Trek’s Superfly 100 is trail-ready with 110mm rear travel and a decent build kit.

The Superfly 100 of course used to be a Gary Fisher, but a couple of years ago parent company Trek rolled the Fisher bikes into their range and dubbed them the ‘Fisher Collection’. The only clue to this is a tiny GF graphic on the top tube; otherwise Trek logos dominate the frame. I think it’s a shame they’ve eliminated the Fisher logos as significantly as this, but there’s little point in dwelling on it for too long.

What Gary Fisher set out to achieve when he started championing 29ers a decade ago lives on in this bike, and that’s the important thing. It also benefits from Trek’s mighty depth of resources and borrows from their own full suspension bikes.

The AL Elite is the entry-level model in a five bike range.

Its Alpha Platinum Aluminium frame is cold extruded and butted at key points, giving shape and profile where it’s needed most. The down tube is curved at both ends and the cables are slung across the top and bottom making for clean routing. The straight top tube carries the shock mount and the short rocker that is driven by the straight seatstays. A curved tube struts the extended seat tube.

Asymmetric chainstays keep the drive side stay lower and away from the chain, making for a quieter rider. Trek’s clever ABP (Active Braking Point) Convert places the chainstay pivot around the rear axle. It can be switched from 135x5mm to the stiffer 142x12mm setup. Clearance around the rear wheel is impressive, and there’s room for much wider tyres if the fancy takes you. Rare to see such tyre/muck clearance on a US designed bike.

HUGE mud clearance.

Other details include a Press-Fit bottom bracket, direct-mount front mech and an E2 tapered head tube – 1.5in at the bottom and 1 1/8in up top.

The Superfly 100 has a different approach to 29er geometry. Gary Fisher’s G2 geometry uses a custom fork with an increased off-set to get around the problem of slower handling of the bigger, heavier wheels, without resorting to a crazy-steep head angle (imagine the difference in angle from crown to hub with a ‘normal’ fork compared to the G2’s extra off-set/curves at the crown which give the fork a steeper angle without upsetting the head angle or wheelbase of the bike). The fork is a Fox 32 Float Evolution with a 15mm bolt-thru axle and shares the new CTD low-speed compression dial with the Float Evolution rear shock.

Trek made the job of setting sag easier with the provision of plastic clip-on sag indicators. They’re marked with 20 and 25% and you simply fit them to the forks/shock, sit on the bike, and line the rubber band with the desired position on the indicator. It certainly makes the job a lot easier and gets you a very good setup that should be spot on from the first ride.

£2,200 is a lot of money but the Superfly 100 is well kitted out with a predominantly Shimano SLX groupset, but with a downgraded M552 triple chainset. It’s a shame Shimano don’t do a well-priced double 2×10 chainset at this level yet. The rear mech is upgraded to an XT Shadow item and the 11-36 cassette provides plenty of low-end gears. Brakes are SLX as well and the levers feature a nice easy to use lever reach dial.

There’s a lot of Bontrager kit on this bike, as you’d expect, and fortunately it’s all very good stuff. Bontrager Mustang 32-hole rims with alloy hubs with sealed bearings with very fast-rolling Bontrager 29-1 Expert 2.2in tyres. They might be fine in the dry but I can’t see them hooking up much in the wet.

The stem, bars, saddle and seatpost are all Bontrager too. The stem is 105mm so that might be coming off for something a little shorter, and I’ll see how I get on with the 690mm bars.

The Superfly 100 is available in five sizes. This is the 19in and the important geometry numbers look like this:

Head angle: 71.0 °
Seat tube angle: 73.6 °
Chainstays: 17.80 in
Bottom bracket drop: 12.80 in
Effective top tube: 24.29 in
Wheelbase: 44.84 in

So that’s the gist of the bike, I’m going to start thrashing it on my local and more distant trails with an interest to see how it compares to other 29ers I’ve ridden, such as the excellent Santa Cruz Tallboy and Specialized Camber, both similarly equipped 29er full-sussers.

Price: £2,200.00
More information: Trek Superfly 100 AL Elite

Older riders like me remember when there was one kind of mountain bike. Fully rigid, steel framed and it went everywhere. If you rode off-road, that’s what you rode. Initially front, then full-suspension bikes and aluminium and carbon fibre frames became popular and suspension led to segmentation as manufacturers aimed to give us the perfect bike for each kind of riding.

But further advances in suspension and frame technology have begun to blur the lines, and manufacturers are beginning to realise that most riders’ wallets – and garages! – won’t accommodate a stable of steeds.

Plus, no matter what we enjoy riding most, we typically ride ‘most everything else as well, even if it’s just to get to our favourite trails. With the exception of hardcore gravity riders, who use uplift exclusively – and let’s face it, that’s not a scenario in most of the UK – we need a bike that can go uphill at least adequately. And one that can handle single-track as well as technical descents. As a result, Trek is pushing their Fuel EX as a bike that can deal damage on both the singletrack and the trail. I think they have the right idea. I just think they chose the wrong bike.

This shot contains a glittering array of the tech that makes the Remedy special. The Full Floater system, Magnesium single-piece EVO link, and the DRCV combine to deliver silky plush suspension. XT Drivetrain delivers the power smoothly, and the Mino Link lets you tweak the geometry.

The surprisingly svelte-feeling Remedy is the bike I’d choose if I was looking for one bike to rule them all. Sure the Fuel is a very capable bike, and in the trail centres I ride most often – Dalby, Sherwood Pines and Gisburn, which primarily comprise hardpack singletrack trails – the Fuel has what it takes. But then, so do most lithe, lean cross-country bikes these days. You’d probably put in your fastest time around Dalby on the Rumblefish of all of Trek’s bikes.

But if you’re planning to loop off the red routes, and track through Sherwood’s Downhill Zone, or ride down Gisburn’s Black Slab, or try the rock drops on the right about 1km after Dixon’s Hollow at Dalby – the Remedy is the bike you want to be riding. When the hits get bigger, the surface rougher or the climbs more technical, the Remedy’s quite remarkable combination of suspension technologies really delivers.

Shimano XT throughout the drivetrain delivers smooth reliable gear changes.

Trek combines the Trek’s full floater suspension which sees both the chain stay and the seat stay on pivot with a shock connection them both between the seat tube, Trek/Fox’s innovative DRCV pistons at both front and rear (a first for this year) and their ABP, active braking pivot system, which stops suspension response dulling when you’re hard on the brakes. Clearly, it’s difficult to tell exactly which of these technologies is delivering what benefit, but in trandem, the result is simply stellar.

The DRCV system combines the big hit advantages of a large volume shock with the small bump benefits of a low volume one. Indeed it transitions from being one to the other as the impacts get bigger, by means of having two suspension chambers and a valve that progressively opens the second one as the hits get bigger. The results are simply spectacular on technical climbs. On the rock strewn ascent from the Derwent Inn towards Cutthroat Bridge, the Remedy kept the rear wheel firmly planted on the ground, delivering the traction and power needed to make this tricky climb manageable.

Hydroformed aluminium frames have brought an astonishing amount of rigidity without the formerly associated weight. And the Remedy has an interesting array of burly frame sections. A 15mm quick release at the front and 142×42 rear hub attach the perfectly acceptable Bontrager XR3 wheels while keeping everything rigid. The result is a bike that transmits your steering and power input to the wheels effectively, yet never feels heavy.

