Paul Aston has been around in the mountain bike world for a long long time, and used to write for Pinkbike among other media outlets. A few years back it seems like he set off on his own little mission to become an independent reviewer.

The plan, he states is:

My mission is to bring the most independent MTB reviews online:

Where the majority of bike reviews online are funded indirectly through advertising by the brands who also provide the products to test, or where youtube reviewers are paid thousands of pounds to review bikes and have an eye on keeping the brands happy – in order to get paid for the next review – I wanted to do something different.

Admirable stuff!

His videos are well worth checking out, as is his Instagram for some honest reviews of products. What's particually telling is how often he seems to run into issues that strangely other reviewers never mention or come across.

Of particular note is the Commencal Supreme saga:

Where he bought 2 frames, both cracked and then he had many many other people commenting that their frames had cracked in the same place.

Anyway checkout the video to see the full story.

Another highlight is his write up on his experiences with DVO suspension

At this point, I’m not really happy. It seems like everything I’ve bought new with my own money in the last 18 months has a problem with it. The other new single crown forks in the last year include a Fox 36 incorrectly assembled with too much grease in the air spring meaning the positive/negative pressures not balancing properly. A brand-new Ohlins 38, that was pre-checked by J-Tech including bushing sizing, worked nicely for a grand total of two whole days. After this, the bushings swelled leaving an extremely sticky fork, eventually fixed under warranty, with the explanation it was a “small batch problem with bushings” – it’s funny how small batch problems seem so common. All these products cost over £1000 at RRP and are touted by the brands as their flagship high-end products.

Reading this is like a wave of vindication that we are not alone in finding many many mountain bike products sorely lacking in reliabilty.

Paul, we salute you!

We are still using a few sets of Hope brakes and getting on with them well enough as per our review of the E4 , but we've felt that there is some room for improvement with the setup. This week we worked out a cheap easy solution to our problems.

The 'too much lever throw or travel' issue has been a common complaint online with Hope brakes for a while, and one we struggled with ourselves. As per our review one way we found to alleviated the issue a little by over filling the reservoir by a few millilitres.

With lockdown in full effect in the UK we decided to spend some time working on this issue and try and see if we can get our E4 brakes working as we would want them ideally.

Step 1 was to get some new bigger rotors, previously we had been using 180mm which with our Shimano XTs was more than enough. We have been using the discs for a while though so they did have a pronounced lip on them. Shimano discs are 1.8mm when new so we decided to replace them with some Galfer 200mm rotors but the 2mm versions. The thinking here would be it would reduce the free stroke of the lever on the Hopes and give us a more direct feel.

The new Galfer rotors did help, and we upped to 200mm as well to try and increase the power a little. The issue of there still being too much dead travel for our likeing remained however.

The Solution

Taking a look at the levers we noticed that the reach and bite point adjuster are both threaded.

We found a nut that fitted and screwed it onto the BPC bolt a few turns. Voila! Instantly this then gave an extended range of adjustment so we could get the brakes to come on immedialty if we wanted, or have as much dead stroke as we wanted.

Doing this got rid of the need to overfill the brakes and gives you a full range of adjustment to get the levers feeling exactly how you want them. It's also a tidy, discreet solution that is very very cheap and requires no permantent changes to the brakes. It would be nice to see Hope offer a longer bolt themselves as an after market option.

Alongside our Topeak Mini 20 Pro we also have it's bigger sibling the Alien 2. We've been using this tool for a good few years now and it's still going strong. So which one is best?

Design

Straight away it's obvious that the Alien 2 is much bigger and heavier than the Mini Pro. Rather than being a single metal unit, the Alien 2 is made up of 2 plastic blocks that clip together snugly. At 290g it's over twice the weight of the Mini Pro and its also much taller. Whilst it's possible to put it in a pocket, it's better suited to being carried in a backpack. The tools are longer than on the Mini Pro, making working on the bike a little easier.

