| I've had one about a month. It's not quite stock; I got the XT
Rapid Fire Plus upgrade for the brakes and shifters. It's a 16 1/2"
frame, 28.75 pounds. For comparison sake, an aluminum Trek 7000
with regular front fork is 28.0 pounds. It has about 100 miles on it;
most off road, and I've managed to dump it about a half dozen times
now without any problems. (Not like I bail out on purpose, but half
the fun of mtn biking is trying something radical and succeeding,
and that doesn't always occur on the first attempt! It has already
been driven off a 5+ foot ledge (ok, THAT was a dumb move) and used
in submarine mode to cross the Nashua River, for example.)
Impressions:
* The shock takes some getting used to. Great for going down steep
hills strewn with boulders as you just seem to float over everything.
But low speed maneuvering is probably worse than a fixed fork,
and climbing (standing up and putting more weight on the front)
causes some energy to be wasted in the shock. I'm really glad the
shock is adjustable, since you can vary it to the rider's weight and
riding conditions. One annoying part: the irregular shape of oak
leaves lend themselves very well to getting caught in between the
front brake mount and the spokes, and it sounds like a dozen or so
baseball cards...
* The pedals are nice, but a bit difficult to get into.
* I wouldn't mind just a bit lower gearing for a smoother stroke
when going up really steep stuff.
* I've had one bad shift where the chain got jammed in between the
small front ring and the frame, thus doing a number on the paint.
A Shimnao Sharkfin would have prevented this. Not to be confused
with what I refer to as "chain slap", which happens when in lower
gears when the chain slaps against the bottom of the stay. The XT
upgrade is nicer to use than the stock DX thumb-only, but wasn't cheap.
* One good looking bike (assuming you like their choices of silver,
silver, or silver).
.02 kb
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