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Mountain Bikes!

Discussion in 'General' started by Trainwreck, Jun 9, 2020.

  1. Senna

    Senna Well-Known Member

    Those new Supercalibers look sweet.
     
    ekraft84 likes this.
  2. Seiko

    Seiko Well-Known Member

    I absolutely love my Transition Spur. I had the opportunity to purchase one this past March and the bike does not disappoint. I have always had higher travel trail bikes with my previous bike being a Specialized Stumpjumper (160/150.) The best thing about the Spur is that it makes riding EVERY trail a blast including the flatter less technical stuff. Unless I was riding really rough stuff or at the bike park, the SJ was overkill on most of my local trails. The Spur is stupid fast downhill and climbs like a goat. It has me out riding longer and faster. For now, I’ll rent the DH bike at the park for the very few times that I am able to get there.
     
  3. tropicoz

    tropicoz Well-Known Member

    Ended up buying a Pivot Trail 429! It gets delivered on Friday so I'll have the weekend to go out and rail this thing.
     
    shakazulu12 and Senna like this.
  4. Pants Romano

    Pants Romano Well-Known Member

    I absolutely love my Pivot Trail 429. I feel it's a great all-around machine for mid-Atlantic riding where there's a mix of terrain, and lots of climbing. The bike climbs very well, handles great and stays composed in the rough stuff. If you're going to ride one bike, it a great choice. Bullet-proof reliability with the XT drive and brakes.

    After two years with the bike, I'll say that tire choice is a big factor in how the bike rides. I like Rekon/Rekon Race when it's dry as they are light and roll well. If it's wet the DHRII/Rekon or Forecaster, for traction. I run 20 PSI without inserts, but with lots of Stans.

    Only "knock" on the bike for me is that it is a bit on the heavy side for XC. On my cheap scale it is 29-ish with light tires and 30.5-ish with the heavier tires. I currently running a fairly heavy cassette (SunRace 50/11) as that was what was available at the time I needed one, and the stock ST Swiss 1700 wheelset (superboost spacing).

    As much as I love this bike, I may be ruined after Saturday. I'm demoing a Pivot Mach 4 SL World Cup build with carbon everything, XTR and Live Valve at Canaan Valley. Is going to weigh something like 22 pounds. May ruin me for life! :)

    https://global.pivotcycles.com/products/mach-4-sl
     
    tropicoz likes this.
  5. tropicoz

    tropicoz Well-Known Member

    I know I'll end up changing things up on the bike trying to shave weight, starting with the wheels (it has the aluminum 1900's). My Trance is carbon everything, so I'm spoiled with how light that bike is.
    but damn, that Mach 4 is ridiculous!
     
  6. Senna

    Senna Well-Known Member

    I thought the 429 was pretty firmly in “trail bike” territory, no?
     
  7. Pants Romano

    Pants Romano Well-Known Member

    It's a trail bike for sure. My buddy has the Firebird, and the FB definitely a step up in burliness (and weight).

    It's seems that the latest crop of XC bikes are shading towards trail in their geometries and travel, while trail bikes are choosing to either lean towards XC or enduro.

    It's a bit overwhelming when you think about it. Travel ranges from 100/0; 100/100; 120/0; 120/100; 120/120; 130/120; 140/120; 140/130 all in that segment.

    "It's an XC that thinks it's an enduro..." "It's an enduro that climbs like a downcounty..." "It's a trail bike that rides like a XC..."

    And let's not forget the newest marketing hype "You can throw some bags on it and becomes a bikepacking rig! "

    Jeez! :)

    In my mind, I want just want to be on the lightest, fastest rolling bike that can handle the terrain I am riding.
     
    tropicoz likes this.
  8. TurboBlew

    TurboBlew Registers Abusers

    for the riders that want "antlers"... They are actually comfortable when I took a bike with them on, for a test ride.
    [​IMG]
     
  9. Pants Romano

    Pants Romano Well-Known Member

    Was able to demo the Pivot Mach 4 SL with Live Valve. 120 in front, 100 out back. First time on the electronic suspension and it is all that and a bag of chips.

    https://global.pivotcycles.com/products/mach-4-sl

    I currently ride the Trail 429, and the front half of the Mach 4 felt very familiar. The rear felt a bit more compact and the seat to pedal felt a bit more upright. I'd have look at the geometry numbers, but that's the way it felt. Overall, the bike is about 5 pounds lighter than my bike. The frame is thinner, it had carbon wheels and XTR everywhere.

    The Live Valve was really, really cool. We rode a 9 mile loop that had a bit of climbing, a bit of descending and a lot of the chunky rock gardens that Canaan is famous for. The bike felt perfect nearly everywhere. What was really cool was the suspension worked on small and big hits and then when you pedaled there was no sense of bob or compression from the back end. Where my Trail would have wallowed over the multiple rock hits, this bike stayed composed. This allowed me to sit and spin over a lot of stuff that I would have stood up for on my Trail 429. Net effect was that I was able to keep pedaling and apply power and to maintain momentum better over the longer obstacles. Very cool. Rolling off larger drops, the front end just took it and the rebound was perfect every time. Amazing.

