Bikes and Tundra

That’s awesome, didn’t know you could buy separate seat stays from them. Enjoy!

 

Thinking of getting a full suspension bike (that didn’t take long). Leaning Stumpjumper 15, or Marin Rift zone 2.

love to hear thoughts on those 2 if yall have them.

 

Anything with decent full suspension will feel far better than a hard tail. It feels like you're cheating.
Specialized sells a shit ton of Stumpjumpers. For good reason.

I haven't ridden a Marin. I'm sure they are great, too.

I'd pay attention more to the components coming on the bike vs bike brand personally. Most mid grade components are perfectly adequate for longish, trouble free-ish life.

 

Also the Stumpy has a bit more travel and more relaxed geo for head angle. You will progress a lot with a good bike and will appreciate the bit more it offers. Unless you’re doing more cross country ish trails, go with the Stumpy. It’ll be more well rounded.

 

Appreciate the input. I’m considering the Marin because of the components and rear axle setup is easily upgraded. Stumpy is the measuring stick

 

Rather unsurprisingly, the Stumpy gets my vote. It’s certainly a great bike, but I’d also consider things like warranty support and dealer locations. Specialized has dealers and thus help (should you need it) all over the US and a very solid reputation for handling any warranty claims. Not to say Marin doesn’t have similar support, just something to consider.

I haven’t ridden the new Stumpjumper 15 (might pick up a frame this winter), but I will say that my Stumpjumper Evo is probably the best and most versatile bike I’ve ever owned.

 

Rear coil arrived, road Sat and Sun this last weekend. It feels incredible. So smooth. Definitely a convert and worth the slight extra weight. Since this is bike and Tundras, added photo from a trip to Mendocino Headlands from earlier this year. Incredible soft single track, such good trails. Shout out to Steam Donkey Trail Crew, ran into one of their members on the trail.

 

Rode a Transition Smuggler 29 alloy yesterday. Wow.

 

The latest crop of shorter travel trail bikes with big bike geometry are pretty sweet. Can make not a lot of trail seem like a lot of fun

 

I picked up a Trailcat SL about a month and a half ago. My first new bike in 20 years. So happy.

 

I love that 140mm/130mm is shorter travel. I guess there's all that crazy 210mm travel stuff now for extreme downhill. I'll just be riding trails, so 140 should be great. The bike was setup pretty soft when I rode it. So plush.

 

Picked up some new Maven Silver take-offs for 50% of retail price. Running 200mm f/r rotors. Will be retiring the Code RSCs to my son’s bike.

 

I’m very jealous, I’ve been wanting to make the jump for a while. Codes just don’t do it for me any more.

 

That was why I switched. I have bled them, changed pads and increased rotor size and still seem to not have enough brake. Wanted to try the TRP EVO-DHs but for the price I got these for I couldn’t pass them up.

 

Great choice

 

TRP’s are awesome. Have the Quadiems on two bikes. Rock solid and consistent. Just bleed them once a year with new pads and good to go. The Mavens seem great too, hopefully they solid and stronger for ya.

 

Did a fork service, chain cleaning and brake pad upgrade to semi-metallics for more bite. Also stole the 180mm disc brake off of my wife's bike and replaced my rear 160mm with it. She rides like a grandma, so dual 160's will be fine for hers. Got me an Amazonian special bike clamp to mount to my bench to hold the bike during service. These chain cleaner contraptions are pretty sweet. Fork is much smoother following a full clean out and regrease. Able to re-use all of the original hardware this time around as it's only a year old with moderate riding.



Also got to ride some of our amazing trails here in the natural state with some friends. Mt. Nebo, Miller's Goat trail.



also got a new stem for the bars. Pulls it in closer and raises it a little. I bought a large frame bike, but I’m on the split at 5’10” ish tall. Shrinking the cockpit a little for comfort.

 

Dead thread, but I’ll post to keep it going. Ride today at Lake Quachita Vista trail. About 14 miles round trip. Lots of up and down creek beds. Legs are blasted. Really ready for a full suspension bike.

 

If you really want to question your life choices, go single speed.

My Pivot is what I ride most of the time in the PNW, but I do keep thinking about getting something with more travel for shuttle days.


It really just boils down to where you're riding. Back in CA everything involved a lot of climbing, so my hard tail made more sense and I rarely rode my full suspension. Moved to the PNW and the full suspension started getting used constantly and my hard tail only really got used for bike parks and poaching local trails at night. Now I consider my Pivot to be my all around bike and I plan on building up an old 5-6" travel bike for fun shuttle days, and my single speed Niner is for fitness and annoying gravel riders.

Edit: @KNABORES talk to your local bike shops and ask about upcoming demo days or just demoing a bike for a day. Most good independent shops will have some type of demo bike selection to try out.

 

Full suspension feels like cheating! If you're doing lots of climbing, stick with a shorter travel bike, maybe 130-140mm rear travel at most.
Honestly new cross- country bikes in the 110-120mm rear travel can handle a lot. Plus they are lighter and climb great.

 

I threw down on a Pivot Trailcat SL last summer and I absolutely love it. 29s are an entirely new experience for me.

 

I’ve had my eye on a transition smuggler. 140s travel. On sale can be had around $2800. Or, Stumpjumper Comp alloy. About the same price and equipment.

 

Go with the Transition.

 

110-120mm travel bikes ride way better than they should now, or we all thought we needed way more travel than we really did.

 

2nd’ed smuggler hands down.

 

The smuggler was butter. Best feeling bike I’ve ridden

 

I demoed a Pivot Switchblade today. It climbs way better than I was expecting, really couldn't feel how big it was when climbing switchbacks. I was impressed. Not impressed enough to drop $9K on a new bike, but it's definitely going to be living in the back of my mind for a while. Especially how nicely it descended and how happy it was to get airborne.

 

I have an ibis ripmo which is a very close to the switchblade and it is an incredible bike. My first 29er and it was eye opening.

 

I made some upgrades to the Shore this winter.

First up, I had all the suspension rebuilt as it was overdue.
The chain was also stretched to hell, so a new bronze Sram chain. Which matches the theme, but also has a much better wear life than standard.
Now for the exciting change. I am in the middle of frame size med-large and always like a stable decent which is why I went large. But it always felt an it too stable in the air for me. I mini mulleted my bike How dare I ride a 26” tire! I found a great shape used wheel and cassette. Mostly because I want to try the setup, before spending major bank. Went with matching Conti Kryptotal tires as well.

Me and a few of the boys are heading to Kamloops next weekend to the bike ranch. We’ll be riding it and some local hits around town, including their famous gravel pit shoots. Looking forward to trying the new setup out!

 

I went back and rode the same trail again yesterday afternoon with my Pivot Trail 429. They really do climb about the same, and I was a little bit faster in some parts of the descent on my bike compared to the Switchblade, but I'm going to attribute that primarily to riding the same trail twice this week.


It was a nice afternoon up on the mountain, and got home right as the rain started up.