Features

The list of tools is:

Allen keys: 2-L / 2.5 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 8 / 10 mm
Torx: T25
Box Wrench : 9 mm
Spoke wrenches: 14g / 15g
Chain tool
Chain hooks
Tire levers
Screw drivers: #2 phillips / flat head
Knife
Bottle opener
Secondary chain link fence
Chain pin breaker
Air release button
pedal wrench

As with the Mini Pro, this covers the vast majority of things that would need to be done on a bike whilst out riding, although the single torx might not cover some smaller dropper levers.

The tires levers are much better than the single one on the Mini Pro, but they are still a little awkward to use, and don't work as well as a dedicated lever.

The knife is useful, but is quite short, it would of been better if it was a little longer for more applications.

Durability

We've used this tool a fair bit, but mainly just the allen keys and knife and everything is still in as good condition as it was when new.

Overall

RRP is around £40.00, so similar to the Mini Pro, the Alien 2 comes at a premium price. It might be tempting to look at the Mini Pro for around £30 and think that the Alien 2 is better value as you do get more with it, however the extra size and weight means that we use the Mini Pro much more as it can be kept in a pocket. The Mini Pro covers nearly all the same bases as the Alien 2, just in a smaller package. We've tended to keep the Alien 2 in the boot of our car for adjustments before we start riding, and for that it's perfect. Given the choice though, we think the Mini Pro makes more sense if you are only going to buy 1 tool.

Not long ago the simple answer would of been: YT Jeffsy or Canyon Spectral, but not any longer.

We are considering a trail bike to be around 120-150mm of rear travel and we aren't including any really budget £80 Argos bikes.

We haven't tested any of these bikes (with the exception of the Jeffsy 29), this is more just a starting point to help people know what's available and how they compare on paper.

We wanted options around £1000, but that proved harder than we initially thought!

YT Jeffsy/Izzo

The cheapest 130mm bike is the Izzo at £25990, with the Jeffsy coming in at £1,999. We've ridden the entry level Jeffsy and it's excellent, but it doesn't seem that long ago that they could be picked up for much cheaper.

Canyon Spectral

The cheapest Spectral model is now £2,499, for the spec it's not a bad price, but they used to be at least 1 or 2 models under £2k.

Calibre Bossnut

With Go Outdoors suffering this year the future of Calibre might be a little uncertain. The "Buy" link on the Calibre website just goes to a 'not found' page on the Go Outdoors site. Whether this is just because it's out of stock or if it's ceased production we are not sure. When available they could be had for £1,100, which is really good value for the spec and geometry.

Giant Stance

When the Stance first launched a few years ago the entry level model could be had for £1000, but now that's bumped up to £1,449.

Boardman MTR 8.6

Finally, something that whilst not exactly 'cheap' could be considered attainable by a few more people. The Boardman MTR 8.6 comes slap bang at £1000 from Halfords. So what do you get for your money?

• Deore 1x10 drivetrain with 11-46t cassette
• Suntour XCR 34 fork
• Rockshox Deluxe Select R shock
• Tektro M285 brakes
• Tubeless ready rims
• Maxxis Minion DHF in the front and DHRII rear tyre
• 780mm bars
• 45mm stem

That's all really good stuff, and is ready to ride out of the box, even the tyres are good! What about the geo?

455mm reach on a medium, 66° headtube angle, 75.5° seat angle. All nice and modern, it's clear Boardman have kept an eye on current developments with bike geometry and applied it to the MTR. Impressive.

We've not ridden the Boardman, but plenty of people have on the internet.

Jamis Dakar A2

At £1,250.00 how does the geo and spec compare to the Boardman?

