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10/06/2008
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Transition Dirtbag
Tested by Richard Belson
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If you’ve been a fan of NSMB for a while, and a fan of rider-owned bike
companies, you may recall a couple of years back when I simply gushed embarrassingly
over the Preston FR in a review
I wrote.
At the time Transition was little more than a blip on the freeride map. Owners
Kevin Menard and Kyle Young were operating their 2-man show from the depths
of Seattle, keepin’ it real and soulful while taking on the Freeride giants
located just 2 hours North up the I-5.
It’s a funny thing, the freeride market – one day, the world loves
you because you’re working hard making good bikes and, as soon as you
reach a certain level of success, the fickle masses start ragging on you on
the bulletin boards about selling out.
Somehow, after a 50% yearly sales growth since their inception, the Transition
Bike Company (TBC) has managed to maintain the soul of a rider-owned company,
in spite of increasing their staff by 50% last month, which is actually just
adding one guy, Cameron Burns, as their US Dealer Sales Manager.
Two years after the Preston wowed me I was curious to see if the boys at Transition
had just maintained the status quo, or if they had managed to keep ahead of
the curve, helping re-define what I expect out of a bike built for Shore abuse
and all-round big-bike mayhem.
The non-drive side bb pivot. Photo ~ Richard Belson.
The Dirtbag frame
To the naked eye, the 2006 DirtBag frame looks just like the '05 –
besides the love/hate matte blue paint, that is. Personally, I’m in
the love category. I appreciate the irony of the cute baby-blue paint on
a honking’ big bike coated in mud – it just makes the writer
in me smile. It also comes in Matte Black and Matte Green if you're irony-impaired.
The frame itself is constructed out of 7000 series aluminum of gargantuan
proportions, including an 8mm thick head tube, custom CNC’d BB shell
with integrated ISCG mounts and ultra-stiff 16mm rockers that make sure
trail shock is all absorbed by the Manitou Swinger 4-Way shock, not the
frame materials.
The link-arms themselves are perhaps the biggest structural difference between
the ’05 and ’06 models. Last year’s were produced by Danger
Boy for TBC and had two travel-adjustment points, allowing both 6 and 7
inches of squish. For ’06, the boys have decided to return to their
own link and limit the travel to just one setting.
“We found everyone was running the 7-inch setting anyway (on the ’05),
so we settled on 170mm (6.75-inches) to optimize the suspension and make
it easier to spec spring weights for people,” explained Kevin Menard.
“The new ’06 can also run any reservoir shock because we lowered
the shock mount position, which also gives the curve of the suspension a
more progressive feel.”
By slacking the head angle a touch (to 66.75 degrees) and dropping the
bb height to 14.7 inches, Menard said he and Young feel that the 170mm travel
the he rear end is brought right into its own.
The Spec
The DirtBag is designed around a 7 to 8-inch travel fork, and is fully
covered under warranty for use with dual-crown forks. The bike I rode
was equipped with a Marzocchi 66RC2X. A couple of years ago, I would
have scoffed at a 7-inch sngle crown fork, but having spent all last
season riding this fork on my personal steed, I had no doubts about
its strength or ability to be abused beyond reason and still come out
of it begging for more. I was looking forward to trying the new and
improved ‘06 version for myself.
The rest of the bike is built just as you would expect a big bike to
be - Lots of great FSA parts, including V-Drive Xtreme cranks, ISIS
BB and Pig Pro DH headset. The drivetrain is a SRAM X7 trigger-actuated
system, including front and rear derailleurs pushing a tough KMC chain
across the 11-34 PG-950 SRAM cassette, while Hayes HFX-9 disc brakes
scrubbed speed down on the front 8 and rear 6-inch rotors. There is,
however, ample clearance for an 8-inch rotor.
FUNN was well represented on the test bike as well, with their 36 X
26 rims, sealed bearing front and rear hubs and Serial Rippa stem. The
stem was solid and stiff and never showed any signs of weakness, as
did the wheels. Wrapped around the burly, BMX-style box-rims were Maxxis
High Roller DH 2.5 tires and Welterweight tubes to boot. There is plenty
of room for 2.8’s out back too, if you want.
Finishing off the spec is an FSA FR 330 31.8mm bandlebar, ODI Lock-On
Rogue grips, an Amoeba 400mm seatpost, TBC Park n’Ride saddle
and bolt-on seatpost collar.
The Ride
Getting aboard the DirtBag for the first time, I was unusually comfortable.
The fit of the medium (17”) frame the guys sent me was very reminiscent
of my old Preston, but a little taller. This was to be expected, as
the bike has almost twice the travel. The 22.4” effective top
tube length put the bars just where I like them for sketchy-steep roll-ins
and high-commitment drops, while still allowing for one of the truest-tracking
front ends I have ever white-knuckled on.
The 66RC2X for ‘06 maintains all of the '05 fork’s travel,
but has dropped the axle-to-crown height by 30mm, allowing frame designers
to build slightly lower front ends and balance out the sub-eight-inch
rear travel frames. The re-design seemed to work, as the confident,
agile front end of the bike owes as much to Marzocchi’s single-crown
flagship as much as it does to Transition’s finesse work on the
head tube angle. The fork compliments the Dirtbag ideally. Nice spec
guys!
