I'm using a coil shock ,Fox. That is the plan to remove the shock and cycle the swingarm to full travel. I've also seen where you remove the shock and remove the spring and reinstall the shock and cycle the swingarm to bottom out. That is what I'm going to do. You will know exactly when the shock will be at full travel.
It would be nice to able to climb telephone poles . I'm running a 2X9 with a 22 tooth small chainring. Just trying to keep as much of a granny gear as I can.

Yeah, that's the gearing I would pick too. Did you see this thread yet? Post up in there to let us know how it turns out.

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Thus, if we are to understand the world, we should live somewhere between judgement and amazement — Alfredo Lopez Austin

You'll probably miss those very lowest gears less than you think. I've been riding a 1x9 set up with a 32t chain ring and a 11-32 cassette for about a year. I'm not the strongest rider and I got accustomed to pushing a bigger gear over time, even on 25+ mile rides at Cuyamaca. That being said, I'm gearing down for the Arch Ride (went to a 11-34 cassette and may go to 30t chain ring). Good luck with your conversion to 1x9.

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A bicycle is a splendid thing.
~Ernest Hemingway

...or not.

running 2x9. wish i had more.

gearing up or down for rides? really? please check my sig (below), and don't get back to me. i'm lucky to put air in my tires before a ride.

i don't relate to the single speed thing so perhaps i've missed whole transcendental aspect of this minimalist direction.

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Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. ~Milan Kundera

Ya Dan I got to go 30 up front and 42 back. I know there will be stuff I'll have to hike a bike until I get my fitness on par with the gearing change. I had read that thread before. One of the reasons I'm going Wolftooth is I've seen favorable comments about the 42 cassette cog being machined wider where it contacts the freehub and does no damage to the aluminum hub. Lately on my rides I try to not drop to the 22 up front on climbs so I get my fitness used to only the 30.

it also has to do with slow and fast twitch muscles. i don't know muscle physiology, but you could look up the details. i believe training in hard gears, rather than lower gears where you spin more, builds up fast twitch muscle. so it's not entirely endurance 'conditioning', per se, it's changing the composition of muscle fiber types through training over time.

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Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. ~Milan Kundera

snake bite this morning. should'a checked the dam air in the tires.

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Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. ~Milan Kundera

Finally got all my parts together for the 1X10 conversion. Put it together Saturday night. Wolftooth GC 42. Shimano cassette, SLX clutch mech, Hope Retainer ring 30 tooth. Took it out today and it works great. Quiet is one of the best ways to describe it. The chain slap is gone, the clutch is worth the hype. The shifting is spot on. I didn't have to use a longer B screw to dial in the distance between the upper cage roller and the 42tooth,just had to crank it all the way in. The chain length thing wasn't to hard, I put it on using the cut coat hanger to hold it in place and cycled the suspension to bottom out, when I would cycle the suspension the cage on the mech didn't move. I got the chain to what I thought was the correct length added a couple links, worked good. I tried to upload some photo's but it keeps telling me the file type is invalid.