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Da Sultan Demo...

2K views 30 replies 19 participants last post by  mtnbikerx 
#1 ·
Ok, so I'm not one for "fads" and thats exactly what I thought the 29er idea was, a fad. For years I non-verbally, secretly, have ridiculed the idea of road sized tires, and have in generaly been dismissive of the whole thing. Now, I began to hear good things from people I trust and respect, so this winter/spring, we got a few 29er demos, Spiders and Sultans, specifically.

I'm not much of an XC rider, in fact, I wasn't much of an XC rider when thats all I did. Since getting bit by the DH/FR bug a few years ago, XC has taken a back seat. However, we are in Maine, and with such a short DH season (its about 45-54 minutes on average, as Maine seems to be the only place on the Earth suffering global cooling...), if you like to ride bikes, you pretty much have no choice but to do XC/Trail riding. Always looking for something to make that bit of torture called climbing bearable, I decided to bite the bullet and take the Sultan out for a few spins to see what it is like. First thing I noticed was damn, it feels high, second thing I noticed was, damn, this thing is fast. Built up with a Reba at 100mm, some standard Bontrager/Truvativ/Avid stuff, it came in at a respectable 31 pounds. Not bad for what I'd consider a middle to low end build (X.7, Juicy 3's, etc.) 4" of travel feels like 6", and with the required Gravity Dropper post, this is a very versatile and reasonably priced, build. For the first few days, I rode some very easy trails, nothing too technical until I got used to being clipped in again, and in a much steeper than DH, position. At first, it was a little unnerving riding for the first time in 3 years, with a 71 degree head angle, but surprisingly, I haven't once gone over the bars, even on the technical stuff that I eventually got around to.

Over the last few weeks, I've learned to "trust the wheels", so to speak, and let it simply roll over things smaller tires took much more expertise to negotiate. I haven't really felt that starting out in technical sections has been a problem, and although some I've spoken to seem to feel that the granny/granny gear combo isn't enough on extremely steep ups, I've had no problems with that at all. In fact, the Sultan is the single greatest thing to happen to old, fat, lazy, lift service addicted, DH lovers, since the invention of the portable oxygen tank.

My only problem with 29" tires, so far, is I haven't really tried to do any jumps or drops with the bike. Not even so much as a little one, have I tried, and its certainly not the bike, its my confidence level in the head angle. Eventually, I think I'd like to try a longer fork on the bike to bring the head angle to 69 degrees or so, if possible, but that would bring the bottom bracket even higher. There has to be a good balance there somewhere. I think something adjustable in the 4-6" range would bring this bike from what I would consider a top XC type bike, into a versatile all mountain rig.

The Spider 29er should be back from an extended demo soon, so I'll definately have to give that one a go too. So far, well, I'm a convert in the 29er revolution.

Here's a pic of the rig after tonight's hellishly sloppy, wet, ride, that I still ended with a huge smile on my face. Any thoughts from the Sultan faithful that would assist me into getting the most out of, and in turn, explaining the best possible uses for, the Sultan, would be greatly appreciated.
 

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#31 ·
Ain't it sweet?

Yeah, I always liked orange bikes and when I had the option to order my Sultan in GDO I pulled the trigger on all over color. If you've never seen Turner's GDO in the daylight it is gorgeous and hard to capture in a picture. I was running 1x9 in the winter but some of the climbs around here really require me to have a granny so I did break down and fit a FD. The rear cable routing is a hangover from my taco-less 1999 RFX. I really like the way it works and looks. Routing the cables thru the taco is just reinforcing cable rub issues. I used the jagwire cable housing bridge to keep things orderly.
 

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