Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 7:04 pm
Hey guys,
I bought JoeDirt's C440, Saturday and just got a chance to ride it last night. At a glance, the engine is fantastic and super strong, handling seems decent but I had very little time in a flat field last night before the sun went down, so I'll reserve judgement for now on the ProAction revalves.
About the only glaring negative that I noticed in the 10 minutes that I rode the bike was that off the gas either with the brakes or just with engine braking pulling the front end down, it was a BEAR to turn the bars. I ride a 2013 KTM 250 XC and a 2006 KLX250S and both of them steer VERY light by comparison, ESPECIALLY on the brakes. The primary use of this bike will probably be single track and trail riding up in northern MI sand. So I need it to work in the tight stuff. I put it up on a stand and turned the bars lock to lock and felt what I would call significant 'stiction' or drag. It was very smooth and didn't feel like grit in the bearings, but it definitely took more effort than I'm used to to turn the bars with no weight on the front end. I considered moving the forks in the triple clamp, either down to get some weight off the front wheel, or up to decrease trail and help the bike turn in, but either option felt like a bandaid with as much drag as I'm feeling.
Kdeal tells me that early bikes had a triple lip seal that could cause some significant drag, but there's no reason that mine should have that seal. I haven't had a chance to tear into it yet and I'm obviously bummed because I have to imagine that this question has already been addressed on Cannondaler, but since those forums appear to be gone forever, I figured I'd start a post here in case anyone has a quick fix. If not, I'll tear into it and see what I can sort out and be sure to update the topic along the way.
Either way, I'm loving the new bike and with a few little fixes, I'm hoping I can do a good bit of trail riding on it this year and hopefully get some helmet cam videos and such posted to YouTube as there is a critical lack of bike content out there, and that needs to be fixed. haha!
Thanks guys!
I bought JoeDirt's C440, Saturday and just got a chance to ride it last night. At a glance, the engine is fantastic and super strong, handling seems decent but I had very little time in a flat field last night before the sun went down, so I'll reserve judgement for now on the ProAction revalves.
About the only glaring negative that I noticed in the 10 minutes that I rode the bike was that off the gas either with the brakes or just with engine braking pulling the front end down, it was a BEAR to turn the bars. I ride a 2013 KTM 250 XC and a 2006 KLX250S and both of them steer VERY light by comparison, ESPECIALLY on the brakes. The primary use of this bike will probably be single track and trail riding up in northern MI sand. So I need it to work in the tight stuff. I put it up on a stand and turned the bars lock to lock and felt what I would call significant 'stiction' or drag. It was very smooth and didn't feel like grit in the bearings, but it definitely took more effort than I'm used to to turn the bars with no weight on the front end. I considered moving the forks in the triple clamp, either down to get some weight off the front wheel, or up to decrease trail and help the bike turn in, but either option felt like a bandaid with as much drag as I'm feeling.
Kdeal tells me that early bikes had a triple lip seal that could cause some significant drag, but there's no reason that mine should have that seal. I haven't had a chance to tear into it yet and I'm obviously bummed because I have to imagine that this question has already been addressed on Cannondaler, but since those forums appear to be gone forever, I figured I'd start a post here in case anyone has a quick fix. If not, I'll tear into it and see what I can sort out and be sure to update the topic along the way.
Either way, I'm loving the new bike and with a few little fixes, I'm hoping I can do a good bit of trail riding on it this year and hopefully get some helmet cam videos and such posted to YouTube as there is a critical lack of bike content out there, and that needs to be fixed. haha!
Thanks guys!