• Shimano 1x10 drivetrain with 11-42T cassette
• SR Suntour Raidon 32mm fork
• Rockshox Monarch R shock
• Shimano MT200 brakes
• Tubeless ready rims
• Vittoria Barzo tyres
• 760mm bars
• 50mm stem

The fork is similar but 32 rather than 34mm stantions mean it's a win for the Boardman, the shock is the older Monarch model, although performance is likely to be near identical. Brakes are similar, tyres probably a bit worse, bars are 760mm which for taller riders might be an issue. It's hard to see what that extra £250 is getting you purely from a components point of view.

As for the geo?

68° headtube angle, 75 seat tube angle with reach not stated on the website. This is fairly conservative geometry and so the Boardman takes it again easily.

VITUS MYTHIQUE 27 VR

Another £1250 bike from direct brand Vitus.

Spec wise:

• Shimano 1x10 M4100 Deore Drivetrain
• Shimano MT401 Brakes
• X-Fusion RC32 Forks
• X-Fusion O2 Pro R shock
• WTB i30 Rims
• Schwalbe Magic Mary/Hans Dampf Tyres
• Brand-X Ascend Dropper

The big benefit of the Vitus is the dropper seat post, however these are only around £130 new so even adding that the Boardman  works out a little cheaper.

Geo wise 456mm reach 66.5 headangle and 76.6 seat angle put it broadly in line with the MTR.

VooDoo Canzo

If you fancy a 27" rather than 29" wheeled bike then the £1000 VooDoo Canzo is one option.

Specs are:

• Rockshox Recon RL 32mm fork
• Monarch R shock
• Clarks brakes
• 12-speed SRAM SX cassette 11-50t
• WTB Trail Boss tyres

On the geometry front the Voodoo comes out more dated than the Boardman with a 67 headangle and 74 seattube angle. The handlebars on a medium are only 740mm wide, which might be an issue for some. Fork and shock are similar, but with narrower 32mm stanchions. We'd take the Boardman over the Voodoo.

Most chainrings are made out of aluminium and we've always used these are they are the most common. A few years ago we stumbled across a Raceface steel ring in the sale and thought we'd give it a go. RRP is $19.99 or around £25. We have used this ring now for about 2.5 years and covered around 5000 miles on it.

Design

It looks identical to the ali version.

Performance

It performs identically to the ali version.

Longevity

We previously had an identical RF cinch ring on the bike, and got around 2000 miles / 1 year out of it. This has been roughly in line with the lifespan of other chain rings we've used from Shimano and FSA. The fact that the steel version is still going heading on towards 3 years is impressive. It is starting to show wear now, and we doubt it'll go another full year but its still got life in it, and we've not had it slip. It's performing as well as it was when it was brand new.

Overall

So what's the catch? Weight? The 32t steel ring comes in at 158g with the ali version around 70g. Whilst that is more than double the weight, it's double what is a very insignificant amount. The ali version RRP is $67.99 or about £55 so more than double the cost for something that lasts around a third of the time. Throwing 3 or 4 ali rings in the bin for every 1 steel and paying ~£200 compared to £25 for a steel for the same time period means that we won't ever be using ali rings again. If you are really bothered about weight you can use the money saved to make bigger gains elsewhere. Environmentally and economically it just makes no sense to use ali rings. Off the back of this we have recently purchased a full steel cassette which will be start testing soon.

As a follow up to our popular What tyre pressures to top EWS Enduro and World Cup Downhill riders use? article we thought it might be interesting to take a look at what handle bar widths the top pro riders are using in both DH and Enduro racing.

We compared rider height to bar width to get a ratio similar to how we looked at tyre pressures. Correct bar width is still a bit of a mystery it seems, with no reliable formula. This is likely down to the fact that height isn't the only factor which affects choosing a width. Arm length, torso length, leg length, bike length, stem length and just general personal preference and comfort all have a big impact on what size bars people like to use. With that it's debatable how much can be gleaned from the tables below, but it's always fun to compare.

The data used was the most recent possible, with nothing over a couple of years included.

DH

*Marine Cabirou height data couldn't be found so was estimated from podium photos.

