Uphill = Walking (Downhill)

Member Name: mr blonde

Product:	Downhill
Date:	19/05/04 (872 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Thought clearing, fitness increase, adrenaline rush

Disadvantages: expensive

Well, I see this is the first review in the downhill section. Now bearing in mind I did a search simply for downhill, and it gave me a link to sports equipment I am assuming it means downhill mountain biking/mtb equipment. If the moderators want to move this review then that's ok, I just wanted to justify myself as regards why I am writing it here that is all.

Firstly I will give a little background information about myself, my bike, general spec, and then I will go into some detail on the relevant parts of the bikes themselves.

I started downhilling properly somewhere in the region of 4/5 years ago on what we call a hardtail, namely the bike had front suspension but not rear. That was a bike I would love to forget, I hammered it and it fell apart, so let's move on. As I said I have been riding DH for around 4/5 years and in that time I have seen many changes in the sport, bikes have just developed more and more to the point where they just shouldn't be classed as ordinary pushbikes anymore.

I recently (6 months ago) bought my latest DH rig, which I will describe in a little while, it is made by a New Zealand based company Keewee, and is a bit of a monster, as you will soon see.

Since I have got into DH I have stuck with it for various reasons, and these aren't necessarily just the usual fun/keep fit reasons. A few people I started riding with don't ride anymore, they either moved onto cars or got bored and just went away and did different things, but I didn't. I have reviewed on here about my family troubles in the past, those troubles in some ways have been ongoing for a few years now, and don't look to be ending any time soon.

Mountain biking has always been my escape, my escape from life really, I got bullied a hell of a lot in school, had family trouble, but when you get on a bike, and you rip down the mountain/trail you can't think about anything except what is directly in
front of you and how you are going to get past that obstacle, if you break your focus you get hurt, it is as simple as that!

I had to open up about why I do this sport to my dad when I was talking about taking the loan out for my new frame, he just didn't understand that it is my way of getting away from all the troubles in my life, and that even if it is just for a couple of hours I can shed all my worries and keep myself sane. That in itself to some is a contradiction, as many say to do downhill you have to be insane in the first place, to me though the sport opens your eyes and makes you look to the future, you do realise quickly, we only have one life, why waste it on day to day existence, as opposed to making yourself live a life where you can say at the end of it, "I didn't just exist, I LIVED".

Now we have my major reason for downhill explained, I shall continue.

The spec of my bike is as follows (with explanations to what it does)

Keewee Cromo8 Downhill frame: This frame is designed with 2 things in mind, taking abuse, and lasting. It is a steel frame, made from 4030 chromoly steel, and has an 8 inch rear suspension shock, which is provided by a Fox Vanilla RC unit. The frame itself has a pretty low centre of gravity as DH bikes go with a bottom bracket height of 14 inches. The low centre of gravity and shock positioning (behind the seat tube, just above the bottom bracket) mean that this bike pedals extremely well with no pedal "bob" and also handles corners like an absolute demon. The back end of this bike tracks over roots/rocks like no bike I have ridden before, it finds grip in lines I didn't think possible in all fairness.

Before continuing, I will explain pedal "bob". This is basically what happens on many full suspension bikes when you pedal, on cheaper bikes you will find that as you pedal all the power you create through pedalling which should create mot
ion, infact goes straight into the rear suspension shock. This will allow you to go forward, but means that it takes more effort to get the bike moving, and also causes the bike to bob as you pedal.

Marzocchi Jnr T Suspension fork: This fork has 7 inches of very plush travel, it soaks up big hits and has saved my behind a couple of times from crashing. The travel that this bike as a whole possesses allows you to get away with many a mistake, and these forks are a big factor towards that. They will however at some point in the next year or so make way for a set of Marzocchi shivers, which are inverted like many you see on MotoX bikes, they track better than these and are a bit stronger.

Gusset Pigmy 3 piece Cranks: These cranks are one of the best investments I ever made, I had a spell over the course of 2 years where I went through 6 sets of cranks, and 8 bottom brackets, think of it this way, in 2 years I spend in the region of £300 on cranks and bottom brackets. These cranks cost me £110 and have not faltered once, the bearings in the bottom bracket have gone a few times but they cost buttons to replace. Steel is the way to go in downhill, that much I am convinced of. Accompanying the cranks is a single 38 tooth chainring. Again the single chainring is designed to be strong (10mm thick to be precise). For downhill there is no need for masses of gears so the ?granny? and outer rings become redundant.

Sun Doublewides on Hope Big Un hub: This is a bombproof wheel set, well it will be when I buy the back one when I get paid hehehe. Super strong wheel set, the rims are absolutely massive at about 37mm wide, you have to have a minimum of a 2.35 inch tyre to fit the rim, bearing in mind most wheels take UP TO about a 2.4 inch tyre, that?s a big rim.

Hope M4 Hydraulic Disc Brakes: Front and rear, these things could stop a train, which in this sport is exactly what you need, you may not brake often but generally when you do
you need to stop sharpish!! I always think that the product name ?Hope? is a little bit of an irony.

Answer Pro Taper Riser Handlebars: These are really strong handlebars, not really much more to say about them though.

Azonic World Force Stem: Short stem CNC machined from a big lump of alloy, nice and strong, nice and short to allow for lots of control in the steering.

Gearing on the bike is supplied by a Shimano Deore rear mech, which is the first rung of the race ladder as regards Shimano gearing, and the gear shifter is a Shimano XT unit. XT is 2nd from highest on the proverbial pecking order with Shimano, very nice little bit of kit and works very well.

I won?t go into detail over the seat, headset and that sort of thing as I don?t really feel that they are worth mentioning (the seat is decent but at the end of the day, it?s only a seat!). I will however give special mention to the one thing that has outlived all of the bikes I have used and abused for a good few years now, my dust caps. They are little plastic skulls that I bought from Delamere bike shop when it was still there, and they are still a part of my bike!!

Well, that is what it takes to build a pretty good downhill bike, you may note that I haven?t mentioned prices, that is simply because they are always open to debate with biking, there is always somewhere you can get parts cheap. Overall though I value my bike at a shade under £2500 but would probably be nearer to £3000 for insurance purposes where all parts would be fully valued!

Sorry if the latter part of this review has been a bit boring, I just thought it would be nice to do a review on downhill equipment . Thanks for reading. Col.

Summary: