Readers’ Rides #14

His vs. Hers – searching for the one-bike wonder

I’m a bit of an nsmb lurker.  I read all the articles each day at lunch from the comfort of my desk chair.  I browse the forums and have bought and sold stuff on the Buy N’ Sell.  I only very occasionally respond to something on the Boards.  Needless to say, I was surprised when I received a pm from Cam asking if I wanted to do a write-up for a “Readers’ Rides” article based on some comments and photo’s from Mike Smiley’s article on his Enduro.  I promptly said, “sure, why not?”  But I also thought, let’s do something different and compare two bikes built for pretty much the same purpose – my bike, and my wife’s bike.

To better understand the choices underlying the bikes discussed herein, it’s important you know a bit of background.  My wife and I are your standard middle age mtb hacks at 36 years of oldness.  We ride fairly frequently and mostly off-road.  I’m just under 6’ and 169 pounds, and she’s 5’3” and 105ish.

 A couple’s search for one bike to rule them all.

Daily I commute up and down Burnaby Mountain throughout the year, exclusively using  the trail network. To me roads are for those who are bored.  For this I do have a lighter 28 pound 5.5 and 5.5 bike and a 24 pound hardtail for winter abuse, neither of which are to be the topic of discussion here.  My wife occasionally commutes to her place of employment on the road, but is often seen toting our 4 and 6 year old to daycare.

  The blue Intense likes Kill Me Thrill Me in Whistler

Outside of commuting I ride about 3 days a week for pleasure and my lovely wife rides about 4. She works at the base of Burke Mountain and enjoys post work quickies (no, not that kind of quicky).  Our rides rarely involve any kind of shuttle-based device popularized by the North American propensity for utter laziness.  80% of all pleasure riding is done on Burke Mountain, Eagle Mountain, or Fromme, with some dabbling into Cypress and places beyond the Lower Mainland – Merritt, Nelson, Revelstoke, etc.  So, any bike we choose needs to be semi-efficient for climbing, light enough, have a front derailleur/shifter, and be able to kick it up on the DH.  However, all choices are prefaced by the fact that our selection is largely driven by the downhill portion of the ride. The weight for the uphill is justified by a simple opportunity to increase the fitness quotient of the ride.

On with the bikes.
Our bikes are both completing a second season of full use.  They have been refitted and modified to become the bikes we want/need them to be. This article is timely, as we feel we have proven reliable parts that balance weight, durability, and performance, while meeting our personal and fickle random desires.

  More killing and thrilling – this time with Dale on his Morewood Izimu DH

My Bike
I ride a Morewood Izimu DH.  I bought the bike off a DH’er in the US who only rode it a couple times and then broke some bones and needed the money for the lovely US health care system.  He shipped it, duty was nada, and no taxes.  So I thought I deserved to take a chance on the single pivot design.  Don’t laugh you single pivot naysayer’s!  I meet many of you along the trails and you poke and you prod and ride away wondering who would buy such a high forward single pivot monstrosity.  Then I realize that exactly 82.74% of you have never ridden a single pivot bike.  Buffoons!  I’ve ridden and owned 4-bar designs, VPP designs, even a URT, and I like the Morewood SPI very much thank you.  The Morewood SPI design is an ‘optimised single pivot’ that they apparently have proven out (in partnership with Orange Bicycles) over several years.  Morewood sponsors many a very quick and successful racer just to prove the SPI concept is indeed fast (although they now have a modified single pivot – the Makalu).  For me the choice was this – fast, very responsive out of corners and berms, easy to ‘pop’ off lips as it does not absorb everything miraculously, and dead simple to maintain. This is important when you ride year-round, when you have 2 kids, and you have other bikes to maintain.  The addition of a floating rear brake, and I personally (and I stress the ‘personally’ part to all the hater’s out there) feel you have most the advantages of a multi-pivot bike in a much simpler set-up with more pop and acceleration.  Sure, you get a bit of roughness on square edged hits and some chainline stretch on big hits, but they are barely noticeable when you are running at speed.

 The single pivot monstrosity.

Details of the frame are pretty straightforward:
–    203mm rear travel
–    65 degree head (my setting) and 71 degree seat angle
–    Large frame (rider’s over  5’9”) with DHX 4 w/ Ti-Spring is 9.95lbs
–    600mm top tube
–    450mm chainstays
–    Shock shuttle on forward shock mountain allows up to 1 degree variation in head angle

Major frame loads are transferred through the massive rectangular downtube. The downtube supports the swingarm and virtually encloses the bottom bracket shell. Gussets and a spine-like shock mount ensure that the headtube can handle any landing that the human body can dish out. The triangulated swingarm has provisions for thru-axle or quick-release axles (150mm width) and also bosses for a floating rear brake assembly. Welding and construction are as good as it gets. The frame material is 6082 aluminum, which is arguably the best weldable alloy for toughness and strength.

