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Are these the all mountain bikes of the future? Discuss

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dropmachine

Turbo Monkey
Sep 7, 2001
2,922
10
Your face.
Scott tried that whole 2-bikes-in-1 nonsense with the Ransom. Didn't really work there at all. The angles were odd, and halving the suspension with that strange shock only resulted in an odd feeling bike that felt like it had a giant bumper on the shock.

Whats so revolutionary about the Scott LT? What exactly is different? Not a damn thing far as I can see. It uses a pullshock. So did the Schwinn Straight 8, and that wasn't revolutionary either. It was great, but hardly enough to reclassify the whole category. I cant' see any reason to call it something more than a Santa Cruz Nomad or Turner 5spot, Giant Trance/ reign....
 
quickneonrt

quickneonrt

Turbo Monkey
Apr 8, 2003
1,611
0
Staten Island NY
The biggest problem with the Gambler and Cracknfail are the dumb proprietory rear shocks. What happens if you hate the shock you are screwed. What happens when the shock blows up in 2 years and Cracknfail has moved to another design AGAIN, you are screwed.
 
4130biker

4130biker

PM me about Tantrum Cycles!
May 24, 2007
3,884
450
norbar said:
Not really. For europe the Mega bikes like the new mondraker with 170 travel (if I remember right) may be the new thing. Also I think there wont be a single trend. Now I see 2 areas that are not really satisfied. 1. Burly shorter travel am/trailbikes like distortion as you mentioned but that endurance downhill type of events got quite popular.
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Good point about the enduro dh. It just seems like there is a lot of overbuilding going on with Am bikes. For instnce, most AM forks can be used for full on hucking. I'm wondering how much stiffness is really necessary? Where does the stiffness stop being benneficial? I was skeptical of riding a flimsly frame and a 32mm fork, but it turns out to feel every bit as controlled and stable as the burlier bikes I've ridden. I think it has everything to do with the geometry, as long as the suspension is passable.
 
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K

Karve

Chimp
Aug 28, 2008
13
0
quickneonrt said:
The biggest problem with the Gambler and Cracknfail are the dumb proprietory rear shocks. What happens if you hate the shock you are screwed. What happens when the shock blows up in 2 years and Cracknfail has moved to another design AGAIN, you are screwed.
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Eh - whats the gambler got to do with it? :confused:
 
erikkellison

erikkellison

Monkey
Jan 28, 2004
918
0
Denver, CO
I do agree that the marketing of "Over Mountain" is dumb and made me skeptical going in.

But that being said, I could see this sort of design as having a lot of potential - it's seems to me to be the next logical progression from remote ProPedal and TALAS/2-Step. Yeah, proprietary kinda sucks, but new designs are always proprietary to some degree - the more different they are, the more proprietary they tend to be. Yeah, we're conditioned to see pull shocks as old-school like that Rock Shox, but who's to say that it's not a good technical execution of an engineering thinking outside of the box? I wouldn't be so hasty to judge it's competence, though yeah, proprietary can be frustrating (and expensive).

And seriously, still calling it Crack'n'fail? Stop hanging onto the past. They're not famous for that anymore.

Cannondale makes some really cool bikes, and no, I don't ride one or work for them. I don't like their new high-modulus carbon designs because of the inherent fragility (at least for my purposes), but a more ballistic carbon seems like a great idea. That's the same thing that Easton and Edge are doing with their carbon rims, and it seems to be working (yes, we've all seem pictures of failed carbon rims, but they're over-publicized because it's exciting to post a picture of a failed carbon rim. No one posts their blown up alloy rims anymore because it's not noteworthy - I bet if used for the intended purpose, carbon rims, and carbon frames, are just fine).

I am so happy with my bike that I won't be considering one of these, but if I had the most-assuredly ridiculous amount of coin required to purchase one, I'd consider it (especially with warranty).

I really don't see how, if all else is the same, that having a switch that changes travel and suspension characteristics so drastically that you feel like you have 2 different frames under you is a bad thing. Yeah, overweight people will get it as the next best thing to make them faster when what they really need to do is ride more, but wouldn't a successful execution of such a design make everyone faster, fat or fit?
 
quickneonrt

quickneonrt

Turbo Monkey
Apr 8, 2003
1,611
0
Staten Island NY
Actually they still have some road bikes that do cracknfail.. Their so called Mtn bikes are over built and most of the time pretty heavy.
The flip side is they sell a ton of road bikes so the higher the number of bikes the higher the number of failures.
 
norbar

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,376
1,612
Warsaw :/
4130biker said:
Good point about the enduro dh. It just seems like there is a lot of overbuilding going on with Am bikes. For instnce, most AM forks can be used for full on hucking. I'm wondering how much stiffness is really necessary? Where does the stiffness stop being benneficial? I was skeptical of riding a flimsly frame and a 32mm fork, but it turns out to feel every bit as controlled and stable as the burlier bikes I've ridden. I think it has everything to do with the geometry, as long as the suspension is passable.
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it depends how you want to ride it. I know of some people who really push their enduro bikes, run them in parks and dh tracks and they go fast though they also want their uphill capability even with a bit more weight added. All depends on the user. Im glad the market is so diverse now.
 
