Bike Setup: I have it setup to a dirt jumper and the frame is made well
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Submitted by
Nick M.
a Downhiller
from West Milford Nj USA
Date Reviewed: April 5, 2008
Strengths: EVERY THING: The Stock parts worked for my for over 3 years. It took countless of time off hitting things. I loved this bike ) even thought its my first dj, Freeride, and Dh bike
Weaknesses: Chain guard sucks but hey noting is perfect.
Bottom Line:
kickass bike the bike for everything and it works very well at Daibloin Vernon Nj I love Riding this bike and its great
Similar Products Used: None the bruiser is one of a kind
Bike Setup: Every thing else is stock besides forks beacuse the Marzochis MZComps bottomed out and stopped working. Now i have the old Manuito X Vert
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Submitted by
conor cusack
a Downhiller
from Mt Gretna PA USA
Date Reviewed: September 29, 2006
Strengths: Just about everything
Weaknesses: The chain guide system sucked balls but i got an E 13 SRS and thats a true chain guide/bash guard
Bottom Line:
It is an amazing bike for dirt jumping/downhill. I ride it everyday and i thrash this bike it hit many trees resulting in one of them snapping and it is still fine and dont forget the countless wrecks.
Similar Products Used: Trek 4500, Giant Yukon, not really similar, I like the Bruiser best.
Bike Setup: ...Stock -_-
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Submitted by
Casey Milham
a Weekend Warrior
from Houston, Tx
Date Reviewed: March 27, 2006
Strengths: Hardtail frame and bike in general is ultra strong.
Weaknesses: Folded the Truvativ stock chain ring right away. Front disc keeps coming loose. Derailer wire needs replacing. Chain guides need adjusting...chain keeps popping off at the worst possible times.
Bottom Line:
Other than the few minor issues I had with my USED Bruiser 2, the bike is a dreamcycle. Great for Freeride, Down Hill, Trails, and Dirt Jumping.
Similar Products Used: Test rode some of the P. series Specialized Free Ride bikes. A bit over=priced for me.
Bike Setup: Got mine used off ebay so don't know if my setup is stock, but I'm running really thick indestructable Sun rims, Truvativ Hussefelt crankset, Arial disc brakes, Shimano Deore derailer, and Manitou Black susension forks.
Strengths: Indestructability. Takes whatever you throw at it. Very light as well but extremley strong. Probably the best HT frame on the market, but no one knows about it..
Weaknesses: some stock parts such as the hubs and chainguide should be replaced right away.
Bottom Line:
Indestructable. great bike for either Djing, street, and for my use- freeriding. IVe takin this baby off a 10 ft to flat, no problem for this beast.
Similar Products Used: crappy bikes not as superior as the bruiser 2
Bike Setup: Bruiser 2 frame Marzocchi Drop Off Triples Avid Mechanicals 203 mm discs. Sram X.9 Drivetrain. Raceface Northshore crankset. Pig DH pro headset Maxxis Mobster tires.
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Submitted by
Tom Berna
a Weekend Warrior
from College Station, TX, USA
Date Reviewed: November 12, 2004
Strengths: Incredible Geometry Solid Frame Can be thrown around
Weaknesses: No one knows about it... hard to get a good resale value for it. (that's the only thing though :-))
Bottom Line:
I loooove This bike!!! - i've had a blast on it! - It's a great bike for all around jumping off crap - freeriding - n - such -- good as any mountain bike for trials -- a little small for cross country for me (i'm 6'1) - a toy everyone needs!
Strengths: burly strong frame, strong wheels although they are no names, great feel to the bike, nice cranks
Weaknesses: does have a few but i'm happy to upgrade chainguide did nothing, chainring bent several times, marzocchi tabs broke (got it replaced by marzocchi), standard levers, not so good tyres... other than that its a killer bike. u can't really just buy a bike and everything is perfect
Bottom Line:
This is a great bike, one of the best bikes i've bought (even though i haven't bought that many). great bike to build up, strong and reliable frame and wheels. all the major components are reliable, but the smaller things tend to brake or not preform aswell such as the chainguide and tyres other than that, i love the bike to bits. u ever want a hardtail, u could get a p3 but everyone has one. go a trek bruiser 2, FARKIN awesome bikes and the frames are hot!
