It has been since last November that we have had the Gary Fisher Hi Fi Deluxe around here and now it is time to lay down my final thoughts on this 4 inch travel trail bike.

Hi Fi Deluxe

This bike is loaded with features and I have detailed out a few of them over the updates that I have done. Before I get into my final thoughts, I wanted to tick off the major features that impressed me most about the Hi Fi Deluxe 29″er.

G2 Geometry: Much has been said and written about this new development in 29″er geometry. Much has been misunderstood about it. I will keep it brief and say this: It does what it was intended to do. It gives you slow speed stability. It gives you a “less heavy”, snappier feel during turns. It retains high speed handling traits that were present with the original Genesis geometry. Will it be right for you? That’s a tougher question. Read the thoughts at the end for my take.

Fox Fork: It wasn’t all that long ago that you could find a thread on a 29″er forum at about anytime that said something to the effect of “Give me a Fox 29″er fork!” Well, they finally came out with a model and it is of typical Fox quality. (Read: High quality) It performed well, and became an “invisible” component for the most part. Some may have an issue with the amount of travel they are getting out of their Fox F-29′s, but I never had any problems obtaining the full 100mm if I set the shock to what I would call a “middle setting” in terms of air spring pressure for my weight. The rear Fox Float RP2 was as steady as a rock performance-wise. I never could really tell much difference between open and closed in regards to the Pro Pedal feature though. Not that it mattered. It worked great as it was.

Rhythm Wheels: The wheel set on the Hi Fi Deluxe is from the new Rhythm model line from Bontrager, (of course) and it was a really great performing wheel set for me. If only I could have gotten my hands on those dratted Tubeless Ready rim strips that were never available during our test period. Besides that niggle, I was pleased with these wheels.

Final Thoughts: The Hi Fi Deluxe is a great package and can tackle about any sort of trail condition you can throw it’s way short of big drops and that sort of trickery. It is more of a XC/Trail kind of rig, one that you might choose for your next all day mountain/trail/woods ride or for your next 12/24 hour attempt. It smooths out trail chatter nicely, doesn’t bob much, and has traction for the climbs in spades. In fact, that is its strong suit, climbing. At least to my mind. Sit down and grind away in your chosen gear. The Hi Fi will still be willing to roll when you run out of legs and lungs.

Niggles? Besides the unavailable Rhythm rim strips which prevented me from properly turning those hoops into tubeless ready wheels, I did notice a couple of things. First, the rear swing arm is somewhat narrow, reducing choices for rear rubber to something 2.3″ or less with any hope for mud clearance. I found that to be something of a surprise for a rig touted as a trail bike. I would like to see Fisher increase this clearance for at least 2.5 inch meats. As it is, there are several tires that one can fit into the bike, so it’s not a “deal killer”, but perhaps a bit of an oddity in this bikes category. There was some amount of torsional flex in the chassis. I detected something when hitting an off camber with my front wheel which would seem to push it ever so slightly off track from the back wheel. I would say it is a swingarm issue, since the front triangle was pretty stout torsionally in my testing. This problem exacerbates itself with a wheel set that is flexy, so be careful if you switch out wheels. I actually got tire rub with one set I own that is a bit flexy laterally. I would recommend a handbuilt set with a higher tension, or stick with the excellent Rhythm wheels. Finally, the front end was a bit harder to loft than some other 29″er full suspension bikes I have ridden. This might be solved by slightly modifying the rider position, although I felt I was already pretty upright on this bike.

In the end, the Hi Fi wins me over with its great suspension, great spec, and bang for the buck. G2 Geometry is great for most situations. I absolutely loved it in slow speed, technical manuverings. It got to be a handful during extended technical descents, where if your attention waned a bit from the task at hand, the bike was a bit unforgiving. I’m speaking of something long, rocky, and fast. G2 demands that you “get up on the wheel” or pay the consequences in those situations. Otherwise G2 worked great in every other situation I encountered.

The Hi Fi line is a winner. I would hope to see Gary Fisher Bikes continue to evolutionize this platform. With bigger 29″er rubber on the horizon, I would hope to see an improvement in tire clearance in the rear. Perhaps a spec change to a 120mm thru-axle shock would help with the higher speed nervousness in descending. As a first year effort though, you can count on the Hi Fi Deluxe to be a great performer out of the box in most trail situations. I would recommend it as a great Trail/XC 29″er.

This is the final installment on the Gary Fisher Bikes Hi Fi Deluxe. Thanks to Gary Fisher Bikes for the opportunity to test and review this rig.