Video

I dont have the fork with me at the moment (just moved and its on a ship somewhere) but I do know that the Rudy steerer is MUCH longer than what you would find on a mountain fork. For reference in the mean time, I had it one my 61cm salsa warbird which has fairly long headtube at 220mm and I had 30-40mm of spacers under the stem. Also, I have found a reference online that states that the steerer is 310mm uncut and that sounds about right from what I remember.

​@@MongoDan ok thanks a lot

The Fargo is a great bike! Glad you are enjoying yours.

I would gladly give up "big hit" ability to gain supplyness I was never able to gain this with with fork. This is not an issue I have with my other Rockshox mountain bike forks. Also you can feel the stiction even with the air let out. My follow up to this video has been paused for a long while do to moving to a location that should give me a lot more ability to figure things like this out.

@@MongoDan mountain bike forks have a lot more travel and therefore have more flexibility for sag and optimum air pressure balance. If you really want a suspension gravel fork you’re probably better off with a 100mm SID. That stiction hopefully is just the seals needed to be broken in.

I have a feel that is likely has to do with the additional stack height headshocks require over traditional telescoping forks. Also the minimum space in the steerer would be limiting for air springs and dampers.

Upload the video to CZcams and reply with the link here. I will check it out and let you know what I think it could be.

@@MongoDan czcams.com/video/FxS815sFSzg/video.htmlsi=nwzMHGFB2jMm3rSA

It is the factory Santa Cruz chainstay protector. They work really well but you do still hear the chain hitting it, I wish it was made of a bit softer material.

Huh? I must be missing something

It really is a nice touch to see in a non-exotic shock. I think it is a more useful adjustment than having separate high and low speed rebound adjustments.

kinda is!

Test

one two, won too

Glad I could help! It is never a bad idea to make sure you track down and correct any click or tick you hear. I have personally cracked a few frames and the sound is the same, though no need to worry is you do solve what is making the noise. Sometimes it can be really helpful to have a friend help to listen and pin point the noise.

I have suspected that was true and good to hear some confirmation of this. Though, I am recently kinda disappointed in canecreek for down grading the 40 series headset to what seems to be the bearings from the 10 series, they are silver in color and no where near as smooth feeling as the black oxide from the older 40 headsets.

Glad I could help!

This is a road group on a road bike ridden on roads. I have since changed this bike out for a gravel bike mainly for greater tire clearance for broken roads and I am running the SRAM force wide gravel group. It has been way more reliable.

I still stand behind my statement that the Fargo is one of the best bikes I have ever ridden. It is great for commuting and exploring. It is the bike I took for my first 100 mile ride on, solo no less, and it was certainly the right bike for that. A gravel bike might be a bit faster on pavement or smooth gravel but once it is any rougher than that I would put money on that the Fargo is as fast if not faster. The main reason I moved from the Fargo to the Revel Wayward is that I just like a mountain bike style bar better, I have inner bar ends on that bike to give a position similar to the hood position on the Fargo for when I need to change up my grip or want to be a bit more aero. I didn't want to go with a flat bar on the Fargo as the toptube and reach would have been far too short. Other than that, I use the bikes is fairly similar ways, the Fargo being a bit better on the road and the Wayward being better in XC style trails. One thing I haven't really shown much of on the channel is a custom frame I had made in which I was trying to build my "ideal" Fargo. It got very close and it was the bike that lead me to look for a mountain bar setup again as I still couldn't quite get the end fit I wanted. I am traditional a mountain biker and have a longer travel bike I use for real off-road days. I also maintain a fast gravel/road bike for those style rides. I am 6'5" and like a high stack on a bike. The current Fargo is meant to be run with a shorter stem than you would on a traditional gravel bike. I believe in this build I had a 80mm stem. The light in the video is a niterider lumina 600 (I think is the 600) that I run upside down on a plastic night rider to GoPro mount, it is still quick release as well. It has a great lighting up for communiting. I have since switched to the larger 1200 OLED version of the light and like it just as much in operation but has even more light. I put a link below for a 2 pack which is the same price as an individual piece, they go by a ton of different names but are all the same: Dreyoo 2 Pack Bike Light Mount Adapter Compatible with NiteRider Lumina and Lumina Micro and Mako Series, Bike Headlight Computer Mount Helmet Mount Adapter a.co/d/7p8sKur For the back, I either use to cheap USB rechargeable one or a Garmin Varia. I really like the Varia and 100% suggest them if you ride with a head unit. It adds a lot of information as to what and how many are coming up behind you. Hope this helps and feel free to ask anything else you might want to know.

