I can't decide

What bike should I get?

  • Kona Coilair

    Votes: 1 3.7%
  • Santa Cruz Nomad

    Votes: 17 63.0%
  • Turner RFX

    Votes: 7 25.9%
  • Trek Remedy

    Votes: 2 7.4%

  • Total voters
    27

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
trek has never been my deal but the new remedy is getting a ton of good press and hype. I voted for the Nomad because santa cruz always has good looking bikes but I can't speak for durability and such.
 

mattybfat

The Opinion Police
Team MTBNJ Halter's
nomad

This is only my biased opinion since I own one but do check mtbr santa cruz foums to get all pros and cons. Mine is a first gen, and the nomad2 has been tweaked a little, bought mine with dhx-air and dumped it rightway,now running canecreek db coil. This truly made the bike work great. I know a garage dealer who sells santa cruz bikes for a great price pm me if this is the bike you go with.
 

Mare

Well-Known Member
I voted for Santa Cruz because I own a SC and it is so fun to ride :) Well, more than that, but it all boils down to the fun factor eventually.
 

don

Well-Known Member
I voted RFX. The Remedy has some very interesting points like the axle pivot suspension and the 1.5 lower on the headset but Trek just isn't my thing. I can't get to like the Nomad gas-tank top tube although I do like Santa Cruz as a whole.

Not sure which RFX you are thinking - according to the Turner site the DW one isn't coming out until 2010. I wonder if a 5 Spot might be able to work for you. Or look for a used RFX which I think would be a great buy.
 

mattybfat

The Opinion Police
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I really like this color over my ano gray

nomad_large.jpg
 

syadasti

Wet Rag
The 2nd generation (current) VPP bikes from SC and Intense are a lot better. Their old engineer didn't really have much of a clue, did stupid things like styling the TT like a gas tank because he liked Ducati motocycles, and the bikes didn't perform significantly different/better than their old single pivot counter parts but it did give them a means to justify a higher profit (a typical strategy that works very well in the cycling industry)

Now that they have a guy that really knows what he's doing, its a good option.

The RFX is a well proven bike with top quality construction and customer service. Its grease ports are nice and they don't stick out waiting to get damaged and require a huge grease gun (see SC). There is a huge very knowledgeable Turner community on MTBR with great aftermarket support.

As far as the Trek goes, it looks like a great design but its way overpriced for 2009 especially for a bike from Asia. I guess they were jealous of Specialized's success with fooling people so they had to try it themselves.

According to this guy on RM, the air shock on it isn't very good. I would not buy a DHX Air though, they also suck with minimal mid range damping (that's the reason Trek has the new dual stage shock on the GF Roscoe)

I owned a Remedy for about 4 months. I took everything off of it and put my own parts spec. The Air shock blows!!!! Make sure to switch it over to a Coil shock or something like a DHX 5.0 Air. You will need a 7.875 Eye to Eye 2.25" stroke shock.
 

Steve Vai

Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
I know the Trek is Uber-expensive and mainstream but, that new suspension setup is really sick. I've ridden the Fuel EX with this design and I was super-impressed at how incredibly well it rode. Having said that, I've also always been a fan of the VPP bikes as well and am equally impressed with the Blur LT2. The latter may be a better comparison to the other bikes than the Nomad. I wouldn't be able to choose between an LT2 and a Remedy, they're both awesome bikes.

-Jim.
 

mattybfat

The Opinion Police
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Not to make this a nomad vs. rfx debate because both are great bikes and mtbr has plenty of the vrs. debate. As far as grease ports unless you like to grind high curbs you may have a shot a breaking them and personally if I see lockout on rear shock on six inch bike it means lack of rear suspension design. SC single pivot bike (heckler) is still there biggest seller and most copied to date (rush). Just my 2 cents.:rolleyes:
 

syadasti

Wet Rag
None of these bikes are typically equipped with lockout so I don't get your point?

If you are talking about Propedal, its not a lockout its compression damping and almost all shocks have some form, adjustable or not. Fox sells different tunes and typically DW and VPP bikes need minimal compression damping as its built in to their design. Most mid to high-end builders like SC, Turner, etc offer a choice of shocks which changes over the years for a variety of reasons.

Motorcycles are primarily single pivot linkage designs with the rear shock doing most of the work rather than focusing on suspension design. There are many ways to get a good design.

Today its not as distinct as the early days of FS when there were some clearly faulty designs.

Best to focus on fit and geometry. Also customer service is important and Turner has some of the best. I know from personal experience SC has always been very very slow to fill orders and customer service isn't much quicker.

Note, the last bike bike I bought was a SC (my second SC in fact). I also still own a Turner (my first) and Specialized (my forth). I also have a Gary Fisher (my second Trek product) as a commuter.
 
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mattybfat

The Opinion Police
Team MTBNJ Halter's
That's an RP23 genius, its for turning the propedal on and off - all fox shocks have adjustable propedal and SC specs them too:confused:

Its not a lockout.

you are correct and not into the name calling, pro pedal in realilty is a form of lock out just not in the complete sense. personally I don't feel air shocks work as well on the 5"+ bikes....
 

tommyjay

Not-So-Venerable Asshat
Motorcycles are primarily single pivot linkage designs with the rear shock doing most of the work rather than focusing on suspension design. There are many ways to get a good design.

Um, this isn't an accurate analogy - the % power loss to suspension inefficiency is negligible on even the smallest displacement moto. OTOH, it is (purportedly) a huge deal on bikes - which is what all the fuss about design and shock pedal platform is about.

That's an RP23 genius, its for turning the propedal on and off - all high-end fox shocks have adjustable propedal and SC specs them too:confused:
Its not a lockout.

Agree with your point. Sadly, it (and your credibility) are sullied by the unwarranted name calling.
 
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