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Submitted by
Stonerider
a Weekend Warrior
from NC
Date Reviewed: October 25, 2009 | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$1695.00 | | Purchased At: | bikesdirect | | Strengths: | titanium frame, price, components | | Weaknesses: | none so far | | Similar Products Used: | trek 4300 | | Bike Setup: | stock, xt rear derailleur, slx shifters and front derailleur, ritchie seatpost, stem, and flat bar, avid juicy seven brakes, vuelta wheels, kenda small block 8 tires | | Bottom Line: | For the price you can't find another titanium frame with these components. I whipped out the credit card and within the week UPS guy was delivering the bike to me. It took me about an hour to put everthing together. The frame is absolutely beautiful. I looking forward to many years with this frame. | Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
mtbhowie
a Cross Country Rider
from Philly, PA USA
Date Reviewed: September 19, 2009 | | Favorite Trail: | Birthday Trail (SM Calif.) | | Duration Product Used: | 1 Year | | Price Paid: |
$1649.00 | | Purchased At: | Bikes Direct | | Strengths: | I have been riding this bike for about a year now. Before this purchase I'd been riding FS for 8+ years so going hard tail again was all about weight for me. The price for this bike with the components made this an incredible offer. Fork is very sweet and the wheel set is still relatively true after about a year of fat ass riding (I’m about 210 lbs. so I can punish wheel sets). Over-all I’m very happy with the bike. Handles really well on the trail, I too replaced the straight bars for some Ritchey risers (big improvement). Could I race this bike, probably not, but it’s perfect for the recreational riding I do and very comfy for a HT. Love the 2.35 tires and with risers and cook bros. pedals weight still comes in at 24lbs. (I doubt it ever weighed 22.5 like they claimed, but I’m ok with it). Frame must be stiff cause I don’t notice any flex and like I said I’m a Clydesdale.
Good buy – you bet. Oh, but just took the first really major fall and broke the rear derailleur hanger off! BD has replacements @ $20.99 (seems like a lot) but what a hassle. I fell right on it so I doubt any hanger would have survived. Better the hanger than the frame. | | Weaknesses: | flat bar puts you in a bad position replace right away. I would have preferred a longer top tube, but geometry is the same as some Giants so it must be somewhat common. Oh and grips sucks. | | Similar Products Used: | (HT's) Kona Hei-Hei; Klein Pulse; Supergo ALU.
(FS's) Specialized Comp FSR; Santa Cruz Superlight; Turner | | Bike Setup: | Basically stock, but Ritchey Riser bar replaced the stock flat bar. Cook Bros. egg beater pedals. I removed the frame decals and polished the top, head and down tube so it look cool, and no one knows it's a "moto'pain" discount bike. | | Bottom Line: | For the money, this bike is cool. The parts package alone is probably 1400.00 of the 1650 charged. Plus i got free shipping and didn't have to deal with the lame shop guys.
If you're going to buy a bike online know you're giving something up. you cannot go back if there's a small creek, or you don't like something. These bikes come "partially" assembled. You should be ready to wrench some stuff on your own, and take some of the little annoyances that may come up. Full hydraulic breaks, a 100m SID race fork, very capable parts package like you'd find on $2k+ bikes, and full (high quality) Ti frame are what you're getting so take the extra cash and shut up.
| Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
noibs
a Cross Country Rider
from Southwestern, Colorado, USA
Date Reviewed: May 8, 2009 | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$1695.00 | | Purchased At: | Bikes Direct | | Strengths: | I've owned two other ti-frame mountain bikes. One was a Litespeed and the other an Airborne. The Fantom Pro ti frame is better than both. The welds are excellent. The triangle-shaped downtube (for better rigidity) and the slight S-bend seatstays are things you would expect from an elite ti frame manufacturer.
The frame geometry is pretty standard for a hardtail today. Compared to bikes a decade ago, the length of the top tube is a little shorter (which I prefer).
The stock tires (Kenda Small Block 8's, 2.35x26) are a great choice for a hardtail. The large air volume helps the lack of rear suspension and the overall traction is good with 20-25 pounds of pressure. They have low rolling resistance as well. | | Weaknesses: | I ride cross country. The frame can accomodate a really wide tire in the back. As a result, the chainstays are wider than you normally find on a cross country MB. It's easy to keep clicking your heels against the chainstays if you use clipless pedals with float in both directions.