The rear suspension, while exhibiting visual similarities to certain
other 4-bar link bikes on the market, is all about the burly stiffness
offered by the rectangular stay tubing and artful CNC’d dropouts
and pivot junctions - features I’m very glad TBC maintained from
their early days.
By combining the 20mm front FUNN hub with the stout bolt-on 10mm rear
axle FUNN hub, neither end of the bike’s suspension exhibits an
iota of flex. I tried. My friends tried…people of all shapes and
sizes tried…NO flex to be had here. Just good, plush, up-and-down
travel that gets you through all the rough stuff and simply goes where
you point it.
The adjustment ranges on the 66 fork and Manitou Swinger 4-Way rear
shock were wide enough to suit most weights and riding styles, and,
in theory, the rear shock was tunable to allow for efficient climbing.
Once I got them tuned to the perfect point for me, they felt plush and
predictable but every time the trail pointed upwards, for some reason,
bad things started to happen.
While the DirtBag is primarily a freeride rig – designed for
riding all sorts of trails, stunts and high-speed bombing, I personally
think a freeride bike should still be able to climb. I’m a little
old fashion that way. With the DirtBag, the slow-climbing traits weren't
due to unwanted suspension motion…that was taken care of by the
stable-platform rear shock. Nor was it the frame layout…it was
too well balanced for that. So, why the dreadful climbing then?
After much searching and sleuthing, I removed the FUNN wheels and instantly
found the culprit. While stout and completely reliable, the FUNN wheels,
combined with the full DH spec Maxxis rubber had more rotating mass
than a Mack truck. At over 15.75 pounsd of wheel weight, representing
over 1/3 of the bike's weight, it’s no wonder. After switching
to a lighter, equally-reliable wheelset off my own personal rig, the
DirtBag truly came alive.
Thankfully, I was assured that Transition has set the final spec of
the DirtBag to the 36-spoke TBC Revolution wheelset ,which saves over
a pound of rotating weight per wheel, which will translate to a perceived
6 pounds when on the bike. More weight can also be saved by changing
to standard tubes for general freeriding, and you can put in the DH
tubes for your trips to Whistler.
My other major criticism was the SRAM drivetrain. The front derailleur
shifted reliably enough and the chain and cassette were great, but for
some reason, I was never quite able to get the X.7 rear derailleur and
trigger shifters to work right. I have ridden x.9 and x.0 for over 2
years and love them, but the X.7 felt a little numb and didn’t
really shift like a bike of this caliber should. I think, if I were
a DirtBag customer, I would more than happily shell out a couple dozen
extra dollars for X.9 stuff. Or, unless SRAM bucks up next year, a Shimano
XT/LX drivetrain would work much better for close to the same money,
and would be quite welcome in my books.
FUNN/FSA/SRAM and Hayes control this Dirtbag.
Photo ~ Richard Belson. Click
to enlarge.
After contacting Transition with my weight-weenie gripes, and finding
out the final spec for the bike, I found out that the cranks have been
upgraded in the final production to an FSA model with a new external-
bearing BB and poly-carbonate bashguard, the new TBC wheelset, TBC Temple
stem, the final production weight of the complete DirtBag comes out
to a truthful 43 pounds. My test bike was 45.6 pounds. The frame and
rear shock weigh in at 11.75 pounds.
Bottom Line
The 2006 Transition DirtBag is tough…but somehow doesn’t
ride like it is. I think the combination of the new shock’s tunabilty,
finely crafted geometry and that certain Transition something combine
to create a bike that really shines in the technical balance lines,
is stable in the air and just plain rips when you put the hammer down.
(Something that sets Transition apart is the ability to choose your
shock and front fork - Ed.)
In spite of its miss-spec on the wheels, which the guys have recognized
and have changed for production and a slightly numb, tempermental drivetrain,
this could be a bike that you could easily head out and rip up Shore-style
trails with technical aptitude and precision, but still rip up A-Line
or a DH race course without missing a beat.
In spite of its tough exterior and gargantuan capabilities, the DirtBag
rides surprisingly like a bike, not a life vest with two wheels.
If you have anything to say about this review or you'd like to see
what other riders had to say click
here.
| Transition Dirtbag |
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US$ |
CDN$ |
| Frame Only |
w/ Swinger 4-Way- |
$999 |
$1299 |
| Frame Only |
W/ Fox DHX 5.0 Coil |
Add $105 |
Add $126 |
| Frame Only |
W/Fox DHX Air |
Add $135 |
Add $162 |
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| Complete |
w/ Marz 66RC2X |
$2,799 |
$3,479 |
| Complete |
W/888RC2X |
$3,085 |
$3,819 |
| Complete |
W/ Manitou Triple 180/203 |
$2,700 |
$3,349 |
| Complete |
W/ Fox 36 Vanilla RC |
$2,753 |
$3,315 |
More info transitionbikes.com,
(206) 353-0007, info@transitionbikes.com
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