Twentynineinches and twentynineinches-DE have been in Sedona, Arizona at the Magura Press Camp sampling the 2014 versions of their forks and brakes.  We will have all that and more a little later on, including time on the new 140mm/150mm 29er fork, but we wanted to show this bit of technology first.

Magura Elect, it is called.  It brings modern, wireless electronic technology to the way you control your forks damping.  Available on XC/Race forks, like a 100mm 29er version, the Elect replaces the compression damping cartridge, knob, remote cable lockout, etc, and does the thinking for you.  It works with or without the wireless handlebar remote ‘button’.  You calibrate the cartridge by holding your bike upright and level and pressing and holding the button on the fork mounted cartridge.  It calibrates, flashes to let you know it is ready, and then you go ride.  When it senses a change in pitch or angle of the fork, it unlocks.  For instance…when you tilt your iPhone or smartphone and the screen ‘flips’ around to a wide view…there ya go.  Accelerometers.   It is not bump force activated, rather position sensing.  IE…pop a wheelie and the fork locks up.  Point your bike down something and it opens.  It will at some point, in a possible future addition, allow you to download data as to how the damper has been working…how many times it opened, under what conditions, etc.

This is not a long travel fork application, rather a race/XC shorter travel fork, but it is very interesting and I can see an application for race bikes where you just want to be on the gas and let the Elect do the thinking for you.  It is also backwards compatible to the older Durin line of XC forks.

It also saves 20-25g off the typical DLO2 damper cartridge.  It has a sleep mode so if it sees no movement for five minutes, it stops battery drain.  A 3 hour charge time with a micro USB port gives you a 40-60 hour run time.  If the battery goes below the limit of what it needs to operate, it defaults to ‘open’ mode.

The handlebar mounted remote overrides the auto feature of the Elect and makes it into a manual on/off deal, and you choose the state by pushing the button on the tidy little control module…my words for it, not theirs.  It pairs to the Elect cartridge by Bluetooth technology.  So if you want to do the work instead of the auto feature, you can be in control.  The entire assembly is waterproof.

Did you ever think you would be plugging your fork into the wall charger?  As well, it is an interesting compromise as there are times you may want to have an active fork even when climbing.  Still, it is pretty cool technology and along with the other improvements in the fork line from Magura, it looks like 2014 will see them making deeper inroads into both the trail and race bike suspension market in the US.

Twenty Nine Inches - 29er Bike Reviews, Rumors and News

Airborne Hobgoblin

Geometry: One of the things I missed last post was the geometry of the Hobgoblin. It is a very different bike than the last full suspension 29″er I tested! That was a long, low chassis with slightly slacker angles than this blue meanie. The Hobgoblin sports a steeper geometry than many newer full suspension 29″ers with a head angle of 71° and a seat tube angle of 73°, (as I measured them static, no rider on board), so a bit different in that regard. The chain stays are a longish 18″. Again- something we were used to seeing only a year or two ago, but this is now on the extreme. The bottom bracket seemed a bit tall to me out of the box, and it is: 13 1/4″ unsagged. I measured the top tube at 24 1/8th”, which seems a bit short for a size Large these days. The bike sports a long tiller to make up for that though, with a 110mm stem stock.

Weighty Matters: As I mentioned in the Out Of The Box, the Hobgoblin seems a bit portly at 31+ pounds, but with a bit of judicious parts swapping, a rider could dump a fair amount of weight right away. Specifically noted here are the wire bead AKA tires, which weigh 940gms each. (Standard TNT folders in the AKA model weigh 730 gms for reference) Tubes weighed 230 gms each, so by going to a lighter tubeless tire model a rider could cut a quick 1.75lbs off the Hobgoglin pretty easily. Maybe even a little more. Suddenly it doesn’t seem quite so heavy when you consider that, but it is on the consumer to make that change, obviously.