  And the monstrosity in action in the Garby zone:

Her Bike
The wife rides a beautiful 2008 Intense 6.6 VPP bike.  This is now modified (slacker and lower) and rebranded as the Intense SS VPP bike.  We purchased the frame and built the bike up from scratch in order to try to build the ultimate freeride and bigger hit all mountain bike for a short and lightweight woman (she is 5’3” and just north of 100 pounds).  We were seeking all the performance she would get out of a coil/coil bike, but with the tuneability and ride options available with air in order to maximize available travel – always a challenge with light riders on coil-based setups.

The Intense was selected solely on colour.  OK, not really… it was selected based on an apparent balance of low weight, close to 7” travel (our perceived ideal), plush and fluid travel for a light rider (VPP design), a ‘real’ size small, and freeride/big mountain-oriented angles and geometry.  We had heard rumours that the head angle ‘rode slacker’ than the stated 70 degrees when run with a longer travel single crown fork – we crossed our fingers on this one.  We had to order this bike, as it’s hard to find high-end size small frames at a fair price locally… sigh.  We also built the bike up pretty much from scratch.  Fortunately I have many years in bike shops, and we got it pretty much right on first crack.  We’re also lucky that my wife allows the bike shop in the garage:

The big deal here was to get a smaller rider, who rides with strength and agility, rather than aggressiveness and stupidity, off big overkill bikes that were hard to loft, tough to climb, and too much work for a smaller person to move about in technical terrain.  The change from her small Trek Session 77 with Manitou Breakout was astounding.  One, she was immediately more nimble in tight terrain with the slightly steeper angles.  Her climbing was less of a struggle.  And her ability to throw the bike into the air stepped up significantly just because of the mass factor.  Look at her ratio of rider weight to bike weight and I think it’s sort of an obvious story.  On top of that, even with super light springs and custom James of Suspensionwerx tuning on her front and rear coil suspension, she probably never really got all that travel she was lugging around.  The air shocks were an immediate improvement – stock… yes, out of the box.  She was happy like a fat kid finding a Smartie at the bottom of his empty lunch bag.

 The VPP beauty

Again, details of the frame are pretty straightforward and met the goals outlined above:

–    170mm rear travel
–    68 degree head (my setting) and 73 degree seat angle
–    Small frame (rider’s under  5’4”) with DHX 5 Air is 7.10lbs
–    554mm top tube
–    432mm chainstays
–    1.5 headtube

In theory, the Intense 6.6 was to be an “all mountain, go anywhere, ride anything machine”. A freeride bike without the weight penalty, but not a hucker jumper. The perfect balance of XC Performance with DH Aggression.  The VPP suspension is designed to balance different forces to eliminate unwanted compression without limiting bump absorption. The downward force on your pedals pushes most full suspension bikes down resulting in unwanted suspension compression. VPP bikes use a patented link configuration and axle path to apply some of the pulling force from the chain to counteract the motion caused by pedaling. Because the forces are balanced, VPP bikes remain able to absorb bumps while pedaling, unlike other designs that effectively lock out the rear suspension by applying too much chain pulling force.

  And the Intense getting some work on Double Dog at Silver Star

Now let’s go through the builds and compare the bikes and their highs and lows.  Note that while we are two different riders with different sets of demands, with entirely different body profiles, we ride the same terrain, ride up most everything we ride down, and ride these machines for nearly 100% of our recreational riding. As such, these two bikes compete with each other every single ride.  Which one wins most often?

Let’s go back to front in this little dissection
Not much to say here.  We’re both running X0 rear derailleurs… hers long cage and mine mid cage, as I tend to be a little more cautious about cross chaining and the chain growth on the Morewood SPI design is not as significant as other single pivot bikes.  They look good, they’re light, and shift well.

 The Intense in Whistler on Original Sin

In addition, we both run Azonic Outlaw wheelsets.  Sure, they might not be a DT Swiss setup or a Hugi hub with 3,453 pawls for instant engagement, but my life isn’t riding on a 1/13th of second penalty for getting out of the start box slower.  These wheels are well-priced with a really competitive weight for burly wheels (Front: 1118g and Rear: 1328g) and despite some comments, they seem to just go on and on.  I finally blew out the rim on an under-thought-out drop on Eagle Mountain, and it was more cost effective to just re-order a new set, and I deserved to buy some gold rims. What 36 year old man with 2 kids doesn’t need gold rims???  We like ‘em… leave us alone.

As you can see, I choose to run my cranks forward and she chooses to run hers backwards.  Not really.  Both cranks are obvious here.  Things we do the same because they work well for where we ride:  22/34 chainrings, 170mm arms, and Black Spire Stingers. Hers is BB mount and mine was ISCG mount until I busted the welds on the mount, so now it’s BB mount for me too.  We both like our front derailleurs – XT is the solid choice.

