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long travel wagon wheelers

April 20, 2019, 6:18 a.m.
Posts: 4
Joined: April 12, 2018

Anyone on here have a Transition Sentinel? If so how have you been liking it for PWN riding? I’m down here out of Portland and there isn’t many options to demo one.

April 20, 2019, 8:43 a.m.
Posts: 1115
Joined: Jan. 31, 2005

Posted by: tdmsurfguy

Anyone on here have a Transition Sentinel? If so how have you been liking it for PWN riding? I’m down here out of Portland and there isn’t many options to demo one.

Take a trip to Transition HQ and demo one.

April 20, 2019, 8:48 a.m.
Posts: 1115
Joined: Jan. 31, 2005

Posted by: T-mack

Posted by: earleb

I was never a big fan of Nicolai stuff till I started building my own bikes and geeking out of the finer details and machining.

https://en.nicolai-bicycles.com/frames/saturn-14/

Soo many sweet details in their frames. They also kill it with info in their tech sheets.

I feel like if more mtbers were machinists, bikes like the Pole Machine/Stamina and Nicolai would be way more popular.

People around here have been burned by boutique brands enough. Nicolai has decades of quality pedigree behind them. They're also super expensive. They're a niche bike for people that seek them out. The Machine/Stamina is wholly new and evolving by the day. It's a big ask to buy a $5k frame that's being revised every two months. It's exciting technology but for now I think a lot of interested riders are just sitting back to watch. The Evolink frames didn't do too well on the Shore so there's that.

April 21, 2019, 10:34 a.m.
Posts: 336
Joined: March 6, 2017

Posted by: craw

Posted by: T-mack

Posted by: earleb

I was never a big fan of Nicolai stuff till I started building my own bikes and geeking out of the finer details and machining.

https://en.nicolai-bicycles.com/frames/saturn-14/

Soo many sweet details in their frames. They also kill it with info in their tech sheets.

I feel like if more mtbers were machinists, bikes like the Pole Machine/Stamina and Nicolai would be way more popular.

People around here have been burned by boutique brands enough. Nicolai has decades of quality pedigree behind them. They're also super expensive. They're a niche bike for people that seek them out. The Machine/Stamina is wholly new and evolving by the day. It's a big ask to buy a $5k frame that's being revised every two months. It's exciting technology but for now I think a lot of interested riders are just sitting back to watch. The Evolink frames didn't do too well on the Shore so there's that.

Yeah I'm starting to grow more and more confident on mine but I still check it over after every ride for bends lol.

April 21, 2019, 9:39 p.m.
Posts: 1462
Joined: March 18, 2017

But but ocean fill brahs. 

I recall seeing a few Nicolai frames in BC during the dorp to fault tyranny era.

April 22, 2019, 7:51 a.m.
Posts: 2333
Joined: Sept. 10, 2012

Posted by: tungsten

Uh oh....

I just dusted off my GG Smash [metal frame] after riding my older MTB in the winter. I'm trying out a -1 deg headset this season which is similar to the front end geo of the new carbon Smash. Climbs great and descends like a champ. It's a nice all rounder with enough travel to tackle anything I have the courage to throw myself down without punishing me on big climbs and all day rides. We ordered up a carbon Smash for my GF so I'll get to see the new design. I have no plans to get rid of my metal bike or upgrade at this point. It just works too damn well and it's paid for!

For those who don't like the shock placement I have to disagree. Not on aesthetic grounds, but because I can get a waterbottle above the shock and then a decent sized frame bag below the shock so I can ride packless and still help fix other people's broken down rigs on the trail. My frame has a 2nd bottle mount under the DT so I can skip the pack on 99% of my rides which I love.

April 22, 2019, 9:34 a.m.
Posts: 2412
Joined: Sept. 5, 2012

Posted by: Endur-Bro

But but ocean fill brahs. 

I recall seeing a few Nicolai frames in BC during the dorp to fault tyranny era.

They have been around since the 90,s out here , most where rebranded as Mongoose . I remember seeing a couple Nic,s while racing DH back in the 90,s and early 2000,s. They where always next level with machine work.

April 23, 2019, 9:05 a.m.
Posts: 5078
Joined: Nov. 25, 2002

i had a nicolai back in the olden days. pretty neat - an aggressive short(er) travel trail shredder well before such a thing was a thing. 

i lusted after the nucleon tho. peak nicolai ridiculousness:

April 23, 2019, 11:44 a.m.
Posts: 3518
Joined: Dec. 17, 2003

Posted by: xy9ine

i had a nicolai back in the olden days. pretty neat - an aggressive short(er) travel trail shredder well before such a thing was a thing. 

Important to get that Ti railed saddle on there to keep the weight down.

April 23, 2019, 8:08 p.m.
Posts: 1462
Joined: March 18, 2017

Pairs well with Profile BMX cranks and a Monster T

April 24, 2019, 9:28 p.m.
Posts: 3845
Joined: May 23, 2006

meh...I'll never ride a 29'er. I'm too weak!

I barely got gears low enough to pull a grade w/a 27.5 wheel how the hell will I manage a 29" wheel?

April 24, 2019, 11:57 p.m.
Posts: 2677
Joined: April 2, 2005

Posted by: tungsten

meh...I'll never ride a 29'er. I'm too weak!

I barely got gears low enough to pull a grade w/a 27.5 wheel how the hell will I manage a 29" wheel?

that's because you invest all your energy in finding and posting strange stuff and getting your rage on

April 25, 2019, 10:18 a.m.
Posts: 3845
Joined: May 23, 2006

Man, it don't take much energy at all to find shit to make one rages on the inter-webs! lol...

Besides, I channels my inner rage into the the climb up the hill.

Sold out! It's only April ffs.........


 Last edited by: tungsten on April 25, 2019, 10:23 a.m., edited 2 times in total.
April 30, 2019, 8:30 a.m.
Posts: 35
Joined: Feb. 24, 2017

So I'm looking at joining this long travel 29r band wagon.  The bike I got 2 years ago was that weird Tantrum bike and it's been super fun, but it bottoms out like a mofo.

Anyway, I'm one of those people that's stuck between sizes.  Mediums are a touch too small and Larges are a touch too big, however modern geometry mediums seem to fit like a dream.  So I'm looking at something with a longish reach.  It needs to be boost so I can use my hubs, and I don't want to support any company that uses $$$ to develop e-bikes.  I don't really care if it's carbon one way or another.

I demoed the Evil Offering and it was pretty magical.  I was instantly comfortable on it.  I could sort of feel the big wheels, but it was super fun at speed and still managed to handle some of the tighter stuff.  I was most surprised by how active the anti-squat was and it climbed really nicely.   I thought I needed to sell a kidney to buy one, but the tax man was greedy through 2018 and he owes me a lot of money now (hurray?).

I also demoed the Ibis Ripmo and it was quite the opposite.  The numbers looked right, but it felt super upright and a little twitchy.  I've come to conclude that I actually know nothing about geometry and I should ask strangers on the internet about the subject.

Anything else I should be looking at?

April 30, 2019, 8:43 a.m.
Posts: 9330
Joined: Nov. 19, 2002

Check out the Guerrilla Gravity bikes, they are looking pretty sweet! If you want to stay away from companies who make e-bikes your gunna be stuck with smaller and more expensive boutique brands as most of the majors have jumped into those waters.

Interesting to hear about the Ripmo, that bike is very high on my list.

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