Show us yer FSR's

Personally, I don't see a sense in 210mm i2i. Your tuning linkage will allow like 130mm travel with a 165 which changes geometry quite a bit if you don't use a 130mm fork in the front. Going for a 210mm i2i will completely destroy all angles of the frame. It will look (and ride) like a springbok.

I now got around 144mm (driving a 130mm fork) and I feel that the bike is too "high", too sharp angles. It feels like you will go over the bar if you run down stairs.

I don't recommend 210mm. Use 165mm standard or a bit longer, they all should fit; you might need new bushes (as I did) but that's easy to turn.

i have a 165mm i2i on the rear (Fox Float) that gives me 1.5" of rear travel.
Currently running Manitou splice 130mm up front, but may switch back to my Marzocchi Marathons (think they are 105mm).
I also have an old rock shox deluxe coil - not sure on stroke length, think its the same as the fox.
in the process of getting hold of some Manitou Xvert triple clamps to see what kind of ride that provides
not sure why i'm experimenting. i have no money!

did consider converting to 24" rear wheel (a la Big Hit style), but not going to bother until i have the funds to splash out on a new wheel set...

went for a hard ride yesterday and sure enough, my forks are cracked. It's so small I couldn't see it until oil came oozing out again. Gotta replace the lowers.

LOL, well I've already purchaced the 210 mm Fox Vanilla R rear shock. I've got 147 mm travel on my forks. So if this rear shock even fits with my linkage then I may need to go with a 24" rear wheel.
I'll be posting a few before and after pix with measurments.
BB is 339 mm, rear axel travel is 140 mm, i2i is 165mm.

Righty, this arrived yesterday

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251104953198? ... _500wt_949

The auction states that the main pivot has play, now as far as i am aware the 99 elite has bearings at this point?

This frame does not, it has a bush the same as my 98 GC, the seat stay is black rather than the silver it should be, and the chain stays are the same as the 98 GC frame i have.

The main bolt bolts were slack, so i tightened them up with an allen key, and now it has no play, LOL! or at least none i can feel while the bike is not built properly yet.

I have researched a lot about later FSR chainstays cracking, yet i never found any evidence about the earlier beefy 98 stays having problems, so i was planning on fitting my 98 stays to the frame anyway, with this bike already coming with them, it saves me a job! if the bushes are poor, i can use the ones from my GC frame.

I suspect this bike has cracked its stay in the past and somebody has converted it, annoyingly it did not come with the sharkfin adapter, but i will use the Onza version from my GC frame.

1 hour after it arrived



Needs cables/chain and a headset, the headset from my 98 bike was pretty worn and notchy, not worth swapping it over! i have a black Superstar Components headset on route, i think the black seat stay kinda works with the black sections of graphics, so i may not paint it silver

looking good S-M! i love my Elite. arranging some triple clamp forks this week to see what that feels like :S may be a bit OTT, but as far as i can see, they came stock with the 99 Elite.

how do you rate the Mountain king tyres? have been tempted recently to get a pair...

post up some more pics when you're done!

Still waiting for my new headset, but got carried away transferring all the other bits over, and accidently transferred my old headset over so i could test ride it




Some thoughts, i have only ridden down the street and back, it feels different from my GC, not sure if this is just because its a larger frame, it generally just feels a lot more "chunky" i have an app on my mobile that measures angles, it gave me a reading of 68 degrees for my GC the other day, yet this one is saying 70 degrees?

Wondering if the previous owner chain/seat stay swap has jacked the rear up a little? or maybe i just measured it wrong.

The back end feels smoother to me, the way the rear suspension works seams a bit different, like it has a wider arc ? its the same shock as my GC, are the linkage mounting points in the same place on the elite ?

The front mech is proving a bit of a pain to setup, no matter what i do, i seam to have it wrong will tinker with this further, but the cable end stops on the frame for the front mech are bizzare, in fact the one under the shock does not even seam like a cable stop at all, more of a cable guide, what's up with that?

My rear wheel dish now seams off, like the rear wheel sits further towards the brake disc side, this i can only assume is due to the dropouts being slightly different, very strange, but i did have to file down my GC dropouts as they were worn and damaged, maybe i dished the wheel after this and forgot!

Should get out on it for a proper ride after work tomorrow.

Back end has no play at all LOL so tightening the main pivot bolts up seams to have done the trick, cant get my head around this though, the auction stated it had a play in the main pivot so was sold as spares/repairs, surely you would try tightening it up before selling it ?

Sold my elite to get this FSR DH Prototype , Change of forks and powder coating imminent.

Righty, so i have been informed that my new bike is not just an Elite, its an Elite Max Backbone, this makes more sense, as it has the earlier beefy chainstays, it feels like it has more rear travel, and it has the extra reinforcement around the head tube.

It also has Max Backbone on the decals (missed this at first LOL)

Even more happy

S-M":2etdnsrd said:

Righty, so i have been informed that my new bike is not just an Elite, its an Elite Max Backbone, this makes more sense, as it has the earlier beefy chainstays, it feels like it has more rear travel, and it has the extra reinforcement around the head tube.

It also has Max Backbone on the decals (missed this at first LOL)

Even more happy

Click to expand...

Where does your bike say Max Backbone? I was sure mine was a max backbone too but haven't seen a decal with it. Just the Big Hit decal on the FSR suspension.