Well, I Tested out Scotty's Mtn. Bike (Some Blood)
 

So, I was taking it really easy with Scotty's bike at Peavine today, especially since I forgot to bring my allen wrench tool so that I could put the bike in Free Ride mode once I got to the downhill portion of my ride, but apparently not easy enough. The bike felt very unstable, so I wasn't comfortable going fast at all. There were lots of tire tracks on the dirt road I was cruising down and a little edge of a track that was under an inch in hight and parallel to my direction of travel turned out to be enough to keep the front tire from going up it. I basically just fell over on my left side and tumbled a bit. The bike is fine and so is my shoulder that I dislocated snowboarding two weeks ago, so that's good. There is a little mark on the seat which I'll be happy to pay for, but I'm pretty sure that's it. Apparently I should invest in knee pads though. (duh)

Maybe Scotty has a tricycle you can buy instead?

But seriously, that's a bit of mean road (trail?) rash right there. :eek: The good news is that while it hurts like hell for a week or so, at least it's not an actual injury. Get well soon! Neosporin is your friend! Also, turn your heat up and sleep on top of the sheets unless you like pulling lint out of your legs every morning. :barf:

Ow, what were your tire pressures?

Cody you need to go to the doctor now! That first picture of your knee is pretty nasty. :lol:

Nitrogen in the tires is my guess... :O

Loose nut on the end of the handlebars. :)

:lol:

I found some large nonstick sterile pads that I taped on there after the shower, hydrogen peroxide application (ouch), and then neosporin. I wore light sweats and a long sleeve cotton shirt I don't care about to bed which worked out great. Not a drop on the sheets. Unfortunately while it was weaping a big last night, a fat drop of blood, etc. fell on the couch, but it cleaned up with some awesome carpet cleaner I have.

I'll pull off the bandages and clean with hydrogen peroxide again tonight and let it air out until right before bed when I'll put new bandages on it. My hip is a bit sore today, but I'm fine.

Too high, I think. Around 40 PSI? That's what I always ran on my hard tail. I was super impressed with how easily it climbed. I didn't feel like I was wasting energy through the suspension much if at all. I actually feel like the suspension is pretty damn stiff. I don't think I could bottom it out without a major crazy drop. I might have to soften it up if you'll let me take it out again. I want to try it in Free Ride mode if you think that might have been part of the problem along with too high tire pressures?

The sooner you can let them dry out, the faster it'll heal. Too bad it's not quite shorts weather yet... unless you're Scotty, ironically. :lol:

I'm happily in shorts today. The office is way too warm for me and it was nice when I went out for lunch today. Hopefully it will dry out enough to leave it uncovered tonight. We'll see.

That's pretty stiff alright. I would start there and reduce the pressure in 5psi increments and see how it feels. Chances are that you will be running that rear XC tire at 30-35psi and the front a bit lower. You definitely want lower, but not enough to pinch-flat the rear or make the sidewalls feel like they are folding in faster corners. The front takes experimentation and depends on ground conditions. If you have a hard time finding the spot between good hookup and sidewall folding on that front tire, I probably have a different, slimmer design hanging around here that you could also try.

Also, are you running the rebound too stiff as well?

As for the bike, I'm seriously not worried about it - I put enough little marks on it that a few more aren't going to hurt anything. I'm more worried that I'm goading you into putting yourself in the hospital....

I know that I've never bottomed it out, and that I never had it turned up as much as you probably have. If it really is feeling unstable, try the lower tire pressure and also mess with the rebound. Did you guys evaluate the pre-sag when you get on the bike? You are supposed to be preloading it some X percentage.

Maybe Aaron will chime back in with his settings.

I don't think that the difference between XC and FR would have screwed you that much, but given how tall you are there will definitely be some sensitivity to where your center of gravity is (seat, stem, XC/FR) versus how much preload is in the suspension and how squishy (or not) the tires are.

Have fun this week, I'll check in from SEA.

:whammy: