2011 Turner DHR Reviewed by Tim Coleman

I think riding the bike 'as supplied' is relevant for a bike that will be bought and ridden as is. This is a $3k+ frame people will most likely build up from scratch with their parts of choice. I was relieved that he tossed the 40, put on something familiar and got on with reviewing the frame. I know the 40 can work great, and this one probably needed some service, but it's not really relevant to the review.

How about this….aren't you just a little curious as to how the bike would perform with the CCDB? I know I am.

:nerd: oh for sure, but i don't fault tim for keeping me in suspense

Honestly i think throwing a Roco on there would just have left you open to the kind of Marzo fanboism accusations that you got for running the 888 not the 40.

Umm I think Tim is running a CCBD on his bike…..just sayin.

The wife is considering getting a Turner and it would be easy to swap out the shock at time of purchase….for a fee obviously. Although I think a bike should be tested as is, seeing how Tim had access to a free CCDB, it sure would have been nice to hear his thoughts on that………this is due to the fact that i respect Tims opinion.

Also, I find it hard to believe that Tim wouldn't have been curious how the CCDB would have performed on there….as I know he has been impressed with his CCDB….hard to believe I know, but it's true.

sidenote, little disappointed Tim, that your inner curiostity didn't get the best of you. I thought you were the type that would be willing to step outside the bubble to find the truth. Your old Norco came stock with 68/73mm cranks yet that didn't stop you from running 83mm…..I miss the old Tim.lol

I just got off the phone with JP from On The Edge - the distributor of Turner Bikes in Canada.

They are shipping us a new rear shock and a fork to redo this test. As well as a needle bearing kit. The bike was a demo from Crankworx last summer and they are concerned that the shock may have had the wrong tune or it may have been faulty in some way.

Tim - are you up for round 2?

I'm finding this whole conversation interesting. If Tim had said the bike was awesome, then this thread would be 10 posts long. He criticised the bike, and the conversation is into the 60s and going strong.
Another thing to consider is that a review is an opinion, and there is no right or wrong way to review it. Turner and DW would be stupid to just ignore a review like this though.

I just got off the phone with JP from On The Edge - the distributor of Turner Bikes in Canada.

They are shipping us a new rear shock and a fork to redo this test. As well as a needle bearing kit. The bike was a demo from Crankworx last summer and they are concerned that the shock may have had the wrong tune or it may have been faulty in some way.

Tim - are you up for round 2?

had a feeling this was the likely outcome! I trust Tim's assessment, but also know how many peoples experiences of the bike are nearly polar opposite….great discussion everyone, good job keep it civil too!

1. your riding style may not suit others(you admit you like it more plush than others), it would have been better if there were multiple riders with input. But given the time limit, it's not solely your fault. I ride my bike with almost all compression on, so who knows. There are people in this thread that shared the same outlook of the harsheness, but it seems that they consist mostly of people who were on demo bikes. One person who actually owned it for a long time seems to differ in opinion.

Couple of things to consider here:
1. Every reviewer has biases. As long as they are stated, then readers know whether to accept or reject the review based on how their own biases compare to the reviewer's.
2. It seems that a reasonable person wouldn't buy a bike that felt like poo during a demo ride (although apparently at least one did). That explains to my satisfaction why the people who thought the bike felt harsh didn't have any long term experience on it.

3. Harshness may be a problem, but what were some real factual timed result?
Racecars are harsh to ride, they're very uncomfortable, but obviously they perform. How did the turner perform?
Perhaps next time, since you own time laps(sp?), or some of your friends do.

This makes sense to me. I can't speak for the reviewer, but suspect we would have seen some lap times if he'd had the bike longer.

I liked the review. The DHR wasn't a bike I was in the market for before, though, so I have no emotional investment. Just an interested spectator.

Edit: me type slow. Looks like there might be an opportunity to see a longer-term test. Cool!

I just got off the phone with JP from On The Edge - the distributor of Turner Bikes in Canada.

They are shipping us a new rear shock and a fork to redo this test. As well as a needle bearing kit. The bike was a demo from Crankworx last summer and they are concerned that the shock may have had the wrong tune or it may have been faulty in some way.

Tim - are you up for round 2?

Just to shock and fork??? lame…

get a new complete bike for a longer term review!

Hey Tim, If you do a second review could you try throwing your CCBD on there just for me and Karaleen….I know the rest of the world wouldn't consider possibly changing the shock on their bike, but we would….lol. You could PM the results so as to not offend anyone. Of course beers and free shuttles could be offered.

Oh and maybe get a bike that doesn't have a boat anchor wheeelset.

Pretty sure you can order the DHR with whatever shock you want

Tim mentioned he had a Trek Session 88. I currently ride that with RC4. I also demoed for a day a Turner DHR with RC4 a couple of months ago. Although the stock spring on DHR was a little soft for me (350lb), I thought it was definitely more supple than the Session. But since I am a slow old fart, I didn't get the bike to the extremes that Tim obviously pushed it to.

Tim, if you do another round of testing, can you compare/contrast with the Trek Session too? Thanks for the review.

Pretty sure you can order the DHR with whatever shock you want

Not according to the Turner website, at least not as I read it yesterday. Perhaps if you can they should make it more clear.

Woah today's comments got interesting! I ran the Double Barrel and the RC4 from the Turner back to back in a separate test bike. I thought both shocks were excellent. I run the Double Barrel's compression near backed out all the way, similarly to the RC4. Performance over high speed chatter was pretty even between the two shocks on the separate test bike.

I'd be interested in retrying the DHR with a new shock and fork per Cam and On the Edge's suggestions. I can do some back to back testing with my race bike and hopefully get in some runs on the Shore as well as Whistler. If I were to retest the DHR I'd do a couple runs with the Double Barrel for you Bryan.

my sources show rc4 only, but show me a shop that wouldn't swap stuff….for a fee of course.oh and last time i checked new but installed shocks still had some type of worth.