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The Seatpost Whisperer

I don’t care to post about things that people have seen before. I also don’t care to discuss something that’s already well understood. It’s been a few years now and I’ve seen the reliability issues regarding the Rockshox Reverb be misunderstood more times by more people than any other product so that’s why I’m going to talk about it.

There are several key quirks about the Rockshox Reverb that need to be addressed. Unfortunately using the readily available service kit doesn’t do much to solve the issues surrounding it. It should be said that this is a really cool design if you look at it objectively and the nagging issues it has are relatively easy to solve. So let’s clear things up.

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Brakes Levers That Won’t Pop Back

Ever had a hydraulic brake lever that just won’t pop back? Mountain bike brake companies did something smart with their master cylinder pistons to avoid scoring the aluminum master cylinder bore. They made their pistons out of plastic. The one downside of the master cylinder piston being made from plastic is that plastic can absorb fluid and swell. Despite polymer suppliers claiming that their material is ‘dimensionally stable’, the real truth is that over time, it can absorb a little bit of fluid and grow slightly. So what does that cause? It means that one day there may come a point where you pull your brake lever in and it doesn’t come back out on it’s own because the now swollen master cylinder piston is stuck inside the master cylinder bore.

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Solving That Brake Squeal

Sometimes that brake squeal is your fault. You were an idiot and you used some spray lube on your chain and the overspray touched your rotor. Or worse, maybe you religiously clean your bike with a silicone based bike polish and the overspray touched your rotors. If that’s the case then I’d suggest acknowledging that you may have OCD and go seek professional help. But that’s not what this article is about. There’s lot of information online about torching your pads and rotors to get rid of the bullshit you got on there. This article is about solving that brake squeal when it isn’t your fault.

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Magura Fox Hybrid

 

Magura Thor

A customer came to me with a problem. He was a big boy (over 220 pounds) and he was complaining about a harsh topout in his Magura Thor fork. This was a common problem with this particular air spring system. Many people have sent their forks back Magura to get fixed, only to have the same problem return some months later. The system Magura employs is really similar to a Fox Talas cartridge. It’s a travel adjustable air cartridge and like the Fox, it really isn’t known to be reliable, especially under heavier riders that require high pressures. So what’s the solution? A regular non adjustable air cartridge? That was an option definitely on the table but I don’t like air cartridges at all for heavy riders. You have to either have a self equalizing air spring to get the right negative air pressure or a coil negative spring. It’s all doable but heavy riders always mean high pressures and it makes for some highly stressed o-ring seals. Coil is always the most reliable. Perfect, I had a good old Fox Vanilla coil assembly ready for modification. Here it is beside the original travel adjustable air spring below.

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Custom Offset Shock Hardware

We’ve all seen offset shock bushes like the ones made by Burgtec, the folks at offsetbushings.com and that one Polish guy’s company called Proshox. Those offset bushings work great if what you’re looking for is just a small geometry tweak in your frame. They’ll makeĀ  your shock’s effective eye to eye length about 5mm shorter, which can slightly lower your bottom bracket and kick your head angle out a maximum of 1.5 degrees, but probably more like 1 degree for most setups.

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Custom 2WD Dual Disc Tricycle Kit

A customer came to me with a tall order. He owned the most basic adult tricycle you could possibly get. Keep in mind that stock, these trikes are driven only by one of the rear wheels (the other wheel just spins freely) and are stopped by a stupid band brake that ONLY works on the driven wheel.

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