I didn't believe him.
Seeing Hugh
Hefner
in his satin robe brought out my cynical side in full force. His
Hefness was
asked if it didn't get just a little boring having access to an unlimited
supply of buxom, brainless blonde beauties. According
to Hef he still feels like Madonna - touched for the very first time -
after all these years. How can that be? If
it's sweeter after doing 10 years hard time wouldn't it be much less
so after so much frequent fornicating? When the fruit isn't forbidden
and is in fact falling off the tree and rotting, how can it taste
as sweet? Obviously the illusion must be nurtured. Playboy
would take a beating on the newsstand if it looked like Hef's libido
was losing steam. He's got to have us believe he's still living the dream
doesn't he?
Recently I have had access to some beautiful bikes. I've gone to
cool places to ride brand new rides the public hasn't seen yet and companies
send us parts to try out with pleasant frequency. I never get tired
of seeing the UPS truck pull up and while I may be less excited about the
prospect of a new bike than I once was, I enjoy the building and selecting
and tweaking process no less than I did when my cherry was still intact. The
thrill of putting a new machine through its paces has never felt better,
probably because bikes are getting so good.
The Purple Princess in freeride/trail dress with a Rock Shox Totem Coil
up front.
These two recent builds weren't quite as
enjoyable as some time in the grotto with Miss August, but some of the
rides afterwards were even better than a silicone sandwich. Here's
how they came to be.
My search for the do it all bike started way back in 2000 when I thought
I'd try a little racing. My wife was doing the XC circuit and - since I
had hung up my lycra and I'm not much of a spectator - I decided to race
some DH. At the time I only had one dually - a Santa Cruz Bullit - so I
needed to figure out how to make it work for racing and for my usual rides. I'm
not crying the blues by the way - I
loved my Bullit and we were more than compatible. Back then I didn't
worry much about weight even when I was climbing Fromme or out at the Woodlot.
I just wanted everything to hold together. I didn't want a chain guide
so I used a sandwich of bashguards to keep the chain in place. I had Hayes
Mag brakes of course and a cherry red Boxxer that ruled. Otherwise
the component spec wasn't very memorable. Overall the bike worked
pretty well and I didn't have to make a bunch of changes before or after
a weekend's worth of festivities.
XTR cranks, Syncros DS 28 Rims and Mental Magnesium pedals and an XO rear
changer all helped bring this Demo in under 38lbs..
Since that time my goal has often
been one bike to rule them all. I
have tried to make 6" bikes burly enough for bike parks - with some
success - and I've put porkier bikes on a diet as well. In a perfect
world I'd have a sub 33lb rig that I would ride everywhere. Indulge
my fantasy for a moment if you will.
This bike would climb like an all mountain
rig and descend like a dh bike. That's
a cliche you've heard but often it's topped with a steaming pile. I'd
like geometry
appropriate for climbing on the way up and then for descending
once you turn around - and it would be light enough to encourage the uphill
grunt and yet robust enough to survive the descent. An
adjustable travel fork would help get us there but the trick is that I'd
like coil springs front and rear for that plush feel and improved performance. If
the 7" fork
could tip down to about 4" that would help get my ass to the top (I
realize this is an issue with a coil fork but maybe one day...). Once
you arrive I'd like to have a 67 degree head angle. Any slacker would
be just greedy and it would also make the bike sluggish on flatter or twisty
terrain. To
hit the weight goal would take some kevlar bead skins but I'm not going
narrower than 2.5. I
guess I'll need ti springs front and rear - and a 1.5 steerer or
perhaps a 1.5 tapering to 1 1/8 like Trek and Specialized have been showing
lately. While I'm at it let's toss in a hub based gearbox with perhaps
12 ratios that weighs less than 800 grams - this is my dream remember. Perhaps
you could swap the single rear cog to tweak your gear ratio depending on
the ride? Why
not? How about custom painted forks like Rock Shox does for their riders
who win big? Lots
of titanium and carbon just for fun and let's paint it Mariner Blue metallic.
For now my fantasy is a pipe dream - although I'm looking forward to trying
the Bionicon Super Shuttle they keep promising to send us. Maybe
it'll be the ticket.
