The what new bike are you considering thread
- Thread starter Captain Brainstorm
- Start date
Mountain Bike Mike
Well-Known Member
SC Blur TR
Big Dumb Animal
Hippo Nipples' #1 Fan
I demo'd this bike at the festival and it was ridiculous on the rocks. All I have now is a lefty hardtail so obviously I avoid the chunkier stuff going downhill. With the hightower I found myself steering into the gnarly stuff just to see what it could handle and I was not disappointed in the least; it soaked everything up with speed. Satisfied with that I wanted to see how it would climb. Jay told me how good these bikes are at climbing even with 140mm travel but it was another thing to experience it. The Hightower definitely catapulted itself onto my list for next year.
Magic
Formerly 1sh0t1b33r
RSAmerica
Well-Known Member
I bump into those guys all over the place, even up at Kingdom Trails.
Why wouldn't I?
Dave Taylor
Rex kwan Do
I mean I can see like MAYBE an xc fs there but a long travel bike?
So quick review of the hightower from my perspective.....
I did a couple of rides with it over the weekend....1 at wildcat on a loop that I have done countless times over the year and on trails that I know every rock on....the other, TOS to ringwood and back....another that im pretty familiar with.
@jdog set the suspension up for me in the show using the sag and I started there....this is the hightower C...it has a RS lyrik fork, RS super delux shock...Similar to the bronson I borrowed a while back, but a BIT more fancy....This Lyrik has a compresson adjustment and the shock has a climb/descend switch....
I really disliked this fork on the bronson and felt I never could get it working correctly in rougher terrain, so I was interested to see how it would be on this bike.
Off the car...I headed up orange at wildcat, steepish, techincal climb, few tricky spots that i will foul up occasionally....This bike has a 65 deg. head angle compared to the 69 on my trigger...to me this equates to...I can ride my trigger with one hand on the bar and pedal up hill easily, with the hightower, you have to pay a little more attention to keep the front wheel from moving around at low speed uphill.....This was my initial reaction...after 2 rides and 30 miles...I didnt notice it at all. It climbs very well, FAR better traction than my trigger...I dont know if thats the wheelbase, seat angle...whatever...I know the spots in wildcat that on my trigger...I need to make a big effort to clean something...on this bike, it seemed fairly easy. The gearing and that 50T....I think you might be able to pedal straight up the hoover dam. But overall, uphill, I felt like this bike was better than my trigger, and thats important bc as much as i love bombing Dhs, I spend more time pedaling up them....so whatever bike I buy cant suck.
So then I hit the oreland trail down...which starts with a bit of a rocky technical section along a ridge...really where I noticed..wow, this this just rolls thru rocks, like effortlessly....I need to work much harder on my trigger to ride this....after this the trail becomes mostly "less than steep" downhill that is mildly technical with some good flow....if I wanted to have my fastest time on this trail...id bring the scalpel. I got a bit of a feel for how the bike turned here...Its a good bit longer than my trigger, but i didnt feel like it was any more of an effort to turn....You will not mistake it for the bronson, but for a big travel 29er, no complaints...The slacker head angle allows you to really make sharp turns, which makes up for how long this bike is. Im also comparing it to the bronson I rode at kingdom on perfect dirt with berms, compared to a coating of fresh leaves and loose rocks, so its fair to say I could not lean the hightower over like I was doing with the bronson.
I pedaled back up and over to the red trail down to 4 birds up...there is a killer rock garden on this trail that is a great test...even after 10 years of riding it...ill still screw up trying to clean it....This is where this bike shines...man its like effortless in rocks...just pedal and it goes over and thru. Really impressed with this aspect of it.
After this I hit the "new way down"....steep, loose, tight turns, big rocks, narrow....Its tricky to go fast on.....I have two problems with my trigger on this section....I can never get enough rear traction to keep the speed in check on the steep parts, and i need hit the lines JUST RIGHT or I can lose it very quickly....like there is a line thru the rocky sections...I need to stay on it with the trigger + my skills. Soon as i hit the first steep section...I hit the brakes and I was like huh...ITS SLOWING DOWN NOT SKIDDING. Then I proceeded to just bulldoze the rest of this trail....lot of: ok, i dont need to stay right on this line, i can just run over whatever. I dont put much stock in strava times, but in my head just feeling how easily I cleared the rockier bits...I felt like this could have been my fastest time...Strava said, 2 sec off....Made sense to me. This thing is an absolute beast downhill....I immediately starting drooling thinking about what I could do at the glen park enduro with it.