Ride Impressions: The Hobgoblin was ridden on some wettish, slippery, rooty trails and a big section of new cut trail with some outings on dry dirt to boot. Upon mounting the bike I felt “on top” of the rig, and not “down in” the bike, as I have on some of the other full suspension rigs tested over the past year or so. Chalk that up to the high bottom bracket and the shortish front center. The Hobgoblin cuts through corners with authority in tight single track. This fully is by far the quickest handling of the lot I’ve tested in over a year or so. The long back end did not seem to hang me up, but it did make lofting the front end a chore. This is compounded by the short front/long stem which pins the front wheel by biasing your weight to the front more. Good for fast cornering, bad for playfulness.

I liked the way the Hobgoblin climbed. It has a planted feel, and with that longer chain stay, it prefers a seated climber and it will steer at slow speed almost too easily due to the long stem/steeper head tube angle that it has. The suspension can be set to be active and it helps dig that rear tire in on the steeps. (More on the suspension set up momentarily.) Going down wasn’t bad either, but you are committed to pinning the front wheel due to the way the Airborne is laid out. It almost is as if you are on an old school XC racer, really. Chassis feel was stiff. Probably on top of the heap when it comes to torsional and lateral rigidity. The Airborne is quite impressive in this regard.

Suspension Set Up: here is where I feel the Hobgoblin falls a little flat. The Monarch dampers, (which have appeared on several of the past full suspension rigs coming through here of late), have been pretty decent dampers. However; the RL version on this Airborne is not a great match for the bike, in my opinion. You have the choice of running the damper “wide open” or locked out, and neither works great, if you set the bike up in the “normal” way. I did find a way to “trick” the damper into doing my bidding though. Instead of setting up the sag in the wide open setting, I set it up in the locked out setting, and then rode the bike in lock out 100% of the time. (Rock Shox “lock out” is not a full on lock, but is somewhat active.) I do not recommend that Hobgoblin owners do this, but I will say that it made the bike handle the bumps in the way I prefer, (slightly stiffer than “plush”), and it still got full travel on the bigger hits. Of course, the wide open setting was unusable in this state, but I really liked the way the bike felt with this set up. I could stomp the pedals and the bike scooted forward, and standing climbing was met with a calm, well mannered feel with very little “bobbing”.

More on the bike coming soon. I am still fiddling with suspension settings and will report back on that and more in my Mid-Term Report.

Note: Airborne sent over the Hobgoblin for test and review at no charge to Twenty Nine Inches. We are not being paid, nor bribed for this review and we will strive to give our honest thoughts and opinions throughout.

Twenty Nine Inches - 29er Bike Reviews, Rumors and News

At Sea Otter we stopped by the DT Swiss booth and got the low down on the new DT Swiss Spline 1 series of wheels (see this article for all that info).  And we came home with a set of the XM 1501 wheels- in the 29″er flavor, of course!  On the scales of guaranteed Precision and Goodness they weighed as follows:  Rear wheel with sealing tape in place and a 142×12 setup (no axle) 890g/1.9lbs.  Front wheel in 15mm through axle with tape as well – 796g.  That was a savings of 79g off the front Roval Control wheel that was stock on the Camber Expert.  I do not have the stock rear wheel at hand right now to compare the weight, but I expect that the DT Swiss wheel will be lighter here as well.  I measured the internal width at 23mm and the external width at 26mm…DT Swiss says 22.5mm inner/27mm outer and I think they are more accurate than my eyeballing.  Very nice.  FINALLY we have a good width rim coming from a DT Swiss for 29″er wheels.  19mm internal width rims have no good place on a 29″er trail bike.

So they are wide enough, light enough at 1686g, and have a bomber hub tied to them.  Sweet.  I tried two types of tires that are notoriously tight on some rims.  One was a Geax TNT Saguaro and one was a Conti Protection X King.  Both mounted with little difficulty on the rim.  Very nice.  I swapped the gears, rotors and tires off the Camber and ended up with a 2.3 Ground Control Control casing rear and a 2.3 Butcher front, both tubeless.  Then back on the Camber they went.  First impressions have been very favorable and we are headed to Flagstaff, Arizona for testing.  Be back soon, all covered with dust no doubt.