In fact, the Remedy 9 weighs in at almost exactly one kilogram heavier than my similarly specced Ibis Mojo HD 160, but costs a whole £2K less, which I think most people would find an acceptable trade off.

A Rock Shox Reverb dropper post adds a little flexibility to your descending options. It features a rather nifty little cable management loop at the top of the seat tube that neatly guides the cable during height changes. While we’re in that area of the bike, one distinctive feature of the Remedy is the Mino Link, a small cam-like wedge at the rear of the Evo link upper suspension linkage. If this is loosened and rotated, it changes the bike’s geometry, raising the bottom bracket height by 10mm and tightening the head angle by 0.5 degrees. I liked the bike just fine with the factory settings, but the option’s always there.

The benefits of DRCV are carried through to the fork. While the performance benefits are not so obvious here, they certainly don’t hurt. The Remedy’s DRCV Float 32 delivers smooth suspension actionacross the full rang of compression. This was particularly obvious on low amplitude, high frequency oscillation.

Internal routing of the just the seatpost cable is an idiosyncratic choice. It works fine, but external routing would have too, and cost less.

The bottom of the route from Derwent Edge to Ladybower via Grindle Clough ends on a steep path of rough Yorkshire stone slabs. Not your nicely faced and levelled garden variety, but moorland path style. Invariably this last section is taken fast, as a fun finale to a rapid descent. But it’s usually punishing on the hands and arms.

On Sunday as we reached the bottom, my buddy Jonathan was just bemoaning how his arms felt as I was reflecting on how well the Remedy had smoothed out the usually teeth-chattering lower section. You can use every last bit of the Remedy’s 150mm of suspension, yet it never feels wallowy or imprecise.

As a visual package, the Remedy 9 took some getting to love. In fact love is too strong a word. A green theme carries throughout the bike, which lead some of my fellow riders to make “where’s it gone” comments when I set it down in grass or against bushes. All that prevents its camouflage being too effective are some garish lime highlights, most notably on the suspension EVO links, and the fork legs.

Because Trek has unparalleled access to the Bontrager finishing parts catalogue these lime hints are carried throughout the bike, which results in a nicely cohesive bike – as long as you like green. I hate it, and would possibly pay the extra £900 for the Remedy 9.8 just to avoid it.

If unlike me you choose your bike for its value and performance rather than its colour, this is possibly the pick of the bunch, because north of here, prices rise steeply for marginal falls in a weight and componentry improvements.

As a result of riding the Remedy, I’m going to be looking long and hard at the suspension settings of my existing bikes. And if I can’t eke a few performance improvements out of them, I’ll be getting a Trek.

Price: £3100
More information: Trek Remedy 9 

The somewhat garish lime green hints prove helpful finding the bike when in the wilds. The otherwise subdued green colour scheme makes it blend in with bushes and trees surprisingly well. A splash of mud helps.

The aluminium version of Santa Cruz’ revered Tallboy 29er trail bike gives nothing to its carbon stablemate except for a few grams a smaller hole in your bank balance. 

Santa Cruz’s first foray into the 29er world was the carbon fibre Tallboy, at a time when there was much more scepticism towards the bigger wheels than there is today. It’s fair to say it’s been well received and is one of the most popular 29ers in the UK right now. No wonder either that it’s their best selling model.

The carbon fibre version that it launched with was far from cheap though (£2,499), and this year they produced an aluminium version which at £1,749 is £750 cheaper. A significant saving and instantly putting the new frame into the realms of affordability for more people. We’ve been riding and racing one for the best part of the year and we can see why it’s such a hit. It’s one of the most refined and capable 29er full-sussers we’ve yet ridden.

This satin finish leaves the metalwork exposed

The suspension

Santa Cruz use the VPP linkage design to great effect on the Tallboy. There are two short linkages, one behind the bottom bracket and the other between the shock and seat tube. They work in unison to reduce rider-induced squat. This prevents the bike sinking too deep into the travel and bobbing when you’re giving it the beans on the pedals, so more of your energy helps to propel you down the trail and far less is lost in the suspension.

A very stable and pert suspension is the overriding feeling riding the Tallboy. It’s very active over the small stuff still, and takes everything from medium to bigger obstacles and drops in its stride. It may only have 100mm of travel, but it feels like a lot more. This is no flexy cross-country whippet. It’s tough and barrels through rough terrain with confidence.

Virtual Pivot Point prevents rider-induced pedal squat for great trail manners

Whether you’re in the saddle or out of it, hard pedalling doesn’t provoke the suspension into excessive bobbing. The rear axle follows an up and back path that helps it tackle steeps and sharp-faced rocks or roots with ease. With the Fox shock set in the light low-speed compression damping setting, the VPP controls the 100mm of suspension very well. It doesn’t soak up your energy when riding along and makes for a very sprightly-feeling bike.

The ride

We’re reviewing the frame here so won’t labour on the build kit too much, but it’s worth mentioning that our bike weighed in the region of 26.5-27.5 lbs throughout the test period. It varied from time to time as we used it as a test mule to review components and we experimented with lighter racier builds and burlier trail parts over the year. The kit we ran most often was a Shimano XTR group and race brakes, Mavic Crossmax ST wheels and Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.25in tubeless tyres.

With a 120mm Magura fork plugged into the short tapered head tube the head angle is 70.5 degrees. The Tallboy provides 100mm rear travel so you could fit a matching fork, but Santa Cruz UK importer Jungle tell us that most people are opting for a longer 120mm fork. And it’s all the better for it, slackening the head angle a smidgen and giving you a bit more travel to play with.

Forged rocker linkage, one of two that make up the VPP suspension

To explore the capabilities of the Tallboy our riding took us right across the country and riding spectrum. There were a couple of 12-hour solo mountain bike races, a handful of cross-country races, and lots and lots of trail riding from Surrey to Wales to Dartmoor and a few other places in between. In every situation, whether it was a race or just a trail ride, the Tallboy proved thoroughly capable. It was light and offered a decent turn of speed for racing, yet it was rugged enough for throwing down the sort of trails where you weren’t quite sure what they’d throw up around the next blind corner.

We’ve been aboard a size large and ran it mostly with a 50 or 60mm stem, combined with 740mm bars, a combination that produced the level of control and handling we want. This fitted the 5ft 11in test pilot perfectly with plenty of reach for comfort over longer rides but still easy to sling through tightly packed trees on singletrack. With this short-stem-wide-bar set up the handling isn’t at all twitchy, instead it gives more leverage and lets you really tackle corners with gusto.

The lower linkage does collect a bit of mud. Greaseport makes it easy to service

It has been utterly reliable in the time we’ve been riding it. The bottom VPP linkage has a grease port and a couple of times we squirted some new grease in the bearings to keep well serviced. The rest of the hardware has been subjected to an occasionally sloppy maintenance routine but that doesn’t appear to have bothered it. The shock, as we mentioned in our review of the Fox RP23, provided smooth and well-mannered damping that suited the dynamics of Santa Cruz’s suspension design.

The Tallboy has gone a long way to convincing us of the merits of 29ers. We are converted, well and truly. It so well handles technical trails, root gardens, rocks, steps, obstacles of all sizes, that we find it ever harder to go back to 26in wheels. Never thought we’d be saying that a year ago. but here we are, saying it. A big surprise was how it absolutely loves air time and is supremely stable over jumps, more so than a 26er.