Overall, this was a great test and I left thinking...this bike is better than my trigger at everything...uphill and downhill...so thats good. For a second test, i took it out with @jShort @pooriggy and @Kirt for a TOS to ringwood and back loop. This ride is tough, its technical enough that you want a bigger travel bike, but it also has a shit ton of climbing so your going to pay for it on the way back to the car. Cannonball to red down...Again, this bike is amazing thru rocks and downhill.....this section being up and down I wanted to keep flipping the suspension open and closed...that is REALLY hard to do on this bike with this superdelux shock...The lever is really hard to reach...remote rear shock would do wonders for this bike. We rode up part of warm puppy and while I have done this many times...i think this is the easiest it ever felt...the bike is heavy, but it motors up everything if you just sit in the saddle and pedal. The trigger, i need to do alot of little tricks to make up for the lack of rear traction...like hoping the rear tire around/up standing in just the right spot....Dont need any of that with this bike...just shift down, and pedal. It handled everything really well yesterday....Even the long slog back from ringwood to TOS...at no point did I hate it...I was pretty shot when we hit that long rockgarden to uphill climb on cannonball and I cleared that with ease on this bike....
so overall....I rode it for 4hr40min moving in 2 days, 31 miles and 3700' of climbing. My take aways...
Good:
it paves rock gardens and bashes thru rocky bits like nothing I have ridden before....
the rear traction is outstanding
its handles the slow rolling technical stuff that NJ is full of with ease...climbing warm puppy for example
no pedal strikes that I noticed
I can wheelie it better than my other bikes (I put this here just to make @Ryan.P LOL)
for a 33lb bike, it pedals well uphill
Less good:
The rear shock lockout switch is either god awful, or I have alligator arms. Bc I cant reach it.
Its BIG...So lets say you have a left to right transition and you want to loft the rear wheel and move it over....The bronson does this and make you feel like you are in one of those red bull videos...this bike did not have the quick and nimble feeling the bronson did where you could just toss the rear wheel around...A bit of a fun factor I have noticed with 27.5 bike that I like....I find big 29ers generally lack this. The bike was set up with the BB in the high setting...maybe it would feel a little better switched to low mode.
I suck at jumps and I didnt hit many, but I felt more comfortable jumping the bronson for whatever reason.
I liked this lyrik fork better than what was on the bronson, but it still felt harsh to me and the small bump compliance feels nowhere near as good as my lefty.
Im sold on this on this bike as being something i could easily replace my trigger with, it does everything better and some things WAY better. I do still want to ride something like the bronson in rocks...really I want all the bikes....
Big thanks to @jdog for letting me try this...I do NOT impulse buy bikes...my trigger has 8000 miles on it...so I want to make sure whatever im buying works where I use it.
I did a couple of rides with it over the weekend....1 at wildcat on a loop that I have done countless times over the year and on trails that I know every rock on....the other, TOS to ringwood and back....another that im pretty familiar with.
@jdog set the suspension up for me in the show using the sag and I started there....this is the hightower C...it has a RS lyrik fork, RS super delux shock...Similar to the bronson I borrowed a while back, but a BIT more fancy....This Lyrik has a compresson adjustment and the shock has a climb/descend switch....
I really disliked this fork on the bronson and felt I never could get it working correctly in rougher terrain, so I was interested to see how it would be on this bike.
Off the car...I headed up orange at wildcat, steepish, techincal climb, few tricky spots that i will foul up occasionally....This bike has a 65 deg. head angle compared to the 69 on my trigger...to me this equates to...I can ride my trigger with one hand on the bar and pedal up hill easily, with the hightower, you have to pay a little more attention to keep the front wheel from moving around at low speed uphill.....This was my initial reaction...after 2 rides and 30 miles...I didnt notice it at all. It climbs very well, FAR better traction than my trigger...I dont know if thats the wheelbase, seat angle...whatever...I know the spots in wildcat that on my trigger...I need to make a big effort to clean something...on this bike, it seemed fairly easy. The gearing and that 50T....I think you might be able to pedal straight up the hoover dam. But overall, uphill, I felt like this bike was better than my trigger, and thats important bc as much as i love bombing Dhs, I spend more time pedaling up them....so whatever bike I buy cant suck.
So then I hit the oreland trail down...which starts with a bit of a rocky technical section along a ridge...really where I noticed..wow, this this just rolls thru rocks, like effortlessly....I need to work much harder on my trigger to ride this....after this the trail becomes mostly "less than steep" downhill that is mildly technical with some good flow....if I wanted to have my fastest time on this trail...id bring the scalpel. I got a bit of a feel for how the bike turned here...Its a good bit longer than my trigger, but i didnt feel like it was any more of an effort to turn....You will not mistake it for the bronson, but for a big travel 29er, no complaints...The slacker head angle allows you to really make sharp turns, which makes up for how long this bike is. Im also comparing it to the bronson I rode at kingdom on perfect dirt with berms, compared to a coating of fresh leaves and loose rocks, so its fair to say I could not lean the hightower over like I was doing with the bronson.
I pedaled back up and over to the red trail down to 4 birds up...there is a killer rock garden on this trail that is a great test...even after 10 years of riding it...ill still screw up trying to clean it....This is where this bike shines...man its like effortless in rocks...just pedal and it goes over and thru. Really impressed with this aspect of it.
