Another new bike build...

[Flat Broke]

Except this time I'll actually finish it! You may remember I had picked up one of the Chilean DH frames being sold on the Monkey. After getting the thing, and starting to source parts for it, reality set in. I'm not going to pedal a 45lb bike around on the trails, and 7-8" of travel is overkill for 95% of anything I'd ride. So I sold the frame and shock and did a bunch of digging to find something that would work well in an "all around" sort of fashion, but still have the geo of something like a Transition Bottlerocket. I was actually close to getting a BR as they're marked down at Adrenaline right now. However, after bugging the guys at Soul Cycles about their Matador frame, I stumbled onto an offer I couldn't refuse and pulled the trigger on Monday aftenoon. This morning, the FedEx ground guy dropped off my new ride for Mammoth!



You can find spec on the frame at http://www.ridesoul.com/matador but note that the HA measurement is taken with a 505mm AC height, wherase a Fox 36 runs 540mm or thereabouts slackening the HA to around 67.5.

The build will be ghetto-functional with Sram x7 drivetrain, Gravity Gap cranks, 36RC2 fork, Profile bars, Atomlab aircorp stem, cheapo Titec post, wtb saddle, mavic/forumla wheelset, Shimano discs and a Swinger 6way for the rear shock. I was going to get the frame with a DHXC or Rocco air, but I couldn't get either in time for the trip, so I got hooked up with a demo Swinger from Soul. If the swinger works, it'll stay, if not, I'll probably order up a Rocco R Air as everyone seems to be raving about them and they are probably the only air option for big guys.

I'm bailling to go build it up and run some errands, so if I don't get any more pics up before I leave in the AM, look for some in a Mammoth RR when we get back from this weekend.

Chris

[spookydave]

lol, so that's what you had cookin eh??
Well you better get crackin as I'm told the short bus is leaving at 6AM.

[dubjay]

Nice looking bike! Looking at their site, you can set it up with different size shocks. Which one are you going for?

[Flat Broke]

The bike is setup with a 7.5x2. Still need to fab up a chainstay protector and dial in the rear shifter/derailleur, but that will have to wait until we get to Mammoth. I'll slap up some pics on Sunday evening or Monday morning.

Chris

[Flat Broke]

We got back from Mammoth a couple of hours ago and after tending to my wounds and gear, I figgured I'd post up a couple pictures of the frame built up and give my impressions on the ride etc. This will probably kinda turn into a mini RR on our Mammoth trip as I'll reference different trails in relation to how the bike handled etc, so if you haven't been up to Mammoth, don't complain, pick a weekend between now and 9/21 and see what you're missing out on.



First impressions just pedaling around camp dialing in my derailleur adjustment was that the bike pedaled really well when seated. I was running a pretty soft 33% sag and even still, the rear felt pretty solid when under power.

All my nit picking over geo numbers on a frame I couldn't test ride ended up being well worth my while as the Matador feels just as familliar as my old Vagrant, and the slightly shorter top tube felt just a little better. But pedalling a bike around the campground loop can pretty much only tell if you if your drivetrain is setup right and you like the overall fit of the frame.



Having never been to Mammoth before and being in the company of longer travel bikes and better riders, I was a little anxious about how the bike would handle as I was pounding down breakfast on Saturday morning. Essentially coming from a hardtail, my riding style isn't as sensitive to the amount of travel the bike has, but more so, how it hadles once the going gets rough. But before the going got rough, the going got steep and loose, and I will say that while my skill set in this area could use some work, the bike didn't get skittish or make me feel like I had the wrong tool for the job. Sure fatter tires, a longer wheelbase, and possibly a slacker HA would have made the ride down the last part of Skid Marks before Bridge the Gap more comfortable; but the bike did fine and was suffering mostly from my tire choice.

I'll skip over my encounter with upper DC10 because the bike had more business being there than I did, but even so, I don't think that is it's element. I'm sure there are guys that can make it happen on a 5" bike, but I'm not one of them. For that matter, I'm not one of them even on a 9" bike, so any input I gave relative to that trail would be total BS.

Where I really started to notice the bike come into it's own was on 7 Bridges. I kind of liken the bike to a sports car in that environment. There are canyon roads that you can drive and they are nice for scenery, getting away from people etc. But if you drive the same road at 9/10s or 10/10s and really attack the corners and run the car hard, the ride becomes a completely different experience. I could cruise most of 7 Bridges no problem; but if I wanted to throw in a few extra pedal strokes here and there, and actually bring the fight to the terrain rather than let the terrain bring it to me, the bike just came alive. The harder I pushed in the corners, the better it felt. The rougher sections... just add more speed and all of the sudden I felt like I was a better rider because the bike was so responsive to my input.

