Upgrading my Dual Battery 2018 Delite Mountain, drive train and suspension

[Alaskan]

I have been laid up with an inflamed tendon, posterior tibialis, affecting my left ankle and foot. At one point early in the week I was using a walker and could put no weight on my foot. Some good PT plus some even better TLC at home and am 75% back.

In the meantime. I spent some time in the shop messing around with my bikes on a rolling stool with adjustable height. the biggest changes were on my 2018 dual battery, derestricted, delight mountain.

• First I replaced the KMC chain11EL chain after almost 1,400 miles.
• Then a new 11-46 Sunrace cassette and a new Sram 18 tooth front chain ring, then fine tuned the derailleur.
• Next was a pair of the new Schwalbe Johnny Watts in the 27.5 x 2.6 size with Tubolito tubes and Tannus Armour.
• I replaced the Fox Float Performance front fork and Fox Performance rear shock with Fox Factory, Kashina coated versions with 10 .extra mm of front fork travel to raise the bike up a bit and reduce pedal strikes.
• I also moved the Supernova M99 Pro 45 down from the handlebars to a mount the rides the bottom of the steerer tube.
• Finally the fork and shock off of the Delite, were serviced and installed to replace the Suntour/Xfusion on Nancy's Homage.

My tendon is nearly healed up now. Rain in the forecast. Eager to ride my updated and improved bike.

 

[amayers]

Did you try to embed a Facebook page in here? It doesn't really look right to me.

 

[McCorby]

Did you try to embed a Facebook page in here? It doesn't really look right to me.

???
Pics look fine to me!

 

[Alaskan]

Did you try to embed a Facebook page in here? It doesn't really look right to me.

I did a copy and paste from the Riese & Muller owners group over there and copied more than I realized....until I pasted. Go back and hit refresh. It has been edited and pictures added.

 

[McCorby]

I must have viewed them after your update! Nice work btw.

 

[dblhelix]

Wishing you a speedy full recovery.

I also have a pair of Johnny Watts tires but still sitting in the shipping box. Looking forward to your comments.

 

[Luto]

NICE! I see you changed forks, Performance to Factory 34. Any thoughts on the "e-bike" rating being needed in the original Performance model? Is it really any different in float or suspension?

Chain looks cool with the Kashima coatings!

BTW: I got a 11-46 Sunrace cassette (CSMS2). At first, I did not like the shifting, but once it wore in a bit (500 miles), it seems pretty good now. Holding up real well too (1600) miles.

 

[Alaskan]

NICE! I see you changed forks, Performance to Factory 34. Any thoughts on the "e-bike" rating being needed in the original Performance model? Is it really any different in float or suspension?

Chain looks cool with the Kashima coatings!

BTW: I got a 11-46 Sunrace cassette (CSMS2). At first, I did not like the shifting, but once it wore in a bit (500 miles), it seems pretty good now. Holding up real well too (1600) miles.

The Performance fork was the original fork on the Delite Mountain. It has the ebike rating or at least so the sticker says. It worked quite well and was a superb upgrade for Nancy's bike, especially the rear shock which has greater air volume making easier to tune to the rider. Together her ride is much more compliant and smoother. My foot is nearly healed, just another day or two and I should be able to take the Delite for a test ride.

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

I have been laid up with an inflamed tendon, posterior tibialis, affecting my left ankle and foot. At one point early in the week I was using a walker and could put no weight on my foot. Some good PT plus some even better TLC at home and am 75% back.

Glad to see you back in action, Richard. I was hoping that your recovery is quick.
I am sure you will be back to full normal very soon.

Then a new 11-46 Sunrace cassette

This looks very similar to the SRAM EX1 cassette. I hope it is as strong as the EX1 material.
Any reason why you did not consider the SRAM cassette?

