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Santa Cruz Driver 8

William42

fork ways
Jul 31, 2007
3,908
634
Since I don't think its been discussed yet, looks like SC is releasing an 8 inch race or freeride bike. I've heard mixed things, that its a VP Free replacement or that its an 8 inch racebike similar to the socom.


Image courtesy of Dirt and hosted by pinkbike.

Anybody have anymore information on this? Is it gonna be FR? DH?
 
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jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,558
24,181
media blackout
Smartass remark: they took a V10 and put on a shock with a diff amount of stroke. Wouldn't be the first time they did it this year.
 

William42

fork ways
Jul 31, 2007
3,908
634
Smartass remark: they took a V10 and put on a shock with a diff amount of stroke. Wouldn't be the first time they did it this year.
Looks like the rear end is pretty substantially different, as is the seat tube.

Pretty soon we'll be seeing Blur XC Carbons with the same design :imstupid: but its mostly the geometry and intended use (shock rates, what rings its for, etc) that I'm interested in
 

xy9ine

Turbo Monkey
Mar 22, 2004
2,940
353
vancouver eastside
agreed, the gap between the seattube and shock kind of remind me of a supercycle...and also why would you rather have this than a V10, both race machines and probably the same price or a little bit less, but still.
v10 is overkill for some courses. makes sense to have a smaller dh chassis in the quiver.
 

OGRipper

back alley ripper
Feb 3, 2004
10,647
1,116
NORCAL is the hizzle
I've heard mixed things, that its a VP Free replacement and that its an 8 inch racebike similar to the socom.
Take it for what it is, a new bike, not a replacement for the vp-free. Although it's understandable that people are thinking of it that way, among other things it won't take a front derailleur or a full-length seatpost. It's not underbuilt FRO like a Socom, and it's definitely not just a V10 with a different shock.
 

William42

fork ways
Jul 31, 2007
3,908
634
Take it for what it is, a new bike, not a replacement for the vp-free. Although it's understandable that people are thinking of it that way, among other things it won't take a front derailleur or a full-length seatpost. It's not underbuilt FRO like a Socom, and it's definitely not just a V10 with a different shock.
Yah but a 65/64 degree HA and 14 inch BB is pretty radically different from a 67 degree HA and a 15.8inch BB. I have no idea what the geo numbers are for this (the 65/64HA 14BB was entirely made up) so I'm wondering where this is gonna fall.
 

ballr

Monkey
Apr 7, 2002
165
0
colorado
same i2i and stroke as v10 shock

heavier than v10 (a little)

for dudes who like to send it, but don't need all the travel
straight hucker machine
 

SuboptimusPrime

Turbo Monkey
Aug 18, 2005
1,658
1,633
NorCack
Interesting...looks like the bike lots of people, including some buddies and I, spotted at Whis over the summer. FWIW, that bike was polished if I recall, and I thought it looked great...
 

ridiculous

Turbo Monkey
Jan 18, 2005
2,907
1
MD / NoVA
Seems like they could have just added that kind of adjustability to the current v10 with different hole patterns. Then the user could just adjust as needed to fit the course. Maybe this is just a rig to test out the geometry????
 

Muttely

Monkey
Jan 26, 2009
402
0
the seat tube area just doesnt look....right.

would be interesting to see a shorter travel version of the V-10, im sure it would be Pop-lar over here in the UK!
 

jerseydirt

Turbo Monkey
May 6, 2007
1,936
0
dirty jerz
the geo looks all messed up. It would look a lot less flexy if the swing arm was lower like commencal but with a triangle. Then you could lower the frame a bit, and angle the seat tube back or foward depending on size or preference. Also this might make the frame a little more slack, but if it is more slack then the top tube could be lowered a bit and you could have a lower ride height. If any of that makes sense to other monkey's, I think it is a good idea.
 

toodles

ridiculously corgi proportioned
Aug 24, 2004
5,479
4,719
Australia
Wow sweet... Especially if it's a wee bit cheaper than the V10 too... I'd love to take one for a spin.
 

AlmostHeaven

Turbo Monkey
Jun 8, 2005
1,164
0
VIRGINIA
everyone shut the f up and listen to this guy. he knows
wow yea i'd say he is someone important, huh?

member since 2002 and a whopping 116 posts.
low post count + longtime lurker = complete knowledge.
that's how it works right?






