Dave Taylor

Rex kwan Do
So just curious, how fo you weigh it? With or without pedals/bottle cages? Do you trim bars , seatpost and steerer tube? How much stans do you use? I am happy with mine so far but want to shave a bit more. I am using ergo grips which are heavier, 4 oz sealant in each tire, bottle cage, pedals and uncut parts. I am dead even on 23 with an xl frame on my top fuel.
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Finished up everything last night, pedaled the bike around the driveway....Went back in the garage and flipped the stem
@pearl that better?
AUriRhX.jpg


Initial impressions in my driveway...Wow do 760 bars feel ridiculous on an XC bike, holy hell does this bike accelerate...full sprint (dual) lockout...not sure I see the point in this, but ill try it out on the trail.

First ride today, cant wait.
 

Dave Taylor

Rex kwan Do
Finished up everything last night, pedaled the bike around the driveway....Went back in the garage and flipped the stem
@pearl that better?
AUriRhX.jpg


Initial impressions in my driveway...Wow do 760 bars feel ridiculous on an XC bike, holy hell does this bike accelerate...full sprint (dual) lockout...not sure I see the point in this, but ill try it out on the trail.

First ride today, cant wait.
Lookin sexy
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
So just curious, how fo you weigh it? With or without pedals/bottle cages? Do you trim bars , seatpost and steerer tube? How much stans do you use? I am happy with mine so far but want to shave a bit more. I am using ergo grips which are heavier, 4 oz sealant in each tire, bottle cage, pedals and uncut parts. I am dead even on 23 with an xl frame on my top fuel.
I weighed it with pedals, XTRs which are stupid heavy, but indestructible..so I deal with the added weight.
No bottle cages yet...I need to order some of those side loading ones...I almost never use bottles, so I havent gotten around to it.
4 oz of stans in each tire as they are new
Havent trimmed the bars, the seat post I think I trimmed back in 2011 when I put it on my old scalpel. I cant remember.
I also have my stages power meter on it which is a good bit heavier then the standard hollowgram sisl crankarm, as is this stem and left steerer compared to the OPI which ill put on it next week.
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Ti King Cage, in/out either side. Never drop a bottle.

I was about to like this...then I saw the price...$60 each? Not happening. I have no doubt that they are a wonderful product, but I cant justify that kind of money for bottle cages. I have honestly never purchased a bottle cage for any bike I have owned...I just use whats laying around. Carbon origin 8 cage on my scalpel came with my road bike IIRC.
 

JDurk

Well-Known Member
I've found them on-line cheaper than the $60 that King Cage charges. I bought one from him in-person at the Philly Bike Expo for $40.
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
I was about to like this...then I saw the price...$60 each? Not happening. I have no doubt that they are a wonderful product, but I cant justify that kind of money for bottle cages. I have honestly never purchased a bottle cage for any bike I have owned...I just use whats laying around. Carbon origin 8 cage on my scalpel came with my road bike IIRC.
Get the steel ones, the ti are like 3 grams lighter.
 

Dave Taylor

Rex kwan Do
I was about to like this...then I saw the price...$60 each? Not happening. I have no doubt that they are a wonderful product, but I cant justify that kind of money for bottle cages. I have honestly never purchased a bottle cage for any bike I have owned...I just use whats laying around. Carbon origin 8 cage on my scalpel came with my road bike IIRC.
I have an xtra King Ti if you want. $40 @UtahJoe
I
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Ya, finally, first ride! It occurred to me...I haven't ridden a "new" bike that was mine...2012 I think. Anyway

cYckREL.jpg


First, I must say that I have been riding my old scalpel for 5 years...and quite frankly, I love it...Even though mine is beat to death and many of its parts have 13,000 miles on it...including the lefty...But other than it getting worn down, I really havent had this feeling like "omg, I need something new and improved" as I did back when I used to torture myself racing a hardtail back in 08-09. I was actually more worried that they were going to screw this bike up and make it all fun, no XC....2 years ago I talked to Matt Timmerman and Jeremy (cant remember his last name) who are cannondale engineers and brought a couple of the prototypes to the Stewart 45 race...Jokingly I was saying to them..."The current bike is the best XC bike I have ever ridden...not sure how you are going to make it better, but please dont screw it up. :)"

Getting on it...you sit and feel a little different on it than the old scalpel...The front wheel more out in front and you feel more like you are on a trail bike than an xc bike.
First part of my ride was along the river, which is super rooted...but mostly flat....This to me is why you ride a FS XC bike...just pedal, as hard as you want, your back doesnt mind...I sit in my seat and drink coffee, the suspension takes care of the bumps. But this section jumped out at me. This 2.0 wow, it is SMOOTH. I know its a little heavier than the old XLR, but its just in a different league in terms of feel and how it deals with small bumps.

There is a small rise that has some roots, at speed you can jump it...I dont really like jumping the old scalpel...it just feels a little awkward...Steep head angle, low bars....for me, I dont like it. This bike is like the complete opposite. I loaded up the rear suspension, hit the root and just popped over it as i would on my trigger...I just dont do this stuff on the old bike too often or as effortlessly.

Next is a flat and smooth section of double track...just pedaling it flat out...cant say I noticed much of a difference other than the wide bar and higher/shorter stem have me not in my typical XC pedaling position...But felt about the same holding the bike at like 20mph...Which is good, bc I dont care how good an XC bike goes over jumps, if it doesnt pedal well, its useless. Suspension didnt move that I could notice....

