mike-wallace profile

Thanks.  Yes, the Spectral especially is a bike that appeals to a huge range of riders.  I had a lot of different folks approach me and ask about it.

The Spectral and the Bronson are equivalent in so many ways though.  Of course Santa Cruz quality is top notch, AXS is nice and carbon wheels don’t need as much truing etc but if you were to race them back to back on an Enduro stage I think the results would be near identical.  So I guess what I am saying is that the Canyon is an amazing alternative.

To me the shorter rear ends are better for a huge percentage of our riding.   It’s a similar argument to the mullet itself.   They both make cornering easier and less demanding.   However when it comes to laying down $7k+ for a bike I will always buy the ‘fastest’ bike.   Meaning I want max high speed stability and rollover in the rough stuff.  So this means that personally I would buy a full 29er combined with a longer rear end. Unless you are talking DH bike then I would buy mullet to give myself more space with all that travel.   Scared myself too many times with the hard tire to the ass in the middle of a steep/techy/fast drop.

I really liked the previous version of this bike.  Lots of travel without being a bulldozer.  
Pretty bummed though to see it still comes with the Shapeshifter.

Omg. Omg.  Omg.  So beautiful.

Learning to jump on the shore trails is really difficult.  Just not enough repetition.  Whistler park bike on the other hand…  well it’s a magical place…

Not sure about that.  Hard to do well at the races without a really good dedicated DH bike.   Cant think of any Enduro bikes doing anything meaningful at a World Cup DH.

Same as Seb and a couple others.   I can’t get past the handsomeness.

Michael

That's an interesting one.  With the increased agility of the mullet rear end I did find that I was being more aggressive with the rear end and squaring off corners more for example.  It would follow from this that you would need a tough wheel and a heavier casing.  As I mentioned in the article I ending up running a full DH casing in the rear.  That tire combined with the super strong Reserve carbon rims meant the back end was very 'tough'.

My opinion is that traction is definitely better with the 29er (all else being equal).  My son races World Cups and one of the reasons those guys love the 29er DH  bike is the improved traction.

Michael

But at least the bottom part (appears to be no transition) is scary too...