Thank you so much for the reply. Today I have a test ride planned with the Salsa 🤞, took me a while to find a dealer here in Europe . @@MongoDan I saw people going for the salsa and flat bar, but then indeed with a 1 size up (to compensate for reach and stack). Keep riding, and posting :)

@@matriskie Yes it is possible to size up, but at that point you might have an issue with stand over height. The Fargo has a high stand over to help accommodate a larger frame bag. I right XXLs on the mountain bike side and can say that even the XL Fargo is about as tall as I would want a frame. Glad you here able to find one in the EU, they are rare in the US as well.

That is the cool thing about the 44mm straight headtube. You can still run a taper fork in it. If I remember correctly your Fargo has a canecreek 10 headset with a ZS upper cup (internal) and a EC lower cup (external). If that is true, all you will need to run a taper fork is to buy the fork an replace the lower race with the 1.5" version. Worse case, you will have to replace the headset with the proper one.

@@MongoDan Thanks so much for the video and the reply. I was SO confused. LOL. So many folks put the carbon on their Fargo but never mentioned how, with the tapered headset. And yes, it's still the Cane Creek. Not the original but CC none-the-less. thanks again. LOVE my bike.

@@themindunset glad I could help. If you have any other questions let me know. I have a que of videos I want to make, tech related ones normally coke quicker than most of the others.

@@MongoDan Do you notice a big weight difference with the carbon fork? I'm wondering if it's worth the expense for the rewards. I'm changing my wheelset too but I'm not able to spend a ton of money on all of these upgrades so, I'm trying to get the biggest bang for my buck. Thanks again.

@@themindunset wheels are by far the biggest bang for your buck. I would put money into a good set of carbon wheels over almost anything else on the bike. Light Bicycle wheels are a good place to start, something like their am930 rims on hope to dtawiss hubs. I have many sets from them and all have been golden. Good wheels not only perform better, they will also save you money in the long run due to much less maintenance that carbon wheels give (they are much stronger). The drive train would be the next location I would upgrade. And the fork being the last, though I do feel the fire started carbon fork is a good upgrade because it is literally half the weight and it stiffer on all the ways you want it to be.

Pretty much, there are the q/r and thru-axle dropouts, just these will give you 141mm q/r or 148mm thru-axle. Add the reduction plates to get 135mm q/r or 142mm thru-axle. There is also the single speed plate (no der hanger) and the rohloff plate (for rohloff hubs). Both of which I think need to be used with the reduction plates.

I never got around to trying alt bars on my. I jumped down a few other rabbit holes with different frames (one custom and my current revel wayward) and have decided, that personally I am better off on a flat bar/alt setup and a mountain bike length reach. I really need to post about that bike.

I am also a bigger guy as well (near 300 lbs at the moment), air shocks normally end up working better for us as we can find the right spring rate. The Spire is a pretty unique bike as it requires a lower spring rate than most of other bikes in its class.

@MongoDan I've never owned an air shock that hasn't blown up. Where I live, we have tons and tons of really steep and fast tech downhill trails. My riding style requires a coil shock with a large diameter shaft like the Super Deluxe.

Of course a normal L-key would be better and is what I installed the pedal with. The point was to see the durability of the tool and to see if it could. Say you were flying with a bike and didn't want to carry the separate key, this wolftooth tool could be what you use to install and take off your pedals. The pedals just wouldnt be install quite as tight as you would with a normal L-key, but they would still be tight enough.

Yes, this is something that I very much abide by. In this video it was just a quite ride on a local sidewalk to demonstrate the issue.

No you don't

I haven't seen any, none of that single lens element glasses offer polarization. I think that has something to do with it.

Given how minimum this install is and how no internal parts or bearing were exposed during installation cleaning was not an issue. But I agree that on any major or deeper install or repair that cleaning is a critical first step.

I will probably post a short review of these in the future once I have some real time on them. The shell does seem fairly thin but wish it was like the thin grip with the partial shell as it would certainly have all the cushion I am looking for. The one benefit these will have over most grips if the softness of the compound (it is very soft), it will be interesting to see how fast they wear.

@@MongoDan the 35mm aren't quite big enough, as my fingers still touch the heel of hand, so im going to try wrapping over it with some road bike bar tape, which has a better feel anyway and should add the extra few mm I really need.

