Easter 2007 I bought a Santa Cruz Blur LT frame. The first thing I noticed when lifting the frame out of the box was that all the tubes were large diameter and very chunky in the hand, the frame itself was almost the same weight as that of my Nomad; this was a surprise. The Blur was built with a mix of SRAM X9 and Shimano XT drive-train, Mavic 717 rims, layback seat post, Formula ORO K24 brakes, my usual high-n-wide bars, slime tubes and Michelin all mountain extreme tyres. Initially it was fitted with a Fox 32 Vanilla 130 mm travel fork although this was soon changed to a Pace 40 fighter with 150mm travel. Continue reading
bike review
Bikes for Boys
Little boys that is. And it is an area fraught with difficulty if you do not want to be a Disappointing Dad. The test for this is a small boy’s silence or even worse a half smile.You could walk into a supermarket, a discount chain or even order from a newspaper advert and buy an astonishingly cheap bike and although it may cope with the occasional bridleway, it may struggle with regular trail duties. Your local bike shop may carry one of the major players who make a kid’s version of your own steed.That may be an easy solution but only if it is going to be used and not end up joining other investment items which you store unused in your garage.
Some web sites offer frames or bikes with useful information on sizing and weight. These can be a good point of comparison.
However we all have a shed or garage with lots of unused kit which would be ideal for someone else because you really needed Steve Peat’s grips and Cedric Garcia’s bars and your old ones are on the shelf and if not you really need some new wheels anyway so that would not count on the costs of course.
After a little research, I settled on a hardtail with a maximum target weight of 25 lbs. The frame was a real problem as advertised sale items were plentiful but finding actual stock proved difficult.
Merlin had an older model which seemed ideal but the cost was a large chunk of a whole bike from a chainstore but I felt that the quality would be better and the weight a little less so that help justify it.
I was so pleased at the silver frame when it arrived I choose forks specifically to match and although I had intended to use as much of my shed stock as possible that changed to only shiny silver bits. I did reuse some wheels and some v-brakes but bought new handlebars, stem, seat post, clamp and saddle to match the frame.
I had expected to buy much of this from whatever internet retailer was offering a discount but Halfords provided some bits cheaper and most importantly in silver.
All the bits laid out brought a smile to the face of an eager boy that only fell slightly when I explained that assembling it himself would be good for him.
I felt sorry for his teacher when trying to explain the method of installing the crown race to the fork as he fiddled with just about everything else.
After much ado, and over a couple of days, the build slowly accumulated. The bottom bracket was fitted, the fork, stem, bars, seat post and saddle but it did not look like progress. Tubes and tyres, a cassette and quick releases and the wheels fitted. Now it looked like a bike and if you are twelve then surely it is almost finished now.
Shifters and brake levers, fit the v-brakes, now the brake cables, this is how you adjust them. How much longer Dad!
By the time we had measured cut and fitted the cables the set up of the transmission seemed to be an unnecessary punishment so I crumpled under the pressure and finished all the little bits myself somewhat later.
The finished bike looked great and a satisfied smile and a brief, “thanks Dad”, means that I have passed the test.
For a couple of hundred pounds we have enjoyed a joint task and he has learnt a few new skills. He can join me around the trails of Sussex and I can impress him with my hard won skills built up over years in the mud.
Unfortunately, there is a downside to this.
Like many of you out there, I tackle the steepest climbs with determination, the knurliest roots with courage and even the occasional shallow river crossing with gusto but I cannot jump.
Well I can jump a bit, the odd lip here, a small drop off there but nothing big. Not anything, you find in a BMX park, not even if it is a tabletop.
And there is the rub.
First time out at Whiteways, slippy, treacherous, rooty single track, straight over the top. A drop off with a steep edge, straight down, and even the large bomb hole drop, straight down. Now I have led a few rides round here and usually a few people shy away from this drop or at least need some reassurance to roll over the edge. So all my advantage gained from years of experience evaporated in just one ride.
But this pales into insignificance with jumping. Tricky log – jump that. Tight awkward corner – jump that. Ditch – jump that. Big rock – jump up, jump off. Great big hole that you must avoid – jump that.
It gets worse. Standing at the side of the track watching your little baby boy hurtling towards the jump ramp that you have ridden around for years looking at sideways thinking one day, one day. He launches himself a metre into the air, hangs suspended, lands three metres after the spot you were assuming to be the landing area and all as gently and as lightly as a little deer.
I will never be able to do that even if I threw caution to the wind and hurled myself towards potential oblivion with careless abandon risking life, limb and mortgage payments.
And if I did, I would land more hippopotamus.
So if you have to face the choice then do not be the Disappointing Dad who picks the wrong bike instead choose to be the Disappointed Dad that Father Time has cruelly exposed.
After all, we can all live vicariously.
Resurrection
Some of us have an old friend who used to accompany us on all our rides but age has perhaps got the better of them and they do not go out with us anymore.An old photograph might raise a nostalgic smile but we ride with different friends now and only a memory surfaces when we recall a particular incident at a point on the trail. Your friend may ride with someone else or perhaps no longer goes out but hangs forlornly on the garage wall. This was the fate of my old Hardrock ; dismantled and unused but now reborn anew.
