Voodoo bizango or...?

phillondon

Hey all. I've looked at the sticky but the thread is a few years old so I thought I'd ask. I always loved riding bikes when I was younger but moved on to motorbikes. Now I've stopped riding motorcycles and my friend has convinced me to get back into riding bicycles. He rides trails and in the woods etc and I want to join him.

After a bit of googling I've found a couple of bikes. The main one is the Voodoo Bizango 29er. How do you guys find this bike? Do you have any other examples up to £650?

I saw the Trek X-Calibre 8 too but the colours available aren't to my liking (shallow I know) and I'm not sure if I can get it delivered to Halfords as I'm getting it through the cycle2work scheme and the options on Cycle Surgery (much cheaper than anywhere) are collect only.

Anyway, any help is appreciated, thanks!

compuwiz_uk

cant speak much of the new bizango but done many a happy mile on my previous model bizango.

its done everything i have asked of it, but i have not asked it to do that much sadly ( its spent more time commuting on the road until i got a cheapy road bike for that task - but has ventured off the beaten track a few times on weekends when i have not been working & the weather has been nice so its gone exploring locally ( its not usually a combo i get as its normally bad weather when i aint working lol )

but seen many a comment of praise for the new model just like the old model got so it should be more than upto the job.

phillondon

Yea I got it. Trying to put the thing together. But of a nightmare!

compuwiz_uk

hope you enjoy the new bike ( eventually )

whats the troubles your having as normally the builds are not that troublesome - occasionally tweakage heavy but should be simple enough to build at least so long as you have the right tools.

unbox

fit front wheel ( undo & make sure rear wheel is in properly too - i had one recently where it was not in right )

fit & align handlebars

fit pedals ( remembering to add grease to threads before fitting if you have some )


everything else is tweakage after that

making sure gears are adjusted ( limits set & indexed properly - see youtube for many good how to videos if your not sure )

spin wheels & make sure brakes work well & dont rub ( much - the odd noise may be OK & vanish as they bed in but normally silence until used is when your looking for ) Adjust if needed - undo the calipers 2 bolts, grab handful of brake lever & hold while doing up the bolts normally does the trick here - occasionally a 3rd hand is needed to hold caliper firm too while doing up the bolts as occasionally the pressure from the bolts on the caliper is more than the pistons are applying so the caliper moves slightly.

make sure tyre pressures are suitable

adjust saddle hight

adjust front fork pressure to suite your needs/weight ( if you have the suitable pump of coarse - your local store may let you use theirs instore if you ask em nice or buy one @ about £20 if you want your own )

ride

phillondon

Well the front tyre valve was broken so I brought it back and they replaced it. They done a gear and brake setup for a tenner as I couldn't get the brakes to run smoothly. They said the fork pressure doesn't need looking at as it comes filled. They looked at everything else and I think they said it was fine.

Gonna go out on it later! Thanks.

cooldad

PhilLondon wrote:

Well the front tyre valve was broken so I brought it back and they replaced it. They done a gear and brake setup for a tenner as I couldn't get the brakes to run smoothly. They said the fork pressure doesn't need looking at as it comes filled. They looked at everything else and I think they said it was fine.

Gonna go out on it later! Thanks.

Total bollocks - it needs setting up for your weight, and checking regularly - you need a shock pump.

JBA

The fork pressure (assuming they are Radion) does need adjusting to your weight in order to get the correct sag.
It sounds like you went to one of the Halfords stores where the monkeys work.

Buy a suspension pump and do it yourself.

compuwiz_uk

i got one when i bought my bizango ( barely used ex C2W item ) as the forks were kinda hard when i bought it & silly me prodded the valve to let a tiny amount out & erm, yeah, there is only a tiny amount in there but under alot of pressure lol

so as you can imagine the front of the bike kinda sank & did not return till i purchased a pump

found a pressure that works for the riding i do & so far not had to mess with it since ( but if you vary your rides alot then you may find you will be altering the pressures often to match the riding your going to be doing so a shock pump is a worthwhile purchase anyway - since used it to correct the pressures in the full suspension bike i bought ( they came pre filled alright, almost to the max meaning i may as well have bought a rigid frame - emptied & refilled per the guidelines in the manual as the bike felt aweful on the ride home due to no give in the suspension & then tweaked till it felt right & job done - again not touched them since either so far.

compuwiz_uk

also a track tyre pump is a worthwhile purchase in the future if you have not got one already as this is what i have used the most out of all my tools.

( also i had to use it on my full suspension bike as the tyres came pre-filled to max too )

the tyres will no doubt loose pressure over time even when not in use so you will need to top up the tyres every now & then to your preferred pressures for the riding you do ( i do mine every couple of months or so if its not been used, every couple of weeks if its the bike i am using )

phillondon

I'm gonna go to my friends Sunday, he's got one. Is it okay to ride without checking it? Will it damage anything?

cooldad

Nope, will just probably feel wrong.

chrisw333

PhilLondon wrote:

I'm gonna go to my friends Sunday, he's got one. Is it okay to ride without checking it? Will it damage anything?