    The only down to the live valve that I found was that you cannot change the level while riding. There are 5 setting levels, with 1 being "softest" and 5 being firmest. I was riding on Level 3 which was the "middle" intervention setting. On the rougher descent, I would have liked to toggle to a Level 2, but the button is mounted underneath the top tube facing towards the crank. Were I ride, there are long climbs where I normally flip the rear shock to the "firm" position to climb, then flip it open for the descents. If I had more time, I would have played with the levels to see how much difference there was between them and whether you would even feel the need to change settings while climbing.

    The live valve adds about 2200 to the cost, which is a lot, but it just may be worth it. It's like having ThermosMan riding with you and adjusting the clickers 400 times a second!
     
    tropicoz likes this.
  10. TurboBlew

    TurboBlew Registers Abusers

    The live valve system looks sweet.
    $2200 isnt bad considering just a good fork is over 1k and 2 shockwiz will run about $600.
     
  11. Senna

    Senna Well-Known Member

    No on-the-fly adjustment is a huge miss imo
     
  12. tropicoz

    tropicoz Well-Known Member

    Sounds awesome! I'd say it's spendy, but shit, everything is spendy when you get to the good stuff.
    I'm over here still waiting on FedEx to bring me my damn bike. It's been delayed twice with "delivery exceptions". FFS.
     
  13. Spooner

    Spooner Well-Known Member

    Put some blingy new wheels on the Tazer today and hope to get a ride in tomorrow on them. Lost about 2 lbs total and just from the rip up the street they definitely accelerate faster. They are Spinergy’s which have some crazy flexible spokes but are super strong but absorb some of the small bumps and vibration. Will be nice to have new tires too, I was well over due haha!

    ADBF4D01-550B-492E-AED1-A307FC25D312.jpeg 649EBFCA-30C0-43A5-9B42-B84A8089D8DC.jpeg
     
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  14. assjuice cyrus

    assjuice cyrus Well-Known Member

    Looking for some advice for beginner mountain biker. The boy has mentioned multiple times about getting a mountain so we could ride some local trails together. While I'm not happy about him dragging me into this bullshit, I guess it couldn't hurt to get my fat ass on a bike also.

    So, what is a decent entry level bike? I'm not looking to spend 3k per bike for our first one, but I also don't want to buy some junk that's going to break the first time out then I got to walk back. My ankles can't take all that.


    Quick search led me to our local bike shop that has some Treks. Looked at the Marlin 7 and reviews seem to be good on it. I know nothing about what to look for or what you need to get when purchasing a bike.
     
  15. rice r0cket

    rice r0cket Well-Known Member

    Marlins are junk. Or really, they're spec'd with junk forks.

    I bought a Marlin 10 years ago, tried to dip my toe in with something cheap and regretted it. Low end components are usually just heavy, but entry level forks are pogo sticks and worse than rigid fork.
     
    assjuice cyrus likes this.
  16. Trainwreck

    Trainwreck I could give a heck

    My wife and I bought Trek Roscoe 7's as our first bikes. My concerns were similar as yours. I told the sales clerk, "I don't mind if a bike breaks because I crashed the hell out of it, But I don't want to get crashed to hell because the bike broke"

    We have been very happy with them. I think the new ones are 29'ers, (we have 27.5+) I think we paid about$1200/each out the door pre-pandemic (like a week before lol)
     
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  17. assjuice cyrus

    assjuice cyrus Well-Known Member

    Is there another brand/model that I should try to find?

    That is just what the local place had on their website.
     
  18. thrak410

    thrak410 My member is well known

    Dude, seriously, go look at the Kent at WalMart. I just picked one up for my boy and its unbelievable what they're coming with for $398. WalMart is pushing hard into the traditional LBS category with some of these bikes. Basic SunTour fork gets the job done (adjustable preload), the geometry is great, the 1x drivetrain works surprisingly good, and after bedding in, the brakes are pretty decent as well! Then if you guys don't stick with it, you're not out a couple grand or more.

    https://www.walmart.com/ip/Kent-29-Men-s-Trouvaille-Adult-Mountain-Bike-Taupe-Black/823391155

    If you haven't checked out what WalMart is putting out, you really should. Just remember to go over every bolt cuz the WalMart build quality is very suspect lol. They had the chain routed wrong in the derailleur on ours, for example.

    There's also a lot of youtube videos out there with guys trying to break it and its just solid.

    The Schwinn Axum is also getting a lot of attention for its specs at the $500 price point (dropper post!), and the two Giordano bikes are also worth a look.
     
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2022
    TurboBlew likes this.
  19. six6two

    six6two AWD

    If you can hit a tree at 10mph, a full face helmet is absolutely not "just in the way"!!!!!!
     
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  20. TurboBlew

    TurboBlew Registers Abusers

    Id wager 5 figures that an entry level rider could not tell the difference. Ive watched alot of them turning plastic knobs that dont do anything.
     

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