- We've seen one dog today.
- [Sarah] Two.
It's a good day.
- Two. We saw another one. - We saw another one?
Oh, we saw that little poofy thing over there.
It's good day, boys. Two dogs.
It's not even lunchtime yet and we've seen two dogs.
(upbeat music)
- Hey everybody, I'm Mike Levy.
And we're back for another Value Field Trip review.
Now this sharp-looking bike behind me
is Polygon's Siskiu T8 that retails for $2,369, American.
I probably butchered that name
but the intentions are familiar.
It's a value-minded trail bike
with 135 millimeters of rear travel.
And you can get it with either 27.5 or 29 inch wheels.
Ours is a twenty-niner
and it weighs in at 34 pounds and 5 ounces.
All right, the first thing we're gonna talk about
is the rear suspension design.
And that 135 millimeters of travel
is controlled via a relatively simple,
linkage-driven, single-pivot system.
There's a one-piece rocker link
that helps drive the shock and add rigidity to the rear end.
And everything is held together
with nicely done aluminum pivot hardware.
Okay, let's move on to the rest of the frame.
And I don't know if you guys are gonna agree with me here
but I think this thing looks way more expensive
than what it costs.
It's a sharp-looking frame.
And let's look at the rest of the details.
There's room for a bottle inside the front triangle.
You've got yourself a threaded bottom bracket.
And that's also where you find the ISCG tabs.
You get boost hub spacing,
internal cable routing.
And, worth noting,
there's also some pretty good Chainstay protection.
And I say that,
because some of the other bikes that cost more
come with no Chainstay protection.
Onto the geometry,
and this is an all new frame for Polygon for 2021.
And that gave them a chance to come up
with all new geometry, of course.
Upfront, you're gonna get a 65 and 1/2 degree head angle,
and you get a 76 and 1/2 degree seat angle.
The reach on our medium is 460 millimeters,
but if you want a large, it stretches out to 480.
I've got two more numbers for you
and we're talking seat tube lengths.
Our medium comes with a short 400 millimeter seat tube,
leaving you a lot of room
to upgrade to a longer stroke dropper post,
if you need it.
So there are only two different Siskiu's to pick from.
Our T8 retails for $2,369.
And that gets you a Fox Rhythm fork with that grip damper
that we always like so much.
An SLX drivetrain,
and an interesting set of four-piston textural brakes
that we're gonna talk about in a little bit.
If you don't have quite that much money to spend,
you can get the T7 version,
and that goes for just under $2,000.
And if you've already got a box of parts
and you just need a frame,
a thousand bucks is gonna get you a Siskiu frame
with a Fox shock.
All right. That's enough of the details.
Let's talk about how this thing rides on the trail.
(upbeat music)
- So before we got to riding, we had to set up the bike.
Anything to talk about there?
- Pretty straightforward, to be honest.
Polygon says 30% sag,
so that meant 166 PSI in the rear shock.
In the fork, I was running 80 PSI.
Pump the tires up to 21 and 23, and hit the trail.
(upbeat music)
Let's talk about the climbing.
135 millimeters of travel.
And I would tend to think that
that would be fairly sporty feeling.
It's not a lot of travel but that's definitely not the case.
It's a very active bike.
And when you're peddling along and you look down,
you could definitely see
that shock moving gently through the stroke.
I think that's because of the light compression tune
and the high volume air can.
- So this bike does have a lockout on it.
Did you find yourself reaching for that?
- Yeah. So the Fox shock that comes on the bike
does have the pro pedal switch.
It's a three-position switch.
So Polygon has prioritized traction and forgiveness here.
And that definitely helps when it's slippery
and wet on those routes we were trying to scrabble up.
And they've done that
because the shock has that blue switch.
So you're pedaling up a hill,
it's smooth, flick the switch, keep pedaling.
- [Sarah] So overall, I'm getting the feeling
that it's a decent climber, but maybe just not mind-blowing.
- Yeah, that's exactly the story here.
I wouldn't call it an exceptional climber, by any means,
but on the same token,
Polygon didn't set out
to make this thing an exceptional climber.
It's not that bike.
What they did set out to do
is make a bike that gets you to the top of the hill,
doesn't feel like it weighs a ton.
It is kind of heavy,
but it hides its weight reasonably well.
Hey, flip the switch if it's smooth,
you'll get up to the top.
When you get up to the top, just don't rush.
(dark, slow bass music)
- So we can both agree this was not a climbers bike.
So let's talk about the fun part, how this bike descended.
- Yeah, you get to the top and flip the switch.
Remember to open the suspension back up,
and you'll find that it does an amazing job.
Very impressive job
of filtering out all that little to medium-sized stuff.
You guys know the stuff that...
you're flying down the trail,
and you're not really looking at it,
but you still have to kind of pay attention to it.
The roots, the rocks, stuff like that.
This bike, that active suspension,
it definitely, out of all the test bikes here,
kind of levels that stuff.
- Yeah. So I'm going to agree.
This is one of my favorite bikes on the downhills.
Why do you think it's so good?
- It's that slippery suspension, to be honest.
It's super active,
and it provides you with a ton of traction,
just like I said on the climbing.