Similar Products Used: Mongoose manuver, avanti barracuda
Bike Setup: Trek bruiser 2 frame, marzocchi z4's, hayes hydro f/r, xt rear d, identiti chainguide, kore stem with azonic riser, funn souljam pedals, sdg saddle, kujo r/tioga f, cane creek s6 headset..... i'd really like to get some long travel forks on this bike but im in high school so i can't afford much
Strengths: Industructable frame with awesome geometry. Noname but strong wheels. Strong parts all around, bar, stem frame etc. Awesome Marzocchi fork and great braking power from the avid discs.
Weaknesses: I broke the disc tabs on the fork. Chain guide sucks, Doesn't keep the chain, luod and noisy and there is no bashguard. Cheap Brake levers
Bottom Line:
Great bike for the price. Most parts you won't break unless you are a complete hack. Oh and for the Canadians I paid 1000 Canadian used. Comes with Deore/LX shifting which works quite well. Its a bit of a beast but I love it. Even though the rims are no name they are strong. Haven't had them trued once yet! If you are an Intermediate freerider or just looking for a second bike this is the one to get. To bad they dont make them anymore.
Similar Products Used: My friends Devinchi Hucker. It comes close but no cigar.
Bike Setup: 2002 Dirt Jumper fork, swapped chain guide for an Evil e.thirteen, Tioga Dh seat, NRG pedals, Dh tubes.
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Submitted by
Mike Palgan
a Downhiller
from Warsaw, Poland
Date Reviewed: November 20, 2002
Strengths: very stiff, thick rear triangle, big BB clearance, likes big forks (once i tried UD-150 on it and it was very nice, the bike was still very manouverable ), lifetime warranty!!
Weaknesses: the "thingies" for the hydrolic cabels, they should use the norco system. Zip-ties rule!!!
Bottom Line:
I like to consider it as a freeride hardtail. This baby gives you confidence, you just KNOW that it's not going to brake. It turns when you just think about it, accelerates even better. Buy it, put a 6 inch fork and jump. Satisfaction guarantied... and even if you brake it - lifetime warranty!!!!
Bike Setup: Grmeca sys.8 F/R, judy XL (saving money for junior :-)), Mavic 321 rims, MRP, ....
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Submitted by
Dave
a Downhiller
from Vancouver BC Canada
Date Reviewed: September 23, 2002
Strengths: Solid, Beautiful, Cool looking frame.
Weaknesses: None
Bottom Line:
first thing first - im a freerider not a downhiller.
now that that is out of the way, i bought just the frame for 400 canadian. It is the best hardtail frame i have ever ridden, i espesically like the rectangular down tube, it looks really cool. i cant say any thing bad about it, indestructible and stiff as hell , it just begs you to go off bigger stuff, and fly! i havent taken it off anything bigger than 6 feet YET. but it shure is gonna be there when i do.
Bike Setup: Trek bruiser two frame 16", judy c's (never buy these forks they are really crappy for anything but XC)
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Submitted by
Joseph Sosettini
a Weekend Warrior
from Los Angeles, CA, US
Date Reviewed: August 30, 2002
Strengths: This bike has gotta be like the worst thing out there. I know people like it, but mine keeps brakin' left and write. Too many stiff types of problems.
Weaknesses: The stiff problems lead to a lack of flexibility and so my headtube melted into the top tube which is down near the down tube. I mean this thing falls a part every time I write it which is like every day, whenever I can on saturdays
Bottom Line:
If you can get outta the house and into a trek shop like sammy's hopefully they got a ruckus you can buy. but still unless you do roofdrops and flips over cars this mite hold up better for you dan for me. I like free riding hard kore so i really abuze dis bike even dough my spokes are twisted out now and the headset is down under the peddles and stuff. at least the reflectors they put on are still there cos urban a salt involves streeet riting where traffic flows, good luck to you... a give it lots of toorduls cos yuz guyz made it look good on the site, so i dont wanna roon it for noone whose also impressionabel like i wuz to buy a bike unseen. thanks, email me if you wanna badmouth trek. gt ruckus rules, the name that is.!!!
Similar Products Used: Whyte with the crazy front. GT RUCKUS, which has the baddest name if you go for that kind of stuff. Azonic breaks all the time too, but I don't write it that much; so the trek brakes more.
Bike Setup: as of this riding, the bike is a heap of aluminum, bashed up seat (my groin still heards), the bottom bracket is somewhere a few blocks away where I last did that urban a salt riting and the tires i got now are specialized, i forget which ones i got, they're cheap dough.