The frame in detail

Usually, a bike company will first make a new model in aluminium, then add a carbon version the year after. Santa Cruz did things backwards, by first releasing the Tallboy Carbon, and following up with the Tallboy Alu. Santa Cruz told us this meant the frame is actually heavier than it would have been if they had taken the normal route, and because they wanted the alu frame to deliver on the stiffness front meant that it carried a few extra grams.

Handy bottle opener. Just in case…

Frame weight for our size large is 6.3lb. That’s 1.25lb more than a similar sized carbon frame. Geometry is shared with the carbon Tallboy, with the same 71 degree head angle and 73 seat, short 444mm chainstays and 1108.7mm wheelbase. In all but material the Tallboy Alu is identical to the carbon version.

The frame here is finished in a beautiful satin coat finish. This clear coat finish exposes the brushed metal, it looks fantastic in real life. Unlike the many painted options Santa Cruz provide, this finish shows off the full beauty of the hard graft that has gone into producing the frame. The chunky but neat welds are exposed for all to see. The brush marks are clearly evident across the surface of each tube. Catch it in the right light, and this frame really stands out. It’s a classic.

A short, tapered head tube has a 1.5in lower diameter, which sets up the proportions for the rest of the frame. A huge square sided downtube follows a mostly straight trajectory towards the regular bottom bracket. No press-fit or BB30 here, a standard bottom bracket with outboard bearings.

Clean and simple cable/hose guides

The top tube drops quite steeply giving loads of standover clearance, and just before the kink is welded the shock mount The seat tube is curved to provide clearance for the rear wheel and carries the mount for the top VPP linkage, forged from aluminium. The linkage is a smoothly finished two-piece rocker that drives the shock from the rear triangle. Both linkages roll on sealed bearings with 15mm axles.

An asymmetric design sees a vertical truss connecting the seat stays to the chainstay on the non-drive side to delivery increased stiffness. There’s a short strut closer to the axle on the drive side to balance out the stiffness in the swingarm. The rear axle is a standard 9mm quick release and didn’t significantly affect the stiffness of the bike. A neat detail is the bottle opener atop the axle on the drive side. In case you get caught short with a six pack and not bottle opener to hand…

Which all results in a very stiff frame. Chucking the Tallboy around the trail and stamping on the pedals shows that it is very hard to get it to flex in any plane. It doesn’t quite have the zip and instantaneous response of the carbon version, but it’s very very close. If the small weight penalty is of little concern to you then then Tallboy isn’t just a close second to the carbon Tallboy, but a very good bike in its own right. And as our build shows, it’s possible to get an all-up weight of 27lb.

Summary

The one aspect we always take away from a ride on the Tallboy is how fast it is over all sorts terrain. It devours lumps and bumps. It makes a mockery of tight and twisty trails. Sure it’s a little stumped on longer climbs compared to the lighter carbon framed version of the Tallboy, but it’s far from heavy. And did we mention the saving?

We’re picking hairs though, the Tallboy in its aluminium guise is a fantastically well designed bike that just delivers rampant speed with control, stability and… and most of all it’s just bloody good fun to ride. And that’s what we all look for in a mountain bike isn’t it? We’ll be sad to see the Tallboy leave the Bikemagic long-term test fleet when it goes back.

Verdict

In making the Tallboy out of aluminium Santa Cruz not only made their successful 29er more accessible, but built a bike that isn’t second best, but is brilliant in its own right. Great handling, suspension performance and a lot of fun to ride, the Tallboy Alu is one hell of a bike

Pros

Great handling
Build quality
Suspension performance
Durabiliy
Reliability
Better value than the carbon Tallboy

Cons

Weight
Not as stiff as carbon version

Price: £1,749 (with Fox CTD shock). Complete bikes from £2,499
More information: Santa Cruz Tallboy
UK supplier: Santa Cruz UK

What Santa Cruz says about the Tallboy

Our Tallboy Carbon took the big wheel market by storm when it was introduced, earning praise from the 29″ faithful and skeptics alike, and also created a demand for an aluminum sibling. So along came the aluminum Tallboy; same 29″ wheels and award winning handling as the carbon bike, same 100mm travel, same velvety plush but crisp pedaling VPP® suspension, same angular contact bearings and oversized aluminum pivot axles. It is the value packed alloy clone of the trail bombing, racer friendly carbon Tallboy, identical in almost every way except for material choice and price tag.

1. 29″ wheels
2. Hydroformed aluminum tubing
3. VPP® suspension
4. 100mm travel
5. Grease ports, angular contact bearings
6. Frame weight with Float CTD shock – Approx 6.6lbs

The Pivot Firebird is a great looking bike. Garden could do with a tidy up though…

We had our appetite for Pivot bikes and their DW-Link suspension thoroughly whetted earlier this year when we tested the new Pivot Mach 429. It’s a suspension design that’s always impressed with its control and poise, so we were keen to see how it would work n a longer travel bike. The 6.6-inch-travel Firebird was the perfect rig.

DW-Link suspension is a neat, effective arrangement and the carbon linkage looks smart.

Pivot was founded in 2007 by Chris Cocalis, formerly of Titus Cycles. Cocalis’ previous bikes used a four-bar suspension design but for Pivot, he worked with suspension engineer Dave Weagle on a development of Weagle’s DW Link design.

Cocalis is a thoughtful, measured kind of guy, and his bike’s exhibit some very smart design features and fine attention to detail.

Pivot uses the DW Link to provide 167mm (6.6in) oftravel at the rear wheel. Our test bike came with a 170mm Fox 36 Float FIT RC2 fork, matching RP2 Boost Valve shock, a mix of Shimano SLX and XT parts and DT Swiss wheels.

A bike with this much travel needs to be built to be tough. It features huge, square shaped main tubes with a dropped top tube to provide stacks of standover clearance. We tested a 2012 model; the 2013 frame has a neater top tube with a small gusset.

The DW Link comprises two short linkages. A full carbon fibre top linkage drives the shock and there’s a short CNC-machined linkage behind the bottom bracket shell, running on double row bearings. It’s all very neatly finished with a smooth finish.

The seat tube terminates about halfway down and welded to it is a CNC-machined section that acts as the lower shock mount – curving around it – and linkage mount. It’s all very neat, though not the most elegant solution.

170mm Fox 36 Float FIT RC2 forks are great for UK all-mountain riding

The rear triangle  has a stiffening brace that seems to do the job, but runs close to the rear tyre. We had no problems with a 2.5in tyre, but it could hamper mud clearance. As we found with the shorter travel Mach 429, it wasn’t sufficient to cause any concerns.

There are four sizes available. We went for a Large as we like a set-up that combines a longer top tube with a short stem. In this case we went for a 50mm stem and, with the 750mm bars, found a satisfactory fit.

However, riding the Firebird in the Alps where we conducted most of our testing of the Firebird, it felt short in comparison to the Lapierre Spicy (also a size large) that I was testing it alongside.

That didn’t hamper performance when it came to railing corners though. The DW Link is easily one of the best performance suspension designs currently in use. Key to the twin-linkage design is the elimination of squat (something that is has been tackled with platform damping on modern shocks), which it does through the precise geometry of the linkages.

This has a very positive effect on the way the bike rides. Its light and poppy characteristic makes it a fun bike to blast around the trails. It loves fast, bermed corners where the suspension demonstrates its ability to avoid squatting down deep into its travel. It thrusts out of corners with real verve and acceleration is responsive.

