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- Hey everybody, I'm Mike Kazimer.
Welcome to the Enduro and Free Ride Bike Roundtable.
I'm here talking with Mike Levy.
He's up in Squamish, BC,
I'm down here in Bellingham.
We'll chatting about these five big bikes
I've been pedaling around for the last little while.
Got the Rocky Mountain Altitude,
Trek Slash,
Propain Spindrift.
There's also the Norco Shore as well as the new Nomad.
So pretty big crop of bikes, you know,
some of them are purely kinda more race bred machines,
other ones aimed at free riding.
So, we're gonna be chatting about which ones stood out,
which ones maybe not so much.
- Kaz, those are some big bikes you've got there.
- They are big bikes.
- Can I just ask when you were riding the Norco Shore,
did you also wear a Giro Switchblade?
- No but I should have.
That would have been good. And a Roach Stem Pad.
- Maybe some hockey armor?
- Yeah, the full Dainese suit.
It'd be like back in the old days.
- That's the bike that I wanna start with.
That bike kind of came out of the blue.
We had no idea and all of a sudden
this like super weird looking aluminum thing
with this big high pivot and an idler.
It weighs 38 pounds.
Kazimer, on the trail did that feel like 38 pounds?
- It did. Yeah, I mean, that was definitely the biggest
and probably the, you know, in some cases,
the most difficult bike to handle,
especially in you know, tighter, slower terrain.
It is fun when it gets steep and rowdy.
But even then, it had a different feel than I expected,
like, I looked at I was like,
Oh, this is gonna be a big plush plough.
But the way that they've got the suspension
is not super plush.
It's more, like, on the supportive side.
So you feel the bumps,
you're going straight through them,
because you can definitely go through everything,
but it doesn't just absorb it.
It doesn't, kind of, feel like the whole ground's
been carpeted with memory foam.
And instead you kinda, like, you feel the terrain.
It was pretty different than I expected.
- So that bike has 180 millimeters of travel
along with your Propain Spindrift,
Propain and Propain accessories.
- [Mike] Yes.
- Those two bikes, they have the most travel.
Does that mean that they're the most capable
on the descents?
- Not necessarily. I don't think the 10 millimeters
changes it that much between one to the other.
Like, if you have a 170 bike versus a 180,
one doesn't magically become
the solution to all of your trail problems.
But, yeah, that Propain Spindrift
was actually one of the more well rounded bikes I thought,
which surprised me, because I saw, you know,
180 mils of travel.
- It certainly doesn't look like it, Kazimer.
- No, like, it doesn't, yeah, it's got a coil spring.
Just seems, like oh, that's gonna be, like,
just a straight up a plow bike as well.
But that one surprised me with how versatile
it could potentially be.
Like, it has a little more nimbleness.
They didn't go super slack with the head angle.
I think it's, like, 64.5,
versus the Shore which is 63.5, or maybe even 63.
So, all the numbers.
Yeah, they're all jumbled in here.
But the Shore is slacker than the,
and a little bit longer, than that Propain,
and it feels different.
- So, I'm putting you on the spot,
which one had the fastest descent time,
and which bike do you prefer in Bellingham?
So, Bellingham in the Pacific Northwest,
roots, rocks, wet like 120% of the time.
So fastest bike and which one do you prefer
out of your five?
- Those are pretty close to the same answer.
The fastest bike was that Rocky Mountain Altitude,
- The enduro race bike.
- Enduro race bike, it already has,
you know, some victories under Jesse Melamed, so.
Which just because someone wins on a bike,
doesn't mean you're gonna win on the bike.
We got to put that out there, but.
- Jesse's okay, he's quick.
- He's all right.
But I was fastest on that bike.
And I think that'd be the bike I'd pick for, kind of,
if I had an everyday bike.
That one felt really good to me.
The reach isn't crazy long,
the head angle's not super slack,
but that's, I think that helps it in some of those more,
let's call them normal sections of trail.
