Saracen Myst Downhill Racer Review

Saracen's 2011 Myst downhill racer offers the same chassis that its pro-team is campaigning on at an affordable price and with an impressive spec. Saracen's name has been absent from the world of high-end bikes for quite a while, but now that they’re under the management of Madison in the UK, that is changing. As this feature test of Saracen's latest downhill design indicates, there is a vibrant, youthful energy lighting up the brand Saracen has a new World Cup team on the go, and the Junior Women's World Cup Champion on board in the shape of Manon Carpenter. With a strong presence on the UK national circuit and a debut on the World stage, the 2011 Myst will be a competition-proven veteran as we report Pinkbike's test results. We got some solid trail time during some inclement weather and quickly got to grips with what the bike was doing - and we can happily report that Saracen's Myst should give new hope for cash-strapped downhill competitors. Read on to see what we think of the bike that Team Saracen is currently campaigning with.




Inside the Saracen Myst
First impressions count for a lot, there’s no doubt about it, and here the Saracen Myst scores highly, for not only is it a downhill bike that looks good and one that riders will want to own, it is also a bike that more riders than normal will be in a position to afford. The bold colors and striking chassis design look great, and with its $3783 (£2299) asking price, the Myst could give you big bang for your buck.




Myst Frame details
Let’s run through the basics in order, starting with the all important frame - a single pivot design with a linkage driven shock. We didn’t get a weight for the frame only, but given that the full build seen here comes in at a shade over 41 pounds it’s not going to be the heaviest frame around by a long shot. The geometry is all pretty standard fare, nothing too out of the ordinary, and comes very much within the accepted norm for a modern downhill bike. Large bearings on the linkage and even larger bearings on the main pivot show that if it hasn’t necessarily been designed with the UK privateer in mind, it’s certainly designed to stand the test of time in the worst of riding conditions available. This is a pretty critical part of any bike's arsenal, for alongside the angles, the performance of the bike as a whole can be greatly influenced by the performance of the suspension units fitted. Thankfully, the Myst has both front and rear bases well covered, especially when you take into consideration the constraints encountered in getting a bike built up and in the shops at this price. At the front is a Boxxer RC fork, which is simply the new name for last season’s Boxxer Race, and at the rear is the Fox Vanilla R shock. Both are fine units with the basic adjustments needed, despite some riders' opinion being that they are low rent and therefore inferior to the higher end products available. Less adjustable and more basic in their operation they may be, but given advances in the internals, these are still easily the equal of top end products of just a few years ago once you have them dialed in.


The Myst is full of neat touches, from the Saracen embossed into the head tube which simply looks trick, to the 5 and 6-millimeter opposing hex keys which are required for the shock mounting hardware. It’s not uncommon to find this now, but it shows that the company has concentrated on the little things. After all, it’s usually easier to find two different sizes of hex keys rather than two of the same. One little niggle that we came across was the need to undo the brake hose to remove the brake as it runs between the forward shock mounting plates to keep it neat, tidy and tucked out the way of damage. For the average rider this probably won’t ever be an annoyance, but if you keep spares ready to go at a race it means that swapping a brake is a little more involved than it could be. Plenty of other manufacturers do this too though so it’s hardly a hanging offense and it serves to show that different riders appreciate different details. The rear derailleur hanger is thick, but replaceable should you bend it, and the rear axle is a simple affair that screws directly into the drive side of the frame. The large sealed cartridge bearings should keep spinning smoothly through a lot of riding too. One other downside we noticed, although not one which affected us, was the provision of only Medium and Large sizes. This is a shame as a lot of small-frame and younger riders would be potential purchasers of this bike, and a Small in the range would certainly open up the bike as an option to them


Being spoiled like we are, with some of the best kit, it’s very easy to get blasé about the performance that top line components offer. Sometimes it takes a ride on something less expensive to remind us that there isn’t really much in the way of bad kit out there these days. The Myst features an Alivio shifter matched to a Sora rear derailleur. This certainly isn’t a high-budget offering, yet it provided decent shifting and was reliable throughout our test. The cheap rear derailleur, in our experience, is more susceptible to damage than its more expensive counterparts, but that is to be expected and the Sora changer is easily upgraded to something tougher. Although the shifter felt like it contained a little more plastic than a Shimano XT or XTR, let’s face it, it does! It’s not a problem though, for despite lacking the double tap of the top shifters, it performed well and shouldn’t have any issues surviving abuse. Just bear in mind that to keep it performing at its best a little more TLC may be required. That the bike comes with a road cassette and short rear derailleur shows Saracen is listening to what customers want. The FSA GAP cranks and Gravity chain device performed faultlessly too. In fact, the only criticisms that could be leveled at them is that they are a little heavier than some options, but considering the bike's likely buyers, the balance between cost, strength and weight seems well judged. Steel pedal inserts in the cranks should help keep damage to a minimum from any pedal strikes as well.

