• Morewood Shova ST
• £1,195 frame only
• Straight outta South Africa
• First “all-mountain” bike from DH/freeride specialists

Morewood Bikes is one of a rare breed – there aren’t all that many South African bike manufacturers. It’s not just nominally South African, either – all the frames are actually made in Pietermaritzburg. The company was founded by three-time South African DH champion Patrick Morewood. Frustrated by being unable to get hold of reasonably-priced, reliable bikes in his home country, he set out to make his own, producing the first prototypes in 1999. Since then the company has expanded and diversified from DH to freeride and hardtail frames.

The original Shova (launched in 2003) was a 6in travel freeride-oriented bike. For 2006 there are two Shovas – the LT develops the original Shova concept with 7in of travel, a 1.5in headtube and other big-hitting accoutrements, while the ST is Morewood’s first venture into trail/enduro/all-mountain bikes with 140mm (5.5in) of rear travel and a 3.2kg (7lb) frame weight.

Frame

There’s a very familiar kind of look to the Shova. Specifically, it looks a lot like the original Santa Cruz Heckler (which looks just like the current Superlight). To be fair, once you’ve decided to do a single pivot frame there are only so many places that you can put all the bits, so it’s always going to be tricky to make one look totally different from another without introducing unnecessary gimmicks.

Going single pivot is certainly an interesting, and some might say brave, decision in this day and age, but it still makes a lot of sense. Patrick Morewood’s very first DH frame was actually a linkage design, but he ended up doing single pivot frames on the grounds of simplicity and reliability. Those attributes still stack up today, although it’s easier to make a case for them on single-ring, single-purpose DH bikes than three-ring all-rounders. The Shova uses Morewood’s Stable Pivot Interface pivot construction, using a hollow shaft welded into the frame through which the actual pivot shaft runs. Big bearings are pressed into the swingarm uprights and a threaded shaft goes through those and the frame. Top-hat shaped end caps are bolted into the ends and pass through the bearings and into the frame, supporting and aligning the whole pivot. As a happy side-effect, the bearings are tucked out of dirt’s way.

The frame itself is made from 6082 aluminium. The downtube is a sizable square section, which is certainly distinctive. There’s nothing much wrong with round tubes, but rectangular sections at the front let you get a bigger weld area to the head tube (which is always handy) and the easiest way to get a rectangular section at one end is to have one all the way along. The vertical sides of the downtube must make it easier for Morewood to fit its through-frame pivot, too. It’s certainly built with strength in mind, although we can’t help thinking that a big, square tube and an extra gusset is perhaps one bit of metal too many. The head tube has reinforced ends.

The swingarm also features square-section tubing, with extensively-machined uprights at the front and dropouts at the rear. There’s a replaceable derailleur hanger (of a commonly-available type, so you shouldn’t have any trouble getting hold of one if needed). There’s no bolt-on brace across the stays which contributes to mud clearance (adequate but not enormous at the sides) but doesn’t seem to hinder rear end stiffness.

A Manitou Swinger 3-Way SPV shock sits between the two halves of the frame, with the front end mounted to plates under the top tube. The top tube itself is cranked on the Medium and Large bikes for extra standover height.

All the machined bits and the square tubing give the Morewood a somwhat industrial appearance which may or may not be to your taste. There’s only one colour option – “Karoo Sand”. Claimed weight for frame and shock is 3.2kg (7lb).

Components

UK importers Hotlines sell Morewoods as frames only, but happily it also imports all manner of other tasty gear, much of which was used to put the test bike together. The Hayes El Camino brakes, Goodridge hoses, Sun-Ringle wheel package and Azonic bar, stem and seatpost are all from Hotlines. Transmission was a no-expense-spared Shimano XTR setup, while the whole thing rolled along on chunky Michelin All-Mountain tyres.

RockShox Revelation forks held the front end up. This was our first proper go with a Revelation, and it’s a very impressive bit of kit. Smooth, well-controlled and very tunable thanks to the Motion Control gubbinses. We particularly like the Floodgate adjuster that lets you set up the “locked out” mode as more of a firm setting than an actually locked out one, if you so wish. Or if you like a fork that largely ignores small stuff (and is solid under pedalling) but saves your wrists over the rocks, you can twiddle the Floodgate and run it with the lockout engaged all the time. It’s a very versatile arrangement. But we’re not here to talk about forks…

Ride

The Shova isn’t a particularly short bike, although the stumpy stem on the test bike made it feel shorter. On the descents and in the singletrack that’s no bad thing – this is a very flickable bike, and if you like to pick the front wheel up then you’ll be very much at home. The suspension’s pretty effective in the middle and big rings, too. The pivot is a bit lower relative to the BB than on Morewood’s DH frames, making it more supple in the oft-used middle ring. Inevitably it does exhibit quite considerable chain growth – at speed you’ll feel the bigger hits through the cranks, and on techy, steppy climbs it tends to put you off your stride. The SPV shock keeps everything nicely under control, though, and the bike feels pleasantly sprightly.

What with the pedal feedback in low gears and the short cockpit, this isn’t a great climbing bike – it tends to wander a bit unless you get right over the front. You could steady it up with a slightly longer stem, but then it wouldn’t be such fun going down the other side. It’s up to you, really. That’s not to say it can’t climb, because it can, but it’s more geared towards the fun stuff.

The obvious points of comparison for this bike are things like Santa Cruz’s current Heckler, with a similar amount of travel and not dissimilar geometry. The Santa Cruz bike has rather more subtle frame construction and a choice of colours, but it’s a couple of hundred quid more expensive. Ridewise there’s pretty much nothing in it – both amply demonstrate that there’s still a place for the good old single pivot.

Positives: Well made, simple, reliable, cachet, reasonable price

Negatives: Suspension performance can’t match more sophisticated designs, industrial looks won’t be to all tastes

Verdict

We’re big fans of single pivot bikes, but there’s no doubt that the more sophisticated systems have distinct advantages particularly when it comes to low pedal feedback. Set against that is the rugged simplicity of the single pivot set up, and for many riders it’s a worthwhile trade-off – you’re unlikely to have to do anything to the Morewood’s suspension for quite a while, and when you do it’ll probably just need new shock bushings. The looks won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it’s a lot of fun, well put together, reasonably priced for what it is and it’s good to see a newish name on the scene. Well worth considering.

Performance: 4/5
Value: 4/5
Overall: 4/5