first of all a big thank you to pdc racing and kyle who hooked my friend antonio up with a frame for the worlds and WC final in europe, shows a great commitment to the sport and a lot of confidence in his product, i mean, it doesnt get much more abusive than privateer WC racing!
got the frame on saturday, built it up at the airport parking lot while i waited for other stuff, and proceeded to weigh it at the check in counter, got a bit suspicious stares from the security personnel but managed to stay out of trouble this time.
complete frame, no shock bolts:
3,8kg or 8,4lbs thats with QR dropouts
3,9kg or 8,6lbs with 12mm thru axle dropouts AND axle.
thats 1/3lbs to 1/2 lbs less than a med m3.
first impression was very favorable, very clean welds and a beautiful very compact and simple approach to the design, as im sure you can see on the pics that have been around.
the linkage and pivots that normally is the downfall of the similar bikes ive wrenched on, namely karps and cortinas, is very well thought out and simpler than both those other designs, that upper link horseshoe takes almost all the guessing out of setup. axles are indexed and 13mm steel so i do not expect any bending as happens a lot on other bikes.
we put antonios 3 year old avy dhs in there, stock shock is 2 3/4" stroke but we figured a little more travel wouldnt hurt and freehand dremeled a 1/8" shaft spacer to make the stroke 2 7/8" and gain roughly a half inch travel, thats as big a shock as the bike will take however, without removing material from the lower links which didnt seem like a good idea.
no problems in fitting the shock at all and a rather short hose can be used, correct spring rate is 450 for his 170lbs and full on race use.
we first put a 8" boxxer with flat crown on there but angle was too steep and not enough clearance with the cane creek reducer headset, everything went fine with a drop crown and a small spacer between the crown and headset to avoid the crown contacting the HS top cap, will be installing a e13 zerostack upper cup to drop the bar a few mm's and get some angle adjustment on the fork that is maxed out at the moment.
in the crank dept, xtr 116mm worked fine, SRS bolted to the chainguide tabs using 3 spacers, cranks are 165mm and come about 2 or 3 mm close to the rear end, problems might arise if using 175mm cranks so watch out for that although that would be a fairly strange combo. chainline (and all other alignment actually) was spot on.
cable routing is so natural and straight forward that we didnt even bother much as you see on the pics.
mud clearance is good but not great, no problems with the comp24 you see in the pics on a very muddy day yesterday, one very very cool thing about the rear end is that the upright is so wide and the shock is placed so close to it, that it works as a mudguard for the shock, keeping it perfectly clean!
built as you see in the pics its a hair under 43lbs, in race trim it will be around 1lb lighter.
wheelbase as pictured is 1158mm (45,6") with a front center bias, i mean the rear end is really short and the front center relatively longer, bb height static is 372mm (14,6")
rider impressions are that the bikes corners extremely well and that there is lots of leg room for maneuvering, the bikes is very progressive and has a brilliant small to med bump performance, plus the long top tube seems to put a guy of antonios (6" ish) height in a very efficient pedalling position. i think he is going to do very well on this bike and after only two days he is not missing the old one has to say something.
all in all two thumbs and up for this one, especially considering the asking price.
btw one final note i think the bike pedals so well and is so progressive, SPV is not needed at all.
got the frame on saturday, built it up at the airport parking lot while i waited for other stuff, and proceeded to weigh it at the check in counter, got a bit suspicious stares from the security personnel but managed to stay out of trouble this time.
complete frame, no shock bolts:
3,8kg or 8,4lbs thats with QR dropouts
3,9kg or 8,6lbs with 12mm thru axle dropouts AND axle.
thats 1/3lbs to 1/2 lbs less than a med m3.
first impression was very favorable, very clean welds and a beautiful very compact and simple approach to the design, as im sure you can see on the pics that have been around.
the linkage and pivots that normally is the downfall of the similar bikes ive wrenched on, namely karps and cortinas, is very well thought out and simpler than both those other designs, that upper link horseshoe takes almost all the guessing out of setup. axles are indexed and 13mm steel so i do not expect any bending as happens a lot on other bikes.
we put antonios 3 year old avy dhs in there, stock shock is 2 3/4" stroke but we figured a little more travel wouldnt hurt and freehand dremeled a 1/8" shaft spacer to make the stroke 2 7/8" and gain roughly a half inch travel, thats as big a shock as the bike will take however, without removing material from the lower links which didnt seem like a good idea.
no problems in fitting the shock at all and a rather short hose can be used, correct spring rate is 450 for his 170lbs and full on race use.
we first put a 8" boxxer with flat crown on there but angle was too steep and not enough clearance with the cane creek reducer headset, everything went fine with a drop crown and a small spacer between the crown and headset to avoid the crown contacting the HS top cap, will be installing a e13 zerostack upper cup to drop the bar a few mm's and get some angle adjustment on the fork that is maxed out at the moment.
in the crank dept, xtr 116mm worked fine, SRS bolted to the chainguide tabs using 3 spacers, cranks are 165mm and come about 2 or 3 mm close to the rear end, problems might arise if using 175mm cranks so watch out for that although that would be a fairly strange combo. chainline (and all other alignment actually) was spot on.
cable routing is so natural and straight forward that we didnt even bother much as you see on the pics.
mud clearance is good but not great, no problems with the comp24 you see in the pics on a very muddy day yesterday, one very very cool thing about the rear end is that the upright is so wide and the shock is placed so close to it, that it works as a mudguard for the shock, keeping it perfectly clean!
built as you see in the pics its a hair under 43lbs, in race trim it will be around 1lb lighter.
wheelbase as pictured is 1158mm (45,6") with a front center bias, i mean the rear end is really short and the front center relatively longer, bb height static is 372mm (14,6")
rider impressions are that the bikes corners extremely well and that there is lots of leg room for maneuvering, the bikes is very progressive and has a brilliant small to med bump performance, plus the long top tube seems to put a guy of antonios (6" ish) height in a very efficient pedalling position. i think he is going to do very well on this bike and after only two days he is not missing the old one has to say something.
all in all two thumbs and up for this one, especially considering the asking price.
btw one final note i think the bike pedals so well and is so progressive, SPV is not needed at all.