Submitted by
Eder Giovani Savio
a Downhiller
from Florianópolis - Brazil
Date Reviewed: May 6, 2002
Strengths: Four bar linkage, beautiful, all pivots with bearing, adjustable 5" to 9" rear travel, very strong, frame monococque made by Intense, light, good lateral rigidity.
Weaknesses: 1)The tire touch the seat tube if adjusted to 9" rear travel and is necessary to use 24 wheel 2) Adjustable to 8" rear travel using two bottom out bumper in the shock. 3) The shock is Coupe Deluxe. I think this bike deserves a Pro Deluxe or a Fox RC.
Bottom Line:
A very good bike for free ride and amateur DH. The FSR rear suspension is excellent. Inverting the bar of the FSR the travel change of 5" to 9", but is necessary a coil 850. The tire touch the seat tube, else if you use a 24 wheel. If use 26 whell and put another bottom out bumper in the shock, you you have a 8" rear travel. If you like ride for fun DH and do not want big expense, this bike is right for you. But you need to buy disc brakes and a good fork.
Favorite Trail: Três Pedras - Nova Veneza/SC - Brazil
Duration Product Used: 3 months
Price Paid:
$1500.00
Similar Products Used: GT DHi, Haro MX3 single pivot, Cannondale V1000, Kona Stink, Bullit, Super 8, RC3
Bike Setup: Stem Calypso DH 50 mm, disc brakes Tektro Gemini, fork RST Delta 130 mm, rear derailleur XT, front derailleur LX, crankset STX, rims Ritchey, tires Specialized Evil 2.3, Haro handlebar and seatpost, saddle SDG Big Boy, pedals Wellgo.
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Submitted by
AZX X-men
a Weekend Warrior
from Vancouver Wa
Date Reviewed: May 25, 2001
Strengths: 500 was frame only Cool looks, all around fun, functional.
Weaknesses: too many pivots
Bottom Line:
Hey guys, You problably haven't tried it, but the bike gets 9+ inches of rear wheel travel. You better believe if. One recomendation though. Get a 24 inch rear wheel with some big Intense tires, and a heavy heavy weight spring to even out the leverage of the swing arm. Ingredent for one a$$ kicking ride. Wonderfull for riding off roofs.
Just updating my first review.Still performs fantastic.I have upgraded to rockshox psylo xc,chris king headset,and thomson elite stem.I have seriously abused this bike and it comes back for more.Iwill probably continue to upgrade components but I will keep this chasis forever.
Similar Products Used: kona stinky,iron horse g-spot
Bike Setup: HARO MX2,rockshox coupe deluxe,rockshox psylo xc,sdg big boy sadle,grimeca disc hubs,vuelta excaliber freeride wheels,hayes hmx discs,xt cranks,xt rear derailer,stxrc E type front derailer,lx shifters,chris king headset,thomson elite stem,avid speed dial levers
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Submitted by
jeff dobbs
a Weekend Warrior
from vermont, IL.
Date Reviewed: March 19, 2001
Strengths: 6 Inches of Plush Travel, Climbs like a CAT, sucks up little as well as BIG,relatively light for 6 inch F/R DH bike!
Weaknesses: No adjustable dampening on fork(RST DELTA HL 5 inch)
No Weaknesses at all for frame and rear travel
Bottom Line:
Killer Bike!! Takes Big drops in stride,Kick Butt ACCELERATION, Easely out preforms me!!! If FREE RIDING IS Your GAME This is the bike for YOU AND ME!
Bike Setup: Upgraded XT rear derailer and XT cranks, KooKa Crank Case Hayes HMX 1 Disc,Vuelta X-Caliber wheels,Grimeca cartridge bearing hubs,ODESSEY Platform's
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Submitted by
Kaku Ito
a Downhiller
from Setagaya, Tokyo Japan
Date Reviewed: January 4, 2001
Strengths: Since I modified most of the parts, I will be talking about the frame. Looks great. 4-bar linkage rear mechanism. Tough. Survived with a couple of big crashes. Relatively low saddle hight which is great for short person like me (5'2").
Weaknesses: Not light. The rear suspension (RockShox Coupe Deluxe) does not give you enough travel for the expert course.
Bottom Line:
Good buy for the price. You will get the feel and the look of downhill model bike. You probably will consider swapping the frame after going to some downhill courses, though, because you most likely would want more rear suspension travel for downhill course. I'm changing mine to KHS Dominatrax. It could be used as a freeride bike, but I preffer riding my Mongoose NX-Dual for that purpose.
Similar Products Used: Giant ATX TEAM-2DH, Mongoose MX20 (Japanese distributor's aniversary version of'99 NX9.X), Mongoose NX-Dual. Giant XCX-RS2.
Bike Setup: RST Sigma '98 front suspension with 160mm of travel. 24inch Araya rims. Bazooka Hubs. Formula Hydro-disk brakes. Simano LX crank set. Mr. Control chain guide. Cully pedals.
As a product manager at HARO, It is amazing to me that someone can review a bike (framesets only in that case) that has just arrived in our warehouse recently and that no one has ridden so far besides me... We have just received some frames late March and I assembled one for a complete review of the finished product.With a Rock-Shox BOXXER 151, HAYES disk brakes and the stock Coupe-Deluxe shock, this bike is working great (6-1/4 of rear travel)...I just rode it this week-end at Telonic in Laguna Beach and it felt really great...Because of the Monocoque construction, the bike is light though rigid and accurate. I still ride my own '98 SUNN RADICAL+, and the HARO MX3 or MX2 frame fared pretty well comparably...I was going faster through some sections there than with my SUNN, which is a very good DH bike (just check the results of last year at the highest level of DH racing...).If you doubt it, I invite you to come and race at the 2nd round of the So-Cal state championships in Lake Morena (San-Diego, Ca) on April 10th.I will be there and I will be racing that frameset with a full DH set-up.The complete bikes that will use the same frame have a different equipment and are not sold in full DH configuration. They have a more Free-ride set-up. For now though, they are not available and have not been ridden by anyone yet...Wishing great rides to all of you whatever it is that you like...