She runs the older Saint Cranks and there was just no need to replace them when we sold her old bike, along with a sexy blue E13 bash.  They work well and look simple and the BB is pretty good – and yes, you can rebuild those bearings despite the big ‘Do Not Disassemble’ warning.  As for pedals… she loves the 590g sealed bearing Holzfeller pedals. Nice thin pins and slight convexity for nice little feet and a low profile to feel the pedal below you.  The bearings have not yet been a problem.

  More from the Silver Star Bike Park – Double Dog again

I run good ‘ol Holzfeller cranks with the stock bash.  It’s cracked but stays on.  The Howitzer BB is excellent in my experience.  I just got the new bling Azonic 420 pedals.  2 rides in and they seem to be fitting the bill.  I like a fairly flat (not concave) pedal and DU-backed sealed bearings so they don’t spin when I go flying uncontrollably off some A-line jump.  An extruded and CNC’d body keeps them remarkably light at 430g with pins (sadle not 420), with lots of colours that people my age should not be running – including gold.

Here’s where the big differences beyond just the frames start to come into play.  She is running a Fox DHX 5 air at 140psi.  She is in love with this shock.  She has run only coil shocks in the past, with a DHX 5 coil on her old Trek Session 77 and a Manitou Swinger 4-way on her old Craftworks FRM125 before that.  She consistently maxes travel without harsh bottom out with the adjustable platform.  The shock is smooth and nicely graduated throughout its travel.  In 2 years, no maintenance.

  The DHX air seems to be doing its job.

I’m running a DHX 4, which I bought off E-bay to have a back-up after blowing out my Revox twice in the first season of use.  I threw it into action on the second explosion of the Revox, and it’s never come off – despite James’ tuning of the Revox.  It’s essentially a DHX 5 without the Bottom Out knob, which I’ve never found necessary if you’re running the right spring rate for your weight.  To top this little piece of Foxology, is a Renton Ti-Spring.  Love it.

  The DHX 4 showing it’s E-bay love.

The lady is running, loving, adoring her ’08 Lyrik.  Few things in life make her happier.  She’s running 5wt oil to give a little more hippity hoppity in the damping world, but other than that it’s stock.  She’s an avid user of the Flood Gate to lock it out on the long boring climbs of Fromme and Burke, and doesn’t really care that the front end stays high on the climbs.

Who needs to steer on Mountain Highway?  Sure, she blows seals, but it’s a fork after all.  3 sets of seals in 2 years of riding.  $35/seal set and one hour for a full overhaul in the garage and she’s good to go. I can live with that as her live-in mechanic – the only real reason she chose me.

  The climbing looks good on the Intense

  But perhaps a little raked out on the Morewood?  It still gets me there, and I like to literally wander my way up the mountain

I’m running my ’07 Fox 40 RC2 with the stock ti-spring and a Go-Ride direct mount stem.  I have a nice bling white Manitou Travis double with ti-springs and a James tune, hanging in the garage.  It looks sweet, but it’s not my Fox 40.  I regularly care for this fork, changing the oil, cleaning the sliders and stanchions, and wetting the seals and foam rings.  It takes about 20 minutes to do the works about 3 times per year.  I’ve only blown seals twice in 2 years and blew the damper rod (bent it) on a big impact at Sun Peaks.  James put it back together for under $100.  I belong to it, it belongs to me.

Brakes
We’re both on Juicy 7s. Why not?  They work well, they’re dead-simple to bleed with the Avid bleed kit, and the in/out dial actually works.  Upgraded with Straitline Levers (both of us) and you’re pretty much in braking nirvana.  With rotors I run 8” and 8” cuz’ that’s all I can run on this setup.  She’s got 7” on the front for power and 6” on the back for weight and control.  It’s great to be just over 100 pounds – either that or she’s not afraid of speed.

    The Juicys providing the critical control required by the lady in charge

   And the same Juicys allowing me control when riding high

Bars and Stems
Race Face is the good reliable choice for bars.  This is my second Diabolus bar – it may not be the newest greatest incarnation of bar, but the rise, shape, and bend works for me at stock 28” length and 385g.  Her bar is the Race Face Deus cut to 285.5” and is under 230g.  She’s light enough to trust this bar for DH applications.  She’s attached this to an overkill Holzfeller 50mm stem, but it’s short and it’s black and that’s it.  As noted before, I’ve got the Go-Ride integrated Fox 40 stem and it tends to hold my bar well and put me in the right position.

Saddles
So many years together that our bottoms must be the same – we both like the THE shape and surface treatment.  The saddles are crazy durable and strong and pretty light.  I run chromo rails, and she runs ti rails, because she means that much to me.  Both seats are mounted on time proven posts that are low in weight and high in quality – hers is the Deus XC and mine is the classic Thomson Elite.
Now to my weird things.