A 66.6 degree head angle gives it great poise on the downhills. Steep rocky step downs are dispatched with confidence. If we were being critical and we lived in the Alps, we we’d like to see it a little slacker, but for UK riding it’s probably about spot-on. If you do want it slacker, you can fit a cane Creek Angleset; the frame is compatible.

Our frame had the older 9mm QR rear axle, the latest production run have been upgraded to a 12x142mm bolt-through axle.

Who is it for?

X-Fusion dropper seat post. Works nicely and doesn’t cost all that much.

Pivot reckon the Firebird can tackle everything. And they mean from 24-hour races to gravity and downhill riding. I’m not sure about taking it around Mountain Mayhem myself, but we can see what they’re getting at. It’s versatile because it’s a light enough platform to offer choice. You could build it up with some light parts for a seriously devastating trail slammer, or build it burly, point it downhill and enjoy the sumptuous suspension.

Our Pivot Firebird had the appearance of a long-travel all-mountain bike, and you could certainly go a bit lighter with the components. The 2×10 transmission, with an MRP chain device and bash opens, is a clear suggestion of the company’s confidence in its trail riding credentials.

It ends up tipping the scales at around 33lb, which admittedly makes it a little slower up the hills than the lightweight trail bikes we’re used to, but it’s not sluggish or hard work. In fact, it’s surprisingly happy toiling up hills, and the suspension is very stable with little bob.

If you don’t mind lugging a little extra weight up the climbs, it’s worth it for the fun you can have on the way back down. It’s on the downhills that the bike feels most at home, which is was no surprise during this test.

Verdict

The Firebird feels and rides like a short travel downhill bike yet it climbs as well as it descends. Ideal for the rider who favours the fun parts of the trail but doesn’t want to walk back to the top.

Pros

DW-Link suspension
Climbs as well as it descends
Stiff frame

Cons

Head angle could be a degree slacker
Looks
Pricey

Price: £1,799 (frame only)
UK supplier: Pivot Cycles UK/Upgrade Bikes
Info from the source: Pivot Cycles Firebird page

Pivot Firebird 001 Pivot Firebird 002 Pivot Firebird 003 Fox RP2 Boost Valve shock drives the DW-link suspension Pivot Firebird 009 Pivot-Firebird-008 Pivot-Firebird-007 Pivot-Firebird-005 Pivot-Firebird-004

The official word

Here’s what Pivot has to say about the Firebird:

The Firebird is the ultimate technical terrain, all-mountain weapon. For everything from enduro events to the gnarliest trail rides; there is no better tool for the job. With 6.6” (167mm) of travel packaged in the most efficient pedaling suspension design ever developed, it’s no wonder why the Firebird is a favorite among magazine editors, Enduro and Super D riders all over the world.

The Firebird’s climbing traction, acceleration, and descending capabilities are legendary and unsurpassed in the world of long travel trail bikes. No matter if you’re sending it in Whistler, going for the overall in Downieville or riding a 6 hour epic through the Rockies, the Firebird will impress. Simply put, it is the definition of the ultimate long travel trail bike.

• 6.6in (167mm) rear travel and 160mm to 180mm fork compatibility (170mm standard).

• Rearward wheel travel path for incredible square edge bump performance and unparalleled pedaling performance.

• New Pivot specific, custom valved Fox CTD shock technology featuring increased rider tunability and incredible small bump sensitivity.

• Full 1.5 headtube accepts the Cane Creek Angleset, allowing the rider to further tune the handling. Several Firebird models now come with the Angleset as part of the stock build.

• ISCG O5 mounts included for single ring and chain guide compatibility.

• Patented Pivot floating front derailleur mount keeps the chain in the sweet spot of the derailleur for better chain retention. Combine with our custom MRP LRP 2X chain guide for perfect shifting performance and worry free chain retention in
even the roughest conditions.

• 142mm rear spacing with 12mm through axle and 160mm
post mount dropouts for maximum frame stiffness.

• The Firebird (like many bikes in our line) is all about versatility; allowing riders to do everything from 24 hour endurance races, to park/gravity riding, Super D and the occasional DH race but its real home is aggressive trails where the ride up is just as technical as the ride down.

The Lapierre Spicy 916, fresh from being raced in the Megavalanche. It excels at Alpine enduro riding, but is equally at home in a British trail centre.

Lapierre’s top-end carbon fibre 160mm all-mountain bike is one of the most capable bikes I’ve ridden in a very long time.

The frame

All-new carbon frame and revised suspension configuration

The £4999.99 Spicy 916 here is the top of the range model and the only carbon model in this range of three bikes. Suspension is updated to OST+ for 2012. An improved leverage ratio curve and new link and shock shuttle gives the 160mm suspension a more supple response to bumps, there’s better mid-stroke feel and greater big hit impact handling. It’s also a degree slacker (66 degrees) than previously, and a little lower and shorter in the chainstays.

One of the big changes to the the Spicy this year is an all-new carbon fibre front triangle (it’s actually the same as the 140mm Zesty) and carbon rear triangle. The head tube is now tapered and there’s a 12x142mm bolt-thru axle. There’s two aluminium frame models in the range too and they share the same important numbers as this carbon version.

The ride

Riding the Spicy reveals a bike that is truly and properly very capable. Out of the box, in stock build it’s nudging 27lb. This gives it the ability to scramble up climbs with amazing ease and speed, way faster than you’d expect any bike of this style to do. Despite the extra ‘bulk’ of the Spicy compared to the Zesty, it’s really giving away very little on the ascents.

It’s when you hurtle back down that the Spicy comes into its own. Flick the ProPedal lever to ‘open’ and the 160mm of travel is delivered with beautiful smoothness and control. Perhaps the best thing I can say about it is that you never really notice it working. But it is working, oh so very well.

The Fox 36 FIT fork tracks incredibly well.

The Lapierrre Spicy soaks up big hits with a wonderful smoothness. Small ripples go unnoticed. Mid size bumps come and go without much interference to your speed. Diving fast into corners the suspension settles down into its mid stroke, it never gets bogged down and has a good deal of ‘pop’ out of corners.

With the slacker geometry and shorter chainstays it never gets out of its depth when it gets steep, technical and rocky. The Fox 36 fork is a great companion for the frame and with its 20mm bolt-through axle delivers stiffness to match the carbon frame and 12mm bolt-through rear end, it’s a very solid feeling bike.

I was blown away with how composed the Spicy was on all sorts of trails. The rougher and faster it got, the more the bike seemed to come alive. The suspension is so well controlled and the poise of the bike just right that you find yourself riding every trail with more speed, control and style than you ever have before. It’s not a skills compensator, it’s a skills booster.

The Shimano XTR Shadow Plus mech keeps chain tension high and practically eliminates chain slap thanks to its switchable spring tension.

There’s no short cuts in the build on this model. A Shimano XTR double chainset and XTR Shadow Plus rear mech combine nicely for slick shifting and never once did the chain full off. The frame wears ISCG05 mounts if you want to add a chain device.

Dropper posts are essential kit on bikes like this and the KS post mostly worked without fuss. The cable needs regular servicing though as it can get gunged up at the top of the post, where it’s right in line of mud being sprayed up by the rear wheel.

