'THE BIKE FOR ROCK GARDENS AND SUPER GNARLY GNAR!'
Strengths: Strong. loads of plush, progressive travel. Looks burly. Stiff. Floating brake is wonderful. Build quality.
Weaknesses: Heavy - 13 Lbs for frame. BB raises high and head angle steepens up on steep descents because of all the travel. Swingarm bearings dont last long
Overall: If you are into really gnarly riding and you are a wheels-on-the-ground type of rider you will love this bike. If you live in the alps or the rockies, seriously get one!
However, I live in the UK and its a bit of a handful on tight turns, its a bit of a tank to pedal aswell. Im going back to my Giant Faith as I suits the kind of riding I do; mainly racing.
Buy the floating brake option as it works super well and Mountain cycle have engineered it so its kind of progressive as it bolts onto the linkage instead of the frame.
I like this bike alot and its taken me to some good results but for UK DH the extra travel isnt worth the extra weight
Overall: great frame, ive been using it for uk DH and its great, until you get to something that needs more than 4.5" travel. it copes very well and its extremely flickable.
gonna build it up with 6" travel sc forks when i get the money. should be fun.
Weaknesses: quite heavy hard to fit in dropouts new shape seems inefficient
Overall: I run a marzocchi jr T wheel on the front of my bike and amit to having problems with it. I had to ziptie the wheel to my dropout, and then the problems really started..... I couldnt work out how to put brakes on it. but the main problem is the rectangular shape, it simply dosent work as well as round wheels.
That said, it never went out of true, and the preload/rebound adjusters are really fun to play with.
;-) (ONLY HAVIN A LAFF, I THINK THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE IN THE FORK CATAGORY!!!!???)
Overall: There is nothing weong with these wheels, but the workman ship is very poor. most of the spoke nipples were rounded off, the spokes are really weak, the seam is visible on the rim. They are not even that light. If youve got £200 to spend on a wheelset, get some nice ones, that are handbuilt. For £200, you can get sunn BMF laced by DT spokes onto a hope XC, a much better wheel!!!!!
Strengths: =These forks are extremely light considering their intended use. =The lockout/blowoff valve works really well, almost like a stable platform system. =The rebound damping is adjustable to a large degree
Weaknesses: =Not as strong as some of its competition, e.g DJ2's =Spring supplied is a little on the soft side = forks flex fore and aft.
Overall: I'm a dual rider, so strength combined with low weight, is what i look for in a fork. The fork flex isnt as bad as Marzocchi make out, because there is virtually no twisting flex, making them great for conering, but they do flex forward on a hard landing. If you set up the lock out about halfway around the dial, the fork takes big hits well and has about half an inch of travel, but as soon as you hit a jump, the blowoff valve opens and you get a cushion of 4.5 inches of travel under you. I got these forks for just under £250, so they were a bargain.
Strengths: super light, soaks up bumps, pretty tough owing to gussets. Probably the best designed and best built xc frame ever.
Weaknesses: if you buy it new, the frame is a wallet bashing £1200! small amount of play in bb pivot.
Overall: I got mine with an AMP floating disc and rear wheel for £450!!!! deal or what!
I know you'll be outraged, but i've been doing 30ft tables on the Coombe Sydenham DH track! The frame too it all really well, except the big off i had on the third table.
if anyone wants to give/recieve advice on amp frames/discs, my email is willsoffe@hotmail.com