For the DH riders, in the mens, Brook Macdonald had the widest bars relative to his height, with Loïc Bruni having the narrowest bars relative to height.

In the womens, Marine Cabirou had the widest bars relative to height, with Nina Hoffmann having the narrowest.

Enduro

In the EWS racers, in the mens Adrien Dailly had the widest relative to height with Kevin Miquel having the narrowest.

Similar to our tyre pressure data Isabeau Courdurier had the widest bars to height by quite some margin, with Morgane Charre and ALN having the narrowest, but still wide when compared to the mens.

Height and bar data was sadly hard to find for more of the womens EWS field. More bike checks needed!

How do EWS and DH riders bar widths compare?

In general it seems that maybe enduro racers are using a touch narrower bars than DH, though not by much. The limited womens data means we can't take too much from it, but from what we've seen, women racers are using proportionally wider bars than the mens. Without extra measurements such as arm length etc. nothing concrete can really be inferred from this however.

Working out your pro bar width

If you are 175cm high male and want to be a pro DH racer you would do:

1750 /  2.293 = 764

so your bar width would be 764mm.

The amount of data we have here means it's all a bit meaningless, but it is interesting that the woman across the board tend to use a wider bar relatively.

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Freakin’ Rainbows

Maybe it’s the time spent poring over mountain bike magazines during the ano-crazy 1990s, but I’m really taken by the oil slick (or, to date myself, ti-dye) anodizing that’s making its way from the BMX world into the less-trendy mountain, gravel, and road scenes.  Named for the range of hu…

LindaretsMarc Lindarets

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EWS Bike Check: Hope Team Edition Santa Cruz Nomad in 2020 | Downhill bike, All mountain bike, Bicycle hubs

Jan 14, 2020 - When it comes to in-house manufactures like Hope Technology, perhaps the best way to see what new products they are working on is to have a look at their team bikes. Rachael Walker is Hope’s main marketing guru, but when she is not in the office she also loves to race. A familiar face…

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2014 Santa Cruz Bronson “Lacon Oil Slick Edition”

View Vital MTB member GDUB18T’s mountain bike check ’2014 Santa Cruz Bronson “Lacon Oil Slick Edition”’.

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Pin on Bikes

Sep 1, 2014 - Known internally as the “eternal crank project”, Hope has been working on this one for some time. At this point, they have finally settled on a removable spider design with an internal spline system that promises to bring something new to the tab...

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Project 321 Front Hub in Purple (Installed) | Bike seat, Mountain bike accessories, Bike accessories

Dec 16, 2013 - Project 321 Front Hub in Purple (Installed)

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Kona are not really known for their pedals, so the Wah Wah 2 doesn't get talked about that often. We bought ours for around £50, although the RRP is a little higher. This makes them around half the price of other premium pedals. We have so far used them for around 7 months and about 1500 miles.

Design

The Konas are large. Really large. We measured the platform (not including the bevel and bearing bulge where your feet don't contact) at 110mm long and about 108mm wide. Our Burgtec Penthouse V4s are around 100mm x 98mm and the DMR Vaults about 105mm x 105mm. Vaults are known for their large platform and the Konas go even further. The Wah Wah 2s are available in both metal and plastic, with the metal being around £100. The composite plastic feels solid and well made, not cheap at all. The design is very open, which keeps weight down and means there's no where for mud to get stuck. One thing we noticed was the axle doesn't go all the way to the outer edge of the pedal, we thought maybe this might mean the pedal flexes, but we didn't notice any at all. The pedals spin on one inboard bearing, which is much larger than the one in the Vaults, hopefully aiding longevity.  A possible downside of this is that is creates a slight bulge next to the crank arm, we didn't notice it but maybe something to consider if you like to really clamp your feet up against the arm.  

The pins are fairly long, similar to the longer ones on the Vaults, but longer than the Burtecs. They are quite thin compared to the other pedals, but have proven to be strong and haven't bent or been damaged in any way yet.