:biggrin: take with grain of salt and tall glass of dark beer.
 

snowskilz

xblue attacked piggy won
May 15, 2004
612
0
rado
wow yea i'd say he is someone important, huh?

member since 2002 and a whopping 116 posts.
low post count + longtime lurker = complete knowledge.
that's how it works right?






:biggrin: take with grain of salt and tall glass of dark beer.

Beer is good but Matt's knowledge on v10 is better than anyone else that posts here.
 

ballr

Monkey
Apr 7, 2002
165
0
colorado
wow yea i'd say he is someone important, huh?

member since 2002 and a whopping 116 posts.
low post count + longtime lurker = complete knowledge.
that's how it works right?






:biggrin: take with grain of salt and tall glass of dark beer.

LOL Richness. Low post count = clueless, huh? I thought all this time I would keep my bs posts to a minimum and try and chime in when I had something informative to add (or to answer some spray from some punk)

Cheers
 

chic06

Chimp
Sep 16, 2008
45
0
the bike is cool in concept, a lighter shorter travel V10, like the geo with a low bb and slack head angle, but they need to change the swingarm to mount the upper link closer to the seat tube or do somethin for appearance
 

toodles

ridiculously corgi proportioned
Aug 24, 2004
5,479
4,719
Australia
but they need to change the swingarm to mount the upper link closer to the seat tube or do somethin for appearance
Totally. I hate when designers compromise appearance just to get suspension feel, rate, frame geo and strength right. Total lack of priorities IMO.
 
Nov 4, 2007
48
0
Bay Area
i think william's comment was spot on about appearance: if there was no v10 this would look tits in my eyes. as it stands, not so much.... i'm actually surprised they decided to make this bike--i thought the FR market was kind of going away.
 

jon-boy

Monkey
May 26, 2004
799
0
Vancouver BC
i'm actually surprised they decided to make this bike--i thought the FR market was kind of going away.
I agree to some extent, the 8" travel bike FR market is going away. People are moving to 6/7" bikes with DH geometry that can rip the trails like 8-line and such like, some call it slopestyle, whatever. It's bikes like the Bottlerocket, the Intense SS... those kinds of bikes.

SC need to make a version of the Nomad that fits that segment.
 

xy9ine

Turbo Monkey
Mar 22, 2004
2,940
353
vancouver eastside
actually, i think this bike makes more sense (as a dh chassis) than the v10 - for most people. i wouldn't think of it as a fr bike, but more of a versatile dh rig.
 

toodles

ridiculously corgi proportioned
Aug 24, 2004
5,479
4,719
Australia
I'd think of it more as a V10 that's a little less prone to see-sawing through tech section and that can be picked up over obstacles.

Yeah the looks are a bit ****, but it's hardly the production version (I hope) and the geo sounds very sorted. Put a "Made by Weagle" sticker on it and it'd probably be hailed as the best thing since translucent white shirts in wet tshirt competitions.
 

stumpjump

Monkey
Sep 14, 2007
673
0
DC
I am giong to say that it looks weird but only because Ive seen so many V10's that I am not use to that e2e length and look. Probably an early version if it ever even comes out.

P.S. I would buy nearly anything Weagle makes.
 

William42

fork ways
Jul 31, 2007
3,908
634
There is alot of e-spec without actually knowing the geometry, I was hoping somebody might chime in here and tell us if its going to be like the glory 0 to the glory DH or if its gonna be like the demo 7 to the demo 8

Guess we'll have to wait and see!
 

Kanye West

220# bag of hacktastic
Aug 31, 2006
3,740
470
Gonna be like Robin to Batman. That's just the way it's going to be. Or better yet, like Palin to McCain.
 

chic06

Chimp
Sep 16, 2008
45
0
Totally. I hate when designers compromise appearance just to get suspension feel, rate, frame geo and strength right. Total lack of priorities IMO.

Yeah those things are definetly the most important, but both quality in both appearance and functionaliy should be there when your paying 2500 for a frame. They can both be achieved unless the engineers are complete hacks, which their probly not.