Mountain Bike Reviews Forum banner

My attempt at weenie-hood!!!

2K views 27 replies 14 participants last post by  Upandatem 
#1 · (Edited)
My attempt at weight weenie-hood!!!

Took it out for the first time today and WAY MORE than exceeded my expections!!!! I am a convert!!!!!
 

Attachments

See less See more
5
#3 ·
bhsavery said:
nice bike, I like the color coordination of hubs/frame/ fork
yeah, I went way overboard for me.....even went so far as to make sure I get a Red king headset, Red Hope skewers, Red Hope seatpost clamp (since Salsa did not have red), and red alloy nipples. I think I made up for my other bike which I LOVE, but is not exactly what I would call "color-coordinated" :) (see attached)
 

Attachments

#7 ·
TheRedMantra said:
Glad to see its done. What's the final weight?
I should have bought a digital scale and weighed the parts but of course, in my infinite wisdom I did not and in looking back, it sure would have been fun.

All I have to go by is the shop scale, which they did weigh a few times to at least get an accurate average weight per their scale. My guess is that it may be a bit low but I have no idea to be honest how far off it is.

They weighed it at 23.5 lbs each of the 3 times.

Here is the parts list for what it is worth:

frame = Rocky Mountain Element Sc Team (19")
cranks = Race Face Deus
fork = 2005 Marzocchi Marathon Race
wheelset = King ISO hubs / DT Swiss XR4.1d rims / Supercomp spokes / alloy nipples
brakes = Magura Marta SLs
shifters = SRAM X.0
fr der = XTR
rear der = SRAM X.0
cassette = XT
chain = PC-99 Hollow pin
pedals = Shimano 959
seat = Rocket V Stealth
seatpost = Yeti Arc Aluminum
stem = Syntace F99 (120mm)
bars = Answer ProTaper Carbon
grips = ODI Rogue Lock-on
headset = Chris King
tires = Kenda Karma DTC
seatpost clamp = Hope
skewers = Hope
 
#9 ·
split said:
Man, sweet bike! How much does it weigh? RM makes some nice frames and the geometry is dead-on for climbing.

Oh, it's WEIGHT-weenie-hood. Weenie-hood is something entirely different. :D
Duly noted....I am already a "weenie" :) and have changed the title to say "weight" weenie.

As noted above, the shop scale read 23.5 lbs.

Regardless of the actual weight, which nobody can ever claim since every scale that exists measures on a finite scale ;) , it flew up the hills this morning on its first ride and was surprisingly fast on the downhills....I did truly not expect to keep that much speed up but am stoked that I was able to.

Cheers
 
#10 · (Edited)
Big Bad Wolf said:
Seeing that you have both a ventana and a rocky mountain, how would you compare them to each others viz-a-viz rear suspension and lateral stiffness?
Good question.

However, I have had only a single ride and to be honest, I probably would not trust my own assessment in this regard since there are so many parameters that contribute to the sensation of stiffness as you know.....having said that, I am blown away by both bikes and lateral stiffness is one of the primary reasons that I prefer seatstay linkage.....the benefit that provides to my style of riding outweighs the benefit of other linkage benefits, theoretical or otherwise....at least that is my story, and I am sticking to it ;)

Cheers
 
#11 ·
FoShizzle said:
Good question.

However, I have had only a single ride and to be honest, I probably would trust my own assessment in this regard since there are so many parameters that contribute to the sensation of stiffness as you know.....having said that, I am blown away by both bikes and lateral stiffness is one of the primary reasons that I prefer seatstay linkage.....the benefit that provides to my style of riding outweighs the benefit of other linkage benefits, theoretical or otherwise....at least that is my story, and I am sticking to it ;)

Cheers
Fair enough :D
The reason I asked is because the Ventana design is being used on the new Moots Cinco, and being a Ti fan myself..
 
#12 ·
Big Bad Wolf said:
Fair enough :D
The reason I asked is because the Ventana design is being used on the new Moots Cinco, and being a Ti fan myself..
interesting......I love everything about my Ventana and have never looked back. In my simple mind, as I am sure you will agree, the quality of the implementation, regardless of type of design, is the most important parameter. I could build a Horst link bike but I can guarantee it would be a POS and break on the first ride :D .....but of course Horst linkage is a very, very good design when implemented well.

