stiingya

@mikelevy: @mikelevy: "There are tradeoff's"; but isn't that the point? If the tradeoff for more efficient climbing is at the expense of small bump sensitivity, or square edge hits, odd pedaling feel, etc.(which is usually the case) Than it's just a matter of deciding which side of the tradeoff you want to be on? Pinkbikes review of the Foxy was very positive on it's climbing attributes but I just read one where they were still hitting the climbing switch. And if the Polygon reference was about the React 2 play suspension or whatever they call it. Sure there was some good initial reviews when they were new. But that's about the last I've seen of them? Sure don't seem to be taking on the mountain bike world by storm??? I mean, if someone truly has the suspension equation solved, especially without higher cost and needing to have it plugged in I'm all for it. I'm not wanting to flip a switch, etc. But so far it seems like there is always some kind of a "tradeoff" or compromise to be made. So you just gotta pick what compromise you want to make...

@jclnv: I'm no expert, but my understanding is that slackening out the headtube rotates the front end down and away from the rear axle and steepens the seat tube angle/lowers the BB. If you got out a level and a ruler it seems as though that increases reach and lowers stack? There was a Banshee Spitfire thread back before the last frame update and they were slacking out head tubes along with some even reducing fork travel to increase reach. If a person just puts on a longer fork they are rotating the front end up and back reducing reach and increasing stack, slacking seat and raising BB. So if you combine that with a slacker angleset you can add a longer fork without changing geo. (which I have done before, though in my case I needed to run an external lower cup that raised things back up so reach was about the same) What I was thinking with the Stumpy is a 2 degree slacker headset and then just 10mm longer fork. So the longer fork should negate some of the reach change, but even a little longer would help out. (and my experience on the test ride was that just the small changes I had made were significant in how the bike felt, so even some small reach increase would be beneficial) Anyway, this was all just armchair thought experiment. No idea what headset the stumpy is running to know what kind of angleset options there would be...

That photography was unbelievable... nice!!

Short story, "- Not all that efficient under power " seems a harsh comment. It's not as if your pedal stroke is just lost in shock movement like this was a late 80's single pivot!

Agree. Though I haven't rode any of these other bikes they are comparing but flipping a switch on big climbs so that the suspension can be super plush is a good thing to me. Maybe the Reactive on the trek, or the updated SI on the Yeti really is that good? (everything just keeps getting better!) But for sure the Kona was the tried and true efficient at the expense of plush. (which seems contrary to everything Kona's used to be about??) Hard to believe the Bronson was rated as such a good climber. I thought the whole point of the new linkage was to get more plush at the expense of a little efficiency? BIDK On my V2 bronson, by the time I felt the shock was tuned to get the plush feel I wanted it it pretty much lost any pedal benefit over the Enduro it was replacing. (I did think it sit higher in it's travel) I still hit the "cheater switch" when I was tired...

whats a shanty n°5?

@gnarterrorist: Aluminium slash is 2019

The western part, like Colorado? :)

@jclnv: Dealer I talked to didn't know when. I think an angleset to increase reach and slack out the regular stumpy would totally be worth looking at along with a fork upgrade!! I thought it was totally livable as is with the low shock setting and the seat slammed forward! But I would rather have that DPS and 36 AND the RAW on the EVO is just killer!!! :)

