I have run exclusively shimano brakes for my entire mtbing experience (11 years now) and find them super easy to maintain. I dont really have any leaking issues. They can get soft as the brake pads wear down but I do a funnel bleed and take care of both brakes in under 5 minutes. If i do this, then I might have to put the funnel on before i push the pistons in when I put on new brake pads, but again, super quick and easy.
I find the bleeding process less finicky with Shimano and everytime I demo a SRAM bike, i miss the feel of shimano brakes (obvious bite point, easy to squeeze, no problem modulating as my fingers are used to them).
So don’t listen to the haters. Those brakes will be fine. Would I run them in CO in steep mountain descents? No, but I wouldn’t pick an xc bike here either. They’ll be fine for your use.
The suspension will be fine. Most people prefer the budget Fox over budget RockShox and for your uses it’ll be enough.
Yeah I think budget RS kinda sucks but that level of Fox seems fine. I wouldn’t stress too much about the build. The parts will do the things they’re made to do. I would question the 100 mm of rear travel on the Exie though. Not sure I’d want a bike that’s less than 120/120. Saying this owning a 120/120mm bike and not really taking it out much. I don’t know where you live or ride though.
Hy: first real ride back. Riding tech as fuck stuff blind (tumwater in Leavenworth)… WTH, was lazy and just put a dhf, the only tire I had on hand, in the rear instead of putting it up front and moving my asegai to the back and my god it fucking sucked.
Rode the Jeffsy at the park again today (Duthie for you locals). Had a blast as expected, we rode this one blue flow line over and over (Deuces Wild). It’s definitely dry though, there’s a sweeping right hand berm to step down that I was loving and on my last run my rear hooked up WAYYY more than expected and my little whip turned into wrestling the bike back to straight before landing. For some reason that made my elbow hurt like hell so that pretty much ended my day.
so yesterday i had a morning lesson with a guy who’d ridden the park a couple times who wanted to learn some technique. he showed up to the lesson, super fit guy, 30ish. with a bit of technique, he actually made great progress, by the end of the lesson he was clearing like 90% of the intermediate sized table tops on blue and easier blacks.
anyway, he sent me a tip late because he had to re-add a new bank account to his venmo and his photo was in a football uniform. turns out this dude was in the NFL for like 6 years? lol
just took me until like age 37-38 to finally start trying to move my bike in the air a little.
if i can get like up to some baby whips* by the end of the season i’ll be more confident in my slightly above mediocre abilities.
(* been working on transferring from one side of the jump to another pretty successfully but i am like a huge baby about where i will do this and when going too fast i just panic and jump straight)