After this I hit the "new way down"....steep, loose, tight turns, big rocks, narrow....Its tricky to go fast on.....I have two problems with my trigger on this section....I can never get enough rear traction to keep the speed in check on the steep parts, and i need hit the lines JUST RIGHT or I can lose it very quickly....like there is a line thru the rocky sections...I need to stay on it with the trigger + my skills. Soon as i hit the first steep section...I hit the brakes and I was like huh...ITS SLOWING DOWN NOT SKIDDING. Then I proceeded to just bulldoze the rest of this trail....lot of: ok, i dont need to stay right on this line, i can just run over whatever. I dont put much stock in strava times, but in my head just feeling how easily I cleared the rockier bits...I felt like this could have been my fastest time...Strava said, 2 sec off....Made sense to me. This thing is an absolute beast downhill....I immediately starting drooling thinking about what I could do at the glen park enduro with it.
Overall, this was a great test and I left thinking...this bike is better than my trigger at everything...uphill and downhill...so thats good. For a second test, i took it out with @jShort @pooriggy and @Kirt for a TOS to ringwood and back loop. This ride is tough, its technical enough that you want a bigger travel bike, but it also has a shit ton of climbing so your going to pay for it on the way back to the car. Cannonball to red down...Again, this bike is amazing thru rocks and downhill.....this section being up and down I wanted to keep flipping the suspension open and closed...that is REALLY hard to do on this bike with this superdelux shock...The lever is really hard to reach...remote rear shock would do wonders for this bike. We rode up part of warm puppy and while I have done this many times...i think this is the easiest it ever felt...the bike is heavy, but it motors up everything if you just sit in the saddle and pedal. The trigger, i need to do alot of little tricks to make up for the lack of rear traction...like hoping the rear tire around/up standing in just the right spot....Dont need any of that with this bike...just shift down, and pedal. It handled everything really well yesterday....Even the long slog back from ringwood to TOS...at no point did I hate it...I was pretty shot when we hit that long rockgarden to uphill climb on cannonball and I cleared that with ease on this bike....
so overall....I rode it for 4hr40min moving in 2 days, 31 miles and 3700' of climbing. My take aways...
Good:
it paves rock gardens and bashes thru rocky bits like nothing I have ridden before....
the rear traction is outstanding
its handles the slow rolling technical stuff that NJ is full of with ease...climbing warm puppy for example
no pedal strikes that I noticed
I can wheelie it better than my other bikes (I put this here just to make @Ryan.P LOL)
for a 33lb bike, it pedals well uphill
Less good:
The rear shock lockout switch is either god awful, or I have alligator arms. Bc I cant reach it.
Its BIG...So lets say you have a left to right transition and you want to loft the rear wheel and move it over....The bronson does this and make you feel like you are in one of those red bull videos...this bike did not have the quick and nimble feeling the bronson did where you could just toss the rear wheel around...A bit of a fun factor I have noticed with 27.5 bike that I like....I find big 29ers generally lack this. The bike was set up with the BB in the high setting...maybe it would feel a little better switched to low mode.
I suck at jumps and I didnt hit many, but I felt more comfortable jumping the bronson for whatever reason.
I liked this lyrik fork better than what was on the bronson, but it still felt harsh to me and the small bump compliance feels nowhere near as good as my lefty.
Im sold on this on this bike as being something i could easily replace my trigger with, it does everything better and some things WAY better. I do still want to ride something like the bronson in rocks...really I want all the bikes....
Big thanks to @jdog for letting me try this...I do NOT impulse buy bikes...my trigger has 8000 miles on it...so I want to make sure whatever im buying works where I use it.
The Kalmyk
Well-Known Member
SSpeed with XC geo.
I need a mtb bad!
I need a mtb bad!
LukeW
Active Member
I have an SC highball which is a great bike. Playful, fast, light, and climbs like a beast. The blur is the FS sibling of that, similar geometry and component specs. So I can only imagine the capability of my bike with FS and a 110mm fork.
what rack is that?
Rockymounts monorail
Juggernaut
Master of the Metaphor
Simple actually, if you don’t feel like playing in traffic riding it there then you KNOW it’s a good all rounder. 🙂
I like to send it
JerseyPete
Well-Known Member
@UtahJoe , Will Jay set you up with a Pivot Switchblade as well? I am interested in how the two bikes with the same rider and trails compare.
One thing that lacks about "online reviews" is that they don't always ride the trails I do.
I appreciate your write up, even if you are above my riding level.
One thing that lacks about "online reviews" is that they don't always ride the trails I do.
I appreciate your write up, even if you are above my riding level.
I'm guessing the switchblade is comparable to the Hightower... I had thought it was a 27.5, but I see now it's a 29er... I'd love to try one but I don't know if @jdog has one.... Really I wish a pivot and Santa Cruz demo truck would just pull up to Wildcat and I could try all the things.
My biggest back and forth is 27.5 and 29er... I love aspects of both... And if I could I'd buy one of each..
The problem with @UtahJoe is that he wants a 170mm travel trail bike that's as light and climbs like his scalpel.
Can't have your cake and eat it too! ?