Performance

The combination of the oversized platform and long pins means the Konas beat the Vaults for overall grip. Your feet really dig into the pins and stay locked in. The bigger platform means that you've got plenty of area if you have to dab and get back on. As they are plastic they are pretty light as well, if that bothers you. Unlike metal pedals the paint doesn't scratch off, so they still look in better condition than either the Burgtec or Vaults did after only a few weeks.

Servicing

We haven't had to service the pedals yet, the service kit can be bought for £20-£25, but as it's usually just the bearing that goes, we will probably just source that separately as it's much cheaper. The pins are removed from the rear (unlike the Burgtecs) so a bent pin may end up being trickier to remove.  

Issues

Apart from a few scuffs and scratches, the pedals still look and work great.

Overall

The Wah Wah 2s are now our top rated pedal we've used. The larger platform just makes sense, especially for those with bigger feet and the long grippy pins mean you never get that horrible "bar of soap" feel that some pedals have. The fact they are plastic and less than half price than most of the other common metal pedals means that they are one of the best products we've reviewed.

Recently Santa Cruz released the fifth iteration of there longer travel trail/enduro bike the Nomad. Rear travel stays the same at 170mm, head angle gets a bit slacker, reach and wheelbase increases as is the usual trend. Here we are just going to focus in on the suspension design numbers as part of our linkage design series.

Leverage Ratio

As we can see, the Nomad V5 has a pretty straight forward looking leverage ratio. Nice and progressive with a little increase in the last 10 or so millimetres of travel. Santa Cruz sell the new Nomad both with coil and air shock options, and unlike some manufactures who claim their frames work with both but then don't really, the leverage ration on the Nomad looks progressive enough that the coil option won't be bottoming out too easily. Air shocks will likely not need too many volume spacers, and with air, bottom out support should be very good indeed.

Anti-Rise

Around the sag point and in the mid stroke, anti-rise stays reasonable high but not extreme. Past around 130mm of travel, the amount of anti-rise drops off dramatically. Deeper into the travel this means the bikes rear end should remain active, but initially should help stop the bike pitching forward when braking. We see a similar shaped curve on the new 5010 kinematics, however the Nomad is much more pronounced.

Anti Squat

The anti-squat curve follows a similar path to the anti-rise one. Initially at sag and in the mid-stroke the value stays above 100%, giving a nice stable pedal platform and when pumping the bike, but once deeper into the travel the number drops off again.  

Conclusion

Compared to the V4 Nomad, the anti-squat and anti-rise curves follow a similar shape (as you'd expect from the similar pivot layout), but there are a little more extreme in total amounts. The anti squat starts a little higher but ends a little lower, so we'd expect the new model to pedal a little better, and overall feel a little firmer in it's characteristics. Probably the biggest change from the V4 (2017-2021) is that the old model became slightly less progressive at the end of travel, moving towards a linear curve from around 120-140mm , whereas the new model becomes more progressive at the very end of the travel.  This should help with those wanting to use a coil or those who had issues bottoming out on big hits on the previous model.

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Chris Smith is an incredible rider, and it's rare he drops the ball in his videos, but this little gem is a right treat of #mtbbullshit.

Ebikes aren't heavy: "it's a different kind of weight, anyway they weigh the same as normal bikes actually although actually they don't and you will need a new bike rack as they are heavy".

Bravo.

Everyone should have a mini tool with them when they are out riding, as it's easy to find something has come loose or you want to adjust something on the bike. We have been using this Topeak Mini 20 Pro tool for around 3 years, so here's a brief review of it.

Design

With tools that you either have to keep on your person, in your bag or on your bike there is always a balance between having enough tools on them that cover every common eventuality, but not being so big and heavy you end up not bothering carrying it. The Mini 20 Pro comes in a nice tidy neoprene bag and is slim, small and light at only 150g. This means its easy to strap onto a frame or keep in a short pocket and you don't notice it's there.

