Help choosing an air fork

[PCeBiker]

Well, I have been considering converting to 110 mm dropouts and a through axle, but then I would want to get a 29" wheel with crazy inverted downhill shocks like these,..

View attachment 170319

Well,.. I went ahead and did it.
I bought inverted forks with 110mmX15mm through axles,..

And a 29" through axle wheel to go with it,..

All I need now is a tube and tire.
I think.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mLPlNX8

https://a.aliexpress.com/_m0qx9FG

 

[PCeBiker]

You can also go in the other direction and put a tapered steerer into a straight head tube. You need a conversion lower headset cup.

Can you link me to to that crown race adapter to go the other direction?

I followed your link to the Cane Creek store, but I have no idea what that adapter would look like and there's 77 results for "Crown race" in "all Cane Creek"
The whole idea doesn't make sense to me. How do you fit a 3" peg into a 2" hole?

All I can envision is the smaller bearing race sitting on the tapered steerer tube, about an inch from where it needs to be fully seated.

Here is the conversion crown race. Cost is less than $15.

I want to give my old forks to my brother-in-law but his ebike has a straight steerer tube and my forks have a tapered steerer tube.

 

[BikerG]

Wouldn’t that increase your stack height?….. using a crown race which allows you to to use a tapered steerer tube into a straight, 1.125 head tube? If there even is such an adapter?

 

[PCeBiker]

I bought this trunk bag for my rack to carry a second battery with me,..

Amazon.ca

I'm a little concerned about my seat hitting the bag because of my suspension seat post and spring seat, so I loosened the post spring to see where the seat is at full compression,..

I think that I'll have clearance, but the seat also has springs and will move down somewhat too.

It's hard to tell from the picture how much clearance I'm going to have.

I don't need to use the top compartment to give me more clearance.
Maybe I'll put a sandwich in there and go pounding down a trail to see if it gets flattened.
It would help to cushion the impact of a battery hit as well.
I think I'll use a ham and cheese sandwich. Peanut butter and jam would make a bigger mess in the bag if the sandwich explodes when I flatten it.



I did manage to connect this aluminum case to the side of the rack but strangely, I got a speed wobble when I was riding no-hands.

So I bought these Panniers figuring that I could carry both my spare batteries with me, one in each pannier, to keep the weight balanced so that I wouldn't get a speed wobble (hopefully?), but the Panniers didn't look durable enough to support a 10 pound battery bouncing around, so I'm returning them.

All the clips and brackets are plastic, and they look like they'll just snap off eventually, then I'd dump my battery onto the road.

 

[PCeBiker]

Wouldn’t that increase your stack height?….. using a crown race which allows you to to use a tapered steerer tube into a straight, 1.125 head tube? If there even is such an adapter?

Yeah apparently there is an adapter.

@m@Robertson posted a picture of one in use on his bike. I zoomed in on the bearing race and couldn't figure it out.
I think there might be some magic involved? It makes no sense to me.

The picture as well as a bunch of mine was deleted when EBR migrated to the new platform.

 

[BikerG]

I bought this trunk bag for my rack to carry a second battery with me,..


View attachment 174744

Amazon.ca

I'm a little concerned about my seat hitting the bag because of my suspension seat post and spring seat, so I loosened the post spring to see where the seat is at full compression,..

View attachment 174745View attachment 174746View attachment 174747


I think that I'll have clearance, but the seat also has springs and will move down somewhat too.

It's hard to tell from the picture how much clearance I'm going to have.

View attachment 174748

I don't need to use the top compartment to give me more clearance.
Maybe I'll put a sandwich in there and go pounding down a trail to see if it gets flattened.
It would help to cushion the impact of a battery hit as well.
I think I'll use a ham and cheese sandwich. Peanut butter and jam would make a bigger mess in the bag if the sandwich explodes when I flatten it.



I did manage to connect this aluminum case to the side of the rack but strangely, I got a speed wobble when I was riding no-hands.

View attachment 174749


So I bought these Panniers figuring that I could carry both my spare batteries with me, one in each pannier, to keep the weight balanced so that I wouldn't get a speed wobble (hopefully?), but the Panniers didn't look durable enough to support a 10 pound battery bouncing around, so I'm returning them.

View attachment 174750View attachment 174751

All the clips and brackets are plastic, and they look like they'll just snap off eventually, then I'd dump my battery onto the road.

I have a couple of pairs of Ortlieb panniers and those plastic clips and brackets look virtually identical. They hold up well, never had a problem..

 

[PCeBiker]

I have a couple of pairs of Ortlieb panniers and those plastic clips and brackets look virtually identical. They hold up well, never had a problem..

I checked out the Ortlieb Panniers, and it looks like I bought the cheap Chinese knockoff version of the German built Ortlieb.