That confidence carried over into my attempt at Velocity below Trail Home. Again, once I got in the frame of mind to attack rather than wait for the next obstacle, the bike felt awsome. The rear didn't track super smooth and soak up every bump, but it always took enough out of the trail that I was in complete control and never thought that I might need more squish. I did learn one interesting thing about the bike early on in the run. No matter how nice it handles, you can't drive it into a boulder and expect to come out smelling like a rose I made a rookie mistake and "locked on" to a boulder that I was trying to avoid and subsequently homed in like an exocet missle. The low standover made the incident less painful than it could have been by allowing an easy eject option, but I still got the wind knocked out of me pretty good and it hurts when I cough so I'm pretty confident in saying that I was moving at a good clip. After gathering myself and assesing the bike, everything was cool and I continued on down the trail, again with the bike bringing confidence to push harder than I would have ever tried on my Vagrant. All day I had been complaining that I needed to dial in a little more compression in the fork, and I ended up paying for my laziness further down the trail. But over the ladders and drops, the bike felt familiar and predictable and never bottomed despite it's relatively short travel and heavy rider.

After repairing myself and swapping in some new rear pads, we hit Kamikaze in all of it's skittish, brake killing, howling wind blowing, "mother of all fire roads" glory. You see everything from rental 5" deals to full on DH rigs on this trail, and the only real obstacles are the lack of grip, light brake bumps and having the nerve to let the bike run so you don't cook your brakes. I like the 2.35 Bling Bling tires for anything but the kitty litter that you find on this run and other parts of the upper mountain. The tires made choosing and holding a line more of a mental thing than a function of how the bike rode. You had to think about where you wanted to go rather than turn or lean to get there. Slowly the bike would come around and stay on that line without too much drama. The only thing related to the frame that I noticed was the rear end does stiffen a little bit under harder rear braking. It didn't seem like it fully locked up and skipped around, but it deffinitely did tend to feel a little less compliant over the stuttery braking bumps. I couldn't really notice this tendancy on more technical trails, but on long straight runs like Kamikaze, I had time to notice it. Again, not a big deal as it didn't cause a loss of control or uneasyness, but worth noting as it could be an issue for someone.

All in all, I'm super stoked on this bike. I honestly feel that it made for a more enjoyable time in Mammoth over the Haro Extreme with almost identical spec that I was going to take. You can get the front end up easily even when rolling dow steep ladders/inclines like on Velocity. The bike feels very stable for it's wheelbase, and the low geo makes it very predictable. Even with a relatively low bb height of 13.45 before sag, I never racked the pedals or bashguard on anything.

The rear end is super stiff feeling and holds it's line well. The swing link definitely does it's job and doesn't seem to add any drag or inpair smooth movement of the rear end.

Overall I honestly feel that this is really the only bike I'm going to need. Sure a plusher bike would take some of the edge off on stuff up at Mammoth and other places where the terrain can get a little unruly. But for a bike that will be a trail bike, hit the occaisional lift or shuttle trip, and pedal pretty well, this thing kicks ass. It rails corners, feels comfortable and confidence inspiring when things get steep/ulglier, is built tough, but not overweight, and can handle gnarlier terrain than I'm currently capable of riding regardless of the amount of travel available.

On top of how the bike rides, I've been really stoked with how helpful Chad and both of his team riders have been throughout my decision making process. If you surf the bike boards, or own a Transition, you'll always read about how they are customer focused and take care of their customers. When I bought my Vagrant, I enjoyed that experience and they were very helpfull. But my experience with Soul Cycles has been nothing short of amazing. Chad went above and beyond in ways I would have never imagined to make sure I could use this frame for this trip.

I was orriginally planning on ditching the Swinger 6way for a Rocco R Air, but after the shock's performance at Mammoth, it's staying until it gives up the ghost. I took a little time to dial in my air pressure and volume, and that seemed to pay good divedends on the mountain.

Sorry for the long post, but in case you couldn't tell, I'm super stoked on my new ride, as well as my first trip to Mammoth on a bike. Even being banged up pretty good, I'm looking forward to my next opportunity to take my bike back to the big hill.

Chris

[J_Sims]

Sounds like you did your homework and made the right choice... Congrats on the new bike and the weekend in Mammoth..........

[spookydave]

yeah that bike felt real nice in the campground. It must have felt good on the mountain too as I couldn't get him to swap bikes with me.

Ok Chris, now that you have a bike that you like I expect to see parts getting swapped out because they are worn out or broken.

[Flat Broke]

The only parts swap I'm contemplating is going to a larger rotor in the rear when the opportunity arises, and maybe picking up a qr seat post clamp, Thomson post, and maybe a different saddle if an opportunity presents itself. But none of those are needed or anything I'm stressing. It's nice not having to worry about "maybe I should get this frame, or maybe I should try that one" etc. Just waiting for my wrist to feel a little better before I get back out on the dirt.

Chris

[Keith B]

Great fun building up a new bike :-)

[OMR]

You are very good in your observations & descriptions. Enjoyed the RR read & pics. Sounds like you made the right choice.

OMR

[SSinGA]

wrong thread