Note: DT Swiss provided the Spline wheels at no charge to Twenty Nine Inches for test and review. We are not being paid, nor bribed for these reviews and we will strive to give our honest thoughts and opinions throughout.

Twenty Nine Inches - 29er Bike Reviews, Rumors and News

[Note:  This is a ride impression, not a full review and as such we will need to take into consideration that the set-up of suspension and bike fit may not have been optimized as it would have been during a longer review period.  Just for perspective's sake, etc.  Editors.]

The second bike I grabbed out of the Yeti Demo van was a lovely looking Yeti SB95C, the carbon version of the aluminum SB95 120mm full suspension trail bike 29″er that Yeti rolled out a couple of years ago.  I rode that aluminum version at Interbike Demo Days and liked it very much.  So it was with a great deal of anticipation that I grabbed onto the LG sized SB95C and went through the set-up process.

With a claimed weight of 27lbs (no pedals) in the LG/XT equipped bike I rode, the SB95C is in the weight range to be competitive in the 120mm/130mm 29″er trail bike market.  I was told that the typical setting on the Fox Float CTD rear shock was the D or most open position as the Yeti was designed to be very stable when pedaling it.  Out on the long, smooth dirt road to the trail head I found that to be true.  Pedaling did not seem to make the Switch Technology activate at all, although later on I did get some anti-squat to show up when in the small ring/big gear combo and standing pedaling.  It was minimal, about like the Ripley showed and it was not an issue…but I am getting ahead of myself.

What I did notice was a very supple rear end that moved though its initial travel very easily.  And, it continued to move through the range of travel having what felt like a very flat spring curve.  It settled down into the travel too easily for my desires so I set the rear shock into the ‘T’ position and two clicks in toward the firmer setting. That felt much better to me, but I like a firmer feeling suspension.  For instance, I have never gotten along with something like VPP that is uber supple.  I ended up leaving it there…in ‘T’ for the rear shock and most of the time in ‘D’ or open on the front Fox 34 120mm fork.  That felt balanced to me, and I still was getting full travel on the rear shock, if I can believe the o-ring.

The SB95C pedals along very well in the saddle but I like to climb out of the saddle quite a bit…singlespeed disease… and the recent Ibis Ripley felt very good under that condition.  The Yeti was a bit less excited about this and so I tended to sit and spin away more than stand.  It is possible that a bit less sag in the rear shock could have tipped this to my favor a bit, but that is speculation.  I bet that this will not be an issue for most buyers of this bike.

Now, I noticed the slacker front end right away but it did not feel like I should have a 50mm stem and 780mm bars on it.  It was not an issue climbing either and after a bit of time, it just felt natural to me.  No need for a Talas fork application in my opinion.  Yeti also specs the bike with a 140mm fork and that would have been very interesting to try the bike that way.  But that would have been way overkill for the trails I was on this day though. Dropping into the same trail I had covered on the ARC Carbon, I was already digging the handling of the SB95C.  It took a bit of planning and some handlebar action to get the bike to turn fast, but it was so solid and quite agile, most likely the short 17.5″ back end was the saving grace here.  You could come into a turn fast, hit the excellent Shimano brakes, then drive out of the turn letting that short back end pivot right around underneath you.  As chain stays on 29″ers have been getting shorter, they have been feeling better and better.  Even in ‘T’ setting, the rear end was absorbing all the medium and bigger hits and only showing some chatter in the smaller stuff.  Going to ‘D’ mode erased those too.

At the end of the trails, I was very happy with the overall vibe of the SB95C.  I could not help comparing it to the recent ride on the Ibis Ripley.  The Ripley felt more like an XC bike with long legs and the SB95C more like a heavier duty trail bike with less travel.  Just my impression anyway.  Both bikes are awfully good, but they have a different vibe.  The XC/Endurance guy in me likes the Ibis a bit more as it was better for out of the saddle pedaling and quick, hard efforts and yet still had the same amount of travel.  It also felt shorter between the wheels and more agile, but not a lot more.  The Yeti was more like someone coming from a longer travel 26″ bike might expect…slacker/longer feeling in front and maybe even plusher overall.  The Fox 34 is also a beefier fork than what is on the Ibis I rode and could be contributing to the more significant feel on trail.

