Interbike: Turner DHR

A Lap Down Bootleg Canyon on the 2011 Turner DHR

After a day of missing out on the bikes I really wanted to ride at the Dirt Demo, and paying a small sacrifice in blood to one of the Interbike gods, I was granted a wish. In the morning of day 2, I walked over to the back corner of the outdoor expo where Turner had their booth setup. At first glance, I didn’t see any DHR’s – most of the racks were sparsely populated with xc bikes, or completely empty. After a second look around I noticed the top of a dual crown fork on one of the racks at the back. Bingo. A DHR sitting on its own ready to rip. The Turner guys were just as surprised to see it as I was. With some quick adjustments to the shock, I was pedaling a 2011 DHR on my way back to meet with Cam and Seb.

   Negotiating the dirt demo morning masses as we follow the rainbow with hopes of finding some gems. Photo ~ David Ferguson

   This slightly worn looking 2011 Turner DHR shows off one of two frame colours. In this case, it’s the raw aluminum look. The other option is a black anodized treatment. Photo ~ David Ferguson

 

Turner has received a lot of expectations for this frame, generated from the riding public. When two veteran names like David Turner and Dave Weagle work together on another project, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there will be huge expectations. The general consensus from the lucky few that have been able to demo the new DHR is nearly unanimous: the bike is amazing.

   A nice shiny clean 2011 DHR. Photo ~ David Ferguson

Development time was approximately two years (with a much longer evolution of the DHR in general) with a couple iterations in that time, according to David Turner. During that time period, they had a lot of riders test and provide feedback on the design. Initially the entire design of the bike is created by David, except for the rear suspension. Included in that initial design are some prerequisites for the desired behavior of the suspension as well as creating some flexibility for the user such as using air or coil sprung shocks. Dave Weagle works to the specifications laid out by Turner, but also imposes his own requirements on Turner, like the anti-squat characteristics of his suspension.

   Another close-up of the linkage. The black caps over top of the pivot bearings are removable to expose a grease port that allows easy application of new grease into the bearing. Photo ~ David Ferguson

Part of the redesign of the DHR included many small tweaks to the back-end to lighten it up, most notably of which is a first for a Tuner bike: a tapered chain stay. Despite some weight savings in the back-end, Turner designed the frame so most of the mass of the bike would be moved back and as low as possible, with the goal of creating a lighter feeling bike. Apparently the overall weight of the bike is only marginally lower than the weight of the previous edition. The mid section of the bike is very stiff, around the suspension linkages, bb and crank.

   A bright and dirty closeup of the linkage. Not shown in this picture are the 1.5” headtube and the 12mm x 150mm thru-axle at the back. The DHR has double-thick ISCG tabs, an idea from Dave Weagle and his experience with ISCG mounts from his e.13 days. Photo ~ David Ferguson

The DHR has a lay-z-boy head angle of 63.3 degrees (which you could change with an angled headset from Cane Creek) and a low bb height of 13.4 inches. How does this translate while riding? On steep sections, the DHR is confident and intuitive, following with ease the front wheel wherever you might be pointing it. On slighter grades, the bike felt like it wanted to get away from me, as though the front end was trying to pull away and go faster. I had to compensate by leaning down and into the front end more so than I normally would (especially since I’m not an aggressive downhill rider). Without putting some weight into the front end, and with the slack head angle, the front tire would lose its grip easily on any of the loose rock sitting on top of the Bootleg Canyon red rock. This isn’t necessarily an issue with the bike, but rather with the rider.

   I was about to make a left-hand 90 degree turn down and into this super sweet rock bowl. Although it doesn’t quite look like a bowl from this angle. Regardless, it is a tight turn with a bit of a g-out at the bottom. I had only been on the DHR for about 2 minutes by this point, but was already feeling pretty comfy on it. Photo ~ Seb Kemp

The suspension does a good job of filtering away deep pedal strokes. According to David Turner, the DW Link engineered for the DHR allows for the combination of the slack head angle, bb height, and chain stay (17.4 inches). It also allows riders to pedal in situations that would otherwise result in the pedal smashing into the ground (when the downward pedal stroke creates a large bob in the suspension).

   The guys at the Turner booth asked that I only do one lap please, which was fine because that’s all we ever do with the bikes at the Dirt Demo. One lap is enough to get a quick taste of the flavour of the bike, but isn’t quite enough to get into full detail of the riding characteristics. Photo ~ Seb Kemp

One thing I can confidently conclude from my short spin on the DHR is that good designs take time. The bike is solid and feels like it wants to go fast. With 8.4” of travel, the rear suspension has that bottomless feeling with good ramp up, and a supple introduction to the stroke. It pedals well when riding with aggression. A long design time also results in great attention to detail, something you’ll notice on the DHR once you start to take a closer look. Is this going to be the must-have rig for 2011? I would say very likely. At $3199 (black anodized) or $3150 (raw) with an RC4, it’s a reasonable price point for a frame of this calibre.

Comments or questions? Follow this link to the discussion thread on the board.

 

   This is why we rent a car in Vegas. The lineup for the shuttle back to Vegas from the dirt demo in Boulder City was long and lacked a cooler full of icy cold beverages. Photo ~ David Ferguson