old_coyote_pedaller
MacRetro Rider
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I have a 98/00 Wolf Ridge which I took the swingarm off to put on my wife's Wild Cat Trail as it had a brake mount that required Marin's weird caliper mount and the Wolf Ridge's swingarm was I.S. , this was several years ago. When I came to build up the Wolf Ridge I used the WCT's swingarm as I could make an adapter to take a postmount caliper. Also realised the arm was 30mm longer than the original increasing rear travel from the original. Build it up at first with a Marzocchi Z1 Wedge 130mm fork to balance the approx. 120mm at back. Moving from riding a Cannondale F800 hardtail with a 100mm Lefty having previously ridden a Cannondale Super V full suss also with a 100mm Lefty the Wolf Ride felt weird handling wise. Put on wider 720mm bars and shorter 70mm stem and I became used to it.
Fast forward to March 2020 and I bought a modern geo Sonder Transmitter hardtail with a 150mm fork. It felt like it did going from the F800 to the full suss Marin. Once again I got used to and liked the change, could descend faster with more comfort and confidence than on F800. That's saying something as I'm in my 60s, being almost as fast DH as I'd been 4 years earlier on the Marin full suss. You don't get faster at my age.
FF again to last year when I rebuilt the Wolf Ridge with a 140mm Fox RL fork, same 70mm stem but with 780mm bars off Transmitter whose bars I changed to 740mm as I found the 780s too wide. Didn't notice the increase in width that had been strange/uncomfortable on Transmitter. The handling felt similar to the modern geo Transmitter. The head-tube angle is certainly slacker, a rough check it's 67-68 degrees, Transmitter is 65 degrees. Wolf Ridge feels good going downhill but needs a dropper post as Transmitter has one and now I'm used to using it DH. Have one but it's 30.9mm, but seat-tube is 30mm so I've checked and it's quite thick walled so there is enough in tube to ream it out a bit. Not noticed about the seat-tube angle difference between the Wolf Ridge and Transmitter when riding but I did notice when I rode my F800 again, it was the bike that now felt weird.....
Started to write this in response to the mention of the offset bushings but got sidetracked by writing the background story. I have a vague memory that I did fit one but can't be sure so will need to check, I have one saved in my eBay Watch List so may have bought one but not deleted from eBay. Memory ain't what it used to be so who knows.
Fast forward to March 2020 and I bought a modern geo Sonder Transmitter hardtail with a 150mm fork. It felt like it did going from the F800 to the full suss Marin. Once again I got used to and liked the change, could descend faster with more comfort and confidence than on F800. That's saying something as I'm in my 60s, being almost as fast DH as I'd been 4 years earlier on the Marin full suss. You don't get faster at my age.
FF again to last year when I rebuilt the Wolf Ridge with a 140mm Fox RL fork, same 70mm stem but with 780mm bars off Transmitter whose bars I changed to 740mm as I found the 780s too wide. Didn't notice the increase in width that had been strange/uncomfortable on Transmitter. The handling felt similar to the modern geo Transmitter. The head-tube angle is certainly slacker, a rough check it's 67-68 degrees, Transmitter is 65 degrees. Wolf Ridge feels good going downhill but needs a dropper post as Transmitter has one and now I'm used to using it DH. Have one but it's 30.9mm, but seat-tube is 30mm so I've checked and it's quite thick walled so there is enough in tube to ream it out a bit. Not noticed about the seat-tube angle difference between the Wolf Ridge and Transmitter when riding but I did notice when I rode my F800 again, it was the bike that now felt weird.....
Started to write this in response to the mention of the offset bushings but got sidetracked by writing the background story. I have a vague memory that I did fit one but can't be sure so will need to check, I have one saved in my eBay Watch List so may have bought one but not deleted from eBay. Memory ain't what it used to be so who knows.
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