Weaknesses: the chain guide sucks a$$! it is so noisy and did i mention it sucks? get an MRP or a mr. dirt gizmo
Bottom Line:
this is a great trails and jumping bike for urban riding, it has an indestructable frame, nice cranks once they've been lock tighted, wheels are nice, tires are pretty nice too, not as many pinch flats as others say, i think the tubes that come in it suck so you should get some intense dh tubes instead (thick a$$ tubes!) this is a great bike for the extreme new school shredder on a budget (like me) go out and get one if you can find one! they're awesome bikes. sigh someday i'll be the proud owner of a knoa stAb primo, a frickin awesome dh and fr bike, but in the mean time, before i'm filthy stinkin' rich this'll do just fine. the trek bruiser, a truly awesome bike that can take everything you can give it and then some, you're a damn fool if you don't go out tommorow and get one
Bike Setup: large frame (16") shimano xt rear derailer, odi rogue lock-on grips, THE wedgie saddle, avid AD 3 brake levers, carbon fiber headset spacers. soon also to be replaced chainguide w/Mrp, and (maybe) a marzocchi dirt jumper instead of the z-4's
Strengths: This is a very solid, disc-ready frame with a tough (silver) paint finish. The strong wheels are matched to superb Kenda tyres. The groupset is cheap but strong and, with the exception of the exploding cassette, is all still there after half a year. The bike is equally at home on the dirts or street. With looks that beg for you to go big every time you ride you find yourself in the air enjoying a nice stable flight very easily. If you weren't ready for the landing and catch the lip, the bike just laughs back at you. The Bomber forks take the front end down smoothly, and consistently outperform my RockShox Judys. On a true cross-country ride I expected it to be hard going, so I let my girlfriend ride it while I took my proper XC bike. Some might say that was cruel, but she enjoyed the bike and wasn't noticably more tired than me at the end of the ride (6 hours off road with 1000 metres vertical altitude gain and 2000 metres downhill).
Weaknesses: I test-rode the 2002 model, but when my order arrived it was the 2001 bike. I was more than a little pissed off, mainly because I didn't want a silver bike or a dual chainring setup! The saddle was too sticky and kept getting caught on my trousers - many a crash was caused by that so I got an Azonic DH and love it. For dirt jumping, especially at 5'3" tall, the frame is a little too big. I can't imagine anyone getting the 16 inch frame for jumping! On a similar note, I will be swapping the over long 175 mm cranks for some 165 mm ones as soon as I can. The chain does bang on the chainstay a lot, so I wrapped the stay in an old tyre which helped a bit. I didn't like the Avid mechanical brakes because they needed a lot of maintenance so I went for V brakes which I'm very happy with. I'll get some hydraulic discs later on. The only thing that broke on the bike was the SRAM 5 cassette. After a sidehop drop of only 2 feet, the chain ripped most of the teeth off one sprocket and ran round into the spokes, forcing the cassette to warp. When i examined it more closely, the small bolt that holds all the sprockets together had sheared too. I still got home though (after a lot of rebuilding and botching) which is a testament to the strength of the rest of the components.
Bottom Line:
If you're taller than about 5'5" and in the market for a good-value, upgradeable, indestructible hardtail then the bruiser two is for you. Get V Brakes and a new saddle and you're off!
Similar Products Used: Test ridden Norco 125cc - found it heavier to ride.
Bike Setup: As stock 2001 but now with LX 8 speed cassette, Azonic DH saddle, Azonic pedals and V Brakes. I liked the Kenda tyres so much that I put them on my freeride bike and now ride the Trek with Schwalbe S.P.A.C.E. rubber.
Strengths: The frame & the wheels. Avid discs. Marzocchi Z4 Bomber.
Weaknesses: The crank creaks and constantly comes loose. Brake levers. Generic (but indestructible) parts. If you keep the stock pedals, buy shingaurds. Headset feels loose. Dont really like the front sprocket, Its weak and the chain guide makes it impossible to use a guard.
Bottom Line:
Great bike for urban riding. The highest i've dropped is about 6 feet and it didn't flinch, and I weigh 225. I think that its really well balanced, making it easier to do wheelies/front manuals. And again, the frame and wheels are ridiculously strong. This bike will hurt you before you hurt it. If you do a lot of urban riding you need to buy this bike, because for the money, you won't find anything stronger.
