Designed for the truly discriminating cross-country rider.
One of the lightest pivotless full suspension frames available at just 4.0 lbs.
Designed with 1 1/8" of fully active travel.
Features a Rock Shox SID Race shock- Full Air system with positive, negative and rebound adjustment - Fine tune your ride.
Built with the finest U.S. 3/2.5 Vr seamless radial aerospace titanium - specially cold worked and stress relieved for increased stiffness and durability.
New: Features an oversize 1.75" Bi-Axial crimped downtube for increased stiffness.
New: S-bend seat and oversized 7/8" chainstays.
New: Breezer style 6/4 titanium dropout with a replaceable hanger.
New: I/S disk mount option.
2001 Limited Edition Model - Only 100 Frames will be produced
Submitted by
Mark
a Racer
from New England Date Reviewed: November 5, 2002
Favorite Trail:
Mt. Washington Valley
Duration Product Used:
2 Years
Price Paid:
$1450.00
Purchased At:
Dean Direct
Strengths:
Very fine craftsmanship. Oversized, shaped ti. tubing makes for a stiff bottom bracket that provides instant acceleration. Active rear end makes for fantastic climbing. Light and nimble.
Weaknesses:
None that I have noticed in the last two years.
Similar Products Used:
Test road a Moot YBB for a day. WAAAAAy too soft. Small diameter tubing made for one squishy ride.
Bike Setup:
Duke Race, 9.0sl/XT, all the other light weight goodies; ti. bar, carbon post, ect.
Bottom Line:
I reluctantly switched away from a hard tail. I did so because I noticed that x-c races were getting more and more technical due to the large amount of full suspension rigs being used in x-c competition. In addition to the fact that fs riders were setting the courses.
Not wanting to go to a full blown fs rig I thought the soft-tail concept would be the perfect compromise.
I had a couple of friends, who's opinions I highly respected, suggest the Moots YBB. One of them lent me his bike for a day. Coming off oversized Al. the first thing I notice was how soft it was, but, what isn't compared to Al. Even after 1/2 day on the bike I just couldn't get used to the lack of snap and jump when sprinting or climbing. About this time someone recommended that I check out Dean. I called them up and explained what I didn't like about the YBB. They really felt that the Duke would fit my criteria. So I took a chance. When we got to discussing size, it quickly became apparent that I was an odd fit. They offered to custom cut my tubes at no additional cost, if I would wait until the end of a production run. I took a chance and placed my order.
I got the bike and road it hard, and couldn't have been happier. The customer service from my first inquiry to final delivery was outstanding!!!!
After two seasons of racing this bike, which included several podium finishes and a state championship, I'm still very impressed. My only regret is that I didn't opt for the ACE 3.0. After seeing what 1" of rear travel has done for my riding I can't help but wonder what 3" would be like. If I do switch to an x-c fs bike it will defiantly be from Dean. If you want the best soft tail on the market, look no further. And to make matters even better you can save up to $1000 over similar models from Moots and Litespeed.
Value Rating:Overall Rating:
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