Mine are PVC the Ortlieb uses polyester fabric. The Ortlieb lists the 20 liter volume but also the weight capacity of 9 kg.

Mine only listed the volume because they barely look strong enough to hold 20 liters of marshmallows.

Mine came with two spare thumb clips for the bracket?
This part,..

Why is that?
How long do they last?
Should I stock up and buy a few more?
Can I even buy more?


And the Ortlieb are the same price !!

I'll keep the Ortlieb in mind if my rack bag doesn't work out for me.
I'll be keeping that one though. I'm not paying to ship it back to China for a refund.
The Panniers were an Amazon return.

 

[PCeBiker]

I think that I've got it figured out, so I'm going to keep the C4=4 at 20% and set C5=00,..

C5=00 is Awesome!!

I should have tried it sooner but I was afraid of wasting electrons.

It does go up over 1200 Watts now but it's fun and I just have to keep an eye on the Watt meter.
I stopped a few times and checked the hub temperature and it barely felt warm.

I had to plow into a 20 kph headwind at 32 kph to get it up over 1200 Watts, but it only hit 1200 while accelerating then settled in around 800 Watts.

The acceleration is just perfect now in any throttle gear or locked throttle position.
I realized that I had been mimicking C5=00 but rolling through the gears from zero to five to apply power in steps.
Now I don't have to do that.

I tried throttle gear 1 with maximum throttle, and the speed and power were the same as with C5=3 or 4.
I went 6 kph on the road and 3 kph in the grass, then I stalled the wheel and it drew a constant 100 Watts.

I also changed my Battery Voltage to real time P5=0
The only time I messed with that setting was when I thought I could adjust the battery bar graph using it, but it didn't work.

This is the reading after my ride today,..

It's reading ¾ full at 45.2 volts.
I fully charged my battery to 54.6 volts before my ride and my controller starts kicking out at 42.0 volts due to voltage sag.
I used more than 9 volts and have 3.2 usable volts left. How the hell is that considered ¾ Full ??
I've had enough of that unless bar graph. I'm covering it up with electrical tape. I don't want to see it.

I'm going to get off my ass and install an analog Ammeter.
The KT digital watt meter sucks.
It's all weighted and averaged with logarithms, time delay, and AI crap.

I want to see a bouncing needle.
I'm going to try to find an Ammeter for a car or maybe they make one for a golf cart like my fuel gauge?

 

[m@Robertson]

Can you link me to to that crown race adapter to go the other direction?

Go in the other direction? As in use a tapered steerer in a frame designed for a straight steerer? See below

Wouldn’t that increase your stack height?….. using a crown race which allows you to to use a tapered steerer tube into a straight, 1.125 head tube?

To use a tapered steerer in a straight head tube, you cannot use a crown race to make that conversion. The crown race conversion works in the other direction (straight steerer inside of a tapered headset).

If there even is such an adapter?

You bet there is. Here's the whole headset:

Amazon.com

You have a lower headset that has an external cup and that cup is the required 1.5" size. Its nowhere near as noticeable as you might think.

I had to really dig to find this pic. This is how I bought the frame and its a pic from the seller, who installed the headset and included it as part of the frame sale. You can see the lower external conversion cup. I suppose if you didn't know what you were looking at you'd mistake it for a normal external cup lower headset.

 

[m@Robertson]

Here's another variation on the same idea. Slightly different sizing which is needed for different head tube sizes.

Amazon.com

 

[PCeBiker]

Here's another variation on the same idea. Slightly different sizing which is needed for different head tube sizes.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around this.
I assume it's like a spacer that the smaller bearing would seat against?

I guess that the "rate of taper" of the steerer tube needs to be considered to know how long of a spacer you need?

 

[PCeBiker]

This is the tapered fork tube of the forks that I want to install on an ebike with a straight head tube,..

I assume that I need to know the distance, or height from where the bearing currently sits, to where the fork tube tapers down to 1⅛" ?

 

[PCeBiker]

WOW !!
They're not cheap,..

The forks are only worth a few bucks more than the head tube extender.

 

[m@Robertson]

I assume that I need to know the distance, or height from where the bearing currently sits, to where the fork tube tapers down to 1⅛" ?

Nope. Just buy a conversion bottom headset cup and it'll work. You're overthinking how complex the problem is

WOW !!
They're not cheap,..

Bear in mind those examples are complete headsets. You only need to buy the bottom piece. Cane Creek headsets can be purchased top and bottom independently as needed. With that said, Cane Creek 40 headsets are their budget version. Quality cycling products ain't cheap. You want to see expensive look at a Chris King headset, but they have a lifetime warranty. People get spoiled when they get used to seeing the prices on cheap Chinese parts.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around this.
I assume it's like a spacer that the smaller bearing would seat against?

