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 The
adventure expo at Kyalami this past long weekend would
have certainly just passed by me without even so much
as a second thought. You see, I am not one for
“shows”. I have not been to a Pretoria show, or
Rand Easter show since I was a kid. I find them boring
and not at all that they promise to be. But this expo
was different. They had bikes there. Stacks of bikes!
And they were going to let me ride as many of them as
I wanted to around a 150m track.
Well
done to Fritz Pienaar Cycles who put the whole thing
together and also well done to Merida, GT, Trek,
Specialized, Ellsworth and Whyte; the manufacturers
who contributed the test bikes. I saw stacks of people
testing bikes and I do believe that this is the way of
the future for bike shops and manufacturers. I have no
doubt that the weekend has been beneficial to
everyone.
 The
Bikes
I
rode 6 bikes, did not get any of them set up
specifically for me and rode them all in my takkies as
I thought this would make it fair on all of them. I
only rode full sussers to get a feel for the rear
suspension. The track was 150m and a lot harder than
you might expect. The guys from Logwood were involved
in setting up the track and there were 2 wooden
bridges - one with a gradual climb and then a fork
where a steep drop-off could be taken or a more
gradual chicken run. Then the other bridge was just a
very steep climb with a gradual drop at the other end.
The little course was geared towards testing
suspension machines with bumps and berms.
The
reviews are just a quick general impression as the
test ride was a quick one. Even though I thought this
concept was awesome, I would still like to take a bike
I was thinking of buying for a longer ride.
Whyte
46
This
is a great bike and it is extremely plush! It has 6
inches of travel and you can feel it. I really enjoyed
riding this bike. I am not sure that it would be my
first choice for marathons, but it is fun to ride. The
Maverick fork really loved the drop-off and soaked up
the steep transition. Even tough I know that this bike
is not heavy; it felt large and laborious to me.
Having said this, the Whyte provided one of the
easiest climbs up the steep bridge. This is the bike I
most wanted to take to logwood for a day of technical
trails.
GT
Downhill with G-Box
I
took this for one lap. It has a Fox 40 on the front
and I’ve always wondered what a bike like this would
feel like, and with the big drop, I had a chance. Let
me just say, it was like nothing I have experienced.
When I hit the transition of the drop, it was almost
like everything went to slow motion. The fork just
keeps on soaking up the hit. It feels like it’s
going down forever. When it starts to rebound you
think it’s going to throw you off, but the fork is
so controlled that it doesn’t.
Needles
to say, I couldn’t climb this bike up the steep
bridge, and even pushing it was a great effort. The
gearbox works like a dream and the shifting is
instantaneous. Is this the way of the future?
 Trek
Fuel EX 7
This
is the bike that surprised me the most on the day as I
was not expecting the rear to be as compliant as it
was. I have read that Trek has done a lot of work on
this design and you can feel it. The EX range is the
longer travel version, with 4 inches of travel whereas
the normal Fuels have 3.5 inches. The bike was very
plush and as you all know I love the Reba that this
bike is specced with. The rear Rock Shox is unknown to
me and it had a very fast rebound, which I couldn’t
see where to adjust, so the ride was a little bouncy.
After riding the Whyte first I was expecting to feel
that the Trek was a bit short on travel, but I never
did! Another thing that I like about the Trek is that
it was the only test bike
that’s made in a proper big size. I got
to test a 21 inch, which would be perfect for me.
I
would really love to test this bike again, on a long
ride. Also I hear there is a carbon version, which is
not available here yet.
 Specialized
Stumpjumper Comp
I
have ridden a Specialized Epic before and to be
honest, I didn’t like it because the brain was too
thoughtful for my liking. Luckily the Stumpy I got to
ride didn’t have the brain - just a Fox Triad rear
shock. I have not done my research on this shock, so I
didn’t know how to operate it. It has a RP3 type
lever, but with a different function. I’ll Google it
later to find out more about it. Once I’d calmed the
front Fox RL down by adding stacks of rebound damping,
the bike behaved on the drop-off and I could
concentrate on how the back felt. And the back felt
very good! The bike really sails over all the bumps in
the track, and is a real pleasure to ride. Once again,
definitely one that I’d like to take on a longer
ride.
Read the full review
GT
i-Drive 4
This
was a very low spec bike and had a very soft shock. I
took it for 1 lap and the rear felt very good.
That’s all I can say for now. Maybe GT will give me
the opportunity to take it for a proper test one day.
Merida
Mission
The
Merida looks like a race bike with its Specialized
Epic- looking rear end. But with 130mm of travel,
it’s a fun bike to ride. I am not a fan of Manitou
shocks and the 100/130mm Minute on this bike did it no
favours! I still don’t like it. It’s
uncontrollable and only once I wound down the travel
did it feel like the bike could be controlled. This
sort of defeats the object of having a 130mm shock!
The rear suspension felt efficient. I pedalled hard,
out of the saddle and the bike did not wallow at all.
This design is supposed to be efficient and it is.
Another bike for a longer ride.
 General
It
was very difficult to get an impression on the
suspensions’ efficiency. The course was designed
with lots of bumps and all the bikes handled well. If
you are looking at buying a bike for racing marathons,
then I do think you will need to take it for a longer
test which takes in some tar riding and general
off-road tracks to get a real impression of
efficiency.
Again,
thanks and well done to everyone involved. Being able
to test so many bikes made me feet like a kid at
Christmas and the guys from Fritz were very helpful
and eager. Thanks
also to my buddy Mike for taking the pictures.
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