Is the Bionicon system really it? A bike that goes up as well as
it goes down? The top shot shows descending geometry while in the
bottom shot the bike has moved air from the rear shock to the front to
steepen the angles. Photos ~ David Ferguson
At present, like Hef, I've decided I need multiple
partners to meet my needs. Two bikes will cover
what I ride about 95% of the time and I'm happy to role play for the other
5%. To
start the harem I built up a Specialized Demo 7. This was the bike
I rode for everything from early in the summer until mid October. I
wanted to make this ride as versatile as possible so I built up two sets
of wheels. The burlier set was built with Syncros hubs and their
DS28 rims - which are around 545 grams. I slapped on a set of Bontrager
Big Earl 2.5s with steel beads - a tire that works great on the Shore. The
other set were Syncros DP23 rims which are 440 grams apiece and to start
with I used a set of the Kevlar Big Earls which tip the scales at 900 grams. In
the end the lighter wheel/tire combo saved close to a full pound
per wheel. With
the light wheels the bike came in at just below 36lbs and with the beefier
ones a little over 37. The geometry isn't ideal for some steeper
climbs but with the lighter wheels it did the job adequately. For
every other situation this set up was amazing. I did some XC loops
in the interior, climbs from home up Fromme, big lift accessed days and
everything in between. I
would have liked a granny but I wanted to keep it simple so I put on a
Gamut guide and ran a 32-34 bottom ratio. I'm not a fan of chain
devices. They
are noisy, unreliable and if something goes wrong on the trail there's
a good chance you won't be getting out under your own power. If you
have your own mechanic I'm sure they're great, but my mechanic is me.
The Gamut has worked fine, and it's very light, but I can't make it silent.
I went for a two fork system with the Demo to add even more versatility. In
bike parks or for big shuttle days I slid on a Fox 40 RC2. I've had
a couple of seasons on this fork and I love the confidence it inspires
with those 40mm stanchions. At a shade under 7 lbs it's also very
light and it's never let me down. The linear dh-style travel is ideal
for brake bumps and chunder and for someone like me who tends to get squirrely
at regular intervals. To facilitate the swap I purchased two FSA
Orbit Xtreme headsets - one a 1.5 and one a reducer. I kept a crown
race on each fork and then only had to swap the fork, top race and the
stem and calliper which can be done easily in about 10 minutes.
To facilitate quick fork swaps I used parts from two FSA Orbit Extreme
headsets.
For the rest of my
riding I used a Rock Shox Totem Coil. I
wasn't sure what to expect from this fork but I was very pleasantly surprised. Just
like the Fox 40 the Totem sports 40mm stanchions and it is certainly the
pinnacle of single crown stiffness. At
a shade under 6.3 lbs it better be though; the weight difference between
the 40 and the Totem was less than half a pound. I like the way the
Totem sits up high in its travel and ramps up significantly as you approach
full compression.
While riding the 7 - aka the Purple Princess - it seemed
like my planets aligned. My recovery from a snowboard mishap was
coming together, the weather was good and the bike seemed to compensate
for my failings as a rider. Nimble yet nice and slack,
it allowed me to attack and carry speed in spots I never had before. This
bike was my secret weapon and my riding buddies began to notice me spending
less time than usual chasing the caboose of the freeride train. Everything
clicked on my second day in the Silver Star bike park and there was no
wiping the shit eating grin off my face. Forget Hef - the Purple
Princess made me feel like John Holmes on Viagra.
My 07 S-Works Enduro frame got a complete XTR rebuild along with Race Face
Atlas bar and stem along with 08 products from Fox - the Van RC2 fork
and a DHX Air rear shock.
Once the Demo 7 was built
up I had a new problem. My 'small' bike
- a 2007 Specialized S Works Enduro - wasn't much lighter, so it
stayed hanging on the wall whining like a penned up hound dog. It
was time for a rebuild. Not being a fan of half measures I
started out with a complete Shimano XTR group. Now that Shimano's
top gruppo is being aimed at the rowdy set I wanted to see how it
would fare when compared to my usual diet of SRAM XO/Magura and
Race Face cranks. I
waited until Low Normal was no longer compulsory and then pulled the trigger
- so to speak. Another
bonus is that dual control is now optional and the upshift on the rear
D (to a smaller cog) can be pulled with your pointer like the old Rapid
Fire Plus (great for out of the saddle shifts) or pushed with your thumb
which is the mode of choice for downhilling so you don't have to abandon
your brake lever. You also have the option of pulling/pushing it
all the way in for two cogs or only halfway for just one - a very nice
touch.
I have a secret crush on XTR cranks. I spiced them up with a bash
guard from Dark
Cycles. The new XTR front derailleur is the
finest I have used.
