We hustled up to Helena on Saturday and decided it would be a prime day to demo some bikes. We went up to Great Divide Cyclery where Eric had three bikes on the menu for me to taste test...
Great Divide Cyclery was AWESOME! They were very patient, answered all my questions and made the experience very enjoyable. Eric really knows his stuff and it is great to get objective feedback based on what you are looking for.
29'er frames were not originally on the radar when all this looking at bikes came into being but my idea was to go in with an open mind in order to look at all options objectively. Eric put me on the TallBoy and off to find some dirt...I did the same loop each time on each bike so that I would have something to compare the bikes to without having to think about how differently they would handle...so it was a good way to control the trail aspects of the demo. The trail of choice was a nice long climb up to Mt Ascension and then taking the downhill to the Archery Range trail and back into town. There was enough varying terrain to put the bikes through anywhere from technical climbs, to buff climbs, to tight switchies, to steep descents, to buff singletrack. It would be a trail I would get to know very well by the end of my 3rd lap testing the 3rd bike...It was probably around a 5-7 mile loop with around 1500 ft of climbing from the shop (guesstimating seeing as if I did not take the Garmin with me).
Tall Boy review:
The first thing I noticed was that it was a good climber over technical terrain. It soaked up the bumps and there was more wheel contact with the ground where it felt a lot more stable going through the rough than its 26 inch brothers...It climbed pretty well, was fairly responsive and not too bouncey when getting out of the saddle to pedal. Switchbacks took a little extra caution but were still very doable in light of the bigger frame and wheels. There was also more clearance from pedal to ground meaning you could pedal through some tech sections without worrying about scraping your pedals on rocks, etc...It did a nice job of making bumps that you would feel on a 26 inch wheel, feel like little pebbles. It was extremely stable...to be honest, I have no idea how you would ever crash on one of these bad boys...they are that stable (even at slow speed - seemed easier to be able to track-stand, etc). Santa Cruz seems to have really dialed in the geometry and in general this bike exceeded my expectations of being pretty responsive.
Minuses:
Even though it handled well, it still felt like I could not be quite as precise on my lines as the 26 inch bikes. It was not nearly as easy to 'man-handle' the bike and the bike was generally less 'playful' than a 26 inch version. It was a little more difficult to catch air on this set up but it might just be a function of dialing in the suspension, etc...It was almost the difference between being on a long-board skateboard vs a little trick deck.
Blur LT Review:
The 2nd bike to demo was the carbon Blur LT. Wow - what a totally different feel after being on the TallBoy!
Pluses:
Whatever the TallBoy lacked in playfulness, this bike more than made up for it and excelled in this area. It was extremely maneuverable and you could throw it around pretty easily. It soaked up big bumps really well and the suspension and engineering on this bike were pretty amazing. It handled switchbacks like big cruiser turns and you felt like you could keep motoring through tight sections. It did well climbing in terms of not being too squishy while going up hill.
Minuses:
The geometry was too compact for me. This was especially noticeable on climbs where my front wheel would bob off the ground while trying to put pressure on the pedals. It was not noticeable on the downhills as much, but very noticeable on the climbs. This bike is not nearly as stable as the TallBoy at slow speeds. The bike had a lot of travel suspension wise which was great for bombing downhill, but it is not my preferred setup...like being in a limo.
Specialized Epic Review:
Pluses:
This bike climbed like a hard-tail. Not once did I feel like there was any squish while getting up out of the saddle and laying down the hammer. Being a single-speeder, it is nice to have that feel when getting up out of the saddle on climbs. This bike was super responsive. I felt like I could pick a line, point the bike and it would just nail it. This is probably the most responsive bike I have been on. The XC geometry seemed to fit me much better than the Blur LT.
Minuses:
I am not a big fan of the brain on the suspension. You could definitely tell when the brain would engage the suspension as it would be a sudden movement (as opposed to the gradual, somewhat linear travel on most other bikes). Since the bike was so responsive, the downside is that you felt most of the little bumps until the brain activated.
All in all, there is a lot of food for thought but I think I am ruling out the LT, and ruling out the 'brain' option on Specialized. I would still like to ride the Blur XC since the geometry is not quite as compact as the Blur LT...The good news is that there is no urgency to buy a bike at this time of year considering we are approaching the cold time of year and riding options might be limited.
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