UK trail bike. The story of an XCT5.

I bought this in a private sale after seeing a listing on ebay. The deal included some raceface cranks and a seatpost, I suspect I will move them on just now. I built the bike up for now with donor parts from a couple of my other bikes, and will upgrade to more suitable parts in time. Most of the parts are from my Cotic :- http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=119688&start=0 The forks i have fitted, Reba rlt's are a little short and this puts alot of weight on the front, this is the first and most important change i need to make.



In the meantime i have stripped the Curnutt shock as the rebound adjuster didnt seem to make any noticeable difference. upon stripping it i found that the return spring had moved and was no longer pushing on the needle so the settling was stuck on full slow.



I made a call to the UK importer of the bikes to order a seal kit but they won't sell me one, apparently I need special tools to strip and reassemble the shock. Which I do have. I will try the italian importer to see if they are more helpful......

Failing that, I will have to source all of the different seals separately, but this shouldn't be a problem. Just don't fancy having to buy ten of each size.

More as i happens.

A little bit of a back story. I spanner for a few people, and a couple of racers, one of which has now gone onto world cup dh events, and a few years ago both of these racers were on DHS mono's. The first Foes frame they had were '06 mono's, and they were fantastic, if heavy bits of kit. They pedalled like nothing else I have ever ridden, neither before or since. I always promised myself that whenever I saw a XCT4/5 on the trail that I would ask the owner for a short ride on it, as I was convinced that this was the bike for me.
When the later DHS frames arrived with the air shocks, although they were lighter they didn't seem to have that 'something' that the previous coil shock frames had.

These are rare machines in the UK and I had not seen one on the trails, and they very rarely show up on ebay or in the classifieds so when I saw this on ebay, I knew it was for me. This could very well be my dream bike.

Having spent the day that it arrived in the post looking adoringly across the workshop at it, as soon as i finished work the strip of the Cotic donor bike began. The strip and build took about two hours, and I rode the bike home, in the dark but was less than impressed.

The shock seemed to be lazy, and the rebound dial made no adjustment at all, being stuck on full slow. Not a good first impression, but a quick search on Google led me to a forum on mtbr and there is a thread that explains how easy the shocks are to service. I had never had one apart before, we used to use Guido in italy for service, and he was amazing. The shock was fairly easy to take apart, just a couple of special tools needed to fully strip the main body and remove the shaft from the bottom clevis. This evening the bare aluminium parts were polished and ball burnished and are ready to refit. 2.5wt oil is ordered and should be with me tomorrow.

Very nice, I do love Foes, they always seem to be on the cutting edge but seem under represented in the UK. Definitely one manufacturer I will consider if I ever retire my Turner RFX. My first Full sus frame was a Foes Weasel.

I've always liked Foes. Never had the balls to buy one though. I loved the fact they stuck to the love leverage principle on the shock, something that is supposed to make the way they ride unique. Looking forward to the build

Cheers guys.

The bike is now reassembled, no drama bleeding the shock but the oil level was a complete guess. I have set it at 10mm which is probably on the high side. Can anyone tell me what it should be, I assume it is measured with the shock compressed onto the bottom out bumper?



Also, having searched the web for info on springs I am surprised to read that I have the correct spring for my weight, but it sags way too much, and becomes coil bound only halfway into the travel! Perhaps I need a ti spring?....

Nice frame, Foes are much under rated. Is this the frame from the Bikeradar testbike?

I have very fond memories of my 2004? Foes FXR, a very versatile chassis. Quick enough to ride XC in the Dutch flats yet sturdy enough to hammer down a proper mountain on holidays in the Alps.

But you really need to sort out your shock, as this is where the Foes should excel. Too much sag plus coil bind at half travel: is the spring original Foes/Curnutt spec? It looks very short for a Curnutt spring in the picture. Plus there is many a story on big gaps in actual spring rates vs numbers painted on bits. I could rummage in my parts bin and show my old Curnutt spare spring.

And you don't "need"a Ti spring, but they definitely ride sweet and have less coils so less chance of binding see the picture below. I ordered my Ti spring from Guido, nice guy and good service. Notably while waiting for the Ti spring I rode the bike with a steel spring 100lbs/in too soft. Dialed in a bit of extra rebound and increased the platform pressure, lovely ride.

Enjoy!!

picture of the Foes to show the shock set-up:
http://gallery.mtbr.com/data/mtbr/500/Foes180_3.JPG

Hey, thanks for the advice. It is a foes spring, and measures 4inch which is correct for a xct. I suggested the need for a ti spring as there are less coils so less likely to become coil bound.

If you have a pic of your spring, post it up! Thanks.

Ha, well spotted! Yes it appears to be!

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/f ... t5--11640/

Thats lovely, and pretty rare too. I've seen a few Foes DH bikes around, but never one of their smaller bikes.

What are the plans for equipment for it?

Do you think the shock is sorted now or do you need to do some more fiddling?

Thanks. Took it for a spin today to get a feel for different air pressures in the shock, but I think I will change the oil level tomorrow to reduce the air gap. The shock certainly feels stiffer with more air pressure, but I want to feel what difference the oil level makes. Difficult to make any realistic decisions with the wrong spring fitted, although a fone call earlier from my racer buddy revealed we still have some Curnutt parts 'in stock'. Might be something useful in the stash.

The bike climbs well in the middle ring, very well. But not so well in the big ring, but i dont want to remove the big ring as it feels such a fast bike I don't want to run out of gears. There is definite pedal bob in the big ring.

Plans for the build? Almost everything is borrowed at the moment from other bikes, the only thing that will stay on this bike are the Renthal bars which suit the bike perfectly. They didn't suit my yeti, but I couldn't part with them as they are so nice. From there I will get some Rockshox Revelations, in either 140/150mm and reduce them to probably 130mm. Then it will be my usual Hope/xt/Thomson/Raceface favourites. Boring i know, but functional and pleasing to my retro cnc eyes.