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Submitted by
nick
a Weekend Warrior
from shreveport, LA, usa
Date Reviewed: April 20, 2008 | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Price Paid: |
$350.00 | | Purchased At: | milewidesports.com | | Strengths: | Hell of a bike, good welds, low stand over. Responds nicely when adjusted right. High bottom bracket gives plenty of clearance. Great for free riding and down hill. LOOKS good too! | | Weaknesses: | Nothing consequential, a bit heavy, but not enough to hold you back. Rear shock needs a lot of tuning before a good ride. | | Similar Products Used: | First full suspension bike, owned a Marine quake 9.0 before. | | Bike Setup: | All XT components, forte disk brakes, 110mm ritchey stem, raceface crank, manitou xvert (changing fork soon), vuelta excalibur FR rims. | | Bottom Line: | This bike is awesome for someone looking for a great free ride bike, or some one who just wants to go fast without fear of whats ahead. The biggest mistake people make is adjusting the rear shock without reading about it, it works best with 2-3 inches of sag and responds much better with proper adjustment. Over all this bike is an awesome free ride bike, it has handled everything I've put it through so far and it feels like it can take quite a bit more. If your just a casual trail rider, I'd go hard tail. | Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Bromine
a Weekend Warrior
from Santa Cruz
Date Reviewed: March 5, 2008 | | Favoriate Trail: | Mailboxes, Braille | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Price Paid: |
$400.00 | | Purchased At: | Frame only on ebay | | Strengths: | Stout frame with nice welds and paint, tons of standover room, minimal pedal feedback, good build quality, and cheap. | | Weaknesses: | Heavy frame (9.5 lbs. with stock 5th Element shock), bobs like crazy without shock platform cranked up, bottom bracket is way too high (15.5"), head & seat tube angles are steep, cable routing is all over the frame, and the cockpit is cramped. | | Similar Products Used: | Santa Cruz Bullit, Intense 6.6, Marin Mt. Vision | | Bike Setup: | Fox 32 Vanilla fork (140mm), XT shifters, drivetrain and brakes, 70mm stem w/ riser bar, Sun Rhinolite rims on XT hubs, IRC TrailBear tires. | | Bottom Line: | The geometry gives it the feel of a cross-country bike with all-mountain travel.
I bought the frame to hang my old parts on for wintertime mud and abuse (and spare my other bikes from the thrashing). It's a fun bike to ride, but quirky. The bottom bracket is very high, so I sit uncomfortably high in the saddle. The head and seat tube angles are steeper than what I'm used to and the combination of the BB height and steep seat/head angles can make descending sketchy, even with a lowered seat. My fix was to shorten the stem from 90mm to 70mm and switch from a straight to a setback seatpost, which helped the bike feel more balanced. The chainstays are pretty long and there's tons of tire clearance and the standover height is very low.
The original shock is ridiculously heavy, even for a coil-over. I immediately changed it out for a platform air shock and dropped 1.3 lbs. off the bike. The rear brake line and dérailleur cable housing is insanely long and required me to buy the longest brake hose I could get.
Overall, It's a bike that can do everything, but it does nothing particularly well. It bobs badly unless the platform is turned way up, but climbs pretty well considering how tall the bike is and has very little pedal feedback. The suspension is very active and soaks up the hits well, but the steep angles make the cockpit cramped, the steering response twitchy and the front wheel tuck under on descents and fast turns.
The bike is at its best in rocky single track. It's nimble at low speed,, the high BB clears most obstacles, and the 6" travel soaks up mistakes well. However, the bike feels unstable on steep or fast descents.
| Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Dave
a Weekend Warrior
from Lago Maggiore , Italy
Date Reviewed: July 31, 2006 | | Duration Product Used: | 6 months | | Strengths: | This is one tough bike! I have used and abused it repeatedly and it just keeps coming back for more. No flex. | | Weaknesses: | This has nothing to do with the "product", but the only weakness I can find is me. | | Similar Products Used: | Santa Cruz Heckler; Balfa Bel-air; Giant Reign; Norco Atomic | | Bike Setup: | Marzocchi Z150; El Camino; X-9; Holzfeller; Sun Singlewide/Woodman | | Bottom Line: | This is the best bike I've ever ridden. It is just too easy to find "The Flow". The Fifth Element coil makes climbing almost a pleasure, and coming down a real buzz, smooth and fast. With 150mm front and back it's just enough to make riding fun and technical. I recommend this bike to those who like fast and challangeing trails with drops and jumps of a moderate degree. I haven't done any drops more than 1.5 meters, but I'm sure it can handle it (I'm its only weakness). So the bottom line is: If you have the means, I highly recommend it. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
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