an Oz MTB rag? You only have 12 million in that country, how
do they sell enough subscriptions? Do they have a URL? I'd like to
check it out. I used to work for Goodman-Fielder (Uncle Toby's,
Wonder, etc.).

Actually we've got a few, of various quality

http://www.bicyclingaustralia.com/bwWebsite/followon.asp?PageID=33
http://www.isubscribe.com.au/title.cfm?ID=104
http://www.freewheel.com.au/

and these guys do a DVD mag www.26inches.com

Parbs

Parbs said:

"Ride-A-Lot" wrote in message...

Quoted message said:

There's an Oz MTB rag? You only have 12 million in that country, how
do they sell enough subscriptions? Do they have a URL? I'd like to
check it out. I used to work for Goodman-Fielder (Uncle Toby's,
Wonder, etc.).

Actually we've got a few, of various quality

http://www.bicyclingaustralia.com/bwWebsite/followon.asp?PageID=33
http://www.isubscribe.com.au/title.cfm?ID=104
http://www.freewheel.com.au/

and these guys do a DVD mag www.26inches.com

Parbs

Cool.

Thanks.

--
o-o-o-o Ride-A-Lot o-o-o-o
www.schnauzers.ws

"Ride-A-Lot" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Ezookiel said:

Well, when the LBS told me the Merida Matts Pro D, had been delayed yet
another month and wasn't due till the end of March, I declared enough
is enough.
Now time to take it out for a serious test. Cool of the evening, on a
warm summer day, it was time to take two friends out to try some single
track we'd never heard of before, that was featured in the current
edition of "Australian Mountain Bike" magazine, but was only a 30Kms or
so from home.

There's an Oz MTB rag? You only have 12 million in that country, how do
they sell enough subscriptions? Do they have a URL? I'd like to check it
out. I used to work for Goodman-Fielder (Uncle Toby's, Wonder, etc.).

There's a New Zealand Mountain Bike mag too - You gotta wonder how many of
us have mountainbikes with a population of 4 million. No URL, sorry.
--
Westie
(Replace 'invalid' with 'yahoo' when replying.)

"Ezookiel" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Well, when the LBS told me the Merida Matts Pro D, had been delayed yet
another month and wasn't due till the end of March, I declared enough
is enough.
I'd actually have preferred a FS bike anyway, so I cancelled the order
for the Merida and picked up a Giant VT2.my way along never before
travelled paths.

I'm way heavier, just a tad over 200 pounds at the moment, and I'm running
like 220 in the main chamber and 90 in the smaller one. Seems to be a good
compromise because I'm doing some 'urban' stuff with 2+ foot drops onto
cement, and stairs as well as the regular more XC style dirt riding.
--
Westie
(Replace 'invalid' with 'yahoo' when replying.)