All Things Bikes and Tacos! (...and every vehicle imaginable)

I'm on the fence between a scout and smuggler. I have a patrol and love the shit out of it, but kinda want something to bike pack and it feels unreasonable to do it on such a squish bike. Bike parks and long days are great on my patrol so I may bite the bullet and just pedal more.

 

I’m sure anything new from them will be good. The current smug was/is solid as is. I don’t know if more travel would be my ideal.
The flip side could mean shops that’s still have ‘old’ smuggler inventory will trim some pricing

 

Checkout EVO.com saw a bunch of transitions on sale a couple of days ago.

 

finally got my GG smash. Amazing price for a bike made in the US. Way more fun than my previous bike, a Santa Cruz Hightower lt.

just waiting on my new dhx2 coil!

 

Did you know that 1UpUSA offered reverse side plates for their racks so you can drop the rack height a bit? I learned it here (after owning one for 8 years) from another member's photo. I ordered the plates and finally had time to swap out this weekend. I did this so I can leave the rack on and not have it obscure the license plate, but TBH it seems a bit low. It is sitting an inch or so below the height of the tailpipe and I tend to back in to spaces at work and park with my tail end over the curb. I'm assuming this means its time for a lift, but also considering swapping back to the original plates.

FYI for those that are interested - here's what it looks like on a 2020 TRD Sport with stock suspension and no lift

 

Damn that’s messed up. Decent deal still

 

Figured this crowd might be interested

There are only 6 spots left in the group buy for my SideRide bike mounts!

Here is a link to the thread if you want to get a set while you can -

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/sideride-bike-mounts-from-squareone-creations.660977/

 

They've also used a lot of proprietary components over the years that made upgrading and servicing their bikes a royal PITA sometimes. That turned a lot of people off for a very long time. Maybe still does? I dunno.

They make some damn nice bikes, though. Always have IMO.

My very first "real" mountain bike was actually a 1992 Specialized Stumpjumper FutureShock, so I do have to give them credit for getting me into the sport.

Edit: Just got nostalgic and looked it up. It was exactly like this one -- bar ends, and all:

 

New bike day!!!

 

The Scout went from 130 rear to 140 and kept the front the same (150). I highly doubt it really changed the character of the bike. So if the Smugger follows suit that would be 120 to 130. Still very much in the same category.

As @levie125 said keep an eye on EVO. That's where I got my Scout. They had the new 2018s (new model Scout) knocked down 15% mid season in 2018 and the previous versions at that time marked down significantly more.

 

I will take this off your hands sir.

 

Helll yeah, congratulations on the new KM!!

 

Thanks man, I'm stoked. Few more parts to come but it's ready to ride at least.

 

Sick bike man! I miss my steel HT. Didn't ride it enough there at the end and sold it, but it was my main steed for years!

 

I have the rigid fork still and my ladyfriend wants to get into bike packing so I figured this would be a great hard tail and bike packing bike if I throw that rigid fork on.

 

Sounds like a solid plan. I had like a 2011 or something Ragley Blue Pig with an older 140mm Pike. I was tempted to throw a rigid fork on it to commute with it, but it was a 26" and was time to move on.

 

Good point.

No frames I’d want on evo. Nice place to keep an eye on though.

 

Sick bike! How much travel does the fork have?

 

I do feel kind of bad for not running this rigid at all but I’m sure it’s rigid days will come. It’ll be a forever bike that’ll see many iterations throughout its lifetime.
I was planning on throwing some 29ers in there but it looks pretty damn fun as is with these 650b+s so I may hold out on the new wheel set

140 mm

 

You may not like it, but this is what peak MTB performance looks like! Skills with Phil X Randy Savage