NS Bikes Suburban Hard tail frame-abused

A street hardtail is something that needs to be simple and strong. With those two points in mind you would think that it wouldn't be that hard to pick some random frame and bolt some light but strong parts onto it and go kill it. Ask any good street rider and you'll quickly realize that that isn't the case.

While simple and strong are important, the more street riding skills progress and the more technichal things get, demands for a lighter bike with geometry that is more suited to the rider and what he is trying to do become the top features. One more thing to consider is the brand. So and so's generic bike frame might have the same angles and weight you want but I personally want to ride something that I won't see the neighbor kid learning to a 'pop a wheelie' on down the street on, no offense to the neighbor kid.So after taking all these things into consideration I ended up spending this season on a NS Bikes Suburban frame. NS is a smallish company from Poland that actually has a surprisingly large range of products. These little guys manage to turn out 3 entirely different frames, 2 hub sets, 2 different pedal models, 2 unique stems, count 'em 5 handlebars and on top of all this they throw together 2 compete bike builds. My guess is that the peeps at NS are some very busy beavers!


While the Bitch frame is purpose built for chucking on the dirt with longer chainstays and different geometry and the Streetlegal is designed as the one of the most indestructable street frames being made, the Suburban is a lighter weight street chassis made for 80mm-100mm forks even though it is warrantied for use with a 130mm fork if thats what you are into. Basically if you are on a Subrurban the more technical the move the better. To make those moves easier the frame comes in at only 5.2lbs. The Suburban's geometry fit the bill for what I was looking for, 70.5 headtube angle, 382-402mm chainstays, a 550 mm top tube and a nice and low seat tube at 385mm. All this adds up to the fact that I have no excuses for sucking ass anymore as the frame is axactly as I want it to be.


I set it up with an adjustable 4"-5" Manitou Sherman fork, singlespeed with some Profile crank arms and 24" hoops front and back for the haters! The build was super easy, no need to face anything or chase the BB threads, definately a sign of quality.

The next morning I called in sick (cough, cough) and managed to split the day between the park and the local DJ's. I think the thing that stuck in my mind the most after that first day was how comfortable I felt on the bike even though it was the maiden voyage. I had been on the trusty 20" kids bike (BMX) for a few years leading up to making the switch so I was expecting the NS to feel slow and have alot less pop then the BMX but this wasn't the case.

I've been on the Suburban for a few months now it feels like home. My first impressions still hold true. This street/mtb frame comes so close to having both the pop and the flow of my trusty 20", no doubt helped by the 24's I'm running too. I ran the Sherman in the 4" setting and things just seemed to fit perfectly. While most of my time on the NS was spent at the park, everything went smoothly at the dirt jumps. It was more stable in the air like most mtb's but she also came back to earth nose down to match the tranny of a proper dirt jump. This was something that I was always conciously trying to do on my other hardtale but just seemed to happen with no effort on the Suburban, very nice.


I spend more time in the park then the dirt and street put together and I was stoked with how she handled on the concrete. I can honestly say that I progressed more on this bike then any other bike I've been on. For a mountainbike it was very agile and fit the bowls nice without any abruptness of a 26" ride. My tables were flatter then ever because of the low toptube and seatstays, super easy to tuck up under me.


The low frame also helped when things went bad as it was super easy to step off of when I'm trying something new. My favorite move is anything that involves a manual and this bike was made for that. My barspin to manuals became more consistant and I stopped falling on my ass so much which is a plus, I'm not sure what it was but I think the combo of the geometry and lighter weight just made things that much easier for me. I was also very happy when I landed my first tailwhips on the Suburban, to the pedals I might add!

She also spins nice and and fast, whether its a three or a 180 and always came down nose first like a good spin should. Despite throwing the bike away to preserve my own well being the NS always bounced away with just scratches. I was convinced that I was picking it up to find some good sized dents but that was never the case despite the copeings best efforts to leave its mark. I should also mention the option to run V-brakes or discs which is a nice touch. I'm learning to grind which is obviously bad for your rotors, so it's nice not to have to deal with that.


My DH bike was out of comission for a short while so I decided to do some mountain biking on the Suburban even though its not actually made for that. I had a blast working to keep up to my buddies on their big bikes, its eye opening to ride a trail on a hardtail that you've ridden on a 8" travel bike a few hundered times before. While it was rough, the steel frame definately took the edge off the bumps more then my aluminum xc bikes of the past did. I wouldn't say comfy but more tolerable than I had expected.

I did learn very quickly that this is not a bike designed to pin it over rough terrain though. While the angles work great in the park I was put on my head in short order in the first tough section of trail. If you are looking for a hardtail for the street and some mountain use you would be far better off throwing your parts on the Bitch frame. That's ok for me as I have a dedicated bike for the hills, so I could build the Suburban up as no frills park bike.


I'm not sure what you are looking for in a bike but the Suburban fit the bill for me in terms of a kick ass park machine that was fine on the street and I could take to the DJs too. I couldn't have asked for more, light, agile and made me a better rider, what more could you ask for in a bike? That and its Brown to boot!

NS Bikes are distributed in Canada by Lama Cycles. Please visit their site at:

www.lamacycles.com


or go to www.ns-bikes.com for the whole run down straight from Poland.

SPLATT and Byron