Crestline RS 181.2 thread – builds, reviews, technical info

It’s kind of like carpet, but it drains well so you can ride in the rain with confidence. It’s called Trail Armor, and it saves places from endless maintenance.

Trail Armor got me soft 😂
I am curious how bad it hurts to crash on it. My experience has been that crashing on artificial surfaces is... _bad_. Like full body belt-sander time bad.
 
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I am curious how bad it hurts to crash on it. My experience has been that crashing on artificial surfaces is... _bad_. Like full body belt-sander time bad.
It’s basically a rolling cheese grater and I always wince when I see the youngins riding in shorts and a tee 😣

At 46 years young, I ride the park in full gear. Yeah, it can get miserable in the summer… but not nearly as miserable as removing the skin from your forearms and elbows when you go down.

Ask me how I know 😂😂

To bring it back to the topic a bit, I added 3 clicks of ABO to the Zeb and slowed the rebound down. I also slowed the Vivid Air rebound too. I definitely had both way too fast. I bumped the radials up another 3 PSI as well, putting them around 37–38 PSI, and that helped a lot with the marshmallow effect on hard impacts.

Question for the people in the know: is the HBO on the Vivid Air basically the same concept as ABO on the fork? I know it doesn’t mechanically work the exact same way, but from a rider’s perspective, does it add that same extra resistance right at the very end of the travel?

Gotta love shuttle rides too. I take more damage riding up than I do from crashing on the way down 🤣



IMG_8241.webp
 
Question for the people in the know: is the HBO on the Vivid Air basically the same concept as ABO on the fork? I know it doesn’t mechanically work the exact same way, but from a rider’s perspective, does it add that same extra resistance right at the very end of the travel?
The HBO handles the last 20% of the travel, the ABO maybe the last <5%. HBO is going to be way more effective at handling end of travel and it's way more tunable through oil movement in the HBO circuit. ABO is a piece of rubber the piston hits, more or less that can be moved up and down. The internal bottom bumper on the Vivid air is more like the ABO, than HBO is.
 
Regarding rear brake setup…is the part where we screw the rear brake caliper onto the frame set for a 200 mm rotor so anything greater will require spacers or an adapter?
 
My evidence of riding the bike, hopefully it makes someone less disappointed . View attachment 185125
hmm... I suspect Ai tomfoolery here... hahahaha...
Ai is like a really intelligent baby...
I am enjoying the reverse mullet and circa 2006 front forks and take off ramp into the crowd.
PS this has to be a 181.1 as its 2025 rampage..... Its also good that the rider is thinking about hydration before bombing into the crowd.

Apart from that "seems legit"....

How about some actual riding shots?
 
hmm... I suspect Ai tomfoolery here... hahahaha...
Ai is like a really intelligent baby...
I am enjoying the reverse mullet and circa 2006 front forks and take off ramp into the crowd.
PS this has to be a 181.1 as its 2025 rampage..... Its also good that the rider is thinking about hydration before bombing into the crowd.

Apart from that "seems legit"....

How about some actual riding shots?

Definitely AI.
 
No reviews out yet, but has anyone considered the Intend BC Rover (hybrid air / coil)? I’m setting my Plaid up as a lightweight 160mm with an Intend Flash. I love my EXT e-storia but this would shave 9 oz and may give me more coil feel with air weight. Or is this shock just going to be overly complicated so just choose air or coil and get on with it?
I haven’t tried it on my Crestline yet as I’m waiting for the forged one to come in but I have it on my archibald right now. I can swap it to a trunnion with 2 bolts and then switch it over to the Crestline whenever it gets here.

IMG_2327.webp
 
I haven’t tried it on my Crestline yet as I’m waiting for the forged one to come in but I have it on my archibald right now. I can swap it to a trunnion with 2 bolts and then switch it over to the Crestline whenever it gets here.

View attachment 185186
How are you liking it? What’s the ride like compared to a normal coil shock?
 
No reviews out yet, but has anyone considered the Intend BC Rover (hybrid air / coil)? I’m setting my Plaid up as a lightweight 160mm with an Intend Flash. I love my EXT e-storia but this would shave 9 oz and may give me more coil feel with air weight. Or is this shock just going to be overly complicated so just choose air or coil and get on with it?
What will you get your bike weight down to all in with sealant & pedals? 600 or 800 battery?
 
Maybe this question belongs in the Avinox thread… for those using Strava, how are you handling ride uploads?

I linked my Strava account through the Avinox app and added a SIM card, but Avinox doesn’t merge rides if you stop for a while and start riding again later. It uploads every session as a separate activity.

So after a Thurs/Fri/Sat bike park trip, I end up with like 10 separate Strava activities instead of a few full ride days 😅

Am I missing a setting somewhere, or is everyone just manually merging rides afterward? If merging, how? 😖
 
Maybe this question belongs in the Avinox thread… for those using Strava, how are you handling ride uploads?