I started with the purchase of an inexpensive fork but with 130mm rather than the 80mm of the past and although it may invalidate the frame warranty ( long since past ) unless I become addicted to the air ( also unlikely ) it relaxes the head angle and provides something to hide behind. A crankset swap, with the new replacement fitted onto my main bike, and the refitting of some of the original components the skeleton was complete. Some wheel swapping proved irksome as I wanted to fit at least a front disk brake but a Hope insert changed a 20mm thru-axle to a quick release. Hydraulic brakes were expensive so I opted for a cable solution. Unfortunately I could only find a front brake discounted on the internet so the initial build continued with a v-brake on the rear. Old flat pedals, a nice new chain, two borrowed tyres but without something blue.
A shakedown ride was required so a lone pilot from Jill, not Jack, on a dry summer’s evening was the ideal soft test. Not soft though. The 2002 frame has something of a reputation for its ‘direct’ feedback which allows the trail to feed directly to your back and as the short initial climb over the brick proved, age had not dulled this ability. It did feel light and responsive compared to a 34lb Freeride bike and on a dry ridge bridleway acceleration was great. A small amount of stuttering on the rough, a small amount of skipping on the brakes, a small amount of slip on the wet chalk and a large amount of pounding on your body – biking little and large.
A couple of other very short rides has convince me that the advantage of a hardtail’s simplicity is really the weight but my old back needs a cushion . It may be a Thudbuster would fix this so I have not discounted the idea of a 20lb carbon thing that would pedal itself up hills on a warm summer evening but my old friend has been cleaned and fitted with a nice new rear cable brake and is waiting on its new rider to brave the cold.
Hopefully it will have a chance to be ridden regularly again but for me all our rides together are only in the past.
last bike
The last bike I need to buy…ever. Continue reading
East Peak
Bought April 2003 after reading extensively about a range of bikes within the $1k to $2k range Test rides on a range of demonstration models clearly showed a wide variance in the strengths and weaknesses of different manufacturers and even different ranges.Some mainstream models, e.g. Fisher, seemed poor value and surprisingly models within any range could vary enormously, e.g. Trek, where the promising Fuel was disappointing but the Liquid felt considerably better. Test rides on several paper possibilities proved disappointing especially strong contenders from Cannondale and Specialized. The Epic was originally publicised as a full suspension bike but rode like a hardtail and the Enduro which should have been a strong contender was eliminated in part due to a poor set-up on a trial bike.Eventually the VPP emerged as the future although the actual success of different suspensions seemed to ally more closely with the geometry of the frame and less than expected with the difference of the fundamental mechanics of the system.Of the Marin range each one seemed to have more detrimental points than beneficial ones as if the differences had been forced in order to extend the range to reach particular price points rather than to offer clearly different levels of performance.The East Peak was bought because the Mount Vision seemed expensive and I was advised away from the Skareb fork. The brakes were upgraded to Shimano discs but apart from that the bike started as standard. Moving up from a Hardrock the bike seemed an improvement in every department but a better bike makes a better rider and a better rider finds the limitations. The worst one of these was the somewhat flexible Pilot fork which was only suitable for a lighter weight rider and limited the bikes rough ground abilities severely compared to the Fox replacement.In fact it had to be returned early on for re-building. Other characteristics included a less than rigid rear end which provided sketchy handling on downhill sections and a rapid ramp up over large bumps which can catch the unwary.The strength of the bike is as a long distance cross country cruiser and not as a single track or play bike but it can be encouraged towards anything as several thousand miles from SDW to Wales can testify. It is not recommended as a ride straight out of the ski cabine at Deux Alps.
The main downside of the bike was the maintenance factor. The astonishingly cheap headset survived one brief clean and grease before complete submission. However the main problem area has been the Quad links. Although the mud clearance is good both links act as collectors and this kills the bearings. The bearings were changed continuously either in pairs or in full sets of eight. Some lasted a few months others as little as a few weeks. The original two piece links were upgraded to one piece links and this has been a partial success. The problem is due to several factors. The sideways flex of the frame causes a grinding effect , the quality of the actual bearings and the poor seal of the bearings.
American bikes suffered from warranty repairs and the bearings were supposedly upgraded to Japanese units. This may be a solution for US conditions but sometimes the seals and grease do not last one bad mud ride. Changing to a fully waterproof grease has been the key to keeping the mud, chalk and clay to the outside but the one piece links, although improving the rigidity , reduce access to cleaning and re-greasing two of the bearings.
Jon Whyte has stated that the external mounting of the links was an area he revisited before designing the new E5. All of the current models now have an improved rear trail arm increasing rigidity but that might not be a complete solution. Early on some of the through bolts snapped and this seemed to be a known problem suggesting a quality problem with the bolts. Bushes and washers have also all being changed and although that should be expected with high mileage the overall aftertaste is one of mediocre quality.
Other kit lasted well with the best component being the Shimano Deore brakes which have been 100% reliable with no leaks, few squeaks and with excellent dry and wet stopping power although less than a more expensive system, e.g. Hope M4.
With trail bikes all moving towards six inch travel a fairly heavy four inch would seem to be edging towards the end of its lifetime.
Buy it again? Perhaps. Keep it as long? No. Buy it now? I would rather have a Nomad.
Brightonmtb.org 