The stock 711mm handlebars are too narrow to get the most out of the Spicy so I changed to an 800mm bar with a 50mm stem. That opened up the Spicy to a whole new level of riding ability. A 750mm bar would be the perfect compromise and certainly improve the bike’s handling.

Verdict

The Lapierre Spicy 916 is the true essence of all-mountain riding. It climbs with impressive efficiency and is fast and fun on the way back down. It’s truly and properly capable, can handle a week in the Alps, shrugs its shoulders at the Megavalanche, and loves UK trails. If you use words like ‘hammering’, ‘aggressive’ and ‘dialled’ to describe your riding, the Spicy is for you.

Price: £4999.99
From: Hotlines
Manufacturer’s info: Lapierre Spicy 916 official page

Specialized’s Epic full-suspension bikes have been some of the most successful cross-country and marathon racing bikes of the last decade. In this latest big-wheeled incarnation, the Epic Comp Carbon offers everything a seasoned racer or long distance endurance rider needs. It’s light and stiff thanks to a carbon fibre frame; has 100mm of suspension, controlled by the ingenious Brain valving; and a good parts list.

Formerly a pure race weapon, improved valving has turned the Specialized Epic Carbon Comp 29 into a great fast all-rounder.

A revolutionary design

Back at the turn of the century, mountain bike designers were locked in a desperate battle to overcome the nemesis of full suspension bikes: pedal bob. Pedal bob is the impact of a rider and their weight shifts activating the suspension in a way that causes an undesirable bobbing motion.

The Brain inertia valve detects impacts and opens the suspension so it can do its thing. The dial gives two settings for bob-resistance.

Designers came up with many ways to overcome the influence of pedalling on the suspension. Most sank without trace.

Specialized, with its desire to solve the issue with its new cross-country full-susser platform, came up with a genuinely new and innovative approach.

The ground-breaking Epic used an inertia valve placed close to the rear axle. Connected to the rear shock, it managed to separate the two forces acting on the rear wheel; rider and trail. It effectively cancelled out pedal bob by ensuring only forces coming through the wheel from the trail, and not the rider, would activate the suspension.

It was a huge step forward, but it wasn’t without its flaws. Very early examples had an ‘on:off’ feeling, with a noticeable transition between the inertia valve locking out the rear suspension and opening, allowing the suspension to work. Despite this it began winning races, and has gone on to become one of the most successful cross-country race bikes since its launch.

Specialized, to their credit, stuck with the design and over the years Specialized engineers have tuned, fettled and tweaked it, until they ironed out those early issues. And, as I found out riding the latest Epic, it is now a well matured design that now delivers. Today it’s the bike it wanted to be when it first launched.

In the most recent development, the Epic has grown a pair of 29in wheels. Specialized was not an early adopter of the 29er format, but they got on board in 2011 and have made up for lost time with a wide selection of big wheelers right across their price range.

The build

The Specialized Epic Carbon Comp 29 gets a SRAM X9 rear derailleur and 11-36 cassette in a 2×10 transmission. The ‘Horst Link’ pivot just in front of the dropout is a Specialized patented feature.

The Epic we have here is the most affordable of the carbon Epic range. At £3,200 it’s still a serious investment even for seasoned racers. Like the top-of-the-range S-Works Epic Carbon 29, it has a FACT IS 9m carbon fibre frame. The rear triangle is downgraded to M5 aluminium at this price, pushing the weight up but only marginally.

It offers good upgrade potential; replace stuff as it wears out, make weight savings here and there. The Epic carbon Comp is a good place to start. Privateer racers will love it.

Suspension travel is 100mm front and rear. At the rear is a Fox developed FlowControl Mini Brain shock connected to the Brain Fade inertia valve. The Brain Fade dial lets you adjust from firm to soft. The range gives a good spread of adjustment. We ran it firm for cross-country racing and for more playful riding we turned it to soft, where the platform is noticeably less intrusive. It’s a much more usable system than it ever has been before, and suits a wider spread of riders too. Everyone from racers to trail riders are catered for with the available adjustment.

The RockShox Reba RL fork offers 100mm of well controlled suspension travel that does well to match the rear suspension in performance. It’s not the stiffest fork though; there’s a noticeable degree of flex under heavy braking over roots and rocks. A lockout lever and adjustable rebound damping gives some adjustment to an otherwise excellent fork.

Small, shallow knobs make the rear Specialized Renegade Control tyre good for dry surfaces, but inadequate for typical damp UK trails.

The build kit ticks the boxes, with a  SRAM 2×10 drivetrain featuring a 11-36 cassette and 38/24 double ring chainset, to give a good spread of gears. Avid’s Elixir 7 SL brakes with 160mm rotors brought the Epic easily to a halt and the use of MatchMaker clamps (the shifters attach to the same clamp as the brake levers) gave the Epic one of the cleanest cockpits I’ve tested in a long time. It’s so nice to look down and see such an uncluttered handlebar.

As you’d expect from Specialized there’s a fair amount of their own finishing kit. Fortunately their in-house component range is up to scratch and as good as any other branded kit, so no problems there then. The saddle was a highlight, using their well-proven Body Geometry principles to give a firm yet comfortable perch.

If I were buying the Epic, the wheels would be a potential upgrade. Functionally the Roval wheels, with 32-hole Hi Lo hubs, sealed cartridge bearings and 142mm rear axle worked wonderfully. But they’re neither the lightest or the stiffest, and damped the speedy enthusiasm of the Epic somewhat.

The Specialized Epic Carbon Comp 29 boasts a shock from long-time collaborator and Morgan Hill neighbour Fox.

While we’re talking upgrades, the  Fast Trak and Renegade Control tyres had to come straight off. They might be okay in California where it barely rains, but here in the UK they just don’t cut it; they offer all the grip of a well greased raccoon. A pair of Continental’s excellent Mountain Kings are much more suited to the varied conditions any British mountain biker can expect to encounter, and went straight on.

Ride

What’s really important of course is how it rides. Fortunately, Specialized recognise that getting the suspension correctly set up is key, and the ‘sagometer’ marker on the seat stay makes shock set-up a doddle. Less time fiddling means you get can straight out on the trail.

The Specialized Epic Carbon Comp 29 has a double chainset up front for fuss-free shifting.

Once out on the trail the Epic immediately feels racy. It’s reasonably low at the front and the stretch on this medium is good. Up a few climbs, blasting some fire roads, into the singletrack, the Epic just screams fast. I expected the bike to be fast on the pedalling sections and the climbs, and it doesn’t disappoint.

The auto-lockout FlowControl Mini Brain rear shock really does just let the suspension work when it has to. There’s no noticeable transition from locked out to fully open. This has the effect of making the suspension feel invisible, you really don’t notice it working, aside from the fact you’re going blistering fast. You might not feel like the suspension is working, but we always finished rides with the rubber band being pushed off the shock shaft completely.

Specialized have got the Epic’s geometry sorted on this 29er too, with a 70.5 degree head angle and 13in bottom bracket height and a wheel base only 13mm longer than the 26in-wheeled version. They’re numbers that make for a fast and very direct ride, it’s no laid back coaster.

In all the places you expect a 29er to be fast, the Epic was mind-blowing; ripping through vast swathes of open track and up climbs like there was a motor attached to the rear wheel. Traction from the four-bar FSR suspension makes it one of the most capable climbers we’ve ever ridden, especially handy on some of the fiddly steep climbs on my local trails, where other bikes can struggle.