One of the primary, if not the primary reason I went with Ventana, is due to the implementation and quaility of their builds.

I frankly know nothing of Moots other than what their bikes look like so I apologize but I doubt I can comment directly.

Cheers
 
#15 ·
Wow! That is simply AWESOME!

Glad to see my bike finally done:p j/k.

Whats the main reason why you changed the fox forks for the Marzi? Durability, loyalty to the brand??

Just asking, as I am starting to save up for either a X100 or a 100RLT(it's a hard choice...).

Then I'm going to save for my Magura Marta SL's:) Let us know how those go.
 
#16 · (Edited)
bike_freak said:
Wow! That is simply AWESOME!

Glad to see my bike finally done:p j/k.

Whats the main reason why you changed the fox forks for the Marzi? Durability, loyalty to the brand??

Just asking, as I am starting to save up for either a X100 or a 100RLT(it's a hard choice...).

Then I'm going to save for my Magura Marta SL's:) Let us know how those go.
You bet....I will ship it overnight to you :D

The only obvious negative about the brakes is in regards to also having SRAM X.0 shifters. It is no problem for me fortunately but certainly given the length of the brake levers and how one grips the bars while having grip-shifters on, it could be problematic if you have shorter fingers. When they are broken in I will update on their performance. I plan to "test" the bike on some gnarlier downhills this weekend since if it performs well on those, I will be able to hammer my friends up the hills and still be able to keep up with them on the downhills :p

I had Larry swap the fork to the Marz for a few reasons I guess, some of the pretty nonsignificant but I listed them anyway (eg, weight):
* I was concerned about not getting full travel which I have heard from enough people is a problem and that is the last issue i want to contend with when I have only have 80mm to work with....and I did not want to make it so "soft" in order to get full travel that it impacts the ride noticeably. While some of course do not report this I did notice it on my Fox 100RLT I have had so combined with other's reports, i wanted to try Marz.
* I love my 05 Marz All Mountain 1 fork (that shown on my blue bike in the post). In particular, I like the TST cartridge a lot, which the 05 Marz Marathon Race has as well.....which is based I believe on their motocross bladder technology. It is also a very noticeable feature in that it works on the trail. So I guess in a way, brand loyalty was considered...I have ALWAYS loved Marz forks. Best Fox fork I had was the Talas and that was average in my opinion.
* Slightly lighter than the Fox but honestly, not a real consideration but worth noting for completeness.
* It was going to look much cooler than the Fox...and I think it does :D

Cheers
 
#17 ·
SO did you build the bike, or did someone else do it for you? Just asking cause I was wondering on the setup of your brakes, did oyu get your disk tabs faced?

I see with the fork, I do like the Marzi Race fork, ALOT. But.... It is only 80mm and to be honest, I need 100mm so I can move the fork over to another bike in the future(my current bike runs 80mm).

So thats one reason why I am still wanting the fox forks, get the 100mm an convert it to 80mm in the meantime.

Ohwell, still might get the Fox, as it will be light years better then my Duke XC:)

Edit: Just noticed you should remove those V-brake mounts:)
 
#18 ·
Man that's a nice bike...

Nicest bike I have seen in a long time.... Not too light, but light in the right places...

I could stare at a Rocky catalog all day long....

Jag
 
#19 ·
bike_freak said:
SO did you build the bike, or did someone else do it for you? Just asking cause I was wondering on the setup of your brakes, did oyu get your disk tabs faced?

I see with the fork, I do like the Marzi Race fork, ALOT. But.... It is only 80mm and to be honest, I need 100mm so I can move the fork over to another bike in the future(my current bike runs 80mm).

So thats one reason why I am still wanting the fox forks, get the 100mm an convert it to 80mm in the meantime.

Ohwell, still might get the Fox, as it will be light years better then my Duke XC:)

Edit: Just noticed you should remove those V-brake mounts:)
I completely understand. The Fox is a nice fork for sure.

And are you kidding me???? No way did I put the bike together....I am waaaayy too lame to do it correctly. And yes, they did however need to face the disc tabs.

v-brake mounts were removed this morning before my ride....maybe I need to take it back to the bike shop to have it weighed again :D

Cheers
 
#21 ·
FoShizzle said:
I completely understand. The Fox is a nice fork for sure.