There is much to love in new XTR but the cranks are a highlight. They
are as light as anything out there at 775 grams, complete with bb cups,
and they feel amazingly stiff. I haven't launched any 8 footers to
flat (and I won't ever purposely) but they seem more than strong
enough for anything short of the Jah Drop. The front derailleur is
another stand out. I
ask a lot from a front changer and this XTR is the best I've ever used. It
shifts with a pleasingly light action and the wavy cage shape allows it
to be adjusted so it's incredibly close to the chain without making contact. In
this way it acts like a chain device and I have yet to lose the link to
tooth interface when everything is properly adjusted. The rear derailleur
shifts with a pleasing precision but I have two complaints. Under
load it pales in comparison to the SRAM XO system. The XO will shift
when it really shouldn't be able to - and it never sounds like a train
wreck. The
XTR will usually get you there but it struggles under heavy load and it
sometimes sounds like a grumpy mechanic sorting through the spare parts
bin. The
other issue is that when you get up to speed on a bumpy trail the cage
will bang into the chainstay - over and over again. Shimano has put
a rubber pad on the knuckle that makes contact, and my stay is wrapped,
but it's still loud and annoying. Note:
this is not the new SHADOW rear changer. The Shadow won't come knocking
apparently and I'm anxious to see how it performs under load. Hopefully
one will arrive in my mailbox soon.
I love a quiet ride. Unfortunately this XTR rear changer (not a shadow!)
still bangs on the chainstay when the trail gets randy.I haven't spent much time on Shimano
brakes since the sweet old XT four pistons. Fine stoppers indeed. For
some reason I was sent XTR levers and Saint Calipers. This echoes
what Avid have been doing - mating Juicy ultimate levers with Code Calipers
for ample power and reduced weight - and Specialized is spec'ing the 08
Demo 7 and 8 II this way. Thus far I haven't been impressed by the power of
this combo and the levers tend to pump out over the course of the descent. Power
is great at times but it hasn't been consistent. It seems to be at
least partially a pad compound issue because the brakes often need a good
10 minutes of descending before they start to bite after a really wet ride.
Unfortunately there is no contact point adjustment like you'll find
on high end Magura, Hayes or Avid products. I
also found the lever blade a little on the thin side for sustained application. When
the demands have been low the Saint/XTR combo has been fine but in the
steep and snotty they haven't always been up to the job.
The Enduro slows down with XTR Levers and rotors paired with Saint Calipers. I
know I should have taken all the photos when the bike was clean but I couldn't
wait.
I
have to admit I was a sceptic when Shimano introduced a new standard for
fastening rotors to hubs. Now that I have two sets of wheels to swap
on this bike I really appreciate the Centre Lock interface because it takes
about a quarter the time to swap discs. The aluminum spiders look
dope as well but they seem to have a very slight rattle. I don't
hear it riding but it's noticeable if you strike the rotor with a screwdriver.
One
set of wheels I'm riding are Syncros DP23 rims (again) built up onto XTR
hubs. The other set is Shimano's new XT tubeless compatible all
mountain wheelset. Both weigh in at just about 2000 grams. I
have a lot of experience on the Syncros and they love to get beaten down.
Putting most 440 gram rims on a Demo 7 would be throwing them to
the wolves, and while I wouldn't use them in a bike park they inspire confidence
in most other situations.
The XT set is beautiful and functional with 24 straight pull
spokes front and rear attached with red nipples. It's
great that Shimano is making these available with a 20mm front axle. It
seems strange that the front and rear wheels have the same number of spokes
but they are fine after a few relatively mellow rides.
Geax
Datura 2.2 tubeless mud tires. When it's snotty they keep you going
in a straight line.
I have a set
of 2.35 Maxxis Minions on the Syncros and Geax
Datura tubeless on the XTs. I have never spent significant time
on mud tires before and in the right conditions they were a revelation. Many
of the trails on the Shore are getting long in the tooth. Call
them mature perhaps but what that means is that you spend a lot of time
riding on rock, wood and hardpan - and not much time in loose mud. That
washed away years ago in most places. Mud tires are designed to keep
you going straight ahead when everything is loose, spongy and unpredictable
- but they don't have the bite you need on hard surfaces. My first
rides on the Daturas were in Squamish on a disgustingly wet and cold October
day. They worked brilliantly there - aggressively digging in - and
just as well the next day on the Sunshine Coast. Riding low traffic
old school lines on Fromme they worked well also but as soon as I put them
down on something established like Pipeline they didn't have enough contact
patch to slow me down when I needed to - perhaps because of the offset
lug pattern. These tires get an A+ when things are deep and loose
and a C- when it's hard and slippery. I
guess that's what you should expect from mud tires. Thus far my first tubeless
experience has held air without fail as well.
