Paul Petch

Marin Wolf Ridge is here!

I picked the Wolf Ridge Thursday after work and after tinkering with a few things left it be until today. My first impressions are that this thing means business with its front and rear Maxles and bullet proof build. Yes it is heavy (well compared to my other rides) but its not made for anything other than aggressive trails and pointing downwards- so that’s all good :D

Today I spent the afternoon swapping the FSA Gap cranks and BB to a MUCH lighter XT crank and Hope BB. I’ve also got rid of the LX shifters and XT rear derailleur in favour of X9 and XO. I really wanted to give the Shimano stuff another go, but after a few spins around the block they had to go….what can I say? They are sloppy and vague…and I remember why I turned to SRAM many years ago :D

I also swapped the Syncros seat post and WTB seat for a Thomson and another WTB seat- but the Ti railed version that Is my favorite seat. The carbon Ritchey bars not only shed some further weight, but are better than the shit Syncros bars that in white were flaking and looked awful. With all of these “swaps” I must have dropped atleast a KG off the bike.

The stock Kenda Nevegal tyres were not that bad I suppose, but I really like the Specialized Eskars so have gone for one up front with a Knobby Nic at the rear….which is similar to how my Cove is setup.

Brakes wise- I wanted to put on a set of XT’s, but the hose is a little short for the rear so I’ll give the Hayes Strokers a go. I’ve heard alot of good things about these brakes, so I’ll see. What I really like about the Shimano’s though is their fantastic modulation…..so worse case I can get the local bike shop to swap the hose if the Hayes suck. One pain in the arse with regards to the brakes was how warped the Hayes rotor at the rear was out of the box… it was that bent it did not turn in the caliper and was not worth wasting time on. Thankfully I had a spare :D

In the next few weeks I’ll look at a bash ring instead of the big ring or even adding a chain guide. I’m also going to try a 70mm stem instead of the current 60mm as I have a feeling it is a little short, but until I get out on the trails I’ll not know. I’ve also got a brand new Chris King here looking for a home so I may put it on the front end…but… with reports of Chris King headsets scoring long travel forks…. I’m not to sure yet. And finally, I’ll take a look at the shifter cable lengths… as at the moment they seem a little short and with the possible addition of a longer stem may cause some issues when the bars spin :/

Hopefully tomorrow I’l get out on the hills, but a strong wind is forecast along with some heat so I’ll see how I go. Either way, Ill have a fair bit of tinkering with air pressures etc over the next few rides and will post how it goes once I get it dialed.

Well, here is “Wolfy” and it is SWEET :D

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Related posts:

1. Marin Wolf Ridge ride 2
2. Marin Wolf Ridge ride 1
3. 2008 Marin Wolf Ridge- a change of plan
4. Marin Wolf Ridge for sale…
5. My current rides

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 15th, 2008 at 6:39 pm and is filed under Bike Stuff and tagged with marin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.