Morewood makes a floating brake arm for the Izimu, but it is pretty FRO… given it’s low mount under the swingarm and the carbon construction.  I did not trust this.  Instead, I contacted Brake Therapy Components to see if they made one for the Izimu (this is the company that designed the Kona Magic Link systems).  Not only did they respond, but you deal directly with the owner and machinist and get a custom built rod that works specifically for your bike.  It showed up in the mail 2 weeks after ordering and I had it installed, including the nifty hub axle conversion for my Azonic Outlaws in about 30 minutes.  It works brilliantly.  I can land drops with full rear end travel while applying the brakes.  I can bank rutted old corners on A-Line with full suspension travel.  I can panic down Goats Gully with nary a loss of control.  It’s a thing of beauty that may well make most bikes work better – but I don’t know that for sure.

 A ‘Problem Solvers’ clamp-on cable stop enabled the Morewoo Izimu to accept a front derailleur.

A front derailleur on an Izimu, you ask?  Indeed.  What good is an all mountain bike without a front derailleur?  By nature, single pivot bikes climb very well, as they squat down and firm up under load, so they are ideal for big bike climbing.  But alas, there was no front derailleur mount, and the chainline measured up all right.  So what to do?  Well for $20, and 5 minutes of patience, I installed a ‘Problem Solvers’ clamp-on cable stop and voila, front derailleur for big bike.  Indeed I went to mtb heaven when this little contraption showed up on my doorstep.  Anyone with a regular seat tube and descent chainline can do this mod – and in my humble opinion, should.  It’s time to ride a bike the way it was meant to be ridden – in both directions!  Get on with it and take the skinny jeans off.

On to the ride starting with the Intense 6.6.

The Intense is likely the better overall choice and is truly close to the one-ride wonder that people dream about.  I could imagine taking this bike pretty much anywhere and hitting pretty much anything on it.  Now that Intense has modified this frame with a slightly slacker head angle and beefed up the head tube, I think the Intense SS might just be that dream bike for someone.  The addition of grease ports in the new VPP bikes will make all the difference – this is my only beef.  I rebuild her pivots about twice a year, and have to replace the bearings at least once a year.  Sigh… but it only takes an hour now.  The size small frame, built up with a blend of light and heavy bits to ensure durability is sitting at 31.8 pounds.  Changing out the 2.5 Nevegal’s (her tire du jour) with something Kevlar beaded and 2.35, and going to a more all mountain wheelset could easily bring the bike under 30 pounds.  With two pairs of wheels, you’d be done.  I might just do this for myself the next time money comes my way. 


  Dressed for a cross country ride, but riding like she stole it


  Dale Mikkelson (aka WHITEHONKY) in the air at Silver Star.

The ride of the Morewood Izimu DH
I like my bike.  Actually, I love my bike.  At first I thought perhaps it was still just too much bike to lug up Burke or slog to the upper elevations of Eagle Mountain, but every time I pointed the think downhill, I forgot all about it.  Compared to my previous RM7 and RMX, it is an all mountain ride.  The climb is downright nimble and responsive.  I’ve learned to live with wandering head syndrome and I’m ok with that.  Most of our climbing is up relatively basic forest service and skid roads to get to big descents. Any bike with a front derailleur and double rings and sensible build can do it. The SPI makes it even tolerable and sometimes interestingly fun, especially climbing tech singletrack.  The bike’s 41 pounds feels more like 38 and since installing the Brake Therapy floating arm, I have no regrets for going single pivot.  In 2 years, I have pulled apart the pivot one time – and it was just fine.  I checked it last night again; nothing, no play, no slop, and smooth as silk bearings.  I like that.  The bike rides low and fast and it drops ok too.  The spring in the single pivot versus the mush in multi-pivot bikes has made me a better jumper too. I still suck, but I suck better.  I’m happy for it.  Right now, I don’t want a new bike. This one will serve up several more rounds for me.  After all, I only need to climb as fast as the slowest person in our group.  And no, no one should ever ever every have to shuttle Burnaby Mountain.

 Dale launching in the Garbo zone at Whistler
 
The bottom line is that ‘size matters’.  Whether you’re big or little, heavy or light, it is important to not fall to the glitz and marketing of bigger is better.  As a matter of fact the trend is going the other way.  I’m sure I will too, one day in the future when funds allow.  But most importantly, find a shop that knows how to size you and set up your gear appropriately – not just for your riding style, but for your size.  They often don’t take this into consideration, unless they have tons of experience, something that’s tough to come by.

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The big bike climbers (I used to be one myself) are a dying breed.  What do you think of Dale’s approach to pivots, pounds and pedalling?  Pipe up here…