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While you can’t judge a product by its sticker price alone, very few of us are surprised when we read a review stating that the latest, uber-gucci widget performed passably well. Well, of course it did. If buying a fork or a wheelset bleeds your bank account so heavily that it means you’re guaranteed to retire penniless and broken, then, no shit, it better cure cancer, bake you a soufflé every morning and make riding your bike a magical experience. The big surprise is when something doesn’t cost an arm and a kidney, yet still proves awesome.
A good value is truly a priceless thing, which is why we’ve been wracking our brains for the best values this year.
Fine tuning your suspension can feel as manageable as building your very own nuclear reactor in your kitchen--particularly when your rear shock is bristling with damping adjusters. Cane Creek’s Dialed app takes the hassle out of fine-tuning any of the company’s rear shocks. And its free. Shimano's XT M8000 group isn't free, of course, but it’s a proven performer that can be had for a third of what top-rung, 1x groups would have cost you just a few years ago. The M8000 single-ring group is showing up as standard equipment on a whole lot of new bikes these days. There’s a reason for that. And then there’s Trailforks—the most comprehensive guide to trails all over the world. What'll it cost you? Nada. As in, nada damn thing. If you have a smartphone, it's yours for the taking.
Which of the three is the Best Value of 2016? Here's the rundown.
Why it's nominated:
With great power comes great responsibility. Reverend John Cumming or Winston Churchill or Uncle Ben once said that and the same general principle holds true for suspension tuning. To wit, the more fiddly bits your shock or fork has sprouting from it, the more diligent you have to be when it comes to diddling about with said bits. Maxxing out all those dials does not equal instant on-the-trail bliss. In fact, doing so is a great way to make a brilliant bike feel like absolute crap.
Cue Cane Creek’s Dialed App, which walks you through every step you need to take to fine tune your Cane Creek shock. Yes, other companies (including Fox) have produced tuning apps before, but none are either as in-depth or intuitive as what’s on offer here. The app (available for both iOS and Android smartphones via iTunes and Google Play) contains a base-tune library for 6,000 different bike models and counting. Once you’ve selected your bike model, you can breeze through the base-tune process in a few minutes or you can let the app guide you through a fully custom tuning process based on your own riding style and preferences. You can save your suspension-setting profile in the app in the event that you want to revisit and tweak them further on down the line. Cane Creek also has online tutorial videos, linked up through the app itself, that show riders how to set sag or make air volume adjustments.
From the First Look
 | There's no doubt in my mind that this sort of app is going to be a boon to any rider who is even the slightest bit curious about what the dials do on their Cane Creek shock, and I'm a bit surprised that other suspension companies don't already have something similar out. - Mike Levy |
Why it's nominated:
SRAM effectively made front derailleurs obsolete in 2012 with the debut of its XX1 group. In the process, they helped simplify cockpits, nearly eliminated dropped chains and gave frame designers something to rejoice over. Prior to the proliferation of single-ring drivetrains, engineers had to make front derailleurs get it on with short rear ends and increasingly-fat tires. It wasn’t pretty. It took Shimano a lonnnng time to bring a 1x drivetrain to the market and even longer to offer the reasonably affordable, XT M8000 version with its 42-tooth bailout gear. But it’s been worth the wait. Dollar for dollar, it’s hard to beat XT M8000. Perhaps impossible.
When it rolled out of the gate last year, XT bore a sticker price of $424.94. That tidy bundle bought you the 11-speed cassette, 1x11 crank, rear shifter and rear derailleur. Much to the consternation of many bike shop owners, riders soon discovered they could pick up this group for a good hundred bucks less from countless online retailers. Last time I checked, there was a guy in town selling $300 XT drivetrains from the back of his van, alongside his extensive collection of “limited edition” velvet Elvis paintings. The new XT group has a way of getting around. But people aren’t just snatching up this group because it's wallet friendly; they’re buying XT M8000 because it's an absolute workhorse, sticker price be damned.
Mud, grit, dust, horribly-timed upshifts--we've subjected this group to all sorts of abuse and it just keeps on keeping on. This flavor of XT is reliable, the shifts are solid and satisfying, the lever feel is excellent and the ability to drop down two gears at a time with a single push of the lever is a definite benefit. Not having to buy an XD driver body? That's also another big plus, even if it means you're rocking an 11-tooth cog instead of SRAM's steeper 10-tooth offering. The company's recent introduction of an 11-46 XT cassette also adds a bit of relief for riders logging big miles over big mountains. It ain't Eagle, sure, but then again, look at the price tag... Shimano was late to this single-ring party, no doubt, but at this price it's hard to find fault with what they finally rolled out.
From the review
| As far as durability goes, the M8000 upholds XT's reputation of being a set-and-forget drivetrain, and it's required minimal attention since the day it was installed. - Mike Kazimer |
Why it's nominated:
Do we feel a bit douchey and self-serving by including our own app in this trio of best values? Yes. And no. Here’s the thing, Trailforks is, without a doubt, the most comprehensive guide to trails and trail reports anywhere. The Trailforks app launched in September of 2015 with a database of 30,000 trails. In less than a year’s time, the number of trails that you can scout before even leaving for your ride has more than doubled. As of press time, you’ll find descriptions and ride guides for nearly 70,000 trails in 77 countries around the world. More than 200,000 people have downloaded the app to date, and with good reason….
Let’s say you’re traveling to a new town and want to know where to ride; with Trailforks on your smartphone (Android or iOS) you can instantly find all the trails in the area and, thanks to the app’s heat map feature, you can instantly see which trails are the most popular. You can also get detailed data (length, elevation profiles, etc.) on any trail, including the latest conditions. How tacky is that loam today? Are there downed trees from last week’s storm? Trailforks has ride descriptions and, in many cases, pictures that give you a glimpse of what’s in store.
On the trail, Trailforks guides you through the ride. Since its geo-location features work offline as well, you can always find your location on the trail map, even when you’re not picking up a cell signal. And we’re merely skimming the surface here when it comes to features. Trailforks is, simply put, awesome. The fact that it costs you absolutely nothing to use is just the icing on the cake. Yeah, it’s our own app, but we’d include it no matter who made it. You can download it at the App Store (iOS) or Google Play (Android).
From the First Anniversary Post
So, which of these three items is truly the best value of 2016? We're still wrangling over that question ourselves. Stay tuned for the answer.
Author Info:
Member since Apr 11, 2014
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