I have not and personally prefer to not use a kick stand. The normally they dont work great on loaded bikes and are even more unstable when off-road. Also they generally make a lot of noise and can be a hazard if you wreck (think long pointy rod). Center stands are a better option but I don't think the Fargo is rated with either a kickstand or center stand. Normally bikes that are have a mounting plate near the bottom bracket and have reenforced chainstays in the mounting area.

I thought that would be the case, thanks@@MongoDan.

@@Cycleit No problem. Do you currently own a Fargo or is that something you are looking for in your next bike?

@@MongoDan I have owned a Fargo for many years, done numerous adventures and love the bike.

@@Cycleit Sweet! It is one hell of a bike!

This site has a list of pump tracks: pumptrack.com/ It is not all inclusive, but it is a good place to look.

Pump tracks certainly are a good place to practice a number of skills!

Oh there are a lot of variables to answer that question. I had this shock on a Transition Spire and for its leverage curve a 650lb spring was actually too heavy and I ended up on a 600. But! If I used this shock on my older santacruz megatower a 650 would have most likely been too light. Both bikes have a similar overall leverage ratio but it is the leverage curve that makes the difference here. For most bikes a 600lb spring for your weight would be a good starting point. Use that spring for now and see what you sag is. From there you can calculate what spring you will need to end up on. For reference I am just on the southside of 300 lbs

@@MongoDan thanks alot bro.. Appreciate it👏🏽great info

@@mark1john no problem, I subbed to you challenge. Always good to have more peoples takes on bikes! And I see you are from the same area I am. I will be back next summer, maybe we can ride and make trail videos.

Glad you have had a good time with it! it is a special bike

Always welcome

Thanks! I am certainly trying to be more relatable! I am certainly not being paid 🤣. Glad to hear you are back on a bike. It will take time to get back into the groove of it all and the skills should come back quickly. You are right on how bikes are made these days and the huge cost difference of buying a bike with the parts vs building it up. Sounds like you are making the right choice here.

anything with suspension has to be preloaded, meaning you have to push into the bike before you lift it up. try that and let me know how it goes!

@@TE_53349 good point, proper preloading is key, something you forget about with time as it becomes a natural motions. That would be a good topic for another video!

@@TE_53349 I have not tried to pre-load the bike. It has become more easier than my first time( actually my second time. I almost went over the handle bars)LOL. I will give it a try. Thanks!!!

Any suggestions? I am always open to others ideas

@@MongoDanyou could put a picture of high end air suspension vs high end coil and bigger than symbol between then kinda mosaic blured, I hope I was clear I can make one for free for your next video, I'm not professional thumbnail maker, I'm a vfx artist but I have cool ideas and I know how to use elements

I might take you up on that offer. In the meantime I will see what I can come up with for this video.

@@MongoDan for sure, I would help in video edit as well if you want, you can even expand your content to other platforms such as TikTok which is very very helpful for your channel and as a content creator as well

@@MongoDan Canva Free :)

Which cranks do you have? Most cranks are not at all difficult to remove or install. The only issue people run into is that it's normally the tightest fasteners on the bike.

Thanks!, unfortunately I am no longer in GZ but there are several riding groups but are mainly focused on road riding (which is great in GZ). That main one is GZC -Guangzhou Cycling. The sad truth is that in GZ there is very little mountain biking.

Personally I agree with you and was the point I was trying to portray in this video.

The long chrome part for 1-1/8" is 35.06mm on the outer dia. The lower 1.5 adapter inner dia is about 35.20 to 35.25mm. Let me know which other tool you are looking to combine this one with. I'm curious and others might be as well.

Hi MongoDan. I have a Lifeline crown race setting tool for 1" or 1 1/8". The long chrome part measures 38mm in diameter. The tool is supplied with alloy adapters, one of which is 35.0mm. I think it will fit in the 1.5 inch Birzman unit. Do you have the outside and inside diameters of the part that interfaces with the Cane Creek adapter in your video? I've got a Wolf Tooth 1.5 inch crown race installation adapter that plugs directly on to the Park Tool CRS-15.2 and I'm looking for an alternative to that.

​@@RocketDog777I will have to check this coming weekend.

Good point! I didn't think about the resale value when I was making the video!