And even with its big wheels, it handles all the twisty stuff with assured confidence. Clearly the Epic is a properly capable mile muncher, but it’s also a lot of fun to ride. If riding fast is your thing, and you have no interest in sticking a number on, the Epic is thrilling.

Verdict

The Epic has always been a bike loved by racers and adored by endurance riders. With the spectacularly efficient suspension and decent handling of this version, it’s now a bike well suited to any rider looking for a light, fast and comfortable bike for trail riding as well as racing.

Specialized Epic Carbon Comp 29

For more information see the Specialized website.

If you want to know the answer without reading the next 1,000 words, then we’ll just say, yes it is. In every way, the new Zesty is a huge improvement over the previous bike. The suspension is more capable, the geometry better suiting to a bike like this, the frame more refined; lighter, stiffer and better looking.

Enlist a world champion to make a good bike great

For 2012 Lapierre wanted to update the Zesty. They enlisted the help of the best mountain biker in the history of the sport, Nicolas Vouilloz. He’s well known for his speed and bike handling skills, but it’s his ability to really set a bike up and communicate the changes he wants made to the designers and engineers that allowed Lapierre to advance the Zesty.

So, under his guidance the bike has become slacker – the head angle a degree lighter at 67 – along with a half inch lower bottom bracket and shorter chainstays, to the tune of 5mm.

Nico’s feedback also led to big changes at the suspension. The previous OST (Optimized Suspension Technology), a four-bar configuration with the shock mounted horizontally underneath the top tube, is now OST+. From a distance, it looks the same, but a lot has changed.

A shock shuttle, a short strut between the rocker linkage hinging off the top tube and the Fox shock has allowed the leverage ratio to be tuned. The top shock mount has been moved further forward, and there’s now scope to fit a longer stroke shock (so you could convert it into a Spicy if you really wanted).

These changes mean the suspension is more supple, making it more active over the smaller bumps: riding over a root infested trail for instance shows this up nicely. Push deeper into the stroke and it gradually becomes more progressive, ramping up even more progressively in the last stage of shock stroke allows the Zesty to tame big drops with ease.

Impressive carbon frame

Around those changes is an all-new frame, though you’ll be hard pressed to spot the difference between a new and old Zesty at a thousand paces. That’s a good thing; the Zesty has always been considered a classy looking bike and to mess with its lines too much would be been sacrilegious.

What they have done is to bulk out the tube profiles in various places to increase stiffness, reduce material where it’s not needed, and fit a tapered head tube up front.  Cables are neatly routed internally, and there’s provision for a dropper post hose to be routed internally too.

As before, the Zesty can be bought in a choice of frame materials, aluminium or carbon. We were fortunate enough to receive a £4000 carbon model for testing, and the implications on the weight are pretty damn impressive – as pictured with a Shimano XT/XTR groupset and Easton wheels, it weighing in at a highly impressive 25.5lbs.

Specification

We won’t dwell on the specification too much; you’ll be looking at the spec of whichever model of Zesty is in your price range. Lapierre have always offered good builds, and the Shimano XT/XTR kit on this test bike, with a 3×10 drivetrain, was on the money.

Initially we felt a 2×10 option would have suited the bike better, but after several hilly rides (where the granny was used) we reluctantly changed our mind. However, with the developments in 2×10 (and 1×11) we feel a bike of this calibre should move with the times, a go 2×10.

A Fox 32 FIT 140mm fork, with a 15mm bolt-thru axle, paired beautifully with the rear suspension, offering a very similar feel; supple over the small stuff and ramping up nicely on the bigger hits.

Brakes were the excellent Formula RX1 disc brakes, with 180mm rotors at both ends. With ample power out of the box and virtually no bedding in time, and lever reach dials allowing us to tune the levers to feel the same. The 180mm discs were bolted to excellent Easton EZ70XCT wheels shod with Hutchinson Cougar 2.2 and Cobra 2.25 tyres. Interestingly, the tubeless tyres came set up as tubeless, which was a nice touch.

Finishing kit is from Lapierre’s in-house brand, topped of with a Fizik Gobi saddle. We won’t linger too much on the handlebar and stem setup – we know we all have our personal preference for width and length based on riding style.

What we did find is that with a 65mm stem and 750mm handlebar, the Zesty really came to life. A bike that packs this much capability really deserves a cockpit that will allow the rider to squeeze every ounce of speed out of the trail.

If you haven’t tried a combo like this, you really must. Like us, you probably won’t look back. Bikes are getting more capable, and the bars and stems we’re running need to size up in relation. Doing this allowed us to fully exploit the Zesty’s potential. It felt more balanced front to rear and could be chucked about with arrow like precision.

Details impress

The details impressed. The sag indicator, a simple collar around the seat tube and a corresponding sag chart on the seat stay, made it a cinch to get the shock nicely setup.

It all sounds peachy, but how does it ride?

I’ve done my best to batter it, forcing it into ever more difficult situations to see where the limits are with the bike but, try as I might; the Zesty just lapped it all up.

Riding the Zesty it is immediately apparent what a difference the changes to the suspension have made. It’s incredibly plush, small bumps are better handled and as you increase the speed and roughness of trail so the suspension shows its increased capability to cope. Nothing seemed to faze it, despite our best attempts.

It’s better able to cope with hits that push the suspension into the mid stroke, where it’s remarkably well composed with a decent amount of platforming that gives a very stable feeling. Take it onto the bigger trails and throw in some larger drops and the progressiveness in the later stage of the shock stroke works incredibly well; big landings never felt harsh, nor did it feel like it was blowing through its 140mm of travel too easily.

Not only is it at home being chased through a twisty singletrack trail, but on the climbs the bike displays its true capability as a do-everything bike. We climbed hills faster on this bike than some 29ers of equal weight. On technical climbs the suspension finds a staggering amount of traction, making previously tricky climbs almost too easy. As bikes that attempt to tame the terrain go, the Zesty is almost without rival.

And as for the change to the geometry and the shorter chainstays, they make the bike incredibly fun to throw around the trail. It responds keenly to being hustled about, thrown into deep corners, chucked down a rooty drop, lofted over a jump. It’s easily one of the most fun suspension bikes we’ve ever ridden.

Verdict

One of the most composed, capable and fun 140mm trail bikes we’ve ridden.

www.lapierre-bikes.co.uk

www.hotlines-uk.com

Its second-gen VPP suspension is ultra composed. Very little pedal bob is detectable, as the dual-link layout employs the pulling force of the chain and the force of pedalling to prevent pedal-induced bob. Even with the Propedal dial set to lowest setting, it pedals with great efficiency.

It is active over the small stuff, smoothing out all the small and medium sized bumps. I’ve been impressed with the Tallboy’s ability to take the bigger hits too. Despite ‘only 100mm’ of rear wheel travel, the Tallboy never really felt short on travel. The VPP suspension is so smooth through its stroke and the transition to a rising rate in the later stage of the stroke helps the Tallboy deal with bigger hits

On techy descents you realise how good the Tallboy is. And with the fitting of the 120mm Magura fork up front, we felt able to blast through rough trails with more confidence, while the 100mm rear travel never felt out of its depth.

The stiffness of the Magura TS8 fork with their unique 15mm bolt-thru axle and dual crown design is a match for the Tallboy’s aluminium chassis. It may not feel quite as stiff as the carbon version, but you’ll be hard pressed to really detect any shortcomings in the aluminium frame. But you will notice the £700 you saved in your bank account.