You know, it's a little bit flowier.
That bike was just easy to put in different places
where something like the Slash,
we had a size large Slash that was pretty long,
and that Shore, they're just longer bikes,
and they do feel like they take a little bit more effort.
So, yeah, the easiest bike.
I was little surprised it was the fastest
because that Slash probably felt the fastest,
it just feels like it's,
it's really calm and you can carry a lot of speed,
but, but yeah, the Altitude was quickest.
- So does that mean the Altitude is the most well rounded?
- I would put it up there for sure.
Yeah, I think the Altitude,
if you needed to have that, kind of, one bike
for rowdier terrain,
like, none of these bikes are trail bikes
it's worth saying.
- Are you sure? Who knows these days, Kazimer?
- Yeah. (laughs)
But, yeah, I think the Altitude
and that Nomad actually, too.
Like the Nomad, previous versions of the Nomad
have come out and they've been, kind of,
a little bit slacker and burlier
than other things in the market,
but this Nomad is riding like,
"Oh, this could just be an everyday bike."
Like, it doesn't feel too big.
It reminds me a lot of Bronson that we liked
a couple years ago.
Was that, I think was two years ago
we really enjoyed that Bronson.
So yeah, just great pedaling, the suspension,
like the overall tune of the shock
on that Nomad is pretty impressive.
So, yeah, I think the Altitude and the Nomad
are the two that are, like,
I could just hop on, ride any trail,
and just feel really comfortable.
- Okay, so let's talk about the very orange Trek Slash.
There's tons of Trek Slashes out there,
people love them for enduro bikes,
and doing all sorts of that kind of stuff.
You've ridden the previous one,
now you've got the new one.
What's different on the trail?
What's different that matters?
- I mean, I think the geometry changes are gonna be,
people will notice them if you rode the previous one
and then the new one.
It's not so dramatic that you're not gonna feel like
you're on a completely unfamiliar bike,
but you do notice the extra length,
it is a little bit slacker,
just kind of in line with what we're seeing
for modern bikes these days.
They steepened that seat tube angle up just a little bit,
so, you know, you're climbing position
is a little bit better.
It's still a little more stretched out
than I would like to see.
It's, you know, because it has a fairly long reach,
you know, I ended up slamming the seat more forward
than on some of the other bikes.
Not the end of the world, but, you know,
if you're looking at all the little details,
that's one detail.
I think they could go a little steeper with that seat angle.
That shock that they put on there, it's proprietary for now
to that bike.
And usually proprietary shocks, sometimes it's, like,
you get a little nervous about those,
but this one worked very well.
It's really adjustable.
Yeah, overall it's more a story of refinement
rather than, like, the full overhaul of the Slash.
It sits in that spot pretty well.
And they also added a size. They added a medium/large size,
which I don't think was there before.
So now you can really, like, pick the reach number and fit
that you want.
If you don't have super long, high speed descents
and you want something that can wiggle a little bit better,
you can go down a size potentially.
- Did you just say "If you want something
to wiggle a little better?"
- Yeah, you want a more wiggly bike?
- Yeah.
- Although that bike is not wiggly.
It's very stiff. I'd say it's probably the stiffest.
- Kazimer, the tubes are like, they're huge.
They're like the size of my thigh.
It also has the longest downtube protector I have ever seen.
- Yeah. It is removable, that downtube protector,
but that's good, because shuttling that part is actually,
that part of the frame is actually pretty thin,
so it's good that there's a big protector there,
'cause it you hit a bump on a,
with your pickup truck and smash it,
without that protector you could potentially do some damage.
- So Kaz, I know that all you really want to do out there
is ride skinnies and do shuttle runs,
but we gotta talk about climbing a little bit.
So. I'm gonna do the efficiency test,
but how did they feel on the trail to you?
Which one, if someone wanted a big,
free-ridey, enduro-ey bike,
but they still cared about pedaling,
is there one that you would recommend,
and one that you wouldn't?