And are you kidding me???? No way did I put the bike together....I am waaaayy too lame to do it correctly. And yes, they did however need to face the disc tabs.

v-brake mounts were removed this morning before my ride....maybe I need to take it back to the bike shop to have it weighed again :D

Cheers
I just noticed that the local XC racing calender for me is quite full... I ran out of time to even start training! LOL! Oh well...

Should do a good 15 or more races this coming year. So I will probably need new forks sometime during the season.
 
#23 ·
xctearor said:
What do you think about the Marz Marathon race? Did you get a chance to weigh it?
Seriously considering one and wanted to seek your opinion.
XC
I will update after this weekend as I will have have used it by then on some pretty technical downhills.

On today's 20 mile XC ride, with one tight singletrack downhill, it performed flawlessly. It is worth noting that I frankly have no intention of even changing any of the setting....therefore, I either guessed perfectly at all of the settings (HIGHLY unlikely), or the fork is just a killer fork. Keep in mind that I kept the speed pretty high intentionally and though I have a hard time accepting that it might be possible, I felt that I lost nothing to going down that same downhill section as with my Ventana......other than of course the initial drag from the King hubs :)

I am not kidding, the fork absorbed things beautifully but a few more rides will allow me to provide another assessment. having said that, I do not think it is a wimpy XC fork and I am very happy I did not go with the Fox.

As far as the weight, I did not weigh it myself. However, Larry has posted weights for 05 Marz forks and I quote Larry in his post a week or 2 ago, "Marathon Race 80 = 1540g (3.39lbs)", and this was with uncut steerer as he noted in that post. For all i know, this was actually my fork that Larry weighed.

Cheers
 
#24 ·
FoShizzle said:
Good question.

However, I have had only a single ride and to be honest, I probably would not trust my own assessment in this regard since there are so many parameters that contribute to the sensation of stiffness as you know.....having said that, I am blown away by both bikes and lateral stiffness is one of the primary reasons that I prefer seatstay linkage.....the benefit that provides to my style of riding outweighs the benefit of other linkage benefits, theoretical or otherwise....at least that is my story, and I am sticking to it ;)

Cheers
Beautiful Bike, and I must say that I just tried for a long ride a Ventana El Salta and I cannot agree more: that thing is stiff in the rear!!!!! The RM looks beautiful! very nice color matching job
 
#25 ·
Thats FCUKing Awesome!

Great Job FoShizzle, that bike looks sweet, if you could send the bike to me at once, I would be forever greatful :) 23.5lbs anything under 24lbs is pretty good for a dualie I feel :)

I love the color co-ordination, I was trying to do a simular thing with my Cove, but that died in the ass, especially now as I am eyeing off, and measureing up sizes for my Custom ti RacerX :D Maybe I'll go color co-ordinated on that...

RE Fox: I think the porblem may be that they are still using 7wt oil in most of their forks, the 7wt oil has been said to be too heavy for lighter riders (like most here). I have had no real troubles with my Fox Float RLC's, I have gotten over 88mm on the trail, with presures that I run rather high so it'd doesnt bob too much.
 
#26 ·
FCUKing Thanks!

CulBaire said:
Great Job FoShizzle, that bike looks sweet, if you could send the bike to me at once, I would be forever greatful :) 23.5lbs anything under 24lbs is pretty good for a dualie I feel :)

I love the color co-ordination, I was trying to do a simular thing with my Cove, but that died in the ass, especially now as I am eyeing off, and measureing up sizes for my Custom ti RacerX :D Maybe I'll go color co-ordinated on that...

RE Fox: I think the porblem may be that they are still using 7wt oil in most of their forks, the 7wt oil has been said to be too heavy for lighter riders (like most here). I have had no real troubles with my Fox Float RLC's, I have gotten over 88mm on the trail, with presures that I run rather high so it'd doesnt bob too much.
Good point on the oil. I am about 180lbs so it may not have been an issue for me. Still, there is just something about Marz forks that appeals to me. Bottom line is either would have worked great I suppose.

Color coordination was fun and in person, I am very happy with how the subtle touches (eg, red seatpost clamp, red nipples) just really add to the bling factor.

Cheers
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top