I finally rode my Bike yesterday night after spending some time tunning sag, compression/rebound/lockout, stem height etc...
I have been riding a racy Zaskar for 4 years so most of my initial impressions are lead by that fact.
First the specs.
SantaCruz Blur Trans Red Medium
Fox ava RL rear shox
Fox Float F100 rlc
XTR 03 all around
Easton post and stem (currently a borrowed Titus stem to test lenght)
Mavic x3.1 rims
$hitty Kenda tires
Eggbeaters
Titus seat
The bike is light for a Fs trailbike bike at around 25.5 or 26 pound.
the geometry: The blur has a higher BB and higher standover so the bike looked a little big for me at first. The Stem was way to high at 40" off the ground. I swap the spacers to bring it down to 38". The swaped 90 mm stem (instead of the 130mm) gave me the same strench has my zaskar and felt good. The bars are larger than my previous at 26" instead of 22" which is a big difference + it's a low rise compared to my flat bar. In a nutshell, the geometry is very different and a lot less racy which is what I was going for.
The Ride: (please note that I rode 30 min in a parking lot at -4 Celsius and snowing)
The bike accellerate fast! the suspension felt very bob less at first but because of the cold weather the fork and rear shox were way to soft after 10 min. Due to the cold the fork felt terrible, diving under braking and boobing while pedalling hard, the rear shox was similar but a little less. I did not adjust the pressure for sub zero riding so only my first 10 minutes of riding were Ok. But that 10 min was sweet, stopping and sprinting felt very crisp and soooooo good!
I was a little worried about the height and the different geometry but the bike felt perfect right away, It's very stiff (fork and frame) so even if it's bigger the control is awesome.
The XTR disc were not breaked in and only after 30 min of riding started to feel OK.
I tought I would hate the new XTR shifting but I was suprise to find that it was pretty easy to shift with the back of the hand. I was very worried about the front shifting but i does not take a lof of energy to shift up front.
I hated the Fox forx lockout at first cause it only slowed the compression in the first part of the travel until I played with the blowout threshold. At maximum setting the fork is really locked out. The blowout threshold is a great idea and mandantory on that fork!
That's it for now, I will post my first real rides review when that stupid snow melt!!!!!!
just one question, are wide are you bars for a lightweight trail bike ? 26 just seem way too much?
I have been riding a racy Zaskar for 4 years so most of my initial impressions are lead by that fact.
First the specs.
SantaCruz Blur Trans Red Medium
Fox ava RL rear shox
Fox Float F100 rlc
XTR 03 all around
Easton post and stem (currently a borrowed Titus stem to test lenght)
Mavic x3.1 rims
$hitty Kenda tires
Eggbeaters
Titus seat
The bike is light for a Fs trailbike bike at around 25.5 or 26 pound.
the geometry: The blur has a higher BB and higher standover so the bike looked a little big for me at first. The Stem was way to high at 40" off the ground. I swap the spacers to bring it down to 38". The swaped 90 mm stem (instead of the 130mm) gave me the same strench has my zaskar and felt good. The bars are larger than my previous at 26" instead of 22" which is a big difference + it's a low rise compared to my flat bar. In a nutshell, the geometry is very different and a lot less racy which is what I was going for.
The Ride: (please note that I rode 30 min in a parking lot at -4 Celsius and snowing)
The bike accellerate fast! the suspension felt very bob less at first but because of the cold weather the fork and rear shox were way to soft after 10 min. Due to the cold the fork felt terrible, diving under braking and boobing while pedalling hard, the rear shox was similar but a little less. I did not adjust the pressure for sub zero riding so only my first 10 minutes of riding were Ok. But that 10 min was sweet, stopping and sprinting felt very crisp and soooooo good!
I was a little worried about the height and the different geometry but the bike felt perfect right away, It's very stiff (fork and frame) so even if it's bigger the control is awesome.
The XTR disc were not breaked in and only after 30 min of riding started to feel OK.
I tought I would hate the new XTR shifting but I was suprise to find that it was pretty easy to shift with the back of the hand. I was very worried about the front shifting but i does not take a lof of energy to shift up front.
I hated the Fox forx lockout at first cause it only slowed the compression in the first part of the travel until I played with the blowout threshold. At maximum setting the fork is really locked out. The blowout threshold is a great idea and mandantory on that fork!
That's it for now, I will post my first real rides review when that stupid snow melt!!!!!!
just one question, are wide are you bars for a lightweight trail bike ? 26 just seem way too much?