Features

For such a small tool, it really packs in the features:

Bottle opener

Chain breaker tool

#2 Phillips

Spoke wrenches

Allen keys : 2-L / 2.5 / 3  / 4 / 5 / 6 / 8 / 10 mm

Torx : T10 / T25

Tyre lever

These cover most things that you'd need to adjust on most parts of the bike, including stem/bars , brake levers, shock/fork setting and pedals/cranks. We've not really come across an occasion where the tool didn't have what we needed when out and about, with one exception.

The tyre level is REALLY small and not shaped quite as well as other levers we've used. For an emergency it might possibly do the job, but if we are going out on a big day in the alps we always carry a separate dedicated large lever with a tube.

The chain breaker works well, and whilst it does need a little more force to use than a bigger tool, does the job.

Durability

We've had this tool now for a long time, and it's done many many thousands of miles with us. It's been strapped to the bike and got soaking wet and covered in mud on more occasions than we can think of and aside from a few spots of surface rust the Topeak is working as well as the day we got it. With cheaper tools the allen keys can start to round off, but these have all remained true.

Overall

At around £30 (although you can find it cheaper), the Topeak Mini 20 Pro is pretty expensive for a mini tool. It's not hard to find tools of a similar size for under a tenner, and we've even bought one from Tesco for £3.99 before. Unlike the cheap ones though, the tools haven't rounded off or broken and Topeak is of a much higher standard than others we've used. Personally we'd rather buy something like this once and then not have to think about it again for years and years, the quality combined with the micro size and weight means  the Mini 20 Pro gets a big thumbs up from us.

After around 18 months use, our Five Ten Freerider Highs had got quite a few holes in them from where the pins had gouged out the rubber. This wasn't an issue in the summer, but as soon as the first rains of autumn came it meant wet feet almost instantly. We decided to get them resoled, so was it worth it?

We were first made aware that companies offered resoling of Stealth rubber in a Ben Cathro video from a few years back. He seemed to rate it, but the cost (around £50) can make it seem a little uneconomical when you can often get Five Tens in the sale for around the same price.

However, for some unknown reason Five Ten decided to stop making the Freerider in a high top version, so it was either throw them in the bin, or get them resoled. After our experiment in DIY repair we thought we'd look into it again and as the rest of the shoe was in good condition, we went for it.

We used www.cheshireshoe.co.uk but there are quite a few companies in the UK that offer the service. The process only took a few days and they did a nice tidy job.

The shoe now works just as good as before, with no leaks and after around 10 rides on them they've stayed on perfectly with no issues. You'd never know it wasn't a new shoe.

From an environmental point of view, repairing makes much more sense than disposing and buying new, but also with the cost of Five Tens creeping up it's starting to make more and more sense financially.

In addition, the companies can resole ANY shoe with Stealth rubber. This means you can bring your worn out Vans back to life and improve grip on the pedals. We will almost certainly be getting our Adidas Trail Cross Protect resoled once holes start appearing in the bottom of those.

The Impact High have been part of Five Tens line up for quite a while now, acting as the burly DH shoe designed primarily for gravity focused riding. As the Impact High is expected to be retired soon we thought we'd review it now whilst it's still available rather than the longer term reviews we prefer.

Design

The Impact Highs are... big. Featuring a chunky toe cap which is designed to help with impacts with rocks and other trail debris everything about them is padded and oversized. They are also very stiff throughout the length of the sole. The heel for some reason is very thick, which feels like it raises your heel up quite a bit. Even under the ball of the foot, the sole is also very thick compared to other riding shoes. This makes it stiff but does reduce pedal feel.  The sole uses Five Tens famous Stealth Dotty rubber.