- Yeah, I think my top picks there would be
that Propain Spindrift-
- The 180 mil bike.
- Yeah, 180 mils, but it has a dual-link suspension layout
that works really well.
So it just feels efficient, you know, like,
it has a climb switch on that shock,
but you don't really need it if you don't want.
And it pedals really well.
And then, also in that same category, I'd put that Nomad.
Another dual-link suspension design,
I think that they can just get that efficiency
a little bit more than, like say, even the Altitude.
It's a fairly active climber,
it's not horrible, but you do notice
more suspension movement.
And the Slash, too, you know, like they,
none of them were big, wallow-ey messes,
like, you never, I never felt like I wanted to
just push the bike up the hill like the old days,
but, (laughs) which is good,
so, like, we're getting to a good spot with how bikes climb,
but I will put the Propane and the Nomad at the top
as far as climbing efficiency performance goes.
- Question for you.
You said climb switch.
No one's watching, no one's gonna judge you,
you're riding these bikes up a steep gravel road,
are you locking these bikes out?
- Oh yeah, a lot of times, yeah.
- I'm judging you.
- Why not? It's there. I'm just gonna go (indistinct),
and then it's way easier to pedal.
- Which one didn't you like?
- I think that Shore. And it's not that it's a bad climber
as far as efficiency goes,
like as far as the rear end staying pretty calm,
it does that, it actually doesn't have a climb switch on it,
so you can't do anything there.
But it's so heavy, it's 37 pounds,
and I know weight doesn't matter,
but, like, 37 pounds, there's downhill bikes,
aluminum downhill bikes, that weigh the exact same
as this bike.
So, that makes it feel like a decent effort,
like, just kind of grinding up the hill.
The climbing position is comfortable, but.
- We put CushCores in it, Kaz, for the Huck to Flat.
Do you want it back like that,
do you want me to send it back to you with CushCores in it
for all your climbing?
- It was too light, I need some winter weight training,
so if you send it back that way.
Yeah, so that bike, like, I mean it is nice,
that one does have one of the steeper seat angles,
and I'd say the actual position felt the nicest,
or one of the nicest, like nice and upright,
kind of how I want to be while climbing.
But, it's hard getting away from that weight,
and just the overall, like, grinding.
And you've got the idler pulley,
which it's kind of more of a mental thing,
but sometimes you hear it grinding a little bit,
and you're. like, "I probably could be more efficient."
- All right, let's wrap this up with surprises.
Which bike surprised you in a good way,
and which bike surprised you in a bad way, if any?
- I think the Nomad surprised me.
Like, I've ridden the last four generations,
I mean a bunch of generations of Nomad,
so I kind of thought I knew how it'd feel, and I did,
but it was better than I remembered.
Like, that bike, I had my slowest time on it,
but, I don't know, maybe I just forgot
how to ride little wheels for a couple minutes, but-
- Isn't it amazing that we get to ride, like,
all these generations of the same platform,
and we can compare the evolution of these things.
- [Mike] Yeah.
- We need to get, like, all evolutions of a Nomad in,
and then, like, do, like, a week test session
on all evolutions of the Nomad.
I know it wouldn't be testing new bikes,
but I think people would love to see that.
I think that'd be super interesting.
- Yeah, it could be fun.
It'd be interesting to see how, like,
if my memories are right of the other generations, for sure.
- Okay, so tell me about the bike that surprised you
in a bad way now, if there is one.
- I think that Shore is the one I was a little,
just kind of a little disappointed in.
Not that, I do think that it has a market,
and there are gonna be people who are gonna love it.
Like, it's big and burley,
maybe the wheels are a little soft.
I think those rims aren't super tough.
I got a pretty good dent in the rear.
But, otherwise as park bike,
or something you just want to smash with,
it can, it fits that bill, but it doesn't,
I think it just didn't meet my preconceived notions of it
being, like, super ground-hugging and just, yeah,
wasn't quite what I expected.
