- To a degree.
- All drop!
- Reducing, all drop!
- All drop!
- All drop.
(upbeat Hip Hop)
(music fades)
- Hi, my name is Henry.
And welcome to the "Pinkbike Field Test".
We're here in Sun Peaks in BC,
and we've got some of the latest and greatest Enduro bikes,
and we are here to compare them.
This is the 170 mm Transition Spire.
And although it's a long load geometry screams slugger,
it has a poise and immobility that could surprise many
but we'll get onto that in good time.
Of course, the Spire isn't the first long travel
29 up from transition.
There is also the Sentinel, which many of you
might be familiar with.
The Sentinel however, now in a second generation,
still doesn't come near this, when we talk about
low long geometry.
Whereas the Sentinel has 150 mm of rear wheel travel.
This bruiser has 170 mm and transition claim,
combines a mid travel efficiency
with downhill bike capability.
Speaking of geometry, this bike with a 63° head angle
is slacker than a substitute teacher going through
a difficult divorce.
And that's not even touching the flip chip,
which takes a further half a degree off.
Now half a degree Isn't a massive change, but it is notable
on a bike that is already so slack.
The seat tube on the other hand is incredibly steep
at over 78°.
If you were to ride this bike in its high setting,
which to be honest is the one I prefer.
You'd be riding the bike in the small, medium and large
with 446 mm chainstays.
If you were riding the XL or XXL, you'd add an extra six mm
to that for a whopping four, five, two rear end.
The large on test here has a reach of 480 millimeters
and it's 1.5 inch straight head tube,
means you've got loads of options.
Should you wanna go tinkering with reach
or angle adjust headsets.
Now if you please, let's transition onto the suspension.
So this bike here uses the brand's GiddyUp system.
This is essentially a four bar that delivers 170 mm
of travel.
It does so via a 65 mm stroke on a 230 eye-to-eye
trion mounted shock.
The giddy up suspension uses 23% progression
over the bike's entire stroke.
On the front of the bike, there is a rock shock Z ultimate
with a charger two damper that has 170 mm of travel.
We're here in beautiful Sun Peaks to test to this bike.
And on that hill, we've got every type of trail
that you could hope to find.
So it's time to see how the Transition Spire stacks up
against its contemporaries.
(dreamy music)
All right Matt, Henry.
You guys have been lapping the shit out of the Spire
up in the sun peaks bike park for a while now,
but first we have to talk about climbing
and you guys also did a bunch of that.
So my question to you is the Spire, it's the longest
slackest bike here.
It's also the lowest bike here.
Let's talk handling first, slow tight trails.
Is that thing a handful?
'Cause it looks like it would be.
- It was definitely rescued by the steep seat tube angle,
it's a capable climber.
The things that make it for me, when I rode on the descent,
man it gave us such, you know, great small warm sensitivity.
- [Mike] Mm-Hm.
- [Henry] Kind of came back to bite you in the ass
in the climbs a bit and it did have you reaching
for the climb switch.
- Alright so Henry why is this bike relatively manageable?
Much more so than the numbers might suggest.
- [Henry] Primarily it's very light and that absolutely
plays a factor.
- [Mike] Okay.
- [Henry] It's not the be on and end.
There's no reason to bite why performance should go
hand in hand with lightweight.
- [Mike] Mm-hm.
- But on the climb, it does help.
Like I said the reach of it, which isn't excessively long
at 480.
It is rescued by that steeper seat tube angle
and it just, it's very balanced bike.
- [Mike] So Henry, you mentioned that it didn't feel
all that efficient on the trail,
but when it came to the efficiency test,
it was the second fastest.
- Yeah.
- Now the caveat here is that the efficiency test
is on a smooth gravel road.
- [Henry] Mm-Hmm.
- [Mike] So why do you think it might not have felt
like that on the trail?
- Well, how bike pedals, like I said
in the smooth gravel road, potentially at a high cadence,
where you're not having to time or anything,
is gonna be different to when you are you know,
slugging up some single track.
- [Mike] Throwing your weight around stabbing at the pedals,
trying to get up and over something, right?
- [Matt] Yeah, exactly.
- Exactly, I mean it's not that it felt awful
but there was a definite pedal bop at the beginning
of the stroke.
- Yup.
- We're gonna come back to how that affects light
on the descents and it is actually a big positive.
- [Mike] Yeah.
- [Henry] But I'd be lying if I didn't say I wasn't reaching
for that climb switch pretty quickly.
As soon as it pointed up hill.
- Interesting, I'd like you to compare the Spire
to the Norco range and that range weighs
a little over 37 pounds.
It's quite a bit heavier than the Spire.
It also has an idler pulley, much like the GT.
And I think you mentioned that it didn't really feel
all that efficient, that the chain feeding up
through the idler.
So if you had to do a lot of climbing, but you wanted
a long travel bike.
Is the Spire the bike or is there another bike
in our fleet here That makes sense?
