Norcal Spotted and BS Thread

You mean the SUPER HARBOWL!!

 

Hey guys, few pages back I think there was discussion about bikes. I wanna pickup a mountain bike but I dont know where to begin. My uncle rides a diamondback but hes useless for help.

 

That would be nice. Two World Championship teams in one year.

Oh, I got Har-har Bowl

 

I have been a fan of specialized bikes for a long time. If you are looking for a full suspension there are a lot of good deals on craigslist for Specialized FSR bikes, they are a great platform and come pretty well equipped. Santa Cruz bikes are great as well and you could pick up a reasonably priced hardtail made by either company. Look for Shimano XT components, they are pretty good for the price. One step below is Shimano Deore, XTR components can get very pricey. Stay away from Rock Shox equipped bikes if you can.

 

tootle over to the MTB thread. That'll get you some great help.

The Cannondale is one of those things you love or hate. One of my friends has owned several and been very happy with the Headshock. He even had a Lefty (or whatever you call it).

 

Norco is a great option, they utilize FSR from Specialized but for less coin. My Uncle used to work for Specialized, now works for scott. But the FSR is best all around platform.

And as for the niners, they are in ToyotaMode!!!
http://youtu.be/MneIsD4v81o

 

got.no.voice

 

Exactly how I was after the second quarter.

Rock shox are that bad? Wow lol I think my uncle ran those, but upgraded to foxes. I'm doing alot of research, that's all I do but at least it isn't research like the time before computers( I wouldn't know about that).

 

Maybe not as popular as Fox is these days but certainly nothing wrong with owning a bike with one.

 

If you go dual battery because you're adding a winch and other electronic stuff, do you upgrade your alternator as well?

 

They definitely still work fine...they are just not built as well as other brands.

 

Could you point me to some data that backs that up?

 

Thats just what I was told by my buddy who works at Fox because they compare the inner workings of different brands....just a biased opinion...I have only had lower end rock shox on my bikes.

 

I would believe that and I'm almost certain Rock Shox does the same thing with regard to competing products.

As far as build quality, I don't think (of the top manufacturers), there are build quality issues. Performance differences? Yes; I believe that. And different shocks do benefit from tuning once you understand what the pros and cons and your needs of the shock.

 

I too am a buyer of specialized bikes. owned 3 of them over the last 10 years.(all of them were mountain bikes, but i assume the raod bikes are equally as good) Solids bikes never treated me bad.

+1 for ToyotaMode

 

Let me know if you guys come this way. When i ride i'm usually at northstar, downievill, salmon falls, or indian valley...
Most places i ride requires shuttling as i'm mostly into the downhill stuff so we always have a couple rigs. Just picked up this Norco for christmas and gave my cross country Kona to my girlfriend.


My last dh bike was a Karpiel Disco with the rock shox boxxer fork and that fork performed flawlessly so don't knock rock shox if your only buying the cheap stuff, paying for what you get credo isn't absent in the mtb world. They make stuff for walmart and some for competing so pick your poision.

 

Hard to go wrong with a Karpy, knew a few of the guys who used to work for Jan.

As for MTBs, if you are not as familiar with the intricacies of MTB components compared to your tacoma, I would suggest sticking with the big name brands:

Specialized
Giant
Scott
Santa Cruz
Cannondale


These larger companies will all offer a similar product for each classification of MTB, as such they will be competing with eachother to offer a cheaper, lighter, faster version of a similar bike. Pick the bike that fits you best physically, stylistically (XC, enduro, freeride etc), and with the parts you have a particular affinity for.

Try to buy bikes that have components from the shimano deore family (deore, deore slx, deore xt, deore xtr) or from Sram (x7, x9, x0).

Fox vs rockshox? This is a really heated discussion in some circles and is made complicated some new guys like Xfusion. In general, it's hard to fault either Fox or Rockshox when you are looking at bikes $1500 and up. Fox has always been a measuring stick for performance and reliability. As of late Rockshox has made considerable inroads on durability (arguably greater than Fox), and performance has gotten to the point where you generally prefer the feel of one to the other. The only tricky part is rockshox does make cheaper offerings than Fox, so it's possible to get a subpar fork from rockshox, but not from Fox.

 

Yeah the Karpiel was bulletproof, it was a pig and a dinosaur so i got rid of it but am now regretting it. Its still one of my favorite frames.

My buddy has two Karpiels a rocky mountain and a pretty sweet hard tail schwin, i tried to get one of his karpy's for christmas in lieu of theis norco shore but he wont share. :-(

I would consider Kona a big name in the mtn bike world that you can add to your list.
I love the DW link rear susp and am kinda wishing i got a bike with such now.

 

Check out the Racelink and SR8: http://www.brooklynmachineworks.com/

May get you close to that nuke proof pillow of goodness the karpy provided.


Never got around to riding a karpy at northstar, though that didn't stop me from sliding down Karpiel on my Nomad. Buddy hooked me up with his Ventana El Cuervo for a run or two, that was sweet.


The DW is certainly an efficient system, and I wouldn't stop anyone from getting a bike equipped with such (especially if it was a Turner), but I'm a pretty VPP guy, always liked the Santa Cruz ride linkage, little more forgiving to for the aggressive rider (in my book).

 

I think it's important to note that "sub par" represents a comparison between what many of us are used to and the lower end of bikes. For what those bikes and shocks are meant for, they're perfect. But if you wanna take one down even a moderate trail, chances are you're going to hate it no matter who you are