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I'm building up my old hardtail frame for my 14 year old son. He's very keen, but it's looking like being way too big for him, especially in terms of the saddle height. I want him to have a dropper, but with the seattube and 150mm travel, it will be too high.
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I've heard that people have managed to bodge shims into Ascends - I reckon I need to lose around 50mm of travel. Can anyone point me in the right direction, please?
You certainly can on some of them. Unscrew the collar and use some bits of old plastic (small zip ties work) in the 'slots' that you can see (not the narrow ones for the guide bushings). My other half is currently running an Ascend with about 80mm travel.Â
Remember that post insertion is the other thing to look out for - i had to do the above as, due to the stupid pivot location, there's very little insertion depth on her frame.
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Thanks for the advice, I've kind of managed it. The smallest zipties I've got are still a smidge too bulky, but I found some other plastic that I could cut strips from and they are ok. I reckon credit card plastic is the optimum. I think I've roughly halved the 150mm possible travel. It's probably going to be about right.
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Just to check (I think I'm right), the idea is these strips sit above the brass keys (effectively extending them up the post) and sit against the top cap seal or its bushing and stop the stanchion travelling to full extension? Is that correct, please?
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I might open it back up again if I can find some suitable plastic.
Tried it for my gravel bike, I needed to lose roughly a cm of travel using the zip tie method but it didn't really work.Â