- Next up, we're going to talk downcountry bikes.
- [Max] Can you do that outro again,
- Yeah.
Don't look at you?
(everyone laughs)
- "Hey Max, am I supposed to be doing the outro now?"
(intense energetic music)
(cyclist yelling)
(soft energetic beat)
- Hey everybody and welcome back to
the cross country field test.
And today it's round table time
and we're talking race bikes.
Sarah Moore has been on
the all new Specialized Epic,
the new Cannondale Scalpel,
Trek's Supercaliber,
and Canyon's Lux.
Special guest today,
Mike Kazimer all the way from down in the States.
He really wanted to be up here wearing Lycra with me,
but he's trapped in the States, the borders closed.
So today he's moderating the conversation,
via the computer.
- That's right, the magic of the internet.
I'm really sad I couldn't wear Lycra
and sprint around the woods with you.
- I'll come down and visit you soon Kaz
and we'll have a little Lycra ride together.
- All right. Well, let's just kick things off
with a question everyone wants to know.
Sarah, what was your favorite bike out of these four?
- So I think that I really liked the Specialized Epic,
that modern geometry,
really forgiving on traction wise,
it's really efficient.
But the Cannondale Scalpel,
I just thought that the suspension was a little bit more
predictable on longer days.
(Mike Levy hums agreeingly)
And I think it's just the bike that I would feel the most
comfortable with if I had to toe the start line.
- [Mike Levy] Yeah.
- [Sarah] World cup races are really gnarly these days.
You know, (Mike Levy hums agreeingly)
people kind of underestimate what these people are doing
because they're wearing Lycra.
They're not wearing, you know, knee pads
and you don't have a full face, so you think that
the terrain is too easy.
(Mike Levy hums agreeingly)
Canyon Lux,
probably not my first choice, a little bit more, you know,
not quite as easy to ride on the steeper stuff.
The traction is not quite as good.
I mean, if I wanted to go ride a nine mile hill intervals,
maybe that's the bike I would choose,
but it's not my favorite thing to do, so...
- So Sarah, that leads into the next question.
Out of all these bikes, was the Lux as your least favorite?
- Yeah. For a couple of things.
I think that suspension was just not as active,
it didn't use that a 100 millimeters of travel really well.
I really felt like I was kind of beaten up each time
I went out on that bike.
Handlebar's really narrow, it just didn't feel monitored,
had that really long stem,
and then that lockout combination with the dropper posts,
(Mike Levy hums agreeingly)
also just really frustrating to ride it. So,
yeah, I think Canyon Lux is an easy one that, for me,
that I don't, you know, I don't really want to spend
more time on that bike.
- So Scalpel's your favorite,
the Lux maybe your least favorite,
or definitely your least favorite,
but is there any of these bikes
that you want to spend some more time on?
Say you felt like you're kind of starting to figure it out,
but need a little bit more time to really dive into it?
- Yes. I think that Specialized Epic,
I'm really excited about it and I think that
just because I've been doing back-to-back testing
with all of these other bikes, the brain just takes a
little bit more time (Mike Levy hums agreeingly)
to get used to and also if you're riding it,
you know, on its own, it'll be easier to get used to
instead of going back and forth
with more traditional, full suspension bikes.
- So Sarah, the Epic versus the Scalpel,
the geometry numbers aren't that far off,
but the Epic does have that Brain feature
that kind of the inertia valve, basically,
that gives it a different feel.
Is that where you felt like, kind of, made you pick
the scalpel over the Epic?
- Yeah, I think it's awesome that the Brain,
that you don't have to think,
and you don't have to use a lockout ever.
It's a super clean handlebar.
And then, yeah, when you're really tired,
you don't really want to have to remember to unlock
your suspension before you go into a downhill,
something technical, definitely been in the situation
where you get to the top of a hill
and then forget to unlock it,
and then halfway down the hill, you're like,
I am really extra sketchy on my cross country bike,
which was hard enough to ride in the first place.
So if you don't have to think about that, that's awesome.
So I think the Specialized Brain
does a lot of things right and I look forward to
spending more time on it.
