Devinci Dixon RC details:• Intended use: all-mountain
• 145mm (
5.7'') of rear wheel travel
• Aluminum frame welded in Canada
• Split Pivot concentric axle pivot
• 12 x 142mm rear axle
• Adjustable geometry
• Tapered head tube
• Weight: 29lbs (
w/o pedals)
• MSRP $3,999 USD
Dave Weagle explains the Dixon's Split Pivot suspension:
The 2012 Devinci Dixon RC is a curious blend of medium travel with semi-aggressive geometry in a reasonably lightweight package, meticulously constructed in Canada and backed by a lifetime warranty. Peak fall foliage greets our test Dixon with sloppy winter conditions right around the corner. Stay tuned for the full review to see how the Dixon RC performed.
www.devinci.com
-first of all Devinci changed to include their splined bottom bracket shell, which allows the use of their splined ISCG adapter plate for chain device mounting, this has been used on their four-bar All-Mtn / FR and DH for years (I've owned the Devinci Ollie, Johnson, Wilson and 2 Hectiks)
magazines who tested the 2011 Dixon (with standard BB shell) felt this was a serious omission, as did riders - I had to 'mod' my BB shell to 71.5mm and respace the HT2 cup to get an BB mounted ISCG plate to install as there was a conflict between spacing and the chain device backplate with the 73mm shell.
thankfully I have a full bike workshop at my disposal, but it took some trial and error to get an E13 LG1+ to fit the frame
Devinci listened for 2012 - there are alot of trail / all-mountain riders who want to use a chain device on their bike
-second, they have moved from I.S. brake mounts to 'post mount' brake mounts on the seatstays
fantastic bike by the way, been riding mine since February and absolutely loving it, great work Devinci!
My feeling was that this would make a GREAT FR bike for my fiance who just needs something to get her going faster but not for hucking. The frame certainly felt up to the task of rough descents. Maybe a small will find it's way under the tree this year for her (it's pretty amazing to have a fiance who's really INTO riding and getting better... )
I rode one of these a buddy has (last years model Dixon) and I gotta say, the rear end was REALLY sensetive to braking forces... it's no Horst link is all I can say, just someything to consider, the rear end extends under braking forces and IMO ruins a perfectly GREAT bike that is SUPER fun when you stay off the brakes. DW and his ABP aren't all they're cut out to be... I think Trek's "floating shock" makes the bikes ride FAR better then the Devinci's but that's just me coming from riding FSR/Norco's for years and loving the braking charectaristics. I will say that the Devinci is NO WORSE then the Kona Stinky I inherited from my buddy, somewhat better, but the Dev. still stink-bugs a great deal. just my observation, I didn't have a chance to set up the suspension the way I'd like and it WAS pretty stiff but I'm about the same weight as the friend who's bike it is so the spring-rate was right....
in the UK the freeride side of things is really dead, and 7" travel FR frames / bikes do not sell in enough quantity for good repeat business
for every 5 Hectiks (160mm All-Mountain) or 5 Wilsons we sold at Freeborn, we would rarely sell 1 Ollie or Frantik (7" FR)
obviously Canada is a different market, but the market even in BC is moving to all-mountain bikes with slack geometry that can be pedalled up and then rip down the trails, the Dixon suits this perfectly
there was some talk of Devinci introducing a 7" FR design with the Split-Pivot for 2012, but its not appeared, maybe they feel the demand is just not there?
until i see the T&Cs im a bit sceptical about what they say regarding the "life time warranty" as that can be anything from we will replace it no questions asked to, Im sorry that scrape shows that this bike has been miss used and we cant do anything about it.
But to end on a positive note, damn i love that colour scheme
I worked for the UK distributor (Freeborn) for a number of years
we saw very few warranty claims on Devinci because they are very well built, and the few claims we made for customers were all dealt with very quickly
one specific example I can think of was a Canadian guy with a devinci touring bike, bought 5 years before in Canada. he had moved to the UK after touring all the World with heavily loaded paniers, and his frame had cracked in the seat cluster
within 10 days he had a brand new frame/fork free of charge from Devinci, and I personally rebuilt his bike in my workshop, the only charge he faced was for new gear / brake cabling (as his was corroded) and a new bottom bracket (as his was rough)
Devinci are like Hope (here in the UK) in that they manufacure their own kit, in their own factory, and have full confidence in their manufacturing, and stand behind their kit if it goes wrong (like Hope)
i took this bike all this summer to morzine, done the mega avalanche on it , les portes du soleil riding from 10 am to 6 pm ,almost everyday for 3 months , going through blue, red black , double black run , and anything between, it suppose to be an all mountain bike, but as some of you know me, i am riding it like a dh machine !! flat out !!! the bike didn t break, never gave me worry or put my ride a step lower , slower, ..;in fact it offer me confidence, speed and abuse in most of the situation. i am impressed with the quality of the ride and the solidity, efficaity of the frame/ suspension (fsr) . i have to change, cranks, headset, fork rebuilt 2 times, set of brakes dead, back wheel smashed , etc...
but the frame is still working perfect with no signs of stress, cracks or bend things... didn t even change the bearing yet, . this bike is ace, do it all trully and efficiently .
i trust devinci for making serious bike , and coming from a specialized and turner machine, whaooo, i love my devinci .
now time to head back to cape town for ridng again, snow is too cold and seeing the hectik riding is my agenda .
can t afford the wilson, but my new transition TR 450 is very welcome for complete my all time favourite bike, my devinci hectik !!