- Yeah, you know we have the carbon Spire on test
so it is light at 32 pounds.
And then compared to the two idler bikes,
the GT and the Norco.
Once you get into those top three gears,
that cadence of like ratcheting over like the 12
and six position is a lot more noticeable.
- Mm-hm.
- On the transition. Like it's a lightweight bike.
And like Henry said, "once you have
the climb switch flipped, it's pretty agile
and goes up the hill fast".
(upbeat Hip Hop)
Alright guys, the climbing is behind us.
Thank God.
It's time to descend.
- Mm-Hm.
- Henry one thing that you said to me a couple of times
actually over the past couple weeks was how quickly
you got on with the Spire.
You said "it felt like home right away".
Why do you think that is?
- I think it's just similar to the Norco actually.
- [Mike] Mm-Hmm.
- [Henry] It's just kind of you know simple good ingredients
cooked well, it's nothing too crazy.
Everything's where you want it.
The handlebars are a sensible shape, straight from the off.
- Mm-hm.
- Which for me is important.
And you know there are things like for instance,
the GT, which once to get used to it it's a great bike,
but it does have a particular characteristic we'll get into
when we get into that review, that it does just take
a little bit of adapting.
- Mm-Hm.
- [Henry] Maybe it's indicative of the bikes I'm normally
used to riding.
I've spent a good chunk of time on our bike from last year
I specialized in Jury before coming here.
But for whatever reason the transition I just got on it,
everything was how I expected and everything just worked.
It was great.
- [Mike] Right, okay.
Okay, I'm gonna come back to you Henry,
because we're gonna talk about some suspension stuff
real soon but first I wanna talk about downhill timing.
Matt, you did all of that.
Where did the transition end up?
- [Matt] It was a 2:50:76 and it felt fast on the trail.
It was you know, really light.
It was very central in the geometry or in the wheel base
of the bike.
And it felt quick in and out of the turns.
But I think it was just a little bit longer
and maybe the track was a bit flatter,
just for the geometry of the bike.
So even though I felt comfortable on it,
it wasn't necessarily the quickest to pump
in and out of things.
- Yep.
- [Matt] I had a tough time finding that like
perfect shock pressure.
- [Mike] Yep.
- [Matt] It was like a little bit harsh, maybe not as bad
as the YT.
But certainly not like a magic carpet, like the Norco.
- Okay alright.
So speaking of a little bit harsh.
- Mm-hm.
- Could you speak to that a little bit?
- I would say we had very different, this is the one bike.
You know normally diagrams are liking it.
- Yeah.
- Perfect eclipse.
This is the one where we didn't quite have the same,
you know eye to eye on how the transition felt.
- [Mike] Mm-Hmm.
- [Henry] I would say I found it to be, you know,
great small and compliance that's with you.
You know I found that, to the point where
the small bump compliance, was so ample.
I was actually dialing in the external low speed
compression.
- [Mike] Okay.
- [Henry] Just to slow the shaft speed down because it felt
like you know that initial bit of free fall.
- [Mike] Yep.
- [Henry] As you're get in those flutters.
- [Mike] Yep.
- [Henry] And just to make the bike feel a bit more stable.
- Okay Matt, let's talk about the kind of terrain
that the Spire best suits.
Is this something that is gonna be at home
on like the gnarliest steepest stuff?
Or is this a bike that's maybe more well rounded,
regardless of what those numbers say?
- Yeah, you know it's really light,
but it definitely has close to downhill bike geometry.
So you're gonna be able to like comfortably ride,
you know smooth flow trails but it's really gonna shine
when you point it down the nasty stuff.
- All right, Henry.
- [Henry] When you all go through the rough stuff
and you know, you do, those breaks a bit, get on the breaks.
It doesn't have that super kind of, high in its travel feel.
- [Mike] Mm-hmm.
- [Henry] It does hunker down.
Like I said I really like that, It feels a very stable work
to me.
- Alright let's talk about the front of the bike
before we move on.
What's the story with that 170 mm Z?
- [Matt] I really liked the small bump compliance,
it had really good ramp, good midstroke, yeah
quite enjoyable.
(smooth piano music)
- So I guess the Z would be our first component high.
Henry, do you have a component low for me
to balance that out?
- [Mike] It it's not the end of the world,
but basically due to some supply chain problems.
- [Mike] Mm-hm.
- The large currently,
comes with a shorter seat post than it will do
in the future.
How in the future, It's gonna come with a 210.
Now I believe it comes with only a 180--
- You're wait, you can't have it as a con.
- Hear me out, I can have it as a con
because that's not what the they wanted.
They didn't want to, I don't care.
- Yeah.
- They didn't want it. (laughing)
- I'm just saying 180 is plenty. (laughing)
- But what's cool about the system they're using, you know,
they're using OneUp and you can shim those down and travel.
I think the idea being that basically you have no...
you have the post fully into the frame
and then you can actually sort of fine-tune to a degree.
- All drop!