For any Yeti fan that already knows they like the Yeti approach to things and was looking for a capable 29″er full suspension trail bike, but in a lighter chassis than the slightly portly aluminum SB95, the carbon version is sure to make them very happy.

Twenty Nine Inches - 29er Bike Reviews, Rumors and News

Editor’s Note: For the last posting on these wheels with an interview with American Classic’s Bill Shook and more, go here.

The new wheels quite likely will get moved around across a couple of bikes for testing, but right now they are on the resurrected OS Bikes Blackbuck.  Sporting a few new goodies besides the wheels, here is how it looks for now.

Besides the new 101/Dirty Flea wheels, the hoops are shod with some 2.3 Specialized Ground Controls running tubeless and for now, a slightly low 32/21 gear combo using a Stylo crank and a very nice quality spacer kit from Spot Brand bikes.  It makes all the other aftermarket kits I used seem kinda cheesy.  The bars are the new Answer Pro Taper SL bars and Rove G2 stem.  The new Pro Taper carbons are good looking with textured clamp area, cut marks, etc, and come in flat and rise versions.  These are the flat, 8* sweep, 720mm wide ones and weighed 208g.  The Rove G2 stem looks robust enough to do the job of keeping the 720mm wide bars in check.  The stem is 151g in the 100mm version shown here.  Keeping with the Answer Products theme, I slipped on a set of Fall Line XC grips.

For front suspension duties, I installed a Manitou Tower Pro, 15QR in 100mm travel.  The Tower series has always been a strong performer and it looks great on this build, is very tunable, and stiff.  A WTB Pure V saddle on a 27.2mm carbon Syncros seat post keeps my backside happy.  The brakes are a new set of Avid XO Trails with 160mm rotors front and rear.

Of course the wheels are the stars, but a bike is the sum of its parts.  The wheels look good on here, very understated, and the entire package has gotten a lot of compliments.

On trail with the new wheels so far has shown no signs of unwanted flex or anything bad.  They spin up well and seems to accelerate with a nice pop forward.  The hubs are fast engaging enough for me in the present set-up and they seem to roll well, holding momentum.  The Pro Taper SL carbon bars and stem are giving me a great feel at the helm so far.  Once you get used to carbon bars, it is hard to go back to alu.  The good ones seem to dampen shock well and still not get all mushy when you pull hard on them.  The stem seems resolute so far under hard torque.  The fork is what all Tower forks have been for me so far.  Smooth in its travel, it goes where it is pointed.

The Blackbuck is an interesting bike.  It has a close-between-the-wheels feeling and even with the 100mm fork on there, is very agile and a killer singletrack scooter.  The geometry is interesting in that it has parallel seat and head tube angles.  So I am right at a calculated 70.4* HT angle (unsagged) but also with the same ST angle and that keeps me back behind the crank quite a bit.  I ran the saddle up forward in the non-offset seat post clamp and that helped.  I actually think I liked this bike better with an 80mm travel Manitou Tower Pro on it over the 100mm version.  It is interesting getting back on a steel frame now after being on alu and carbon for an SS bike and recently Ti in the geared hard tail.  I have to admit that the carbon Stumpjumper SS frame has spoiled me.  If I cannot get in the groove with the Blackbuck, I will move on.

Regardless of that, for comparison’s sake I think I will run these wheels on the Stumpy SS after a while, replacing the AC SS wheels on there now.  That will be an interesting swap, I think.  I have a set of Maxxis Ikons that look plump, fast, and ready to hit the dusty trails of So Cal summer so they may end up on there too.  As the miles add up, we will report back.

Note: Sun Ringle’ and American Classic sent over their products at no charge to Twenty Nine Inches for test and review. We are not being paid, nor bribed for these reviews and we will strive to give our honest thoughts and opinions throughout.

Twenty Nine Inches - 29er Bike Reviews, Rumors and News