DMR Trailstar LT any good? (frame)
- Thread starter intense jonoooo
- Start date
wombat
Lives in a hole
Well I got mine a couple of weeks ago, and here's my mini review for ya:
Mine was an impulse buy actually, when I discovered the frame i was after was still months away. I've got the mtb BB/vert DO version and I'm using it as a do it all bike, although my focus is mainly on street at the moment.
I'm pretty light on my gear (ride like a pussy) so I'm not that fussed with strength although it seems beefy enough to take a bit of abuse. While it's not as light as I'd like, it's also not a tank like many of the other steel HT's available, so seems to be a pretty good compromise.
My only real qualm with it is geometry (and maybe cable routing, but I'm funny bout that). I run psylo's on mine and run the fork at it's 80mm setting for 90% of the time; cranked down like this the frame seems to handle nicely, sharp but not too twitchy (I like twitchy though). I do not get on very well with the lengths though. IMO the backend could probably be a little shorter, but you can overcome that, my biggest problem is with the front end. I'm just under 6 foot, and the TT is just not long enough. While it's nice and manevourable, I am constantly smacking my (quite large) feet on the front tyre when I turn the bars. Contact during X-ups is even worse. This could be a problem with my bloody clown feet and riding style though too, although the geo on the 243 frames is more appealing to me.
I'm a little queer with some of my preferences in frames, so I'm always going to be pretty hard to please, but I think the Trailstar is a solid chassis, if it was an inch longer in the front and 1/2 or 3/4 shorter out back it would be bloody brillant.
Mine was an impulse buy actually, when I discovered the frame i was after was still months away. I've got the mtb BB/vert DO version and I'm using it as a do it all bike, although my focus is mainly on street at the moment.
I'm pretty light on my gear (ride like a pussy) so I'm not that fussed with strength although it seems beefy enough to take a bit of abuse. While it's not as light as I'd like, it's also not a tank like many of the other steel HT's available, so seems to be a pretty good compromise.
My only real qualm with it is geometry (and maybe cable routing, but I'm funny bout that). I run psylo's on mine and run the fork at it's 80mm setting for 90% of the time; cranked down like this the frame seems to handle nicely, sharp but not too twitchy (I like twitchy though). I do not get on very well with the lengths though. IMO the backend could probably be a little shorter, but you can overcome that, my biggest problem is with the front end. I'm just under 6 foot, and the TT is just not long enough. While it's nice and manevourable, I am constantly smacking my (quite large) feet on the front tyre when I turn the bars. Contact during X-ups is even worse. This could be a problem with my bloody clown feet and riding style though too, although the geo on the 243 frames is more appealing to me.
I'm a little queer with some of my preferences in frames, so I'm always going to be pretty hard to please, but I think the Trailstar is a solid chassis, if it was an inch longer in the front and 1/2 or 3/4 shorter out back it would be bloody brillant.