Specifications
Release Date	2011
Price	$3783
Travel	203
Rear Shock	Fox VAN R
Fork	Rockshox Boxxer Race / 203mm travel
Headset	FSA Gravity SX Pro
Cassette	Shimano HG50 9-speed cassette 12-25T
Crankarms	FSA GAP MegaExo DH 36T 170 mm
Chainguide	Gravity Guide
Bottom Bracket	FSA BB-7000
Pedals	Alloy MTB
Chain	KMC Z99
Rear Derailleur	Shimano Sora RD3400 Short cage
Shifter Pods	Shimano Alivio M430 Rapid Fire 9 speed
Handlebar	FUNN Fatboy 750 mm wide / 15 mm rise
Stem	FUNN RSX MKII Direct mount
Grips	Saracen Lock-on dual-density grip
Brakes	Quad Deuce 203 mm pulse rotors
Hubs	KT Sealed bearing
Rim	Saracen DH 36 hole
Tires	Maxxis Highroller 26 x 2.5 inch
Seat	WTB Silverado Comp white
Seatpost	Alloy Micro-adjust / 30.9 mm

Yes, the hubs are clearly from Taiwan and come with a fairly no-nonsense Taiwanese name marked on the body to prove it. But is Taiwanese bad? No, of course not, and in the case of these they are actually a very proven design when seen under a different name. One might even say bombproof. At one stage the RRP of wheels using these hubs was touching £300 and have been used by many UK racers for several years without issue. That said, the freehub will need an occasional service and clean to keep the engagement feeling sharp and prevent the pawls and ratchet from wearing prematurely. It’s all easily done though, so not something to worry over. The Saracen branded rims are laced to the hubs with double butted spokes, and comparing the wheel with another which has been built using an MTX29 shows that the Saracen’s rims aren’t overly portly (we calculated 570 grams). As with everything else these components all help to keep the price very reasonable while still returning solid performance. And if you do dent a rim, or more accurately, when you do - it is a downhill bike after all - it’s easy to put something different on there, either stronger or lighter. All of this is wrapped in Super Tacky dual ply High Rollers from Maxxis with some lightweight tubes to keep the race ready aspirations of the Myst reinforced. Race ready tires, a set of race proven wheels; the spec sheet here is certainly more than capable.




A combination of WTB and Funn gear finishes off the bike. In fact, the only non-branded item among it all is the Saracen labeled seatpost, and even that manages to fall in at a decent weight. The Funn direct mount stem and Full-On 750 mm bars are right on the money and are products with a World Cup winning pedigree earned just a few years ago. They’re a nice shape, wide enough for the vast majority of riders and aren’t particularly heavy, and although the stem isn’t as low as some of the more recent offerings it’s still as good as it always was. The headset is a Gravity unit and while it is smooth it will probably need the odd re-grease to keep it running like that through the worst of the UK weather. The biggest negative that can be said about this is that the top cap is nearly an inch tall. Great for giving some front end height, less good when the trend is for low front ends, but it’s not the end of the world though as there are a few options to reduce the stack height on the tapered headset.


The ride
Of course, the ride is what separates bikes, regardless of price. This is also where we were really surprised - despite the great kit, there was still that niggling suspicion that something was going to stop it performing, preventing it from competing with the big boys. But that just didn’t happen. There will always be riders who don’t get on with a bike, but in all the time we rode the Myst it never missed a beat and impressed, tackling all manners of terrain without fuss. In the car park it’s possible to find flex in the back end, but it wasn’t particularly noticeable on track, and it certainly wasn’t worse than what you would find on many other, vastly more expensive, downhill bikes. The chainstay length is quite long, which helps stability, but the head angle isn’t overly slack, which, combined with the progressive rear suspension, means that it tracks well, feels stable over the rough and yet nimble in the tighter corners. In short, we came off a Mk3 V10 that had been raced across Europe, ridden in anger and is a bike we have the utmost confidence in, so jumping on the Saracen should have felt like a significant drop in performance. But it wasn’t and it certainly didn’t leave you feeling that the whole bike costs several hundred pounds less than just a V10 frame on its own.




