Category: Home Mechanic

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Confidence with Compression: Adjusting your fork

7 15 19 Compression and Confidence

Confidence with Compression: Adjusting your fork

Confidence with Compression – sort of a vague title right? Am I gaining confidence on trail from compression? Am I confident adjusting my compression? Well, both.

The abridged back story: I had a chance to move further south. BikeCo’s website has been growing at a rate that I can now work remotely mostly and come up to the shop a couple times a week. Anyhow – for the first time since I started bikes I’m consistently riding trails I don’t know. This presents some really fun challenges particularly as I tend to ride solo most the time.

Now I didn’t move and decide I was one of our pro riders looking for the most ridiculous lines possible. Nor did I move and decide I was going to find every gravel trail to take my SB130 on. I’m riding the same basic level of trails but the unknown adds quite a bit to riding. Continue reading Confidence with Compression: Adjusting your fork

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Front End Support – Fork Air, Volume & Compression

Front End Support – Fork Air, Volume & Compression

Between our BikeCo Pro Tune services as well as working with some of the fastest racers in MTB we get a lot of questions regarding suspension tuning. Modern forks offer more ways than ever to dial in your ride. Getting the right front end support with fork air, volume and compression improves tracking, ride quality, dive, and how your bike performs in the chunk.

Recently BikeCo Pro Rider Cody Kelley was in town working with Joe Binatena on the 2019 Alchemy Arktos 29. It was an interesting opportunity to sit down and listen to Cody and Joe discuss setup. Continue reading Front End Support – Fork Air, Volume & Compression

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Rear Suspension Setup

10 8 18 Rear Suspension Setup by BikeCo

Rear Suspension Setup

Some quick reminders on rear suspension setup!

The Best Baseline

Measure the sag. The old days of eye balling (or using a finger versus a thumb) are gone. The introduction of Metric shocks created a huge variety of stokes making it more important to measure the sag in millimeters.

For instance, the Yeti SB150 has a 230x60mm shock however the exposed shaft is about 9% longer. This might not sound like much the difference between a perceived 33% sag at 20mm and the actual 37% sag at 22mm is notable in the pedal platform and descent performance. Continue reading Rear Suspension Setup

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Suspension Compression Tuning Basics

9 19 18 Compression Damper Blog BikeCo

Suspension Compression Tuning Basics

So you’ve gone through our volume spacing and sag calculators – ready for the next step? Let’s go over some Suspension Compression Tuning Basics.

The compression circuit of your MTB suspension is one of the more misunderstood adjustments you have at your disposal. A good reason for this is frankly MTB suspension tends to be over compressed for the average rider. “I run my shocks completely open” isn’t an uncommon answer, particularly with stock suspension.

The compression circuit is designed to slow, well, compression forces. Compression forces literally compress the suspension. The Compression circuit is the opposite of the Rebound circuit, which controls the shaft’s return to equilibrium (just picture all of the things we’re going to go over in reverse for Rebound). Continue reading Suspension Compression Tuning Basics

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MTB Handlebar Setup Concepts

MTB Handlebar Setup Main Image

MTB Handlebar Setup Concepts

Dialing in your setup – MTB Handlebars

MTB Handlebar setup is important to a bike’s personality. Suspension, Tires, Brakes are important as well, but if your cockpit isn’t setup appropriately this can be all for not. A proper handlebar with the right setup will be comfortable and predictable across a variety of terrain.

Handlebar dimensions are provided in width, rise, upsweep as well as backsweep. Continue reading MTB Handlebar Setup Concepts

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How to Wash a Mountain Bike – Quick Tips from BikeCo

Functional Bike Wash by BikeCo

How to Wash a Mountain Bike – Quick Tips from BikeCo

Keeping your bike functionally clean will keep it on trail longer between services. If you stay on top of these cleanings somewhat regularly a quick functional wash will take 5-10 minutes. In this write-up we shoe you How to Wash a Mountain Bike.

Located in Southern California our standard desert riding doesn’t see a lot of water or mud – you maybe in for more work depending on the amount of muck you come across… Continue reading How to Wash a Mountain Bike – Quick Tips from BikeCo

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Bike Cable Housing Connector – Quick DIY Video

Bike Cable Housing Connector – Quick DIY Video

Clean up your build by making a quick Bike Cable Housing Connector. These are common to keep lines parallel particularly near the controls.

Video & How-To below.

Continue reading Bike Cable Housing Connector – Quick DIY Video