4130biker

4130biker

PM me about Tantrum Cycles!
May 24, 2007
3,884
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norbar said:
it depends how you want to ride it. I know of some people who really push their enduro bikes, run them in parks and dh tracks and they go fast though they also want their uphill capability even with a bit more weight added. All depends on the user. Im glad the market is so diverse now.
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Variety in the market is pretty rad atm...
I like this one:
 
T

Trekrules

Turbo Monkey
Apr 12, 2007
1,226
148
That Last AM bike can be confirted to a 12x150mm rear hub option by switching the adapter that holds the 135mm together,love the german way of thinking:D
 
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roel_koel

Monkey
Mar 26, 2003
278
1
London,England
first of all, my apologies to the RM forum for not using the 'quote' function properly, I have always been somewhat retarded in that respect and will look into using in the future

to continue the posting of more cool all-mtn bikes

here's my 2011 Devinci Dixon all-mtn, its f*cking sweet and seems to do the job just about right

 
rockofullr

rockofullr

confused
Jun 11, 2009
7,342
924
East Bay, Cali


I find your lack of acronym based marketing disturbing.




Also, why didn't they throw a lefty on there, or a head shock? Those were some great innovations brought to us by Cannondale!
 
no skid marks

no skid marks

Monkey
Jan 15, 2006
2,511
29
ACT Australia
I hope this is the future

Why hasn't a PIVOT been shown yet, I thought they'd be a great trail bike. A couple of models to choose fro,.
I like my Pitch, does everything pretty well.
 
dump

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,236
4,498
IH8Rice said:
actually, the Lefty is a great fork.
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I think a lot of the hate for the lefty comes from the fact that people can't get over the proprietary parts required for what are somewhat questionable gains. So whatever the ride quality may be, it's hard for them to see and thus isn't worth it in their eyes.

The lefty I rode was on a friend's bike... it felt pretty good, but didn't strike me as great... like many other forks.
 
IH8Rice

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
dump said:
I think a lot of the hate for the lefty comes from the fact that people can't get over the proprietary parts required for what are somewhat questionable gains. So whatever the ride quality may be, it's hard for them to see and thus isn't worth it in their eyes.

The lefty I rode was on a friend's bike... it felt pretty good, but didn't strike me as great... like many other forks.
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sure, proprietary parts always scare people off. its the same way with my Foes forks. it still doesnt take away from its performance though.
the current gen of Leftys do feel pretty good and are noticeably stiff.
 
IH8Rice

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
mmmm Tracer 2


• Adjustable travel 5.75”-6.25” (145mm-160mm), easily set at the upper link
• Wide range geometry settings for aggressive trail or fast XC riding
• Full 1.5" head tube to accomodate all steerer and headset options available
• ISCG-05 integrated into fully machined BB shell
•World Cup, National, and World Championship winning VPP suspension platform
• NEW Improved bearings with EZ-lock binder-bolt main pivot system
• NEW Rear dropout mount system accepts 142x12, SyntaceX12, or standard 135QR dropouts. (All available separately from Intense; the Tracer2 will ship standard with 142x12)
• NEW Threaded, replaceable zerk grease fittings
• NEW Redesigned yoke & lower link machining for added rigidity and strength
• NEW Redesigned proprietary hydroformed downtube reduces weight and adds strength
• NEW 8.5" x 2.5" FOX RP23 shock damper spec
• NEW Machined ‘boxbrace’ seatstay bridge adds swingarm rigidity for a far more stable ride
• Handmade at our southern California factory
• Available in an all new color : ‘CanAm Yellow’
• Other standard colors are ’White’, ‘Gun Metal’ and ‘Works Raw’; 14 other upgrade colors available on request (may require longer lead times)
 
erikkellison

erikkellison

Monkey
Jan 28, 2004
918
0
Denver, CO
Why do I get the feeling that people are missing the point that the C'dale is adjustable on the fly, and that's why it's cool? There are a lot of adjustable bikes out there, and a lot of things you can do to adjust even non-adjustable bikes, but very few are capable of such dramatic changes at the flip of a switch. Heck, I'd love to have handlebar remotes for my ProPedal and TALAS, but that still doesn't adjust things as much as the OM Cannondales.
I wouldn't care if I was still living in the PNW, but living in Colorado there's a lot more usage for such flexibility on the fly.
 
buckoW

buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,787
4,733
Champery, Switzerland


These kind of bikes are cool, where I live now, because sometimes there isn't some sweet flowing single track like I used to ride when I lived in Durango. A lot of the time, in the Alps, you are riding down a very steep and technical hiking trail or even a dh trail. The up is steep and the down is steeper so you have a little bike on the up and a bike bike on the down. High BB and steep HA for pedalling and with the flip of a switch you have a low BB and a slack HA for corner shredding. I think these kind of bikes are cool if you have terrain that needs them. The Scott has the twin lock which changes the front and rear travel with one switch. These bikes are misunderstood in the US, IMO.
 
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