No, you are right, it has some really weight-weenie parts. And a more robust, down-country even, bike will always be heavier. My personal riding is pretty mellow most of the time, so we could get away with a bike like that. But I understand it’s not for everyone.
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Isnt the Swork epic not possible to build with a wired dropped?
Super interesting, all the xc race bikes are around 23-25 lbs. Seems like the racers are very tuned into where a bit of extra weight is well worth it, with many running inserts.
Seems to me like 25 lbs is a great target weight for a an xc race bike that still is super capable and robust. Us mere mortals are also mostly running reasonable tires, rather than the ultralight disposable tires those WC racers are on, which makes 25 lbs more realistic.
This might be a bit of coping on my part, as my blur TR is at 27 lbs…
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Same deal with the yeti. The light version of the Yeti is actually completely wireless, no routing for shifting either.
I’m personally a fan of skipping all cable runs (except rear brake) because I like the axs dropper and wouldn’t consider running mechanical shifting at this point. But for folks wanting to run a dropper and get to the lowest weight, I can see where that’s a turn off. On my epic 8, it came with a cable-operated dropper that I swapped out for AXS. The weight was actually a wash by the time I included cabling (but the cable dropper had more travel and it’s not a super light model, so I’m not saying the axs is a light option). I wish my bike didn’t have the extra weight in the frame to support shifting and dropper cables. I’m sure it’s not much weight, but it’s enough that some high end frames are skipping the cabling runs. Just added cost and weight and very few high end XC bikes are being shipped with mechanical shifting anymore.
We really need to start seeing lightweight wireless droppers.
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I really want to see the rumored BikeYoke wireless dropper come to fruition. I love the Divine I have on my bike, and I’m hoping they wouldn’t have a porky wireless one (none of their cable-actuated droppers are particularly heavy).
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That just put the scalpel at the top of my list of previously asked about bikes.
Wow just shy of 23 lbs with a dropper no less. Impressive for sure.
TREK still proving that the SuperCaliber platform is a winning one.
Even on crazy technical tracks
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Hi crew. What would be the cheapest Sram RED eTap AXS 12spd compatible postmount brake caliper? Something like Level?
Per Sram’s chart, any of the Level calipers are compatible, but with mixed results…
They seem to recommend the TLM or Ultimates for best performance.
Source:
https://www.sram.com/globalassets/document-hierarchy/compatibility-map/mtb-and-road-hydraulic-disc-brake-lever-and-caliper-compatibility.pdf
And while you’re at it… hard to beat this price for new hoses and TLM calipers…
https://planetcyclery.com/search/?q=sram+level+tlm
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Already out of stock, but yes a crazy good price. The ultimate are discounted heavily as well!
Same for me. I race my Epic (Evo 7) in the High position - as I find it better on the compact twisty woodland courses i race - & Firm mode with the rear compression set to “2” and it feels very much like trail/climb mode on the Spark out back but will go deeper into its travel on larger drops - feels more composed with some spare. I’ve never felt the need to go to Open mode on an xc course yet, but on my first race I moved it to open on the last lap to feel the difference and it was instantly more comfortable and “trail”. One thing, I can lean on the fork more on the Spark in comparable firm modes when standing on climbs
Seeing as it’s so quick to do, if I was on a long social or technical trail ride I’d go low position and probably leave it in Open. So for me the Epic is more Race/Trail with less compromise than the Spark RC, notwithstanding both bikes are very capable. My only regret is that I wish I had the remote.
Now, I’m having a lot of race challenges right now - problems holding vo2max and threshold power and fast to exhaustion which seem to coincide with the Epic purchase. Hopefully even at 11.4kg with dropper and with the differing geometry part of this is not the bike I hope - based on the fact it’s used my many WC MTB races surely it’s a biological issue!
I’m looking at a Spur coming from a Trail hardtail (Giant Fathom 29). What are the things that you have liked and don’t like with the bike?
I have the Epic EVO 7, I call it the 7.5.
I switched to the RockShox suspension with the Twistloc, but also went with the Sid SL 110,
I’ve never messed with the flip chip, so it’s still in low.
The middle pedal mode is legit. It’s not bad in open either, but pedal mode…you can tell the difference.
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That’s interesting, effective changing the HA and SA by reduce thing fork, similar impact to the flip chip…
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Yea, that’s why I just left it in the low setting.
Not the person you asked, but I also have a Spur. If you’re looking for an out-and-out 120mm XC race FS, there are likely better options out there that have been mentioned in this thread (I personally haven’t ridden them), but it’s still a reasonably light option that pedals well and descends very well. I race mine, but it’s also my only bike, so I do trail riding on it too. I do think that for some racing applications, it would benefit from suspension lockout (and if Flight Attendant ever comes out for it, I’d jump on it personally), but generally speaking, I’m really happy with mine.
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What do you think of the twistloc system? It’s new for me (coming from thumb activated lockout with scott) and I’m on the fence whether I like it or not. It’s a bit easier to activate in some situations, but I’m having issues with accidentally bumping out of full lock since my hand is moving around a bit. Mainly an issue climbing out of saddle, but I’ve also been training a good bit on the road and pretty frequently popping out of full lock.
I also had to pull the shock out and adjust the cable pull to get full lockout in the rear, pretty precise adjustment needed to get all 3 modes working right. I’m used to having barrel adjusters on the lockouts for that and thinking about adding them, but the cable and housing size isn’t standard shift cable size, a good bit smaller and I’m not finding adjusters for that size. Did you use standard shift cables for the lockouts or the smaller size?