- Reducing it all drop!
- All drop!
- All drop.
- Matt, you mentioned the 165 mm cranks a couple times.
- Yeah you know what, on a bike like this,
I really like them, but I think some people might find them
a little stubby you know like--
- I mean the bottom bracket is this high off the ground
though Matt.
- For sure.
It's a con and a pro so it's which way you look at it.
- Yeah I mean on a bike like this with,
and it sounds a bit cheesy to say, we have a lot of times
people say "it's like a downhill bike, even though
it's an Enduro bike".
Most of the time, it's a little bit nonsense.
This actually could be a real downhill bike.
Why not have downhill length cranks on it?
- Right, we should also actually mention
something about the frame that's pretty interesting.
- [Matt] Yeah.
- [Henry] It can take a dual grand fork, like the Norco
and it absolutely merits one.
- Yeah, and it has that full 56 top and bottom cup.
So you can play with the reach extension or angle sets.
If you wanted to go maybe a little bit steeper,
if that was too crazy for crazy for you.
- Yeah and what I also really like about that transition,
a big component high for me is it's got 220 mm on the front.
- For sure.
- Bang for like, bang for buck, in terms of like pound
for pound, how to make a brake's performance,
or bikes performance better.
Bigger rotors are just so easy, why not?
(bright piano music)
- Let's move on to models and pricing,
Transition actually offers the Spire in both an aluminum
and a carbon version.
You could save about $1,100 if you go
with that aluminum version.
But there's also a GX bike and...
- An XT bike.
So to keep track of what's going on, on test we have
the $6,000 carbon GX.
So that's not the one with the XT--
- What kind of drivetrain does it have?
- Yeah.
(laughing)
Yeah right!
So that's the alloy SLX version.
- Yeah. (laughing)
- Only joking, this is of course the carbon GX.
So there is a version higher,
which basically comes with kind of Fox Factory.
- [Mike] Mm-hm.
- As well as Shimano XT.
This one, I know it's got a pretty solid spec.
Wouldn't you say Matt?
- Yeah, I would agree.
I didn't find that anything held it back.
It had really nice breaks, Code RSCs, had the Eagle
so big range there.
Nice dropper post, lots of tuning on the suspension.
Yeah, kind of well rounded.
- Alight well, I'm gonna throw my hat into the ring
with this because the aluminum version,
sounds damn impressive to me.
You save $1100.
- [Henry] Yeah.
- [Mike] And you're getting that geometry
and the suspension,
that really make the bike what it is.
Of course the frame's gonna be, you know a pound and a half
or something heavier.
I don't actually know the exact numbers,
but it's gonna be heavier.
But I mean it's gonna handle the same.
- Yeah, I mean it starts from basically $3,800 as well.
- Yeah.
- So I mean it actually represents, kind of okay Values,
can be a capable bike bang on geometry,
that's not just gonna be good this year,
but in years to come I think as well.
(bright piano music)
- Alright on to pros and cons, Henry, you get pros
this time.
What did you like?
- You know, I really liked the geometry.
And predominantly, and it's something we've
been talking about all week, you know, from bike to bike.
It's something, it's a bike that just really fit me
and that can't be understated.
You can have all the fanciest bits hung off the frame
but if the frame doesn't give you confidence
and make you feel like it fits you.
- Mm.
- For me with that, you know long front end, you know,
that long front center that slack head angle
and steep seat tube angle, It just like a glove.
- Yeah, you also mentioned the spec couple times
over the last couple weeks too.
- Yeah, I think it's really sensibly speced bike.
Hasn't got the carbon rims or anything like that--
- Unridable!
(laughing)
- It doesn't need it.
It's got powerful breaks, good suspension, good drive train.
- Right.
- Doing the basic for it.
(bright synth music)
- Matt, you've got cons this time.
- Yeah, just a couple.
The extra break rooting, you know may suit some people,
don't really do a lot of break or frame swapping
anymore these days.
So I would like to see that tucked inside.
And then the other thing would be the geometry
it's pretty extreme, so it's not gonna suit riders
everywhere like some of the other bikes on test.
And you really have to push it to get up to speed
so for that reason, if you live in a place
where it's a bit flatter or you're not like really
on your game that day, it could feel a little bit unlively.
(upbeat Jazz)
- So in light of all that, what type of rider
should be considering this Spire?
- I mean, I think somebody that ends up
considering the spire will probably be looking
at bikes like the Norco as well.
I think the Spire is a really good bike for someone
that almost always pedals and occasionally rides lifts,
where someone that rides the Norco is perhaps
the other way around.
I think the transition's just a great bike
to kind of do a roll on, make righter.
And also if you want to kind of get a bit serious,
you can do that too.
- All right that is our review of transition's
all new 170 millimeter Travel Spire.
Stay tuned for a whole bunch of more reviews.
Make sure you subscribe to the channel
so you don't miss any of them.
And we'll see you next video.
(upbeat Jazz)
(music fades)