Johnny_P wrote: ↑Sat Jan 08, 2022 7:21 pm
What the hell? That suuuucks. Man, two orbeas cracked on this forum?
Trek makes good stuff and stands by it.
I’d go full suspension. You’ll have to call around to see what people have in stock. Fortunately you’re close to a lot of good bike shops near Pisgah and such. Hopefully you can find something in stock.
I’ve been eyeballing an Ibis Ripley AF, personally.
I went around to some local shops yesterday and test rode everything they had available. One was formerly an Orbea
and they pretty much backed up what Fled said - Orbea will stand by the warranty on an aluminum frame, but it will take a loong time. I put in a claim with Jenson where I bought it already, so it's a waiting game. In the meantime, I had a great end of year in sales, I'm just going to buy something I think. If I get the frame from Orbea, I will move all the parts over, sell my dropped to my friend, and sell the new frame bike with my old components. It's upgraded to 1X and stuff, I imagine in this market I can actually get most of the original purchase price out of the thing. If they don't replace it, I'll probably just give my buddy the components along with the dropper and at least he'll have a less shitty bike (he rides a 2012 Trek Mamba). I could at least sell the wheels/tires and maybe the front fork additionally. Hang the busted frame up in my future garage for the lolz.
Now, onto the bikes I rode! All of the shops were pretty awesome, super cool about 'taking it out for a test drive', pretty helpful. My buddy Maxx went with me, we rode around town on our vintage boat anchors to the shops.
I started at Charlotte Cycles, a small place in the city that helped me out with some obscure parts for the Raleigh.
The only thing in stock was a
Giant Stance size L (about $1600 + tax). This thing was one of my first times on a FS bike. I didn't even realize an FS could be had in this price range. While it certainly seems like a decent bike, I don't think this one is for me. The suspension felt super bouncy and inefficient, I think in this price range I'd rather have a bit higher spec hard tail.
Next, we headed to Uptown Cycles, another city place and where I got my recent bike fit on the Ribble (good people). There was a park nearby here which was nice, some steep embankments, stairs, etc. to mess around on. They had two bikes in stock to try:
Specialized Rockhopper Expert around $1400 + tax - I hated this bike, it felt like my Orbea but just shittier. It was a neat color and known brand, outside of that, it just felt sluggish, uninspiring, shitty shifting (it had SRAM SX)...
it sounds dece on paper but just felt like riding a $750 mountain bike.
Cannondale Habit 5, size L ($200 + tax) -
https://www.cannondale.com/en-us/bikes/ ... it/habit-5
I liked this thing, it felt like the suspension was way more dialed in compared to the Giant. It looks sweet, rode great, shifted well, super modern feeling geo compared to what I'm used to. It felt like a bike out to have a good time. I could definitely see owning and enjoying this bike.
Finally, we headed to Bike Gallery, another cool shop I've been to quite a bit over the years, it's close to my neighborhood and I used to live right next door.
Here I rode three bikes:
Niner Air 2-Star hard tail in L ($2K + tax) - This was a nice bike, clearly the SRAM SX was better setup as it shifted well. Modern geo, looks/feels good, the salesbro pointed out that he thought it looked small on me, so that led him to pulling out:
Scott Scale XL ($2K + tax) - this was the only carbon bike I rode. I rally loved this bike BUT I don't think it's a great fit for the trails around here. 100 mm travel and super light, it feels like a bike to take on rides that are juuust too technical for a gravel bike. Trails around here are pretty rocky and rooted. This thing is cool, but I think it's too XC. That said, the fit definitely felt right to me compared to the smaller Niner. Makes me
where to go, I've always ridden a large but maybe always had a bike too small for me. I'm 6'1-2" all torso, about 180 pounds.
Finally, he busted out the
Scott Spark 960 in XL, which they have for $2600 + tax. This is one I'm contemplating pulling the trigger on. It seems to have the best build for the money with Shimano Deore and XT, 12 speed, and Shimano brakes. It also came with a dropper (most of these bikes didn't). This bike has the twin lockout feature which is unique to Scott (I'd never seen it). You can partially/fully lock the front/rear suspension right from the bars. It seems really useful for my riding, as I do ride streets to local trails and hit a variety of trails, it seems like a nice combo of XC/Trail bike for my needs. It's not the most aggressive (130 front/120 rear) and the geometry is more or less unchanged since 2017 or so. The new Spark just came out (all new for 2022), but this one could be a
The locking system does add two additional cables, a bit more to maintain and look at, curious if overtime it would be awesome or more of a gimmick.
All in all, I think the Cannondale and Scott Spark are the two I would consider buying. I wasn't necessarily seeking out FS but after doing some quick climbs on them and stuff, it seems like efficiency has come a long way and they will make local trails rooty descents more fun. Cannondale's site has me solidly into an XL, but the L felt OK. With Scott I'm kind of right on the line but more into the XL as well. It seems like if I don't grab one of the local ones, I'd have to wait a while for these bikes, but there are other stores I've yet to check out.
The Spark is awesome bang for buck with the components it has and the last 2021 around. Pros is that it's an awesome
, con it's not their latest/greatest, but the same spec on the new new is +$800.