Looks like i am goin to retire the Fuel 100 for this season.Does anyone have much saddle time on a Blur? Better yet any race time on one. I am hoping it takes square edged hits better than the Fuel does.
Review of Blur?????
- Thread starter GravityFreakTJ
- Start date
I have had my Blur for 2 1/2 seasons. It flies. Really good on rough flat sections which requiring pedaling. I routinely fly by folks on lesser bikes like hardtails as they are standing trying to float over the bumps that I can pedal over. Climbing is also very good. It does have a pretty low bb even with a 100mm fork so be prepared to hit stuff with pedals and the big ring. I think the Trek's are low too though. My Hardtail 8900 was low anyway. I have heard more than person claim that they thought the Blur was the best decending XC bike around aided by that low bb. The new XC is about a pound lighter and I believe shorter too so it will handle differently. Plus the XC will not fit a tire much bigger than a 2.0. The bridge across the seat stay is very low and is the limiting factor.
TJ:GravityFreakTJ said:
I really like mine. And ironically, I switched to santa cruz after comming off a fuel 100 ('02 - carbon rear end).
The main issue I had w/ the fuel was it was so dammmmmnn long, 24.5 tt on a large. If all I did was climb and ride tsali, I'd still be on that bike. I switched to a superlight in '02 and then a blur in late '03/early '04. These were before SC broke the blur up into xc/lt designations and the geometry is a little different on the current crop than on my bike. I really like how the rear end works. Like all fs bikes, if you set it up wrong, it feels like sh!t. But set up correctly, it feels pretty damn good. Plush enough to really flog it on decents (and you've seen where else I ride!) but you can still stand and honk on it. I do a few 12hour races a season and it handles it fine. The tt has been lengthend out on the new xc (24.0 I think), and I think that would fit me better than the shortish 23.4 (large) mine has. The bb has been raised slightly and the headtube is a smidge shorter. The only issues I've had was my early run 5th air blow up in 4 weeks (fixed warranty) and now the conical bushing is worn, making the back end feel a littles squirmy, but nothing bad (I had a first run sugar that the back end flexed almost 1/2" to either side before it broke).
I can't remember how tall you are, but I know your not short. I think a large is as big as they come now, so it might be a bit small, esp if your comming off an xl fuel. All I can say is I dig the sh!t out of mine. It is the first bike I've had for more than 2 years w/o breaking it or wanting to move on to something better. I'm thinking of selling mine, just to get the xc for the reasons mentioned above. Shout at me if you need anything more specific.
Thanks for the input Doug. My Fuel was a 24.5 tt as well.On the roadie type xc courses it was fine but i didn't like it that well on the more tech courses,kinda like i felt to stretched out to handle the bike in the rough stuff. I can already tell the Blur has a much more upright feel to it which will be nice for 12/24 hr races. As far as i can tell the rear suspension is goin to be awesome,totally different from the Fuel. Only time will tell how it does but i look foward to puttin it thru its paces. I need to get down there so we can doin some riding sometime
I've got a 2004 Blur (the "classic") and absolutely love it. I've done one marathon distance race on it and felt totally comfortable over all sorts of varied terrain.
Feel free to holler at me if you have any specific questions about it.
Feel free to holler at me if you have any specific questions about it.
Well i have got 7 hours of saddle time on the Blur this weekend and i am diggin' it. Still have some tweaking to do to the suspension but i am really liking the way it descends
Fells like a mini version of one of my old dh bikes
Fells like a mini version of one of my old dh bikes
Yeah I really like the decending characteristics of the Blur, the rear end feels very "planted" even under braking.......
Not too many negitives on the Blur, I'll give a review when I get mine but..it'll probably be too late for you by then!
Doug,what bushing ?
The only issues I've had was my early run 5th air blow up in 4 weeks (fixed warranty) and now the conical bushing is worn, making the back end feel a littles squirmy, but nothing bad (I had a first run sugar that the back end flexed almost 1/2" to either side before it broke).
The only issues I've had was my early run 5th air blow up in 4 weeks (fixed warranty) and now the conical bushing is worn, making the back end feel a littles squirmy, but nothing bad (I had a first run sugar that the back end flexed almost 1/2" to either side before it broke).
As stated by progressive to me a couple months ago: 'The 5th air uses conical bushings at the eyelets, alowing the shock to slightly move side to side.' I may have mis-quoted or misunderstood him, but mine are worn enough that you can grab the shock in the frame and twist it a few degrees to either side....kind of like rolling it on the mounts, like how a plane rolls.bigdrop05 said:
It doesn't affect the performance of the bike and the shock mounting is still rock solid, you can just move the shock around a bit. You can't feel it while riding nor is it the feeling when a du bushing is worn or an eyelet is rounded (aka: wallared, as we say it down here
) out. Its really no big deal and I still ride the bike, but I don't work at a shop anymore and I don't want to deal w/ ordering another one right at this moment.