The chain sucks. I had no plans to be stranded 20 miles form home, so I immediately replaced it with an SRAM PC991 cross-step chain. Bikes Direct likes to talk bike weight for its higher-end bikes. As a result, they use chains that are light but which can't be trusted (in my opinion).
It comes with a fairly heavy 11-34 cassette. Bikes Direct is always being criticized for putting Ultegra 12-27 cassettes on all of its "Fly" bikes; however, I would have preferred the 12-27. That's trivial.
| | Similar Products Used: | Litespeed Tocoa and Airborne Lucky Strike. | | Bike Setup: | Standard parts kit for the Fantom Ti Pro except: Thomson seatpost, WTB Laser V Pro saddle (light but more padding than the one that came with the bike), Titec Pluto Carbon stem, Easton Monkeylite SL low riser bars, SRAM PC991 chain. | | Bottom Line: | A good or bad hardtail is the sum of the frame, fork and parts. The ti frame is quite good and the parts kit is incredible for a $1700 ti bike. The Rockshox SID Race in 100mm is a great choice for this bike.
The wheels are Vuelta XRP Pro Superlight--second to the Team Superlight. The claimed weight is about 1800 grams, which makes them just a bit lighter than Mavic 717's, Shimano XT hubs and DT 2.0/1.8 spokes. The wheels came prefectly true and I'll report back in a few months regarding their durability. They are very smooth right now.
But...even without wheels, the $1700 price is fantastic. At some point I'll probably replace the wheels with a 1500 gram set from Bicycle Wheels Warehouse even if the stock wheels are fine. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
eujinc
a Cross Country Rider
from Ellicott City, MD, USA
Date Reviewed: January 21, 2009 | | Favorite Trail: | Patapsco | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Price Paid: |
$1695.00 | | Purchased At: | bikesdirect.com | | Strengths: | Climbs like a crazed mountain goat. Handles technical trails well and very efficient in smooth singletracks. A very light and strong bike. I have clocked about 450 miles so far and loving every moment of it. Ordering the bike through bikesdirect had been very easy. The service and responses have been good. | | Weaknesses: | Unlike the MTBR review which indicated that the handlebar was a riser bar, the production version of this bike came with a Ritchey Comp flat handlebar. I found that the bar was too narrow and made the bike very fidgety in technical trails.
Replacing the bar with a Ritchey riser bar added almost 4" to the length and increased the back sweep from 5 deg to 9 deg. This new bar made the bike more stable in rocky and technical ascends, and much more comfortable in long rides.
The Small Block 8s tires that came with the bike were only good for dry, hard packed surfaces and are not ideal for
all-season East Coast riding. I replaced them with Panaracers Smoke and Dart and what a huge improvement that made especially in mud, snow, ice, slippery roots and rocks. | | Similar Products Used: | Specialized Stumpjumper HT. | | Bike Setup: | Replaced the following components:
- Ritchey Comp flat bar with a Ritchey WCS Carbon Rizer Bar
- Kenda Small Block 8s (26 x 2.35) with Panaracers Smoke & Dart (26 x 2.1)
- Big 42T chain ring with a BBG bashguard
- Shimano M520 clipless pedals
The following components are stock:
Fork - Rockshox SID RACE 100mm
Crankset - FSA MegaEXO V-Drive Aluminum 22/32/42T
Bottom Bracket - FSA MegaEXO External Bearing System
Front Derailleur - Shimano SLX Top-swing
Rear Derailleur - Shimano XT 2009 Shadow Top-Normal
Shifters - Shimano SLX RapidFire Plus 27 speed with push-pull release
Cassette - SRAM PG980 11-34T
Chain - KMC Super narrow X9SL for 9 speed
Hubs - Black Anodized Vuelta XRP PRO SL Edition, Precison Bearing with QR
Spokes - Double Butted Stainless steel black finish with alloy nipples
Rims - Vuleta XRP PRO SuperLite Disc, doublewall aluminum/eyelets
Brakes - Avid Juicy 7 hydraulic, 160mm rotor
Brake Levers - Avid Juicy 7 hydraulic Black
Headset - FSA Orbit XL II cartridge bearing for threadless
Stem - Ritchey aluminum 31.8mm clamp diameter
Grips - Ritchey WCS Hex foam
Saddle - Skye Turbo saddle Crn/Ti rails
Seat Post - Ritchey Aluminum 31.6x350mm
Seat Post Clamp - Super Light Polished Aluminum | | Bottom Line: | Can't beat the price for a strong, light, great handling, complete Titanium frame bike with very decent components. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
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