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Transition Spire - new long travel 29er

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Transition Spire - new long travel 29er
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flag nubbs
O+
Posted: Mar 23, 2024 at 8:47 Quote
Fox 40 with 48mm offset and 190mm travel on the carbon spire works great!

Haven't tried the rockshox options yet. I'd think the 56mm offset would make the steering characteristics too floppy
flag KNBikes
O+
Posted: Mar 23, 2024 at 11:15 Quote
nubbs wrote:
Fox 40 with 48mm offset and 190mm travel on the carbon spire works great!

Haven't tried the rockshox options yet. I'd think the 56mm offset would make the steering characteristics too floppy

yeah I did some quick checks on mad scientist mtb....with the 44mm stock offset at stock 170 travel and 584A2C versus now at 56 offset, 200 travel, and the corresponding changes....trail goes from 141 to 131....so a loss of 10 mm....but this is all in hi flip chip setting.....if i run the +1 angleset and use the low flip chip/ 7mm BB drop with same 200mm fork, it will give a little less trail but reach numbers, BB height will all be fairly close to stock HI setting despite the 18mm A2C increase...I may just run more tokens/sag and keep it in high so that my dynamic sag is similar to running the same 180 single crown at 20-25% sag when loaded....i would be concerned about the turning radius of the 46mm offset, as it doesn't seem really great with the 56mm as set now....and its very hard to just source the 46 (0 offset crowns) for the Boxxer c1-2 without buying the whole fork
flag niconj
Posted: Mar 24, 2024 at 13:26 Quote
So I've decided to RAW my Spire. As I took the frame apart I realized that the bearings were running very rough after a bit of half a year of riding. No pressure washer whatsoever. Just regular riding throughout the last months. The bearing seats were rusty too! The Enduro bearings that were installed seem to have the lowest quality ever! Another Spire rider (with the first alloy one in orange) has not had any problems in two years. I daresay that Transition has lowered the production cost and gone for the lowest quality Enduro bearings there are. No stainless steel ones.... Frown

I now bought some black oxide ones (not the over expensive Enduro Bearings ones) and will press them in. It's a shame that this has to be done after such a short time of riding. I have informed Transition about it and they told me that bearings aren't covered under warranty (which I didn't ask for in the first place) and that I can buy new ones. I like the Spire but this really annoys me. 12 bearings of 5 different sizes and then you get such a low quality!

photo

photo
flag niconj
Posted: Mar 25, 2024 at 12:29 Quote
Transition say, that they have not changed the bearing specs on the both "versions" and say that Enduro bearings may have changed something... Rolleyes

Anyways. I'm gonna build this beauty up with almost all the parts that I had previously used. The wheel set is going to be a Berd Spoke one that will have some interesting color scheme. Big Grin

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flag maximumradness
O+
Posted: Mar 25, 2024 at 12:52 Quote
Raw is the new purple
flag yetiboyjay
Posted: Mar 25, 2024 at 13:03 Quote
That looks rad. Good job.
flag BenLow2019
Posted: Mar 25, 2024 at 13:06 Quote
niconj wrote:
... I realized that the bearings were running very rough after a bit of half a year of riding. No pressure washer whatsoever. Just regular riding throughout the last months. The bearing seats were rusty too! The Enduro bearings that were installed seem to have the lowest quality ever! ...

You may have gotten counterfeit bearings. Counterfeit bearings have plagued many industries around the world. The bike industry is just one of many that suffer from this crime. I wouldn't blame Transition for the bearings. Enduro would be more responsible, but even they can be duped. You have to go to some lengths to ensure bearings haven't been counterfeited - simply looking a packaging won't work. The materials and manufacturing tolerances will be different between the genuine and counterfeit bearings. The differences are nearly impossible for an untrained person to determine.

You can Google the articles and videos about this issue.
flag rallyimprezive
Posted: Mar 25, 2024 at 14:08 Quote
niconj wrote:
Transition say, that they have not changed the bearing specs on the both "versions" and say that Enduro bearings may have changed something... Rolleyes

Anyways. I'm gonna build this beauty up with almost all the parts that I had previously used. The wheel set is going to be a Berd Spoke one that will have some interesting color scheme. Big Grin

photo

You think I can use that grinder wheel on my carbon frame to go to the raw carbon look?!
/s
flag HeatedRotor
Posted: Mar 25, 2024 at 19:35 Quote
niconj wrote:
Transition say, that they have not changed the bearing specs on the both "versions" and say that Enduro bearings may have changed something... Rolleyes

Anyways. I'm gonna build this beauty up with almost all the parts that I had previously used. The wheel set is going to be a Berd Spoke one that will have some interesting color scheme. Big Grin

photo

Can you PM me with how you did this.
flag maximumradness
O+
Posted: Mar 25, 2024 at 19:56 Quote
Or just tell us all! Who doesn’t want to know more about rawing a nice bike? Hit us up!!
What’s your process????
flag niconj
Posted: Mar 26, 2024 at 14:00 Quote
maximumradness wrote:
Or just tell us all! Who doesn’t want to know more about rawing a nice bike? Hit us up!!
What’s your process????

First of all. There will be a YouTube Video with some shots of the process soon. Wink

I did not do this myself. It was put into a pickling bath for 12h (don't know how this is called actually). Then it was machined with a drill and some sort of brush to get that finish. In the end there was some impregnation stuff applied. Took off roughly 300gr.

Once finished, the bike will come in at 15.5kg, which isn't too bad for 170/170
flag maximumradness
O+
Posted: Mar 26, 2024 at 15:07 Quote
That’s not to bad for any spire out there, least of all the alloy frame
flag dirtnapped
O+
Posted: Mar 26, 2024 at 16:18 Quote
On my old Patrol I paid a local powder coating company like $40 to do a chemical strip on it. After that I used purple scotch brite pads to clean it up. That gave it the aluminum finish, and then you can go even further with something like Mother’s polish to give it a mirror like finish. Really easy.
flag maximumradness
O+
Posted: Mar 26, 2024 at 18:58 Quote
Sick! Chrome and raw bikes are so dope.
But I’m partial to this matte purple too !!
flag niconj
Posted: Mar 27, 2024 at 0:22 Quote
maximumradness wrote:
That’s not to bad for any spire out there, least of all the alloy frame

Different wheels (Pi_Rope Advanced are 200gr. lighter still), different fork (Manitou Mezzer Pro) and some bits and pieces and I'd be scratching the 14kg.

I don't care that much about the weight though as I rode a Deviate Claymore the other day and it was nicer to ride than the Spire being 800gr. heavier. I bought a +1.5° headset to have almost the same geo as the Claymore. I'm really curious how this rides.

 


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