The main focus of the Gary Fisher Bikes Press Camp is to give the media in attendance a clearer understanding of the Superfly 100/Hi Fi line and the distinctions between those bikes and the Rumblefish. Obviously, we haven’t ridden the Rumblefish yet, that’s tomorrow’s bike, but here are my first impressions of the Superfly 100 and how I rate it against the old Hi Fi platform.

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Changes: The big story on the Superfly100 and Hi Fi bikes is the changes in the frame. We’ve hit on some of this stuff before: ABP Brake Pivot, Tapered steer tube, BB95 (carbon) BB 86 (aluminum) and the re-arranged swing arm, swing arm link,and new damper valving. I’d have to admit that these changes are all for the good, and noticeable.

Before I detail that out, let’s get some misconceptions and misinformation cleared up. First of all, the Hi Fi is basically an aluminum Superfly 100. The line up is aimed at XC/Racing and endurance/marathon riders looking for an efficient full suspension 29″er. So, the information I detail here on my impressions will transfer over to the Hi Fi as well. Secondly, the travel of the rear on the Superfly 100 and the Hi Fi rigs is 110mm. Yes…….you got that right, it is the same as the Rumblefish, but according to Gary Fisher people, including R&D honch Travis Brown, the Rumblefish is a different kind of travel. (We’ll see about that tomorrow). Let’s just say that the focus of the Superfly 100 and HiFi is a different customer than the Rumblefish and leave it at that for today.

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The ABP Brake pivot made a big difference.

Trail Performance: Between the ABP brake pivot and the re-arrangement/overhaul of the rear suspension, the Superfly 100/Hi Fi line up is transformed from mediocre to awesome. The old Hi Fi had a really good, stiff front triangle, but the flex and failures of the rear swing arm demanded that Fisher go back to the drawing board and revamp the old design. What they have accomplished is simply amazing. The ABP is by far and away the number one improvement in my mind. It takes the old seat stay pivots, which were prone to flexing, and puts them in line with the rear axle. With the hub, skewer, and pivots all in the same plane, it reacts like a through axle set up, stiffening the structure laterally to a high degree. Now add in better rear brake performance, and it really gets good. I purposely tried to get the rear wheel to hop and chatter in rough sections and over rocks, and while it could be done, it was something you had to try to do. Basically, you wouldn’t ride the bike this way anyway, so it was impressive to my mind.

Now a few words about that swing arm. It was by far the “Achilles Heel” of the old Hi Fi, let’s not mince any words about that. So, I was pleased to note that the seat stay assembly is a one piece unit on both the carbon bike and the aluminum bikes. (Yes- no more carbon seat stays on Hi Fi’s- for now…) That and moving the main pivot rearward slightly makes for a shorter, stiffer unit that should stay in one piece for riders now. Amazingly, the wheelbase was shortened in the process, making switchback ups really easy. I cleaned every one we came across today with zero drama. In fact, one of them I wheelied up, driving the bike around the corner on its rear wheel. Nice! I was impressed by the stiffness and new maneuverability of this platform.

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Fisher’s Aaron Mock took great pains to deliver the low down on the new shock and how the Boost Valve technology was applied to maintain a more linear mid-stroke on the shock with a much less severe ramp up at the end of the travel. Did the new technology work? Well, I can not fully judge the rear suspension off one ride, but it was far more active and smooth feeling than my old Hi Fi Deluxe’s rear end. This was interesting and I was surprised that out of the saddle efforts were not pogo stick affairs, although the plushness of seated riding would lead you to think it should be. That said, I found seated riding was the way to go, even on the steepest pitches. The front end set up, which was a wee bit taller than I usually go for my typical set up, posed to be no problem with the ups. My front wheel was planted, for the most part, and I never felt that staying seated was a liability on this bike. The best part of the old Hi Fi was the climbing, in my opinion, and Fisher has made the Superfly 100/Hi Fi even better in that regard.

Going down was fun. During our morning presentation, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski made it clear that descending on his Superfly 100 was a big advantage over his World Cup competition, and riding this bike today, I can see why. The travel is more linear feeling than the previous Hi Fi line up, and feels better due to the stiffness of the swing arm. Another point, made by Travis Brown, was that they were seeking to find better balance front to rear with the suspension. I think it is much better in this regard than the old Hi Fi. I had a devil of a time fiddling with the suspension on that bike, trying to achieve better balance. Now, with maybe fifteen minutes of pre-ride fiddling, I can say this platform is far better, and I can only imagine that further refinements in the settings for me would only make this an even more pronounced of a difference.

Other Bits: The Fox Fork, with the FIT damper was more supple and I was getting closer to full travel out of it right out of the gate. Again, spending more time fiddling with the settings, fine tuning it, should only prove to make the fork better. I thought small bump compliance was improved, and the stroke was smooth as well, all the way across the travel spectrum. Fox has a better fork here, me-thinks. The wheels were Bontrager Race X Lite Scandium rimmed affairs and set up tubeless with XDX tires. Same performance as the old Race X Lite, in my mind. I didn’t notice any improvement in stiffness here, but otherwise the wheels were great. SRAM XO stuff worked flawlessly. Nice performance, but no better than X-9 in my mind, just lighter bits.

Availability of the Hi Fi and Rumblefish is still slated for late October, for those of you who have pre-ordered these.

Conclusions: This is a major improvement over the old Hi Fi line up. Make no mistake, the old Hi Fi was a decent rig, but Fisher pulled out the stops on the refinements and design work, and it shows in spades. How good is this bike? Well JHK didn’t even have a 26 inch bike built for ’09, and said this bike is by far “…the best full suspension bike I have ever ridden.” High praise from someone who has to have a dialed rig to race World Cup events on. For the rest of us “commoners”, the Hi Fi line will be a stellar XC/trail/endurance rig that will work for many types of courses. I am very impressed with the refinements. The Superfly 100 and the Hi Fi line for 2010 is definitely a big step in the right direction for 29″er fans.