So we've been here on the sunshine coast
for the last few weeks,
and surprise, surprise,
it's a field test, and it hasn't been sunny.
It's been raining for a lot of it.
So it's been pretty slippery out there.
And you know when the roots,
they get covered in that like snotty slime,
like they almost look shiny?
It's those moments when an active bike can really help you.
And yeah, that's what the Polygon did for us here.
- Okay. So if you had to sum up what this bike feels like
on the downhills.
What would you say?
- Well, first, I would repeat what I've said
about the suspension a whole lot.
This is definitely a forgiving bike that provides traction.
It favors that over something that's super sporty
or super poppy.
It's not that kind of bike.
But overall, it definitely feels
like Polygon has created a bike
that is gonna be good in a lot of places.
It's not the ideal trail bike
if you like to get super rowdy,
and use your trail bike
to follow all your buddies who have Enduro bikes.
But at the same time,
this isn't a trail bike
that I would want to ride five, six, seven hour Epicon.
This is not that bike.
What it is though, kind of right down the line middle.
(upbeat music)
- Okay, so let's talk components.
The Polygon's $2,369.
Pretty aggressive price. What's the spec look like?
- I've got frames hanging up in my shop.
Just frames, no shock on them, that cost way more than that.
So Polygon's done a pretty good job of spec'ing this thing.
So we're going to start with the lows.
And there's only one low mark here for the spec,
and it's those textural four-piston brakes.
On one hand, it's nice to see something
that isn't from SRAM or Shimano on here, for sure.
But on the other hand,
they definitely don't have enough initial bite
or overall power.
They don't come stock with metallic pads.
So change your rotors, change your pads.
You're gonna get more power.
- So that's pretty good. Only one negative.
What about the good things about the components?
- There's a couple of things that stand out here.
The one, the big one here is the suspension again.
And especially that fork.
It's a Fox Rhythm fork with the grip damper.
It's super easy to adjust.
It only has a rebound damper
and a compression knob at the top.
You don't have a ton of dials to turn or anything like that.
And the damn thing, it always just works.
- Yeah. - Pretty impressive.
A couple other standouts here would be the Schwalbe tires.
I've said before that I really liked these things,
and I think they really suit
the bike's all-round intentions.
Lastly, the Shimano drivetrain.
It just shifts so damn good.
Yeah. No reason to change to anything else.
So the Siskiu T8 costs $2,369, Sarah.
That makes it less expensive than the Marin Rift Zone
and the Giant Trance X,
and only slightly more than the Devinci Marshall.
But it definitely has more capable suspension
than all three of those bikes.
Now, if you're a new rider
who's not able to ride these things back-to-back
like we've been able to,
that's an important thing.
Because as your skills progress,
you're gonna be asking more from your suspension
and it definitely costs a lot of money to upgrade.
Bottom line,
you're not gonna have to be doing that with the Siskiu.
(steady, warm music)
- It's time for some pros and cons.
Let's start with the good stuff.
- Yeah. The first thing for me is that active suspension.
And I know that I kind of moaned
about having to use the pedal assist switch,
but the upside to that, Sarah, is all the traction.
This is definitely the kind of bike
that if you just stay seated and keep pedaling,
you're probably gonna get
to whatever you're trying to get to the top of.
And it's the same story when you're going back down.
It's a bike that provides you with a really forgiving ride,
lots of traction and lots of forgiveness.
So if you ride rough terrain,
this is definitely a bike that suits that.
The other upside, to me, is the bikes all around handling.
And again, that's tied into that forgiving suspension.
It's a bike that's gonna work in a lot of places,
not just where it's super steep,
or not just where it's super flat.
So if you're looking for a bike that,
I don't know, it just works well everywhere,
this is definitely a reasonable option.
(upbeat music)
- So we've gotta tell the people what the cons are.
Let's go through those. - Yeah.
The flip side to that active suspension
and all the traction is,
like I said before, the active suspension.
When you're pedaling up a smooth road, you can look down,
and you could see
the shock moving through its travel more than it should.
So if you're the kind of rider
who has a lot of smooth climbs,
you're probably gonna want to be reaching
for that pedal assist switch.
Which leads me to my other con,
if you ride a lot of smooth trails.
Again, this isn't really the best bike for that.
Yeah, you could run less sag: 25% sag.
You could run it in trail mode,
but that's not really taking advantage
of the Siskiu's main strength,
which is its active, forgiving suspension.
So if those are the kinds of trails that you ride,
yeah, maybe not the best bike.
(upbeat music)
- Let's wrap it up. Who's this bike for?
- Yeah, it's definitely for a rider
who isn't going to be sprinting out of the saddle
to chase those KLMs,
or catch your buddies way up ahead of you.
It's definitely more for the kind of trail rider
who just wants to get to the top casually,
and then enjoy the descents.
So if that sounds like you,
if you want a twenty-niner trail bike
that's more forgiving than fast;
if you ride really rough terrain,
it's definitely well-suited to that kind of stuff.
- So there you have it.
That's the Polygon Siskiu T8.
Stay tuned for more videos from the Value Bikes Field Trip,
as well as Roundtable videos that compare them all.
(ethereal bass music)