I linked my Strava account through the Avinox app and added a SIM card, but Avinox doesn’t merge rides if you stop for a while and start riding again later. It uploads every session as a separate activity.

So after a Thurs/Fri/Sat bike park trip, I end up with like 10 separate Strava activities instead of a few full ride days 😅

Am I missing a setting somewhere, or is everyone just manually merging rides afterward? If merging, how? 😖
Just use my Apple Watch. Disconnected strava from my Avinox… it was annoying getting multiple activities when I stopped mid-ride to fix my friends bike.
 
Maybe this question belongs in the Avinox thread… for those using Strava, how are you handling ride uploads?

I linked my Strava account through the Avinox app and added a SIM card, but Avinox doesn’t merge rides if you stop for a while and start riding again later. It uploads every session as a separate activity.

So after a Thurs/Fri/Sat bike park trip, I end up with like 10 separate Strava activities instead of a few full ride days 😅

Am I missing a setting somewhere, or is everyone just manually merging rides afterward? If merging, how? 😖
I just use an old Garmin Edge 530. It automatically uploads the ride to Strava when I’m done and it includes total time and ride time in each ride. 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
I am curious how bad it hurts to crash on it. My experience has been that crashing on artificial surfaces is... _bad_. Like full body belt-sander time bad.
Way worse than the carpet surface itself, if you happen to be unlucky enough to hit one of the 5/8" (about 20mm) hex bolts sticking up from the carpet surface, you're at the very least, opened up. it's not pretty.
 
Unfortunately my 5dev cranks are not compatible with the new M2S motor.

What offset e thirteen cranks are y’all using?
 
I ordered these.
View attachment 185480
However, my eeWings fit on the Avinox, so I havent actually put these Helix on the CL. I know others have.
I put these on my CL in 155mm. The little plastic bash protector does rattle/move a lot. I’m out due to a surgery so haven’t had a chance to see if that’s noticeable on trail, but could just remove if so.
 
That’s for the dust disc thing. Yeah mine is all crooked looking haha. I left it on though. I was talking about the little caps where the pedals screw in. They’re very loose and just jiggle around. Idk if it’ll make noise when riding though, just noticed it when putting the cranks on. Could probably glue them down or something.
 
I ordered these.
View attachment 185480
However, my eeWings fit on the Avinox, so I havent actually put these Helix on the CL. I know others have.

I had those but returned them when I saw the 150mm 5Dev Cam Zink set. I always hit pedal being a Clyde and having to run 32%sag on the vivid air, so I wanted the shortest I could feasibly run.

Obviously regretting returning them now.

I would love to run eeWings, but I can only find them in a 165. Cane Creek told me that they have no current plants to make more at the present. I’d love to grab a set of 150-155 though if they ever release more.

I’ve been looking at the Forx set and the Arkoza but neither can confirm figment on the M2s yet.
 
I had those but returned them when I saw the 150mm 5Dev Cam Zink set. I always hit pedal being a Clyde and having to run 32%sag on the vivid air, so I wanted the shortest I could feasibly run.

Obviously regretting returning them now.

I would love to run eeWings, but I can only find them in a 165. Cane Creek told me that they have no current plants to make more at the present. I’d love to grab a set of 150-155 though if they ever release more.

I feel you on the sag… I have to run 310 psi just to get around 28%.

I was lucky enough to snag a set of the 160mm eeWings a while back. One of the nice things about them is the extra pedal clearance. The 160s end up feeling more like 150s in terms of clearance because the titanium construction doesn’t require as much material around the pedal threads.

IMG_8388.webp

IMG_8387.webp


I’d also recommend the 5DEV pedals if you’re chasing clearance. They’ve been fantastic, and they don’t have the large hump around the spindle area that a lot of other thin pedals have.

Definitely try to find a set of the 160mm eeWings if you can.
 
That’s for the dust disc thing. Yeah mine is all crooked looking haha. I left it on though. I was talking about the little caps where the pedals screw in. They’re very loose and just jiggle around. Idk if it’ll make noise when riding though, just noticed it when putting the cranks on. Could probably glue them down or something.
I took mine off too... They are supposed to cover the lockring, but when you tighten the crank down, it just gets crushed and inverted.
 
I took mine off too... They are supposed to cover the lockring, but when you tighten the crank down, it just gets crushed and inverted.
Yeah mine the same, I removed them plastic collars. Also removed the crank boots/shoes. They aren't snug enough. Praxxis carbon shoes/boots on my previous bike was much better.
 
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I took mine off too... They are supposed to cover the lockring, but when you tighten the crank down, it just gets crushed and inverted.
For Avinox, you are supposed to take it off.

Some Questions:

My AXS RD keeps on moving forward, needing readjustment. Only way to keep it mostly put is torquing like crazy... so much so that there is no way I could remove the wheel trailside with a small multitool. Anyone with that issue have a better solution?

Those you use a SIM card: does it only work when the bike is powered on?

Thanks!
 
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