If I could change anything from the 2011 it would be:
ISCG mounts
A slightly lower bottom bracket so I could fit non lowered 160s if I wanted and not bring up the BB too much
A raw finish to make it super durable!
But they are very minor points, make no mistake this is a bang up to date, truly superb mountain bike.
the 36 Talas 180mm would do screwy things to the geometry (HA, BBH and front-centre) and I've not liked the previous two 36 Talas forks I've owned
the Float is a much better performer in my opinion, and the ability to internally lower the travel is a winner for a 145mm bike like the Dixon, which can benefit from a burlier front fork
here's mine www.pinkbike.com/photo/7282164
this is mine!
I've done mega avalanche with her, and there I tested for a bit a Intense Tracer 2 and the only thing that I thinked when I was riding the Tracer, was where's my dixon, where's my dixon this is a light frame with a great geometry (the only thing that would like was a lower BB) and really well build.
Apart from that the Dixon seems to be a great quality-made Bike and Split-Pivot, like Treks ABP, is a great solution/evolution for those "Faux-Bar" Lovers.
I am a big fan of Split-Pivot/ABP-Designs because of the more shortish and stiff rear-ends one could archive. And as a current Wildcard-Rider I am definitely in the boat of "low &slack", even for AM-Bikes like that.
this gives my Dixon a head angle of 66.4 degrees, I would not want to go any slacker on an all-mountain bike....the head tube is 130mm long but with taper Zero-Stack headtube meaning the headset bearings / cups are inside the frame, it gives a low front end for sure!
the BBH is a little taller than other contemporary frames like the Specialized Enduro, but on a recent trip riding goat-tracks on a steep hill-side, my buddy on his 2011 Enduro was constantly clipping his pedals on the ground, on my Dixon I had no problems scooting along under power and cleaning the trail.
a lower BBH is not always an ideal solution for a bike ridden on more technical, rough terrain, and the Dixon gets a good balance in the geometry between BBH and pedal / ground clearance - with the RS Reverb seatpost I run on my Dixon, I can effectively lower the COG by dropping the post which makes the bike feel much lower in steeper and more technical terrain.
one thing I really like about my Dixon is the short chainstay and super stiff rear axle with the simple Split-Pivot design, big stays and 142mm x 12mm axle dropouts - its very easy to "flick" the back wheel around using body english when riding technical terrain
otherwise it was a fantastic frame, probably the best frame Banshee have made (the Scythe and Rampant are also great frames)
my buddy John and I tested my Rampant and his Wildcard back-to-back on different trails in Winterberg Bike Park and were really surprised at the difference the braking neutrality made to the riding experience when on the Rampant, compared to the Wildcard where the back wheel started skipping across the bumps once the brake was applied
once we got back to the UK, my buddy sold his WC and bought an Ellsworth Moment which shares the active braking common to the four-bar / horst pivot designs and Split-Pivots / ABP designs
amazing riding bike though i took our test ride out for a good hardy 5 hour ride and it felt amazing even for being a size to small for me
bike looks solid, looks like it can handle alot and still pedal great. definitly something id like to try out.
I have ridden my Dixon down some very rough technical terrain with the back brake locked up, and the suspension is as active as the previous 6 different Specialized and Devinci FSR/4-bar bikes I have owned...
I've sold dozens of Dixon to serious riders here in the UK, guys previously riding sbc enduro, intense ss, orange alpine, etc. None of these riders ever mentioned brake squat or brake jack on the Dixon, neither did UK magazines like mbuk, mbr or dirt..of course one usa magazine like mba must know more??
I will say this about kinematics though: It is a physical impossibility to design a linkage layout on a Split Pivot bike that would do what the article said. Someone passed me a quote at one point, I laughed heartily at the suggestion, and moved on immediately. Suffice to say that if it were possible to do this, and I had built it, I would have inadvertently discovered a whole new realm of physics, and I would by now be retired on a yacht somewhere because the applications in science would be limitless.
So, yeah. Whatever. I love that Dixon, I don't care what anyone says, that bike rips and I smile every time I ride it. Sounds like some other people are in the same boat with me.
Sounds like a respectable price to me.
That is for montreal, not sure about elsewhere in canada but I guess it should be the same since its canadian pricings?
that was the impetus for the rear axle/pivot combo.
unfortunately trek jumped on this amazing idea at the same time. thats why they're both allowed to use it.
As for the floating shock mounts. This is hardly a deal breaker, it just happens that it differentiates the two designs with very little actual benefit if any at all, i'm not an engineer i don't know for sure.
But it would seem to make it harder for an engineer to plan out leverage rates to get what they want out of the shock because they have to account for both ends of the shock moving.
This is why the new Evil won't have a full floating shock, and likely why the Treks are a bit famous for being tricky to tune what you want out of the shock. Obviously also not too big a deal for Aaron Gwin.
But he could win races on anything
to remove the wheel its a hex wrench, and an easy operation to get the wheel in and out of the frame, as I run tubeless I rarely have to remove the wheels