After that is a fire road climb...I tried the dual lockout...after about 50 yards, I unlocked it...Which was better imo. Cockpit is a little tall yet, but it felt just like my old bike uphill...fast, zero suspension bob, and when the ground is a little rough...you can pedal right though it...Rear wheel does not bounce around, move offline, or lose traction. This is why the dual lockout doesnt make much sense to me...I understand why they do it...many courses (not around here) have uphills that are perfectly smooth, so having the rearend locked is no issue...Plus, having two separate lockouts for the front and rear is a little much if you also have a dropper lever too.....But where I ride, I have very little use for it. When you are pedaling uphill, seated...this is when you want your suspension. If it is designed with pedaling in mind, you dont need a lockout. Plus, when you have the rear locked, all of those hit are still being taken by the rear suspension, but rather than the shock, now the bearing and anything else that flexes. This bike, like the old one, does not need a rear lock out.

Then I hit the white trail which is a series of fast flowy turns that im usually pedaling through most of...Loved my old scalpel here...some long sweeping turns that really test the front end grip. I had to remember I have been using my trigger alot lately with a 2.5 minion on the front...going back to a 2.25 RR...have to do it a little differently. Bike was great here, changed direction super fast...there is a spot in one of the turns that has a big root with a tire wide gap in it...with my old scalpel I can always change direction, rotate the the bike upright aim and hit that gap perfectly...then quickly return to the turn....its effortless...I did this trail twice...Once I shot this little gap like I would usually do...second time I just wheelied over it. That was something that I remembered...like it will do both well...My old scalpel, ehh...its ok, I never feel like its "playful"

Then finally I got to some more rocky and downhill bits....This is where this bike just parts company with the old scalpel. Its substatially better...the 2.0 vs the old XLR...Its just no comparison downhill....The XLR was unbelievable when you compared it to SIDs that were being made 5 years ago...And even though I still think its better than most of the XC stuff that is out there...this 2.0 is so rock solid, I felt almost as confident with it as I do with the 140 supermax on my trigger...which is like a motorcycle fork. On this peticular fire road section....with the old scalpel I have to go slower than i would with my trigger....Im not so sure with this bike. And like my trigger, I feel comfortable leaning back and jumping the bike over sections of rough trail. Its a really cool combination...bc the bike is ~9lbs lighter than my trigger, so I can really move it around easily.

Really I think they nailed the intention... The bike still does the xc stuff my old scalpel does, but it's now way way more fun downhill... I didn't get a chance to try it out in anything technical, I'll have to report back when I do. Only things I really would change is the lockout... And the bars is too wide.

I'll have more as I ride it in some other terrain... But so far, love it
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
The other missed opportunity for race day savings is you flush you BB with oil for race day. Less drag and the oil is 0.002 grams lighter than the grease.
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
The other missed opportunity for race day savings is you flush you BB with oil for race day. Less drag and the oil is 0.002 grams lighter than the grease.
Remove rotor bolts...like 4 of 6.

I did do a couple more rides this week with the bike. After the second ride I could not deal with the stock stem, even flipped down...just too high, too short for pedaling for me. I stole the OPI stem off my original scalpel, much better
0pmvabB.jpg


After you get over the "omg new bike factor" I started making some small tweaks to the suspension, etc. Its funny because with my old scalpel, every tweak I made with it was always to make it a little better downhill...pedaling/turning, it was always excellent. This bike is the opposite. Its great downhill, other then drop 10psi out of the lefty from where I set it, I haven't touched anything else.

I hammered a few segments at DMR last night...which to me anyway...This is when you should test the handling and "how it feels" of your XC bike...Not when you are fully rested...How does it feel when you are in race mode and exhausted...your skills are a bit more dull as your body is draping over the bike. This bike over the old one...After doing a hard climb and you transition into a downhill with your hr maxed...blows the old scalpel away here...I feel much more comfortable downhill. I hit 3 segments pretty hard and actually tied my PR on all 3, which I thought was funny. All were a mix of up and down hill. Happy with that, one is 7min long and that was the first hard effort of that length I have done since ~july. Powering up climbs..Cant say I notice much of a difference, which is good, bc the old bike did that perfectly.

I did give the full sprint lock out a few more chances...seated climbing, I cant stand...However, the few spots were I wanted to stand, its pretty nice. Of course you have to be care not to spin the rear wheel, but that aside, makes a big difference. Dont need it, but ill probably use it once in a while

My only real issue with the bike is the 760 bars, I cant seem to get used to them. They will probably be fine on my trigger, but with the lower/longer stem...I cant get myself into the right position on climbs and turns. There is actually such a thing as bars being too wide.

Bonus...I got my parts yesterday to put the front magura mt-8 on (180 rotor)...Mounted it up, cut line, reassembled...didnt have to bleed it..sweet!

Im bringing it to short track if anyone wants to take it for a test spin. You break it, you buy it.
 

JDurk

Well-Known Member
other then drop 10psi out of the lefty from where I set it, I haven't touched anything else.

When I first got my 2.0 XLR with old wave washer/coil spring, running at recommended pressure resulted in a quick loss of travel from 3-4 rides which was solved by manual bearing resets. Even though it's supposed to be self resetting by occasionally bottoming out a few time a ride, it never happened because I wasn't getting full travel. Experimented with pressures, included 20psi less than recommended, nothing changed.

Had the 2 spring update, removed all the volume spacers, now running about 5psi less than recommended and it's performed totally different and better. Bottoming out during a ride still doesn't eliminate the need for bearing resets. I still do them manually, just not as often.
 
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