looks sweet steve, much weight saving on the wheels/tyres? I chickened out on the LUST's in the end
rob, any chance of a small review on your tracer?
Certainly.
As it stands today: (following today's blat around the Kirrouchtree black route)
Ive had the frame a year now, and recently spend a bit of dollar on new drivetrain and forks, both of which im very happy with. As a bike I'm very pleased with it. The pivot bearing hardware has lasted so far, and I would have expected to need to replace it by now, using the lower link grease ports to re grease it every few months has obviously helped. The direct mount front mech is great, and Ive recently gone to a 142x12 rear drop out arrangement, which im enjoying.
Its a heavy frame at just over 8lb I think, however, once built with the high end kit thats on it, the effect of that can be minimised. But with a dropper post and 160 fork you would be hard pushed to get it below 31lb. Its currently about 31.5lb clad in top end stuff, and ti bolted throught. But is light as a batter-able enduro bike. Two weeks on lifts in the alpes on Enduro and DH trail was no problem for it.
The ride is great, as far as my experience of bikes goes. I came from a TNT link turner five before this, and its an improvement over that. Ive been running it in the 165mm travel option for a long time now, and thats a 6.5in travel- huge for a trail bike. Its overkill, yes, but at 6'1'' im tall enough for it not to be a massive bike for me, it scales well. You can feel all that travel on the way down a hill, but it climbs soo well for it. The harder you pedal, the more the vpp resists the bob. But spin lightly and itll move more. I irritate my mates by climbing everything I can while many would push, and this bike has not restricted that goal! I run at least 40% sag, and despite this, it dosent feel slow or bottom out overly. I will only use full travel in a couple of places on any ride.
It is intended to be a do it all bike, and on this it deliveres well. Ive ridden a 10hr Endurance race on it (not particularly competitively), raced the mega (ditto! due to rider), uk enduro races, uplift days on DH trails at Inners, did the 'selkirk 100' (which is a circa 80km ride through 3000m of elevation over hills around selkirk). It replaced a turner five and a marin quake (so a 5in and 7in bike), and fills the boots of both pretty happily.
I would consider replacing it with a carbon equivalent in a similar style next year, but that depends how those particular frames perform up until then. Alloy is a bit more of a known quantity as a frame material!
Ok, thats enough for a short review!