It will be fine. Just when set up properly it will work better on trails etc.

phillondon

Great. Thanks guys. Just gotta get used to riding a bike again. I went from my house all the way to my local park and through my town and back to mine, a big local circle in 20 minutes. That's a 2 hour walk nearly. Can't believe how quick it took!

I'm hoping to go ride around in a forest with my buddy on Sunday if he's allowed.

core00

But how'd you know if the pressure is right for your weight? Bizango doesn't have the guideline like others.

compuwiz_uk

youtube for the without lines marking method.

( BUT even the forks/shocks with guideline markings only make setting the initial sag that little bit faster - you still have to go by feel & experiment to get a proper figure your happy with for the riding you do - i know when i set my full suss rear sag to the guidelines as stated in the manual using the guide marking on the forks/shock itself it was FAR too soft & bottomed out easily over modest terrain, it needed the pressures increasing way above what the guidelines for me were to get it to both feel OK & not bottom out ( think the book said around 89psi for it BUT its now on around 150psi to stop it bottoming out - was on around 260 when i collected it from the shop - whether it was set like that by the shop or shipped to them like that & not corrected during build/pdi i dont know )

from what i remember its somewhat as follows for without guidelines method - i found it way too annoying to do this on the bizango so i plumped straight for the tweak & ride till it felt OK method instead. ( carried the pump with me & tweaked while out & about. )

measure the exposed stanchions unloaded work out what 20 - 30% of that figure is ( for your preferred SAG amount )

wrap a bit of wool/cotton/zip tie firm but not massively tight round the stanchion & push it to the base just above the rubber seal ( to act as the rubber ring you get on the posher forks as standard )

sit on the bike geared up as you would be normally when riding try not to bounce down onto the bike when doing so or it could add extra movement to the guide marker ( if you cant get on without it bouncing reset the marker once on the bike & try again ( dont forget to sit on the bike as you would be when out - i found i was sitting with my weight further back & thus less sag showing up when stationary testing )

get off ( again try not to bounce the suspension much if you can ) & measure the amount the added gizmo has traveled up the stanchion

if its what you calculated from the full measurement for your sag job done go for a ride to test it, too much movement add some pressure, not enough remove some & reset the slider to the bottom & re sit to obtain the sag level again - rinse & repeat till you get a figure your happy with.

once done carefully remove the added gizmo ( dont mark the stanchion if using a blade as you can screw up the seals in the fork if you do from what i have read etc )

but most of all, if you can its probably best to carry a shock pump with you ( if you have one or can borrow one ) at least for the 1st few rides so you can adjust while out & about incase you find it is still too firm or too soft etc till you find the pressure that works right for you.

phillondon

That's some good info, thanks.

Chain keeps coming off when I change down in a block from 20 to 10, think the tension needs looking at. Halfords said they done it but obviously not. Think I'm gonna avoid them and their servicing from now on.

compuwiz_uk

more likely it wont be chain tension & instead rear mech limit screws need adjusting to prevent the mech moving out too far & thus dropping the chain off the 10 cog as you change en mass ( may only be a fraction off & thus working fine when doing small changes as they will do instore when checking the gears are OK )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_KNGQFPT9U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbk5RcH0bbQ

compuwiz_uk

sounds like the store nearest you is staffed by monkies

they are not all that bad & you may even find that store has maybe 1 good person on staff ( if your lucky ) - i know it used to be hit & miss at my local store & then they had a cull a few months ago & only kept the ones that were least complained about/most compitent it seems & thus much less troubles now ( the odd glitch can still sneak by em mind especially when they are pulled out with work so are rushing things a little, but overall they are great now )

phillondon

Yea, you're right it's the screws. I'm going to my mates in a couple of weeks and he's gonna teach me how to set it up.

They seem a bit clueless tbh. I'm not going back there. I am gonna go ride some trails Tmw so I'm pretty excited.

I got my Saris Bones on the car which was a nightmare too.

compuwiz_uk

with the halfords staff its pot luck if you get any good staff. you can take it for its 6 week check ( & any future work if you bought a service plan too ) to ANY other halfords store so if you have another store a little further afield thats known to have good staff then nip it there

but tinkering yourself is also good too for the basics they are not overly complex things - helps massively when out & about & you get a problem too if you have some of the basic repair skills covered.

either way make sure you get some use & enjoyment out of it, its something thats lacking on most of my bikes - plenty of bikes but no time to use em ( & when i find time the weather is normally lousy so i dont want to use em lol )