We designed the Driver 8 to be a general duty, daily driver gravity hauler. It is a super tough, super versatile bike that is ideal for life at Whistler. It's a damn good long travel high speed trail bike (Wait, is that freeriding, or all-mountain high speed trail riding? What about low speed, sphincter pinching gnarl? Does it speak with a Canadian accent? Man, this gets confusing...)
Submitted by
jotaro13
a Downhiller
from Brighton UK Date Reviewed: November 15, 2009
Favorite Trail:
Cwm Carn
Duration Product Used:
Less than 1 month
Price Paid:
$6600.00
Purchased At:
Evans Cyles Gatwick
Strengths:
Plush, tough, great travel but pedals well, pops off lips, doesn't feel too much like a heavy bike. If you are not sure you need a full on race downhiller, but want something that will thrash and wont break, this is it.
Weaknesses:
Despite the possibility to raise the seatpost to a good pedaling position you only want to be pedalling it to the dop of your downhill run, not back up!
I built mine up with Totems but am going to put Boxxers on it to equal out the travel to 8 inches front and rear. If you use Totems be sure to run lots and lots of rear sag or you'll be front heavy. I didn't run quite enough perhaps and maybe my forks were a bit on the soft side but the result was that the front wheel occasionally Jack-knifed in tight corners, resulting eventually in a broken wrist! But I put it down to inexperience with set up. Outside of sharp cornering where handling was off it felt like an amazing bike.
Similar Products Used:
none
Bike Setup:
Totem coil forks (soon to be Boxxers)
vivid shock
saint brakes
saint deraileur
saint cranks
Hope pro2 hubs
Mavic 721 rims
hope reducer headset
thomson 50mm stem
Titec el norte scoper prolite seatpost
Bottom Line:
Great bike, cant wait to get back on it when my wrist is better.
Value Rating:Overall Rating:
Submitted by
hoekstra_joest
a Downhiller
from Geneva, Switzerland Date Reviewed: August 3, 2009
Favorite Trail:
Jura, Saleve, Finale Ligure
Duration Product Used:
3 months
Price Paid:
$6000.00
Purchased At:
Hotpoint, Genevea, S
Strengths:
Super quality frame build. Bike does everything; it pedals, it jumps, it handels technical trails very well.
Weaknesses:
I poped off one of the grease nipples during the first service. It didn't stop me from riding and SC, my importer and the dealer were very quick in suppling a new nipple and getting the problems solved.
Similar Products Used:
Cannondale Perp
Bike Setup:
Rockshox Boxxer Team fork
Mavic EX823 rims
Hope Pro II hubs
Hope M4 200mm disks
Goodridge brake and gear cable
Shimano Saint rear derailleur
Shimano Saint crank
Spank 777 bar
Oury lock on grips
Maxxis tires
Rockshox Vivid shok
Truvative stem
e-19 chain guide
Sram rear cassette
Specialized freeride seat
Thomson seatpost
Bottom Line:
Superb!
Value Rating:Overall Rating:
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