- Which was the fastest bike out of these?
And that's, let's say factor in the efficiency,
based off the efficiency test
and just your overall lap time, which was the fastest?
- On the efficiency test, the Canyon Lux
was the fastest out of all of these bikes.
Specialized Epic was six seconds slower, I think,
if we remember correctly. - [Mike Levy] Yup, Yup.
- And so on the time lapse,
it was interesting,
'cause it was almost like complete flip of that.
(Mike Levy hums agreeingly)
So the Canyon Lex was actually my slowest on the time lap,
and then the Specialized tied for second place, and it was
the Cannondale Scalpel that, - [Mike Levy] Yeah.
- [Sarah] with that - [Mike Levy] Yeah.
- [Sarah] really active forgiving suspension,
that was fastest on our pretty technical Rudy test course.
- Yeah, I think that's a good example
of some real world testing,
you know, that Fireroad Climb that we use for
the efficiency test,
it's not, I mean, it's out there in the real world,
but it's not really how it is and it won that test.
But on our time loop or on single track,
it's tricky, it's slippery.
It didn't fare so well. (Sarah hums agreeingly)
Yeah - [Sarah] And that's where
like you're going to make out more time on a cross country
race is on the stuff - [Mike Levy] Right.
- [Sarah] that's, you know,
a little bit - [Mike Levy] Yeah.
- [Sarah] more difficult.
- Now you've got to kind of really experience,
these are all these bikes are built as
World Cup capable race bikes,
where do you see the future of this going?
Like, do you think kind of the more forgiving bikes
are the future, you know, dropper posts
and that type of thing?
It's kind of like the category that
Levy's going to be talking about,
but do you think there's certain things in
all of these four bikes that really stand out that
you really liked, as far as where this is going?
- You know, the Canyon and the Trek Supercaliber,
we might see them getting a little bit
slacker head tube angles, a little bit longer reach.
But I don't think we're going to see, you know,
drastic changes in this category because it's racers.
- [Mike Levy] Yep.
- They're, you know, tried and true,
but I mean there's tons, like athletes,
that are superstitious.
If you've been winning on one bike,
do you want it - [Mike Levy] Right.
- to be totally different?
And also like a mass start race,
you do still need that nimble handling.
When you're like 160 people in
(Mike Levy hums agreeingly)
some of those men's races,
like 85 and a 100 women in the women's field,
you need to be able to like wind through people,
make quick decisions, and you know,
a shorter bike is gonna better at that.
- So we've got your favorite, your least favorite,
the one you wanna spend some more time on,
but was there a bike that surprised you?
What was the bike that you went in with a few
preconceived notions and it really surprised you
when you actually took it out on the trail?
- I say that Cannondale Scalpel.
I did not expect to come out of this and have that one
(Mike Levy hums agreeingly)
be my favorite bike out of all of them.
And then, I mean, as a category like overall,
I was surprised that I felt as comfortable as I did,
you know, riding the descents on these.
You know, 10 years ago when I raced cross country races,
I was not as comfortable (Mike Levy laughs)
on the descents,
- [Mike Levy] Very different times now.
- Liked different bikes, much shorter.
And so we look at these bikes now and you know,
if you're riding a trail bike or an enduro bike,
you're like, "Whew, those are, you know, dated numbers."
But if you look at cross country, race bikes 10 years ago,
(Mike Levy hums agreeingly)
like we should have been wearing like full faces
and knee pads. - Right?
(all three laugh)
- Putting our life on the line.
Every time we would go - Exactly!
- to a race.
- [Sarah] Yeah, yeah. So these bikes just feel,
as a category,
so much more comfortable and you're in control.
- All right, so that is it for the round table discussion
for the cross country race bikes in our field test.
I'm going to tape Kaz to my bike
and I think we're going to go for a ride together,
a little tandem ride.
Are you okay with that Kaz?
I'm going to put some Lycra-- - That sounds great to me.
I want to be the front.
I'm gonna put some Lycra on. (Sarah laughs)
All right. Let's hit it.
(energetic music)