The duty of slowing the bike down falls to Quad Deuce brakes. Although not necessarily in the power league of the big guns, we never felt like we were running out of brakes. They offer good modulation and aren’t overly grabby which at some points leads you to suspect that they are less powerful than they really are. Full-size 203 millimeter rotors front and rear will help the power, no doubt about it, but they also offer increased fade resistance on longer tracks for those riders who like to drag their brakes. It’s perhaps a bit of a cliché, but this is a big track bike and the brakes should have no problem in keeping up with the rest of the bike, even if conditions deteriorate despite them not coming from one of the big players on the market. The only real downside we encountered was the inability for the brake lever to come in enough for those with smaller hands or who like to run their brakes close to the bar. The brakes, as well as being powerful and controllable, offer a bite point adjuster which sits around the piston and allows you to tweak how far the brake comes in before it bites, independent of the actual reach.

The RockShox Boxxer RC fork performed quite well during the test. Having raced the same fork labeled as a Race for the best part of the 2010 season I am in no doubt of its potential performance. It features a stiff chassis, along with controlled damping that is easily adjusted for both compression and rebound. Compared to the last generation Race this is a real step forward. The stock spring is perfect for the average 65-75kg (143/165 pound) rider, but is easy and cheap to change if that isn't the case. At 79kg, I’ve been running a firm spring to keep the front end height more stable, which also has the added advantage of taking the onus off the damper preventing excessive dive and as a result means that compression is smoother with reduced spiking on the harshest of hits. The compression damping uses the older Motion Control arrangement from the last generation of Boxxer minus the floodgate adjustment, but this isn't a problem, especially at this price, and it still offers more than race worthy performance. Put simply, if you’re running this then you can’t blame the fork for a lack of pace.




Now look rearwards and you'll see the 9.5 x 3-inch Fox Vanilla R driven by the bright red linkages that produce a rising-rate suspension curve. The stock 400-pound spring will suit the average rider well, but if you're either heavier or a hard hitter you'll possibly want to look at fitting a 450-pound spring like we did (at 79kg fully kitted up) to reduce the sag a little and prevent the bike using all its travel too readily. That said, even with the 400-pound spring we never once felt that there was a harsh bottom out which says a lot for how controlled the linkage curve is. With rebound adjustment only, this is another component which some might say is basic, but at the end of the day it can be set up to work just as effectively as most top end shocks. Granted, this may require some internal tweaking to the shims and a reposition of the IFP at the hands of a suspension tuner, but given that even top end bikes will benefit from the same it evens things out.

Due to the large oil flow offered by the Vanilla R there are many who actually prefer this shock as a base from which to work anyway. Unless we were really pushing it we thought it performed well, only the high speed and thus nonadjustable rebound being a little too fast for our tastes on repeated large hits. This wouldn’t have been helped by the stiffer spring we fitted, but we reduced the negative effect by pushing our weight further back. It’s worth pointing out that we do like a slower rebound than most and in any case this could be easily amended by the aforementioned re-valve - which would enable a softer spring to be used to lower the center of gravity slightly and improve traction over the lighter damped, more heavily sprung option. However, for most riders the stock arrangement will feel perfectly controlled and more than suitable.









Pinkbike's take
By riding this bike you'll leave a whole load of cash in your pocket for an all-mountain bike, coaching days, more races or simply an extra week in the alps for your summer holiday. That the frame alone (albeit with RC2 rather than the Vanilla R) is £1399 shows just what a bargain price you're getting the full build for. The sport of downhilling may be an expensive way to ride bicycles, but we can’t help but feel that this will really help bring new blood into the sport by providing a bike that is race worthy, but at a price affordable to a greater number of riders than downhill bikes have traditionally been.


Check out the Saracen website to see their entire lineup.

You’ve read what we have to say about the Myst. What do you think? Have you had the chance to ride one? Is it the downhill bike of 2011? We’d love to hear what you have to say, so leave your comments below.

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Reviews and Tech Reviews DH Bikes Saracen Saracen Myst