Well, I've had this thing out for 5 or 6 rides now - and haven't sold it - so I guess in my world that makes it time for a "long-term" review.
I can't quite give a
full review because I haven't had it up to high-country trails yet, and as most of us know bikes handle/perform differently on the fast and steep stuff, and while my local trails offer fast
or steep stuff, with my level of skill it's very rarely both. So anyway, I am basing my impressions off using it as a trail bike at "the local", rather than an enduro sled.
In that sense, the swap to the 'Trail' suspension link a couple of posts back has been a success. Bike is way more playful and supportive now, I did drop a spring rate and the balance is good now. Supportive in the first half of the travel, but I can access the deep travel when I balls a line up or manage to find a G-out.
But I should probably get rolling with the gearbox side of things, since that's likely what people want to know about most. What I said previously holds true,
sort of...
...unsprisingly - it shifts superbly. The gearbox itself is quieter than I remember while JRA, and claims of drag seen everywhere online seem greatly exaggerated...
The good:
Gearbox drag really is pretty negligible. There might be a bit more of it in the harder gears (Though they are probably still wearing in on my gearbox to be fair, I've mostly just been pedalling while climbing and a lot of coasting while descending). But yeah, there's bugger all in it compared to even the best MTB derailleur setups in the climb gears. Whatever fractional percentage you lose to gearbox drag, you regain from the single chain *ahem - belt-line, and not having the chain deflection that occurs in the climb gears on a cassette. Oh and the belt!
The belt is incredible. No spongy/springy feeling through the pedals, it feels as taut as a chain but without the freehub 'thunk' you get if you pedal-kick a technical feature with a chain-based drivetrain. The silence and just general lack of 'chatter' from chainslap is very noticeable too.
As for the bad:
My particular gearbox/SmartShift setup is having persistent issues not reconising the magnet in the crank (cue blinking red light on the SmartShift unit) and it is extremely reluctant to shift to an easier gear
most of the time on climbs, but most annoyingly - it's inconsitent how or when it occurs... Sometimes it won't shift even under very light load, and other times it'll bomb a shift in even when I'm torquing on the cranks quite hard (I might be unfit, but I have plenty of weight and strength to apply!). It makes a hearty clunk when it does, but the manual says that;s okay and it suggests it
can force the shift if it wants to - so I wish it would all the bloody time. It didn't display this behavoir initially, so I suspect there's something awry. Got a couple of things I'm going to try, but it's been an annoyance. Doubly annoying is it's worse on single track and technical trail climbs as it makes it really difficult to maintain momentum on undulating climb grades. As it is - for a descent focused bike - I can live with it even if I can't figure out how to improve it as it's pretty sweet on the descents, but it's annoying to not have it feel like a more "complete" bike - especially when it feels like just a software "safety" feature that's trying to protect something that's perfectly mechanically suitable for the task at hand.
Finally I'll lean into my faux-doctorate here. The geo overall is pretty good, but I'm definitely glad I mulleted (and overforked) it. The BB is still a good height (with the 'Trail link installed, it was a bit touch low/wallowy on 'Enduro' link), and I like the slacked out front end and more willing change-of-directions that mullet setups typically seem to provide. I do wish the back-end was ~10mm longer. It's got a 435mm chainstay length, but a "long" 505mm reach (though some of that is negated by the really low stack height), so the weight bias feels a bit more rearward than neutral like on the current crop of long-CS bikes. It's perfectly okay for descending, but I feel it biases more towards playful than stable ("stable" in a racy, plough all the things sense). It's a good fun bike all around though. I've never really been much of a "jibby" rider previously, but I do find myself popping and bouncing around on this more than I have on other bikes, at least since I owned my 5010 way back when... I feel like a lot of that playfulness is from how central the bike mass is (especially without the weight of a cassette and derailleur on the rear wheel), it makes it easier to bunny hop, pivot it in the air and stomp it back down on silly side hits (and occasionally funny angles - deliberately!). While another 10mm out back would've made it a much better climber (it's fine apart from really steep pinches), and open it up to really smash on the descents - it's still "safe" enough feeling that I've ridden a few features and off-trail sections (through random AF rockfields) that were a little above my paygrade without too much worry. To be fair, it's still pretty contemporary geo from a frame design that came to market in 2019!
I would summarise the bike as imperfect but plenty of fun. I would still get a derailleur-based bike for more XC-focused riding, but for winch and plummet the gearbox and belt drive remove a lot of hassle. I have been particularly enjoying not having to worry about lubing and checking chains too (something I am notoriously lazy with!
).
No plans to change bikes yet, but there will be some evolutionary updates to this bike still to come. I've ordered a reach-adjust headset to play around with sizing a bit. Conversely to my minor gripes about the back-end being a touch short I think I might actually lengthen the front end the ~5 or so millimeters the headset will allow as I feel like it'll give me some more room to brace myself over the handlebars. Though the fork is starting to free up now it's got a few rides on it, the standard Grip damper still feels a bit 'spiky' on fast square edges, and the back-end of the bike easily outperforms the front-end - so I'm eyeing off an upgrade to a GripX2 damper in the near future (and possibly a Vorsprung Smashpot at some stage down the track). Other than that, not much to do really. It's taken a eon for the Hope Tech 4/V4's to bed in (especially given it's the same TRP (2.3mm thick) rotors and UberBike Race Matrix pads I ran on the RAAW), and while my initial thoughts were quite unfavourable of the brakes, now they've finally bed in I really like them. Initially the combo of brake/rotor/pad had very little bite or stopping power, and I had to pull really deep into the lever stroke to get them to pull the bike up - which wasn't exactly confidence-inspiring. Now they've finally bed in (on this - I suspect the TRP rotors are a harder material than most rotors, I've never had to wait so long to bed pads in before), the brakes are great. Now they only need minimal throw or pressure to pull the bike up in a hurry. I've even wound a little free play into the bite-point (that's an uncommon thing for me), as once they're engaged - they're stopping. Still nice and easy to modulate, but without the lever pull force needed on the Hope Tech 3's. Consider me a convert.
. Well, they fill in the gap needed to hold the tyre levers in the OneUp pump holder, and I think I've only ever used it for other people in the past anyway. It's always nice to have some tools on board for the bros and broettes out on the trails or in the group-ride I reckon.
Ended I got the aluminium housing from Jaycar (~$13 AUD, coould probably get cheaper off AliExpress but I wanted to judge to size/quality in my hands rather than wait weeks from overseas only to get the wrong thing). Got the sealing plugs from a bulk-pack at work, but most good automotive stores should have them (ie: Bursons). It cost me more to buy the step-drill to drill the holes than to make the whole housing in the end.
devldesigns.com.au
