Proflex 2000 first impression; need suggestions needed for all mountain riding.

[Akagi]

Thanks for the sag calibration Colin, the shaft calculation/measurement will be helpful as it is hard to measure sag for the fork.  Was just looking at the Spring rate guide again, and noticed it is kind of wierd.  They have:

Weight:      Spring Rate:         Suggested Spring:
up to 140:      150                     NB2L-175X
130-170:        175                    NB2L-200X
160-200:        200                    NB2L-200X  (SM, MD, LG, AM Std)
Apparently even though I should be using a spring rate of 175, They recommend the 200lb spring, the same one for heavier riders.


Here is a pic of the place where I ride daily, It is literally 5 minutes from my place and I am loving the convienence.  The climb is about 200-220 m, over 2.5 to 3 km (wild estimate) depending on how which route I want to take.  The killer part is that everything is parched dry here.  loose jagged Shale (ranging from gravel to cobble size), Sand, and all loose;  This entire area was glaciated, so lots of varying unsorted jagged debris from erosion, and a lot of exposed bedrock, the source of such material.  Back where I grew up, I was used to biking on rich packed dirt, with tons of traction, and I would intentionally steer away from anything rockey.  I would brake when I reached uncomfortable sections to reduce speed so I could avoid crashing.

Over here, everything is counter intuitive from what I know.  The jagged rocks scare the crap out of me but they are the only thing to offer traction on descents.  When on the loose stuff, trying to brake means wipeout.  The problem is that I seem to not be able to control the direciton of the bike during descent in loose stuff either; perhaps it is a lack of speed but my front tire seems to wash out super easily; the result is the feeling of lack of control for either speed or direction.  Any hints on steering?  I am pretty sure I am the cause, I have been trying to choose my lines to for control as much as possible.

The good news is that my tires are due to arrive soon, and I am getting a better sense of balance (my ass over the rear wheel) so I can deal with more "unavoidable" drops when im railroaded towards them while decending on a path of loose gravel.  I am definatly going over my handlebars less.  Also, the climbing is pretty good considering the 1.95 craptactular "muddish" tire.  Anything that isn't loose, I just let the suspension handle things, and I can point and shoot seemingly.  Perhaps it is just a confidence level.  Hmm.I think a riser bar is definatly in order too sometime down the line, along with a shorter stem down the line (running a 110 right now).  I refuse to give up on the crosslinks just yet.

Hah, and to think pro-flexes were considered "downhill" bikes.  In any case, I'll take some pics of the terrain here,  I had never seen anything like it untill I rode here for the first time, might be interesting for you guys.In any case, I am enjoying my bike a lot, and going to push hard to make the most of it.  A TON of trails out here...

[shovelon]

How much tire pressure do you have in the front tire. I use 35 psi in my front, and 45 psi in the rear.

I did notice that when the J-path tucked under, the steering became very wiggly, and broke loose alot. In fact it was with the crosslinks that I lost control and had that pretty bad crash. Afterwards I played around and swaped the left leg to the right, and vise versa. That lengthened the rake a bit and was able to take corners much better under braking. This went well for a while until I blew the smartshock and I bought the Risse. But since the Risse has so much stiction, and was taking too long to become smooth, I picked up the MegaAir forks on Ebay(kinda Proflexish). Done deal, so much better that I can't go back.

[Akagi]

about 31psi all around.  I am still experimenting with it.  Was running something really high before that.

Going on another group ride today, should be good.

[jazclrint]

Wow, a warning about this being an old thread.  But I feel compelled to reply anyway.

Proflex's are New England born and bread XC race machines,  They were never down hill bikes, but everyone at the time was making fire road bombing DH bikes, giving them a option of shorter travel and calling them XC FS bikes.  So many people just assumed they were DH bikes because they had full suspension.  But the New England heritage is why it came with mud tires.  Also, you are having some issues with handling on the descents.  I've had similar handling issues with my 5500, but had little problems with my old 2000.  Some of this is because it was built with XC race geometry, which leans more towards climbing and technical trails than down hill handling.  The first thing I recommend is taking the time to set the sag properly (10mm front and rear).  I feel you might be happier with a 175lb front spring (assuming you could find one) because preload does not affect dampening rates or spring rates.  All preload does is increase the amount of force needed to start the spring compressing.  After it starts compressing all standard rates apply.  I'm 6'2" and I use 120mm stems (although I used to use 130s, must be old age)  I found a shorter stem with a higher rise pretty much eliminated that over the bars feeling I was getting from my hot rodded carbon x-links.  I would seriously recommend a 100mm (same rise) and a low-rise riser bar as you are having so much success climbing.  The riser bar's shape (combined with a shorter stem) should give you much better front end feel.  That combined with the better tires should work just fine for you.

Well that's my 2 cents.  I'm sure if I dig around more I'll see more of your updates.

Rich

[fyrstormer]

Wow, that first photo reminds me of when I was in college -- except my bike was blue and silver (instead of blue/silver/black like it is now) and it didn't have any of the fun carbon bits on it at the time.

Stock, my 756 felt incredibly front-biased (or much moreso than I was comfortable with, anyway), and the elastomer shocks didn't help that any. By the time I got to college I had already replaced the rear shock with an NR-2 (now an NR-4), but I still had the Girvin Vector fork and it sagged something terrible, because elastomer shocks just inherently suck compared to coils, and that sag caused the headtube angle to be even steeper than intended. I got very good at hanging off the back end of the bike, with the back of the saddle resting on my ribcage on either side of my sternum. (That might sound dangerous, but that's where the seat will hit anyway if the junk hits the turbine, and it saved me a little energy not having to hold myself up, so...use your discretion.) Since you have the coils front and rear, you're a step up from where I was, but that ass-out-back riding style will help you a lot on this frame no matter what fork you end up with.

For a while I lived in Tennessee and rode in the Great Smoky Mountains, where there is more than a little broken shale (a good portion of it being oil-shale, which is rather slippery), and eventually the technique I developed was this: stop at the top and choose my line beforehand, then ride down in the aforementioned position, dragging the rear brake a little bit and avoiding the front brake at all costs, and let the front wheel bounce around as it found the path of least resistance to the bottom. Don't try to steer, or if you do, use the front wheel as a rudder and don't lean the bike at all; just let the wheel knock the loose rocks out of the way and be glad for the tiny bit of steering it gives you.

If conditions are that dry and flaky, you might want to consider studded snow tires. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, since snow is kinda the opposite of bare rock, but nothing grips like tungsten studs. If you do go that route, get the ones with the studs just on the edges of the tread, not in the center, because you'll only really need them to save your ass if you start to slide-out.