XG-899 E-BLOCK Cassette - CS-XG-899-A1 - SRAM

XG-899 E-BLOCK Cassette, CS-XG-899-A1, SRAM. E-BLOCK™ shifting technology is a fundamental redevelopment of external drivetrain shifting. On the E-BLOCK™ cassette, the chain has a defined link po...

www.sram.com

 

[Alaskan]

Aside from the fact that this is an eight speed cassette while my Shimano XT groupset is an 11 speed and it costs $429, no reason at all.

I got almost two thousand hard fast miles out of the Sunrace and I prefer its shifting precision over the Shimano 11-46 11 speed that I had on the bike before and it costs a bit less. The bike came with the 11-42 with a fifteen tooth front chain ring. I put a Bikespeed RS on the bike and a Sram narrow wide 18 tooth chain ring to take advantage of the added speed. Putting on the 11-46 recovered almost all of the lost low end because of the larger front chain ring. The downside of the sunrace is that I cannot find the two or three smallest cogs for it as separate parts. Changing these out when the highest gears get hinky can double the life of a cassette. The 10-51 XLT on my Allant 9.9 has four steel cogs that are replaceable, 5 titanium in the middle and the three largest cogs are aluminum. I have two sets of the four steel cogs to keep this one alive and shifting properly. The cogs on that one are: 10-12-14-16-18-21-24-28-33-39-45-51T

 

[marcparnes]

NICE! I see you changed forks, Performance to Factory 34. Any thoughts on the "e-bike" rating being needed in the original Performance model? Is it really any different in float or suspension?

I asked one of the Fox engineers what the difference was and they told me that the wall thickness of the tubes is greater. In my case the 34 mm tubes have the ID of their 32 mm tubes hence the increase. He told me that their research demanded the thicker tubes. Maybe they were doing X games jumps or something, I don't know but I followed his recommendation and went with the e-bike fork even though I wanted the Kashima coating and it wasn't available on the e-bike version. Probably wouldn't have mattered based on how and where I ride it.

Marc

 

[Alaskan]

I asked one of the Fox engineers what the difference was and they told me that the wall thickness of the tubes is greater. In my case the 34 mm tubes have the ID of their 32 mm tubes hence the increase. He told me that their research demanded the thicker tubes. Maybe they were doing X games jumps or something, I don't know but I followed his recommendation and went with the e-bike fork even though I wanted the Kashima coating and it wasn't available on the e-bike version. Probably wouldn't have mattered based on how and where I ride it.

Marc

Let's not forget that our Delites while having full suspension are not designed to be used as full-on downhill mountain bikes, designed to take big jumps over rocks like a Pivot or Santa Cruz or Specialized true mountain bike with 160mm of suspension travel. Our bikes have less travel and are wonderful on easier trails, logging and fire roads but they do not typically take a the same kind of aggressive pounding that younger rider bombing down a mountain subject their bikes to. I, for one, am too old for that kind of stuff anyway. I did this as much to give Nancy the benefit of the superior Fox parts that came on my Delite that fit perfectly on her Homage, replacing the Suntour/Xfusion combo.

 

[marcparnes]

Let's not forget that our Delites while having full suspension are not designed to be used as full-on downhill mountain bikes, designed to take big jumps over rocks like a Pivot or Santa Cruz or Specialized true mountain bike with 160mm of suspension travel. Our bikes have less travel and are wonderful on easier trails, logging and fire roads but they do not typically take a the same kind of aggressive pounding that younger rider bombing down a mountain subject their bikes to. I, for one, am too old for that kind of stuff anyway. I did this as much to give Nancy the benefit of the superior Fox parts that came on my Delite that fit perfectly on her Homage, replacing the Suntour/Xfusion combo.

Yes, I agree. I probably should have gone for the higher spec one as that was what I really wanted. Sometimes I'm just too cautious :-(

Marc

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I also have a pair of Johnny Watts tires but still sitting in the shipping box. Looking forward to your comments.

+1
Let us make "Johnny Watts User Club" in Parts & Accessories. Will you Richard after riding the new tyres?