Comments on: Interbike 2008: Salsa Selma Ride Report

By: JK

JK — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 07:35:23 +0000

I have a carbon fork with 465/42 mm measurements on my Selma. While this setup worked really well during past summer and fall I now find it really hard to keep the bike on a snowy singletrack. Steering seems too lively and the steep head angle promotes swift bar movements. With limited traction the front tire slides sideways very easily. Featherweight front end and a bit high center of gravity doesn’t help either. I’m considering lowering my bars a bit to shift some weight to the front wheel. This is partly because I’ve found that the bike feels a little more stable while standing up.

These observations are purely subjective and might well change when I get a chance to do a comparison to my old 26 inch bike. I have yet to ride it this winter, but certainly don’t remember ever having this kind of difficulty on it.

I’m beginning to feel that Fisher might be on to something with their slack head angle and 51 mm rake G2 geometry. A couple of my ride buddies have new Fisher 29ers and they seem to do just fine. Mind you, they are much more accomplished bikers than me…

PS. Another solid looking chain tensioner: Rennen Rollenlager

By: boomking

boomking — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:26:49 +0000

I used a f29 100mm and a White Brothers Fluid 100 and it was GREAT with both! I would use a Yess chain tensioner, it is low profile and works GREAT! (I have tried many)

By: DW

DW — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:19:53 +0000

GT, you are correct! My bad. I was miss informed by a Tech guy at Fox. The 1st tech told me 24 mm – The 2nd tech told me 20 mm. Finely I asked how to get to tech link for a broken down drawing and measures of the F-29, and walla! 44 mm it is. Good news to me as I was bum’n cause I thought I wouldn’t be able to use F-29 on my 09′ Mamacita! Any recommendations on the best fool proof way to turn this bad boy into a SS?….Hub, Surly singular, ect ect…

By: Guitar Ted

Guitar Ted — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:55:26 +0000

@DW: That would actually be 44mm offset and no- I wouldn’t be able to tell a difference from a fork with 2mm more offset.

By: DW

DW — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:46:22 +0000

That Fox F-29 fork that was installed on the Salma that you test rode and wrote about in your article has a 24 mm offset /rake and is 480.8 mm in length in the 80 mm setting. So I ask where did you come up with the 46 mm offset?

Both the Salma and Mamacita steering geometry were designed around with the intent of using the Rockshox 29 that has a 46 mm offset and in 468.0 mm in fork length at 80 mm setting….

I would think the handling characteristic’s would greatly differ from a 24 mm fork offset to 46 mm fork don’t you? I guess what I am after is do you feel the bike handled better with the Fox @ 24 mm or the Rockshox @ 46 mm offset?…