Luckily I managed to build up the latest long-termer for the recent spell of sunny weather, which means I’ve been able to get plenty of rides in already. These include a couple of local mid-week evening mountain bike cross-country races and riding some of the Erlestoke Twelve 12-hour race last weekend.

So far on each of these initial I’ve been blown away with how capable the bike is. But more than anything I’ve come away from every ride grinning from ear to ear. I just want to get back out and ride the Tallboy.

I’ve made a couple of changes to the cockpit since it first appeared on BM last week. The Gravity carbon 740mm bars and matching 60mm stem have gone on and this has resulted in a dramatic increase in the Tallboy’s capability. It is loads more fun too, and helps to get the Tallboy arcing through the tight singletrack turns that are the Achilles heel for 29ers.

www.santacruzbikes.co.uk

Trek Fuel EX 8 £2,300

Looking at the Trek Fuel EX range, the 8 is surely the pick of the range. It doesn’t have the fancy carbon fibre frame of the more expensive models higher up the range, but the Alpha Platinum aluminium frame is a beautifully welded and masculine-looking mountain bike.

Its chunky curved downtube squares up to a tapered head tube and a press-fit bottom bracket, the wider shell allowing for a larger downtube junction. That leads to the high level of stiffness the Fuel EX provides.

The top tube gives generous standover clearance with a subtle kink at the seat post, and carries both gear cables and brake hose, the rear mech cable routing neatly inside, entering on the right side and exiting on the left where it reaches the seat tube.

We’ve raved elsewhere about how much we like Trek’s suspension platform (read our Trek  Remedy review), and in the 120mm guise the Fuel EX is a seriously capable all-day trail bike. It’s light enough to scale the toughest climbs yet rockets down the descents with the confidence of a longer travel bike. It pretty much takes everything  in its stride.

The Fox shock gets Trek’s proprietary DRCV technology. It’s one of the smartest and simplest approaches to dealing with the enemies of suspension, wallow and bob, by having two air chambers. Pedalling along at lower speeds and climbing only uses the smaller main air chamber, ensuring the suspension remains taut and bob-free. Only when you hit bigger bumps and increase the speed does the second air chamber come into play, activated by an internal plunger.

It’s a clever solution and works amazingly well on the trail. For 2012 the technology finds its way into the Fox 32 Float RL fork. This manifests itself by preventing the forks diving too quickly through their travel when slammed hard into corners loaded with braking bumps, giving better control when the going gets rough.

Adding DRCV to the forks works, the performance is convincing. However, we felt the fork losing out on smaller bumps and trail chatter, and feels quite firm all of the time. There’s no denying that it is effective when slamming hard into hard corners and down steppy drops though.

Trek makes the job of setting the suspension up pretty easy, an online calculator produces recommended settings based on your weight.  Inputting the quoted air pressure settings and rebound dial clicks into the forks and shock gave a very satisfactory starting point. In fact, we merely added a little more rebound out back. For getting started it’s a nice solution, and should ensure people get the most out of their bikes with less faff.

We had no concerns with most of the Bontrager branded components, though we did suffer a high number of rear wheel pinch flats. The culprit in this situation the very thin inner tubes fitted. The Bontrager XR4 Expert 2.2in tyres impressed with their good grip over a variety of terrains, but we felt the sidewalls were a little on the flimsy side. We chucked them in the back of the car and fitted some sturdier rubber to suit the Fuel’s hard-riding capability.

The Shimano SLX brakes were highlights of the build package; serious amounts of stopping power with virtually no bedding in time required allowed us to get straight up to speed on the very first ride. The lever shape, as we found when we tested the XTR groupset a while back, is comfortable and easy to get on with.

There’s only a couple of things we would change, and that’s down to personal preference more than anything. A dropper post would represent a great investment and let you really tap into the Fuel’s descending capability – we found ourselves lowering the saddle at the beginning of every descent just to unleash its full potential.

A wider handlebar and shorter stem would also go on, letting us push the bike into the corners with the extra leverage provided by a 740/750mm bar, and the shorter stem livening up the steering response. But that’s all personal stuff so we won’t dwell too much on this subject.

How does it ride?

We took the Fuel EX to South Wales for a hard weekend of riding recently.  Riding all of the trails around Afan and then following up with some classic Cwmcarn action, with a few repeated loops of the cross-country loop, gave a good test of the bike. We logged big miles, loads of climbing and some fast descending. And it coped with it all just fine. What we didn’t expect is how capable the Fuel would be.

Even hitting the trails as hard as we did, and after two days of of repeated punishment, the Fuel EX 8 was nothing short of impressive. Its performance, whether it’s fast technical climbing or descending rock-strewn tracks and blasting hard into corners, is mind-blowing. It sucks up the sketchiest landings, ploughs through rock gardens, launches off lips and jumps, is stable at high speed, corners with authority, does everything so amazingly well.

It’s light and easy to chuck around too. The reduced head angle – it’s now 68 degrees – is bang on for the sort of riding – fast, hard and fun – that it encourages. The Full Floater suspension is one of the most capable and at its very best in this 120mm configuration. It’s more than enough for most UK trail warriors; rarely did we feel the need for more, yet it climbs at a ferocious pace, finding traction everywhere.

What I took away from my time on the Fuel EX is just how much fun it was. With test bikes there’s always a niggle of some sort, something that doesn’t quite feel right, some compromise somewhere. With the Trek, there was no compromise, it excelled everywhere. And it plasters a massive smile over your face, all of the time. It’s one of the best mountain bikes out there at the moment.

Verdict

If you’re looking for one bike that can be used for everything and all sorts of riding, the Fuel EX won’t disappoint.

www.trekbikes.com/uk/en

Cannondale Jekyll Carbon 1 – £4999.99

Adjustable travel and geometry and standout carbon frame makes the Jekyll an innovative bik

What is it?

The new Cannondale Jekyll is the Connecticut company’s latest all-mountain bike. Able to climb as fast as it descends, two travel settings with independent settings, a state of the art carbon fibre frame, and sharp handling give the Jekyll the potential to run away with the prize of the best trail mountain bike of the year. Two bikes in one, then.

Stunning BallisTec carbon frame

There’s certainly no missing this bike, it’s a masterpiece of carbon fibre design. Cannondale have always had a penchant for oversized tubes, and the Jekyll takes that design philosophy to the extreme, with one of the biggest downtubes we’ve ever seen on a bike.

Cannondale use BallisTec carbon which they confidently claim is tough enough to withstand a heavy strike from a hammer. A few rocks thrown up by the trail shouldn’t bother the integrity of the carbon, one would hope. High-modulus fibres are placed strategically in areas that need beefing up to ensure the frame delivers the necessary stiffness. A co-moulding process is used to fuse the aluminium bottom bracket and shock mounts to the carbon fibre during the layup process, giving a level of integrity unmatched by any other process.

Cannondale famously took aluminium frame technology as far as it was possible to go, further than most other brands were willing to go. Subsequently they were late to the carbon party, but they delay allowed them to do their homework, and produce some of the best carbon frames we’ve ever seen.

It’s a marvellously well designed and finished frame, with a purposeful look. Their expertise with the material is second to none. How they manage to make this frame so incredibly stiff yet so light is quite something.

In the details

A huge BB30 bottom bracket, developed by Cannondale and which they offered to the industry as an open standard (which is being adopted increasingly across the industry) gives the frame a solid mounting point for the down tube, seat tube and main pivot.