I'm no longer in GZ, and am also a mtn biker at heart. But DaFuShan was the only real mtn biking I was able to find anywhere near the city. For road riding have you connected with the GZC group yet? They are a good road riding group and I am sure they could use another person that is mtn'er. I used to find new routes and we would go on exploring rides to see if the routes worked. I was known for finding lots of obscure ways around and for riding a road bike like a MTN bike at times 😂. I actually miss road riding with that group.

@@MongoDan that's a shame! I know of that group but the biggest problem is I live a bit far away from the centre and all their rides start quite early! It is a shame that GZ sucks for MTBing. I have considered just using the city itself as a urban freeride type environment. Let's of people though. Shame we never met! Ride easy!

Be careful with urban freeride as I know the local police are pretty hardcore on stuff like that. Btw if you havent found it yet, there is a small skate park under the bridge near the Canton fair complex

Very valid point!

Probably, the next video for this is on hold for now, but I will post my final results eventually

😎

Cool! It's always good to see people out at places like this. How often do you guys ride there? I travel to skopje fairly often and will bring my bike again.

@MongoDan we ride 3 times a week and now we going again but a little problem our bikes are not too good especially mine

@@alexflex3917 if I am there I carry some tools with me. Just ask if you see me.

The X2 is probably the most failure prone shock to ever exist. I can speak from experience anything from Rockshox should prove to be much more reliable and much easier to maintain when needed. But! coil shocks are not immune to failure just because it doesn't have any air spring, though obliviously the air spring part cannot fail. On non-yoke driven bike coil shocks will generally have a longer service interval but anything with seals can fail and will need period service (depends on manufacture and model) That being said, both the Super deluxe air and coil both perform really really well. The air version is a bit more "poppy" with better deep stroke support and the coil have better mid stroke support and is more ground hugging. I will be making a follow up video but that is the 10,000 foot view of what I will say. Subscribe to not miss that video.

I'll never run an Air Shock Again 😎

@@MongoDan thank you for your response. I just subbed to your page. Thank you!

It is a looker of a group. I will most likely be putting it on one of my bikes over the next year.

It would be nice for more cities to have. They are cheaper than skate parks (both in construction and maintenance) and safer as well. For fitness, it's hard work, but of course the more you ride is the more efficient you will get at it as well. This was the first time I have been on one in years so it kicked my butt.

I am sure Formula makes the part but I have no clue where to find one. Hope you have luck finding it.

I'm with you on wanting a 2x for the Fargo but the option on modern drivetrains just doesn't exist. I would have loved something like a 40/28 or even maybe a 42/30 or 28 for rings and something like a 11-42 cassette. But you can find rings those sizes or ders that can use that cassette with a 2x on the front. Do to this and just general fit issues I have been dealing with recently (hands going numb) I have moved to a different bike with a flat bar that fills a similar role at the Fargo (a Revel Wayward) but on that I am limited on front ring sizes even in 1x which is fine for where I am today but when I move next summer I hope a 36t ring on the front is not too limiting. I also have a gravel bike now that can take bigger tires to bridge the gap of what the Fargo offered as a fast tourer. But I am a person that loves to tinker with bikes and the Fargo is still my number 1 favorite just do it all drop bar bike. It is stable without being boring, pretty quick when needed, and very comfortable.

@@MongoDan thanks. Probably go with 12 speed sram 52 then. I just like to ride and not tinker. That may not give me a big top end speed but I ride more leisurely these days. Unrelated I prefer a flat bar and heard many put a Jones bar on the fargo, but I’ve also read that due to the high stack of Fargo the Jones bar is not a good option. But that’s another story for another day I guess.

@@pgreenx yeah, liking to tinker is a curse. Be glad you don't have it. As for the 12sp setup it works well but look into the garbaruk cassettes as I like the steps they have chosen from the last 3 large gears as it is a smoother transition into the 52t. The second to biggest is a 44t instead of a 42t. I know it is not cheap but I really enjoyed Sram AXS shift in the Fargo and other drop bar bikes, having the left and right shifter do the ups and downs is super intuitive and the whole group feels very refined/coherent on a bike like the Fargo. But with Rival and Apex coming in AXS much of the cost difference has vanished and I think they also have an Apex mechanical 12sp set up available now as well.

@@MongoDan thanks - will check them out.

www.diymtb.com.au/displayitems.asp?cid=46 That is a link to the company, I really like this version is the tool because it is so compact and works well. There are a lot of versions of the tool now so it might be worth looking at those as well depending on your wants/needs.