Last month I was hanging out at Missoula Bicycle Works before a mountain bike ride, and mentioned how I was thinking that I wanted to go to wider handlebars and a shorter stem. I had cool Easton carbon bars and a Thompson stem, but they were 635 and 110mm, respectively, so an older style long stem, narrow bar setup. Chad, a mechanic, offered to let me try out the bar and stem combo he had in the back. 740mm carbon riser bars from Whisky parts co plus a 90mm Easton stem.
I immediately went out and set a PR down a steep rocky trail. In the dark. The wider platform seems to add some stability and better control going downhill, and makes it easier to get around tight corners. I'm not sure why it has taken so long for this trend to spread across all MTB disciplines, because the downhill oriented guys have been doing it for a long time. As far as I can tell I'm not losing anything while climbing and there are no downsides, so soon thereafter I went out and bought myself those same bars, plus snazzy blue easton grips to match the frame:
The trails around town are all in great shape right now so I've been getting out on the MTB a little more often. The new bar setup has changed how the bike rides and I'm even going to put on a slightly chunkier front tire to give myself a little more grip. Going fast downhill on that bike has not been super confidence inspiring and I think these new changes will make me more comfortable and faster across the board.
Changing the subject a little, since last fall, my rear brake has been acting funny, but on the last few rides it got worse. I brought it in to get bled the other day, and the guys at the shop expressed some concern over a chip I've had in the frame for awhile:
It doesn't look too bad, but when you push on it the whole area is pretty soft because the outer layer and epoxy have been entirely chipped away down to the carbon sheet. They suggested I either replace the frame ($800 through kona), or have it repaired, and recommended a local guy, Brian Williams, who has a little workshop and does this in his spare time. Definitely better than paying $800, or stripping the frame down and sending it out somewhere. I just dropped if off and should have it back by mon-tues. The procedure is pretty straight forward- fill that part of the chainstay with expanding foam and give it a couple of wraps of new carbon.
In the meantime, I took out a rental they had in the shop for the Thursday night ride:
That right there is a Precept DL, which goes for 1899 and is an entry level full suspension bike from Kona. It has all the popular numbers - 27.5" wheels, 130/140mm of travel, 68 degree headtube, 425mm chainstays, plus a long top tube with a short stem. I actually felt a little too big for it though. I'm not even 6'2, took an XL frame, and that's how high I needed the seat to actually pedal.
So what you get is a cheaper version of the Process 134. It's a little heavier, and doesn't come with a dropper post or quite as nice of parts, but otherwise they are pretty similar. The frame and suspension linkage are a little different but the geo numbers and travel aren't far off. The word behind this kind of bike is "enduro," which is where you ride up a hill, not in much of a hurry, and then are more concerned about speed on the way down. The bike definitely fits that bill.
Climbing up spring and curry I was cursing the extra weight, slow rolling tires, and suspension. It didn't help that I should have put a bit more air in the rear shock. There's no lockout or platform setting on the shock, so all you could do was sit down and pedal. When you did, pedal bob was minimal, which it had better be on a modern bike. The triple chainring (those are still a thing?) provides enough gear to ride up just about anything, but it's slow. Riding uphill with a group of mostly 29er hardtails had me struggling to hang onto the back, breathing hard, and sweating profusely.
Once we got to the top, things improved slightly.
Point it down some steep, rough, terrain, and it goes fast and doesn't notice. The extra travel and suspension design soaks up all sorts of things I normally slow down for or avoid. The wide bars, short stem, and slack headtube make it very stable at speed. The big chunky tires I hated on the way up provided a whole lot more grip that I was used to, even with slightly high pressures (my ikons skip and slide around with even a few extra psi). The other thing I needed to do was take some air out of the fork. It felt overly firm compared to the rear and I never got through more than about 100 of 140mm of travel. Still, coming from the Snowbowl overlook to the top of fenceline was pretty fun. I was going a good 4-5mph faster in most places (but had to slow down/stop for other riders), and felt like I wasn't even near the limit, while flying down that section on my hardtail can be a little scary.
Once we hit the new switchbacks on the fenceline trail, however, the trail wasn't steep enough to carry much speed. I had the seat lowered, so to pedal I had to stand up and all that energy was soaked up by the suspension. That meant a lot of effort but not a lot of speed, and my friend on the hardtail was sitting behind me waiting after I had left him in the dust up to that point. Ewok trail went the same way, where it smooth enough and not really steep so a bike you can pedal goes faster.
Conclusion: not as fast uphill as an XC race bike (duh). Faster and more fun downhill than an XC race bike (duh). For most of that ride, not the right bike. There were a few moments where the benefits shone through, however, and I can't help but think of them, no matter how much I didn't like riding it everywhere else. I need to try it again, but make a few setup changes and go down something a little more challenging like spring from the overlook, dropout, the corridor side of wallman, or take it out to blue mountain.
If you're looking for FS on a budget and not concerned about uphill speed, it's definitely the way to go. The Process 134 has nearly the same parts plus a dropper post, but costs $900 more. The 134dl is twice as much. I'd definitely consider one for flying over rocks or taking a few trips up a chairlift. As cool as the Process line is, I don't see myself picking one over the hardtail very often, so I wouldn't want to spend that much money for a bike to sit in the garage most of the time.
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