The new XT tubeless wheelset - with a 20mm front axle and subtle red accents
(I'm a sucker for that action) even makes me look fast.
The suspension of the Enduro
got a revamp for this rebuild. I slid
a 2008 Fox DHX Air in the rear and an 08 Fox Van 36 RC2 up front. The
Van is without a doubt the nicest single crown fork I have used. The
new Tool Free 20 QR system is the best of the bunch in terms of ease of
use and stiffness. The Maxle system is a little faster but the Fox
clamping mechanism - gripping the axle like a true thru axle system - is
certainly much stiffer and you can feel it at the handlebar. The words
smooth and plush get tossed around a lot but the Van sets a new standard
for both for a fork in this category. I have been using the medium
spring and when I noticed a harsh bottom out I clicked a few more turns
of high speed compression and the next time through the same section it
was silky once again. I haven't used the low speed compression much
but I like being able to have the fork sit higher in the travel on steep
lines and in those situations I add a few clicks as well. This bike
has seen the lion's share of my riding this winter and despite the muck
and gravel it continues to perform beautifully. It's early though
so we'll see if it survives my negligent care until the spring.
At 5.2 lbs and 160mm of buttery travel there's lots to love about the Fox
Van RC2 - and the new toolfree 20QR system rocks.
I
don't have quite the same love affair with the DHX Air but that my come
down to personal preference. I just can't seem to get that same lively
feel with continuous feedback that a nice coil over will provide. At
the same time the DHX Air saves you a full pound when compared to a steel
spring coil shock and I haven't experienced an air shock that feels any
better - they all pale when compared to an old fashioned spring. The
DHX Air is as good as it gets and with the bottom out chamber wound
right in and 175 lbs in the chamber it delivers a nice ride. You
just don't get that feeling that you know where the bike is in the travel
all the time - that constant feedback. A
slightly wooden feel remains with any air shock I've tried. This
year's Pro Pedal on the DHX Air is either on or off. For
most of the riding we do around here it's just the ticket; full PP for
the climb and then wide open for the descent. I know though that
many riders like to run their PP with a few clicks in on the downhill and
that's not possible with this model but Fox's research suggests most
riders were running PP on or off all the time. It's probably a more
durable and trouble free mechanism as well.
A closer look at the toolfree 20QR interface after some time in the mud.
It's been awhile since I've been on a Race Face bar and stem and
the new Atlas stuff graces the Enduro. It's nice to know
that someone is still actually making stuff in Canada. The Atlas
stems are made in Race Face's New Westminster plant and it's a nice piece. The
design walks the line between angular and smooth and in the end has a
look that edges toward industrial. The clamping system and faceplate
design is supposed to eliminate stress risers that could lead to bar
failure. The bar has only a 3/4 inch rise and weighs only 270 grams
at its full 27" (685mm) width. Race Face says this bar is
light enough for 'light free riding.' Hopefully that's what I'm
doing.
I'm so glad Dual Control and Low Normal are now optional on Shimano shifters.
I love the Race Face Atlas bar and stem combo.
A nice thing about this combination is that for most
rides I can choose either bike. On rare occasions when I might
be riding with a larger or slower group I can grab the big bike. Okay
- I never ride with a group that's slower that I am - but if it ever
does I'll choose the Demo. If
I know there is going to be a lot of pedalling, even if the downhilling
is going to be fairly gnarly, I know the Enduro is up to the task. If
things are going to be really steep or particularly rough I saddle up the
Demo to save my skin. I know a lot of riders who can ride really
nasty lines on six-inch all mountain bikes - but I generally choose not
to. Mostly because those riders are better than I am.
Riding the Purple Princess off into the sunset in bike park dress (with
a Fox 40 RC2 up front). Photo ~ Dan
Barham
These are the bikes that have me jonesin' for snow free trails this winter.
In fact - I can't remember being more keen for an upcoming season than
I am right now. I guess Hef was on to something after all.
Below you'll see the spec of the two bikes. For some Web sites you'll
have to qualify yourself by geographic location but others will take you
directly to the linked product.
If you have anything to say about the bikes I've been riding, Hugh Hefner's
libido, my component spec or anything else - bring it here.
Cam McRae