Fit

If you are used to riding in skate shoes they will feel like you're wearing a pair of clompy walking boots. They are quite snug though, and we found we needed to really lossen the laces to get our feet in. There is quite a lot of room in the toe box however. The very thick heel is a strange choice, it would make sense to thin that down a bit to give the shoe a little more flex and feel. Overall the fit is slightly wider than a Freerider, but much wider than the Trail Cross Protect

Performance

The stiffness of the shoe actually make them feel like they pedal quite well, and give a really solid platform on the bike. However the thickness and overall size of the shoe does reduce pedal feel a lot compared to Freeriders. We found grip to be the same as Freeriders, but couldn't curl our feet around the pedal like you can with a well worn pair of riding shoes. The Impacts are wider than Freeriders, which puts more of the shoe in contact with the pedal and pins,which we liked. The ankle protection and overall build of the shoe does give confidence that in the event of a crash they are going to give you the best protection possible.  Another thing we noticed is that they are softened up quite a bit since new, it's likely that once the sole has worn down a little more and they've completely broken in they will feel a little more forgiving.

Durability

We've only ridden in the shoes for a few months, so can't really give a detailed response on how well they last, but the sole has only a few tiny marks and the uppers look as new.

Drying

This is one area where the Impact Highs really fall down. If they get properly soggy then it can take a long time on the heater for them to dry out completely. The thick extra material which helps so much with protection can make them feel very heavy if you blast through too many puddles.  

Overall

Scotby Cycles back in January posted a preview of the 2020 Five Ten range, which includes a updated Impact Pro MID. This looks like it might solve some of the issues of the Impact High, but with an RRP of £150 it's not cheap! Currently Impact Highs can be found online for ~£80, RRP £120 so the new model is quite a jump in cost.

So would we recommend the  Impact Highs? Overall yes. They work best with the biggest possible platform pedals with the sharpest pins to give the most grip possible. For uplifted rough trails they are probably the best flat pedal shoes on the market, but for a more playful feel the Freeriders are a better choice, and a little cheaper.  

Great to see some no punches pulled comments from a mainstream media company.

Most enjoyably:

"Rockshox stated they didn't necessarily want [the Zeb] to be much stiffer than the Lyrik in case it was detrimental to comfort, but they admitted that they hadn't actually tested prototypes that were stiffer than this production fork"

Well done to Seb for asking this question, but even better he then calls them out stating he's never felt a flexier fork has felt better, or a stiffer work like a 40 feels worse.

Also liked the little dig to the industry in:

"Due to the bike industrys unique approach to quality control"

When talking about how for some reason some 110mm hubs don't measure 110mm.

Nice on Seb and Bike Radar. Keep it up.

In the next installment of our linkage analysis we look at the previous Specialized Stumpjumper to the newly released 2020 version. Hopefully we'll have a full review of the new model soon, but for now lets dive into the numbers.

Leverage Ratio

2019

2021

The previous generation had a slight regression at the start of the travel to help get over any air shock stichion and keep the small bump supple before moving into a slight progression and then leveling out linear. The new model has a much more progressive linkage design which slightly levels out in the last 15mm or so. This means the new bike should be a little more supportive on bigger hits and work better with coil shocks.

Anti Rise

2019

2021

The anti rise graphs show a big change in the kinematics between the 2 years. Both bikes have fairly low anti rise numbers, meaning that the rear end should remain very active under braking, really keeping the rear wheel glued to the ground.

Anti Squat

2019

2021

Interestingly, in addition to increased activity in the rear under braking there is an increse in anti squat compared to the old bike. Around the sag point there is still well over 100% anti squat so the bike should be nice and supportive when sprinting.

Conclusions

2019

2021

Even though from the outside both bikes look very similar, the kinematics have changed quite a lot. The new bike is more progressive, so combined with the extra 10mm of travel it should allow for big hits to be dealt with without the need to run too high a spring rate or compression damping, a complaint some reviewers noted on the old bike. Pedaling should also be improved overall via the increased anti-squat.