- Which one would you buy for where you live in Bellingham?
- Yeah, if money was no object,
we do have a value section coming up
where we talk about which bikes are good values
and which ones aren't,
but if I didn't have to worry about money at all,
I think that that Altitude
would probably be the one I'd go with.
And I would run it the same way that the rocky team guys are
with the angle set, a negative one angle set
in the neutral position.
So that would make all the numbers work
exactly the way I want.
- You want the bike slacker, even?
- Well, it has the Ride Nine,
so there's, like, nine positions,
but if you put it in the neutral position
with a negative one angle set,
it gives it a 64 degree head angle,
and a 480 mil reach,
which I found is kind of, like, my sweet spot of numbers,
at least this year.
So, yeah, that would make it a little bit slacker
without dropping the reach down.
That's what I would do.
- Rocky Mountain, if you're listening,
send Kazimer that stuff.
- Yeah. Yeah, that Altitude would be sweet,
and then I think the downtube storage of the Slash
on every bike ever just kind of, like,
you know, Specialized started that,
but now if all companies can start
putting holes in the downtubes,
that'd be cool, too.
- All right, Kaz, a lot of that sounded like
fence sitting to me, but you eventually
settled on the Altitude.
How does that compare to last years field test winner
which was the Specialized Enduro?
- Eh, they're actually pretty different bikes,
which is interesting,
'cause the Altitude, it's a little less travel,
160 versus the 170 on the Enduro,
but the Enduro feels even more,
just has a bigger presence on the trail.
Like, the Enduro would be a great bike park bike,
where the Altitude can do that, but it wouldn't be my pick
if I had, like, planning a bunch of
(indistinct) riding for a season.
Like, that Enduro still holds up well,
like, you know, it's a year on and it still
would sit right in this category with all these bikes, so.
Yeah, I don't know which one I'd pick between those two,
it would kind of depend on what I was doing.
Like, I think the Altitude makes a good all-around bike,
and it can also be a good all-around race bike
if you, depending on where you're racing,
and the Enduro can be a good race bike
for, like, gnarlier tracks.
That's a hard one, I don't know if,
one doesn't necessarily beat the other,
they have different feels,
and it kind of depends on what you're looking to do.
- Get off the fence, Kaz!
- I don't know which I would pick.
I think I would go with the Altitude
because the fit for me felt a little bit better
than the Enduro.
The Enduro, the seat angle was still a little slack,
so I felt a little stretched out on the S4 size,
but you can't go wrong with either one.
- Do you think there's something,
there are moves out there that you
would ride on the Enduro,
that you wouldn't ride on that Altitude?
- Yeah, probably not. I don't think,
I think either bike could do just about anything.
I do think that when you're on the Enduro,
like, you feel a little more,
just feel a little more confident.
It's a little slacker, it just has,
like the way that that suspension, kind of,
has you feel nice and low and hugging the ground,
like, yeah, I'm kind of, now I want to ride
the Enduro some more.
Yeah. (laughs)
- I think I still have the Enduro up here in Squamish.
I'm not gonna send it to you,
I'm still enjoying it.
- I know you're not.
Yeah, the Enduro's still a really good bike.
It hasn't lost anything,
like it would have been right in the mix with these ones,
which is cool.
All right, Levy, I know you've been riding
a lot of trail bikes,
it's probably time to go back to your free ride roots.
So, out of the five bikes I've got,
which one do you want to spend some time on?
- From what you've said,
and knowing their bikes fairly well,
I would probably lean towards that Altitude to be honest.
It sounds fairly well rounded,
it's not gonna hold me back on the descents,
and it's not gonna hold me back that much on the climb,
so there you go.
- Yeah, that makes sense.
That's a wrap on our Enduro Free Ride Bike Roundtable.
Let us know what you think of our picks.
Are we out to lunch, or spot on the money?
Drop a line, and stay tuned for even more content
from the Pinkbike Field Test,
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