- And here at the budget field test in Tucson, Arizona
(upbeat music)
- Hey everybody, I'm Mike Levy.
And by now you've probably seen
a whole bunch of review videos
from our Value Bike Field Test here in Tucson, Arizona.
Now the truth is that we're usually riding
some pretty expensive bikes, but oftentimes those things
they don't give us much to moan about.
It's a different story this time around though,
here we have full suspension bikes
up to $3,500 and hard tails topping out at $2,100.
And as you'd expect, there's a whole lot more to talk about.
And for this video, we're gonna talk about
some of the components that impressed us.
- Let's start at the front of the bike
while we're talking about products
that impressed us the most.
Right here, we've got the Canyon Spectra 125.
This has the Fox 36 with the rhythm series
and the grip damper.
We also had the YT IZZO.
That was a performance series fork.
Basically, the good thing about these forks,
they're easy to adjust, very smooth off the top,
the adjustments are all effective and they just work.
And that's something you don't find really
on all the bikes in this price level, below the $3,000 mark
some of those forks just weren't up to par
for someone that's gonna wanna ride their bike
often more than once in a while.
It's nice to have a fork that's not gonna hold you back
at this price point.
And you have basic adjustments include
low speed compression here,
rebound at the bottom air pressure.
They're simple, but they do work.
And the actual feel the fork out on the trail
is really close to those top level forks
with more adjustments.
And say you did buy this bike
a little further down the road
you wanted all those adjustments,
you can put in fox's higher and grip two damper
and get that increased performance.
Let's say that increase in performance,
isn't as great as you might think.
So you can just stick with this fork,
ride this bike as long as you want an be totally happy.
We also need to shout out the DVO diamond,
that one is found on the fezzari,
and that's another high end fork offers a lot of adjustments
and it's not something you would typically expect to see
at a bike that retails for $3,000.
So out of all nine bikes that we had here
the Grip damper equipped Fox forks and that DVO diamond,
those are the standouts.
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- Now we're gonna move on to drive trains
where we saw some of the biggest compromises
but also some of the best small wins.
When we're talking about shifting,
we're talking about not only longevity
but also shift performance and ergonomics.
And when it comes to all those things
we saw Shimano's Deore and SLX group sets take the win.
Now, as we've gone over in some previous videos,
the bikes that had Shimano's Deore and SLX parts
have shifted consistently better
throughout these couple of weeks
than the ones with SRAM SX and NX parts.
Even at the same price points,
which are about 300 or 400 USD respectively.
The next thing we're talking about when it comes
to Shimano's Deore and SLX drive trains
is that those drive trains are what Shimano calls the best
in trickle down technology,
meaning that they use essentially the same designs
as Shimano's upper level XT and XTR drive trains.
If you were to swap out parts later on
it would be much easier
with the Shimano's design using SLX 12 speed,
or Deore 12 speed, than it would be
if you're using the comparable SRAM SX or NX drive trains.
the SRAM ones do use a different free hub design.
So if you were to swap out SX or NX for GX Eagle or above
you would have to get a new XT driver to go along with it.
- Now it's time to talk about breaks.
And as I discovered on the Kona with its alhaungers stoppers
you're gonna have a hard time going fast
if you can't slow down, but we're gonna keep this positive.
And in that regard, there was one standout break set
that impressed us all.
It's Shimano's MT 500 stoppers that you could find
on Diamondbacks Syncr or Salsa's Timberjack XT 29.
You could pick up a set of two piston Mt 500s
for around a hundred dollars an end.
And while they're not full of features,
they don't have adjustable bite point,
but neither do any of Shimano's breaks.
And they do require an allen key to adjust reach,
the lever feel is absolutely great.
And they're very firm on the trail.
- So we've talked a lot about the bigger stuff
but why don't we just get down
to some of the nitty gritty little detail
items that we liked.
First up, is the specialized bridge saddle.
I mean, saddles are really subjective.
They're, varies from person to person
but every tester here at Value Field Test
really like the bridge.
It's a pretty inexpensive seat at $60
and it comes in 143 and 155 widths.
Another really nitpicky thing, is grips, right?
A lot of brands, just spec a cheap house house brand grip.
And it's a really good way for them to pinch pennies,
but it's nice to see like a really popular grip
being specked on some of these bikes,
two of the bikes here actually the YT IZZO
and the Commencel Almeda
came with the ODI elite motion pro grip
which is kind of a fan favorite.
Everybody loves this grip.
It's one of the most popular grips on the market.
It just has a really nice clean diamond pattern on it
that everybody just seems to get along with.
And it's a $30 grip.
It's a really nice high end grip.
That's a lot better than the cheap house brand grips
that come on a lot of bikes.
Now check out this little detail.
It's SRAM's universal derailer hanger.
This detail might not seem very huge, but it really is.
SRAM is trying to solve the problem of there just being
a million different hangers for a million different bikes.
And soon you'll just be able to walk into shop
and you'll be able to get a universal derailer hanger
for your bike.
Here at the Value Field Test,
we had four different bikes that actually have
the same universal derailer hanger.
It's actually really cool to see this type
of future proofing happening on these value bikes.
It's really nice to see longer travel dropper posts
making it onto these budget bikes
and the trans X dropper post was by far
the favor here in Tucson, is just super reliable.
It didn't cause us any trouble.
And it's a really nice affordable post.
- Now, I don't know if you guys know this or not,
but your tires well, they're the only thing
touching the ground.
unless you each (beep) in which case,
you'll be touching the ground too,
and possibly because your tires suck.
Now, that's not the case with this specialized.
It has a butcher and a purgatory combo
and we were all super impressed
with them at this value bike field trip.
Better yet, you could pick 'EM up for around 60 to $70,
which is less expensive than many other options
on the market that don't even work as well.
- So we've been talking about all the different parts
that were our favorites here at the Value Field Test,
but say we ended up somehow with a pile of these components.
What frame would we put it on?
Well, in this case, that honor is gonna go
to the Commoncel META HT AM.
There's one main reason.
It's one of the only frames you can actually just purchased
on its own without any parts hanging off it.
That goes for $650.
It's also a really nicely done frame.
If you look at it, it's a hard tail, it's basic.
The lines are clean, comes with really good
chain slap protection it's got dropper post routing,
internal routing for your brakes and your derailer,
and just kind of epitomizes what you'd be looking for
in a good reasonably priced hard tail frame,
that's worth hanging nicer parts on it.
If you want, as time goes on
- There, you guys go.
Those are our standout component picks
from our Value Bike Field Test here in Tucson, Arizona,
we picked our favorite tires, drive trains, brakes,
and a whole bunch of other stuff.
Stay tuned for more videos from our Value Bike Field Test.
As for me, there's about two liters
of Horchata calling my name.
(upbeat music)