dbozman profile

No experience on the Spur, but it’s arguably the best-looking bike on the market. I have the V4 Tallboy. I wouldn’t want it to be my only bike here in Phoenix gnar. But I can’t tell you how impressed I am with it. Hell, I rode National at South Mountain on it today and it was rad.

Indeed. I bought a pair of those $15 Bolle safety glasses so many riders rave about. I have 20-20 vision and the distortion in those lenses was so bad it was like a bad shroom trip.

I recently took a chance on a new XL Fugitive from a great local shop in Phoenix. I knew about the low stack coming in. I had a sore back within 10 minutes of the first ride. 30mm of spacers and a somewhat ridiculous-looking 40mm rise bar has taken care of that.

I, too, have A LOT of creaking and cable rattle. The internal routing is nice, but it is LOUD. A bunch of cable ties and stuffing the down tube with bubble wrap hasn’t yet solved it.

I LOVE the Leatt pads. On my second pair. The first lasted roughly 18 months or so. Still usable, but the backs were starting to shred.

The tire damping characteristics of CC are really what it's about for me, particularly riding big chunk in Phoenix at speed. I wouldn't call the tire install "painless," but it's relatively straightforward with most tires. I've installed several different Maxxis and Bontrager tires fairly easily. This past weekend, I met my match in a Conti Trail King. I was down to the last 10 inches of bead on the second side. Multiple broken Pedro's levers, zip ties and velcro bindings later, I gave up.

The frame I mentioned above was an aluminum GG Smash. Misaligned rear triangle and the rear brake mount was close to 2mm out of square.

I've had a misaligned expensive aluminum suspension frame produced from a micro-manufacturer in the US. It happens. More importantly, Noel once again proves himself one of the smartest dudes in MTB. Great article.

I guess I am a fanboy, but my first internal question was -- at this price point -- why would anyone buy anything other than Hope. I haven't had stopping power issues on my Tech 3 E4 setup at 190 pounds of geared weight riding big Phoenix rocky gnar.

Great jumping Jesus, that VW is RAD. Wow. Definitely one of the coolest rigs I've seen.

No offense, I started to do the poll and midway through it became pretty clear that someone just wanted to sell me insurance.