These tests are great! Love getting your thoughts on the reasons you chose the bikes you did!! Much appreciated. I did my demo of the stumpy finally. Gotta say, my initial impression riding up a fire road is that you guys were on crack! I even stopped to make sure which way the blue lever should be so I wasn't in lockout or something. I know that will sound like BS, but it's true. Suspension was super composed and this was a 1x11 Alu Comp demo bike with low end boingers. As pretty much is always the case I felt the shock was under damped for my weight. 6'2" 255 so Duh! But I did not mess with the shop sag set up and only added a little more rebound. Though I did let some air out of the fork. Since it was just a 24hr demo I did not add volume spacers like I would if it was mine. (which doesn't change the dampening, but the faster ramp up feels better along with letting me use less psi) For sure the more I rode and the more tired I got I did get to a point where I would flip that lever to climb back up the fire road!!! (actually end of the day on the way back to the truck FR climb I used the lock out too, but I was loosing air out of the rear at the time. Tubes??? WTH?) BUT, gotta say there were very few instances on the trail where I was disappointed in suspension feel or forward progression. And anytime pointed DOWN it was super plush! So in the end, I guess I have to admit I wasn't riding different models back to back like you all were. AND, for sure to each their own. Tomato/Tamato. MAYBE your not on CRACK. But I sure didn't think the Stumpy suspension was a CON... I was using some cheater switch on both Ibis's I rode this summer too... But I've not rode a trek with the Reactive. (been awhile) and I've never rode a FS Kona nor the SB. NOTE, after riding the Genius there were some times where I missed having that instant click to traction control to stand and hammer up a climb. There are a lot of ravines to traverse where I was riding, you would drop in and then it would be rocky switchbacks to get out. So you'd dive in fast and since I'm a hack I'd have to scrub speed to take the swtichback corner and sometimes I'd be in a poor gear choice and struggle to make it out! On the Genius I'd flip that traction lever and it dropped down to 110mm and it was like a super boost to stand an hammer out of those ravines. It's not like a gear change in that situation where you need to throttle your pedal stroke to let it shift while also trying to keep enough momentum not to get stopped up the hill etc. Course, I should also mention this was the first Shimano shifter I'd used in years. (that wasn't at a bike park and didn't really get used) So at first I struggled finding a good position/function with the shifter. So the first few times I dropped into a ravine I just wasn't on with shifting. And as the day progressed I adapted and was cognisant enough to drop gears before I hit that climb! Also, I didn't love the gearring jump to the 46, I often felt when climbing that the gear selection was either too low or too high spinning up a big climb. (course on the other hand I was LOVING that 46 as I got tired though the day! Even with the odd gearing jump!) For sure the geo is a bit conservative. But for a "trail bike" it's not bad. It's a compromise as the high BB left me feeling like it was just that, bit too high/tall feeling? It was very nimble though! And then the low BB setting was much!!! better for how I ride but I could for sure feel the slacker seat post angle, feeling more off the back all of a sudden. But I just pushed the seat WAY forward to compensate, raised the post a touch more, flipping some spacers over the stem to lower the bars and scoot them away some and rolling the bar forward and I was super comfortable on the bike from there on. Actually the high BB was fine climbing up the fire road and some general up/traverse trail stuff at the start. (nimble in the rocks, etc.) But once heading back down a "small jumps" trail I immediately felt the bike didn't carve like I wanted. (also little to no berms on that trail) Bike also felt too short once I started going down. First I lowered/rolled the bars which helped with the feel but not the carving, but then I remembered the high/low thing and that was the fix!! For me, I'd love to see the EVO in an "s4"? XL. Even wonder if they should look at an XXL for the regular stumpy? OR I wonder about trying a 2 degree slacker angle set and a slightly longer fork on the regular stumpy to get the geo more to my liking??? Anyway, overall I totally liked the bike. Gotta say for the most part I've liked every bike I've demo'd this summer!! Great time for mountain bikes! My least favorite was the Sentinel. The thing was a pig! And the wheel base is SO LONG that it was a chore in tight stuff/switch backs. And as much fun as it was at the bike park it just left me thinking it really deserved more travel in the back for that purpose. But the fit was perfect for me!!! Reach/stack/cockpit length. Makes me think the bike needs a +1 degree angle set and a 150 fork to trail ride? :) Wish they would add some travel to the Smuggler!! SO, next is to see what kind of Trek demo's I can get around here! :) (not that I discount the Yeti, but last time I looked there were no demo's here? And even though I do think the SB130 is worth considering I have to admit their frame only pricing just kinda pisses me off and makes me want to put them down a notch in my new bike search) If Ibis can afford to sell frames for 3 grand and still pay DT for his suspension licensing than it's really hard for me to believe anyone else needs to charge much more than that!!! :)