Nope. its just a bigger bearing made possible by the fact it is no longer constrained by the head tube diameter. One of the pics on the Amazon listing shows the whole piece. It consists of a headset cup and a bearing and its pretty clear from looking at the pic that one bearing is larger diameter.

I guess that the "rate of taper" of the steerer tube needs to be considered to know how long of a spacer you need?

No again. The rate of taper may be a standard. But even if its not ... just buy the conversion part and it will work. This is not a newfangled solution. Its been around for quite a few years. Check your frame specs so you know the inner diameter of the head tube and buy the corresponding lower headset. My Wren fork on my Surly BFD uses the same solution. My Lynskey uses an Origin8 fork.

 

[m@Robertson]

Also that crown race you pictured is for a 1 1/8" tube. Wrong one. You want the 1.5" crown race. Cane Creek 40 races are 1-piece steel so they last forever. I've had cheap alloy crown races wear down to nothing and you find out the hard way when the bike stops working. You can find a $4 crown race without too much looking around but you can expect a CC 40 series to keep working.

 

[PCeBiker]

@m@Robertson
I remember reading a post of yours where you mentioned the "Backyard Mechanics" who took every nut, bolt, and screw off their e-bike and retorqued everything with Loctite instead of Anti-Sieze.

I will admit that I was one of those mechanics, but I was only doing what I thought that I was supposed to do.
I'm pretty sure that I saw @Court recommending to do this as well in one of his reviews ?

I've been using Anti-Sieze since I was a kid. I've had this little can of Anti-Sieze for more than 40 years.
The stuff lasts forever.

I only bought the Loctite because I thought that I needed it now for my e-bike.

I just figured that ebikes were different than cars, motorcycles, and old-school bicycles because they are aluminum with stainless steel hardware?


So anyway,..
Am I supposed to use Anti-Sieze for EVERY nut bolt and screw on my e-bike ?
What about the tiny screws used to screw my plastic controller box together? I figure it might help them from vibrating loose? Apparently Loctite doesn't work on plastic?

I'm currently in the process of swapping a brake rotor between wheels. Should I use Anti-Sieze on the 6 little torx bolts/screws?

Even the advertisement for brake rotors shows a drop of blue Locktite on the screws,..

I thought that you were supposed to apply it wet, and assemble everything before it dries?

 

[BikerG]

The Cane Creek 40 headsets are one of the best you can buy. Most of the bits and pieces are also available.
I installed a set on my Surly Ghost Grappler.

 

[m@Robertson]

@m@Robertson
I remember reading a post of yours where you mentioned the "Backyard Mechanics" who took every nut, bolt, and screw off their e-bike and retorqued everything with Loctite instead of Anti-Sieze.

I'm a fan of anti-seize, and its something that the rest of the mechanical world seems to know well but shade-tree and even some paid bike mechanics are often completely unaware of. But its not a universal need. I certainly don't use it everywhere.

What I do go on about all the time, though, is the amateur obsession with thread lockers/aka loc-tite. Thread lockers are a crutch to make up for doing the job wrong. Which means farmer-tight bolts and not using the right tool for the job - a suite (yes more than one) of quality torque wrenches, and pay freaking attention to the torque specs that are printed literally right on damn near every bicycle component. Or if not, then learn the torque range for M5 and M6 bolts which are generally less than people think they are. Properly tightened bolts typically don't loosen up.

One of the most egregious offenses is crankarms. Thats a part that often benefits from anti-seize, and professional crankarm install videos show the installer using grease to lubricate the threads... not freaking thread locker. Grease is of course the opposite of loctite and anti-seize is just a specialized kind of grease. Grease works, and anti-seize works better.

Thread locker that dries is crap in a bicycle application. Wrong tool for the job. I competed in long and short range rifle competitions for several years and for things like scope rings and mounts that all use delicate, tiny, fine-threaded screws, on a platform subject to violent recoil forces and stuff banging around, thread locker is a requirement on said rings and mounts (only!). The stuff the smart people use is called Vibra-Tite. It comes from the aviation industry (think constant, intense vibration) and it is basically goo that never truly dries. It gums up the threads just enough so they never back out. The gel version is the best and sold on Amazon. Blue version needs no heat to unlock.

You see the thread locker on the pictured brake bolts because lawyers know that idiots can hold a screwdriver and buy their products.

There is one thing on a bicycle I use Vibra Tite on: The five M5 chainring bolts on my Bafang mid drive. Thats it. Nothing else gets thread locker but if I remember to do so (most times I don't), I'll put anti-seize on. The one thing I am careful to always use anti-seize on is pedal threads. I take the pedals off every time I load the bike into the car and anti-seize prevents thread galling on something repeatedly put on and off.