It has been awhile since I have been able to throw a leg over the Hi Fi Deluxe 29″er on true off road trail since the area where I have been living has become home to seemingly perpetual ice and snow conditions. That is why I took the Hi Fi Deluxe on vacation with me to El Paso Texas. (The same place I have been riding the Siren Song) Here is an update of the Hi Fi Deluxe 29″er for you to take a look at……finally!

I should mention that I felt compelled to make a couple of modifications to the stock Hi Fi Deluxe set up. I will detail those now: First, the wheels and tires were going to be needing to be tubeless due to the cactus infested trails I would be riding on. Since the rim strips necessary for the Rhythm wheels to be made tubeless were not yet available, I went with the Bontrager Race X Lite TLR wheels we tested last year. I shod those with a fresh set of Bontrager Dry X tires and called that good. Secondly, the Bontrager grips were not agreeing with my paws, so I swapped out for a pair of Team Green Ergon GE 1 grips. Thirdly, and last of all, I swapped out the 160mm front rotor for a 185mm one. Peace of mind for me more than anything else there.

Now it was off to ride the same loop I did on the Siren Song. Again, I was facing some of the rockiest technical terrain I have ever ridden. The Hi Fi sucked it all right up and asked for more. This bike made riding these trails so much easier that I cleaned sections that surprised me. The limiting factor? Not the bike, but my lack of fitness this soon in the season. That is something I knew would be a limiting factor, so I was all right with that. At least the bike was up to the task!

The overriding factor that kept coming into my mind as I rode was how well the Hi Fi platform climbs. I was clawing up loose rocky ascents with ease that was surprising me. Bigger rocks and step ups were no hindrance. The bike had as much traction as I needed every time, the Dry X tires having a great deal to do with that as well, no doubt. The rear suspension was using all of its travel but I didn’t notice it. The average travel was about 2/3rds of the shock stroke, so I was using a fair amount of the travel on most of this trail. That doesn’t surprise me one bit. The quality of the travel wasn’t buttery smooth like say, a Niner R.I.P.9, it was firm, yet forgiving. That’s the best I can come up with to describe it. No weird flexiness was apparent. No rubbing of the chain stays or anything negative in that way at all was experienced.

The front shock was a slightly different story. I never got the full stroke out of it- probably three inches or slightly less was all. Funny thing was is I didn’t notice that it wasn’t traveling the full 100mm. The Fox F-29 was very rigid laterally and fore and aft. No weird sensations in off cambers, rock fields, or high speed cornering. I was just a bit disappointed to see it only got part of the travel on hand. I could have futzed with the air pressure, but as I checked the sag just before the ride, it was spot on, so I didn’t bother to try that. I will say that the balance front to rear felt great to my mind.

A word on G2: I really like G2 geometry for most of the riding I do, but I found myself wishing for something maybe not quite so eager to turn on these super technical and rocky trails. I had to really be on top of the steering to make sure I didn’t get in over my head. Now to be fair, there also were several times I was glad for it, as I made a quick maneuver around a broken off chunk of prickly pear, for instance. Or when the slow speed attributes of G2 came into play, I was loving it. It is just that the front end of a G2 29″er handles so much like a 26″er, and less like a 29″er, that’s all. You just have to pay attention. Let you mind wander off the task at hand for a moment, you could be eating cactus! Well, if you were riding in El Paso Texas, you would!

Other than that niggle, the front end was rock solid and never felt vague or flexy in any way. That monstrous down tube on the Hi Fi’s frame is the reason for this. It allows for a huge weld area to attach to the head tube and the top tube. The bottom bracket area benefits from this as well.

A couple of notes on the rest of the bike: The cassette has one gear on it that wants to pick up the side plate of the chain in one place and results in an annoying “click” once every cassette revolution in that gear. The Avid Juicy brakes have worked just great throughout the testing period so far, even in ice and snow. The SRAM drive train is great as always. ( The cassette issue not with standing) Shifts were made easily and whenever I needed them. The Shimano two piece crank has been great and feels solid. Nothing shifts like Shimano’s front chain wheels, that’s for sure. The Bontrager Race X Lite wheels are not really supposed to be brutalized like I did, but they came through with flying colors. I never expected to be this pleased with their performance. Of course, the tubeless ready system employed by Bontrager is top notch stuff. Highly recommended! Dry X tires are really surprising in their performance here too.

I will say in conclusion to this update what I murmured to myself as I put the bike away after the ride on that rocky trail the other day, “What a fun bike!” That about sums up the Gary Fisher Hi Fi Deluxe in a nutshell. Stay tuned for further updates coming soon!