An equally huge 1.5in headtube anchors the front of the frame, with a straight 1.5in steerer tube on the fork ensuring there won’t be any flex through the steering.

The huge downtube serves as an ideal platform for attaching Cannondale’s rocker linkage. The linkage shelters the shock and uses double-clamped 15mm pivot thru-axles at either end of the linkage and a collet shim system is used at the clamps.

Bearings at the dropout are double stacked and a Syntace X-12 thru-axle system is used along with a sandwich-style derailleur hanger, and the pivot is double-clamped and oversized for good measure.

Clever Fox pull-shock

To create a bike that can be ridden everywhere with no compromise, Cannondale strayed away from standard shock technology and created, in partnership with Fox, the Dyad RT2 pull-shock. It’s an odd looking shock but is rather clever. It offers two modes, 90mm ‘Elevate’, for climbing, and 150mm ‘Flow’ for descending.

The pull-shock offers two completely different ride characteristics, all at the push of a handlebar mounted lever. In 90mm mode the damping is set for cross-country ride, with a firm, progressive spring rate. Into the 150mm setting and the suspension sags a lot more (40%) and the spring rate is altered, the head angle gets slacker and the bottom bracket lowers.

Setting the shock is relatively easy, but putting in the required 250psi+ is a little unnerving. The downside presented by the pull shock is the lack of being able to determine the desired sag level – unlike regular shocks which allow the rubber band on the shaft to indicate sag level – so you either to get a friend to help you out, or trust the supplied settings. With some determined trial and error it’s possible to get it nicely setup – we strayed only a little from the recommend settings, running the shock a little softer to get the 90mm mode working to our liking.

Along with travel adjustment, the Jekyll alters the geometry. In In Elevate the head angle is 67.8° and the seat angle 73.6°, bottom bracket height is 13.8in. Flick the lever into Flow mode and the sag is increased, with the effect of lowering the bottom bracket by 1cm, and slackening the angles by 1° – a small change on paper but one that has huge consequences on the trail.

Quality finishing kit

£4999 is a lot of cash, but the Jekyll Carbon 3 is well loaded with the latest equipment that goes a long way to justify its price tag. It’s worth mention that Cannondale offers two carbon models and two aluminium versions, with prices starting at a reasonable £2499 with, aside from a difference in frame material, virtually the same frame and shock technology.

The Carbon 1 gets rolling on a pair of impressively stiff and strong Mavic Crossmax ST wheels, the latest incarnation from the French wheel maker. They’ve been completely redesigned for 2012 and feature hubs with smaller flanges and extensive machining to save weight.

The ST is the trail tag (there’s three wheels in the Crossmax 2012 line-up) and as such weigh 1,595g, making them a good everyday cross-country wheelset. They’re still running true and haven’t needed any mechanical attention so far.

The RockShox Reverb dropper post is the perfect accompaniment to the Jekyll’s ride-everything mantra, the hydraulic activated remote lever makes it easy to drop the saddle out of the way when dropping into steep chutes.

The rest of the kit has been flawless. The Shimano XTR rear derailleur (as we’ve said elsewhere) prevents the chain slapping the chainstays, we’ve haven’t had any dropped chain moments at all. The SRAM 2×10 chainset gives a good spread of gears and the Avid Elixir 9 carbon brakes give good stopping power and plenty of adjustment for dialling them to your personal preference.

Really the only blights on an otherwise well specified bike is the narrow Truvativ Noir carbon handlebar (as nice as they are) and the stem, it’s just too long for the sort of riding the Jekyll encourages. We swapped to a wider bar straight away and handling improved immensely. A shorter stem did the same trick.

The Fox 32 Talas RLC FIT fork, complete with 110/150mm of adjustable travel and Kashima coated stanchions, is one of the best forks in this category we’ve ever ridden. It’s our favourite fork right now. For the UK trail riding we do, the fork is a perfect match to the frame, the Talas adjustment is useful on longer slogs and it’s plenty stiff enough until you really get demanding. It is perhaps a shame that Cannondale don’t offer a Fox 36 fork option, or upgrade, for those riders who will rightly want to exploit the bikes potential for big riding that such a fork would allow.

Who’s it aimed at?

Cannondale have clearly aimed the Jekyll at trail/all-mountain riders, with the fitting of the Fox 32 forks. For most UK riding this makes perfect sense, being able to switch the travel down to 110mm gives the bike great climbing ability, and it scales most stuff as easily as a 140mm bike.

We’ve seen the bike fitted with burlier Fox 36 and longer forks, and for tackling something like the Mega or one of the new enduros, such a change would be ideal. The frame can certainly take the longer fork, that much is clear, and the resulting slacker head angle would be spot on for gravity assisted riding. But still, some will look at the bike, then the spec, and wonder why Cannondale didn’t stick a 36 on there in the first place.

While this bike is rather expensive, the same shock technology can be had for half the price. You’re clearly paying a lot for the carbon fibre frame and fancy parts on this top-end model, but they’ve done well to ensure the spec doesn’t show any shortcuts.

What’s it like to ride?

Brilliant. There’s so much performance to call upon that it never fails to impress. It’s been getting some serious mileage since it turned up, being hammered on our local trails and further afield and just laps it all up.

It takes a while to tune into the Jekyll, and to familiarise yourself with the two settings the shock provides. Working out when and where to switch the lever and get the most out of the bike takes a few miles and a couple of rides. Once you’re there though, you can really make use of the two modes the shock offers to fly up climbs and rocket down descents.

Handling is precise. You’re really aware of its incredible stiffness when linking the apexes of multiple corners. There’s plenty of lateral stiffness through the length of the bike when you’re leaning hard into corners, which along with the impressive traction the suspension offers, lets you keep things under control even when things get a bit physical.

It’s in 150mm mode that the Jekyll really excels. It feels like Cannondale designed the bike around this travel setting, dialled everything around it feeling just right, and added the travel reducing option as an afterthought – we’re sure that’s not how the design process unfolded at Cannondale. But we just can’t help feeling that the performance is second best in the shorter 90mm mode.

In long travel mode it rails corners, handles rooty sections with an assured feeling, provides tons of traction in all situations, and copes with everything we could throw at it, no harsh bottom-out in hard compressions and copes well with repeated fast hits.

Switch to 90mm mode and the angles steepen, meaning you can climb with more ease and efficiency. However, the suspension performance isn’t as reactive to trail undulations and bumps as it is in 150mm mode, despite our best efforts to set the shock up to achieve a more satisfactory performance. There’s a noticeable loss of small bump sensistiity when compared to other bikes in this sector, and it didn’t feel as capable when the trail got steep and steppy.

With the Jeykll Cannondale has succeeded in making a bike that is akin to having two bikes between your legs, and it very nearly works. There’s little compromise, it climbs and descends with incredible ease and confidence, instilling the pilot with the ability to just ride anywhere.

As a technological achievement it’s impressive. As a fun bike to ride, we’re just not convinced.

Verdict

The Jekyll delivers in nearly every area but just falls short of really blowing us away. If you want fully capable bike to ride everything and have fun doing it, the Jekyll is worth considering and you should definitely arrange a demo ride.

Vital stats:
Weight: 12.80kg
Sizes: M
Head angle:
Seat angle:
Travel: 90-150mm

www.cannondale.com