Inflation

Mmm, plasticky.

Pump Away

I used to have a cheap telescopic pump (made by Genuine Innovations) that I took out with me on MTB and road bike for emergency get-you-home puncture situations. Actually, it was just about fine for the MTB, as I only ever needed to get to 30 psi on knobbly off road tyres - but for a road bike it was naff as it had no chance of getting a road tyre up to 100+psi. Sadly (or not) it got lost during a MTB ride a couple of months back and a replacement was needed. A somewhat old (but perfectly functional) Blackburn MTN Air now goes with the MTB, but what about the road bike?

Large

I quite fancied a nice old school style frame pump for the old school style road bike. Big is better, right? On the basis that it was worth a punt (£6, what could possibly go wrong) I bought one of these:

Mmm, plasticky. Again.

It’s a Zefal Reversible Frame Fit. Cheap-and-cheerful. Or one of those. On balance I simply can’t recommend this for a road bike, even for the few quid they cost. It’s not the all-plastic construction but the fact that I simply could not get any more than 60psi out of it before air started squeaking out of places it shouldn’t do. It’s probably fine for a commuter bike where you have bigger volume slicks at 50 or 60psi. But just not up to the job of getting 120psi into a skinny slick - waste of £6. Never mind.

Rocket, Pocket, etc.

Little

In the past, I’ve used a Topeak mini pump (Pocket Rocket, a name which saves me attempting to make an amusing section title) which I liked; alloy barrel, locking lever on the valve head, solid feeling action. It was able to deal with a decent amount of pressure, but with it being a mini, it takes a long time to get there. But basically, good experiences. My own Pocket Rocket has long since been gifted away, and stealing it back isn't an option.

Make It Longer

With that in mind, I wondered, do Topeak do a nice frame fit pump? Why yes… they do indeed also do a full size frame-fit version of the very pump mentioned above - Road Master Blaster (Topeak's naming department on fire again) – essentially the same pump, just the stretch-limo version.

Quite long indeed.

Much better. Smart looking, alloy construction, a locking lever on the valve head, and the handle locks in place to make high pressure pumping easier (on the ‘normal’ setting the handle is sprung, which also keeps it in place on the bike). It’s quite heavy compared to a mini pump – but far easier to use. 100 strokes got just over 100psi in a 25mm road tyre. I had no problems getting the tyre up to 120psi – so this isn’t just a “get you home” solution, it’ll get you right back up to normal riding pressures with relative ease at the roadside. Of course a track pump will still beat it hands down, but for some reason I can’t seem to fit one of those anywhere on my frame.

Bike mounting is easy. There are notches on both ends for pump pegs (if your steed is so endowed) - or, the ends are shaped to fit between two tubes, so if you have no pegs then the pump can wedge neatly between bottom bracket and top tube. The valve head is rubber, which is not only nicer to grip when pumping, but also means it won’t squirm around when it’s on the bike. Topeak also throw in a velcro strap to keep the pump in place. If you want to mount on the top tube the strap allows you to do that without needing pegs on your frame.

All Over

So, this time, £20 well spent. Although in a weird way, I hope I never have to use it…

Epicon Forks, pt 2

Epic?

The Epicon fork is Suntour's "premium trail" range. It's an air sprung fork with cartridge damper (vs open bath, e.g. Marzocchi).

In the Suntour lineup, the Epicon sits just above the Raidon and below the Axon/Durolux forks. The Epicon gets a different damper to the Raidon and is much lighter (more aluminium, less steel). Above the Epicon the range splits, you get the Axon which is an XC race fork, and the Durolux which is the beefy freeride/enduro fork.

The 2013 Epicon forks come in 100mm, 120mm or 140mm travel. There's a wide array of models, all with the same basic design of crown/stanchion/lower, allowing you to choose some optional features:

• adjustable low-speed compression
• travel adjust
• standard QR, or 15mm axle

The cheaper models (X2, mostly quite basic without the optional extras) come with a solid crown, the more expensive (X1) have a lighter hollow forged crown. Some of the fork's features (lockout & travel adjust) have a bar-mounted remote as an option.

It's pitched (in terms of features) against the RS Reba, Manitou Minute, Marz Marathon and is cheaper than all of them. Does that automatically mean its worse? Well, Suntour have been making budget forks for a long time, and some of them quite naff (their cheaper forks still are).

Recently though, Suntour have been making a play for the middle of the budget range and getting some favourable reviews on their efforts...

Pick a fork, any fork

Please excuse crappy smartphone pic!

The model I bought is the Epicon X1 RL-R, in 100mm travel (and I should say this choice was, erm, “strongly influenced” by its availability on Ebay, direct from Taiwan, I'm definitely on a budget here). "RL-R" indicates remote lockout (RL) and rebound adjust (R). The 100mm travel fork is (manufacturer claimed weight) 1620g which I thought was impressively light for the price (£170 including taxes by the time it reached me from the Taiwan based Ebay bike shop, buy it in the UK and its about £220). It was destined for my light(ish) hardtail XC bike that is typically hacked around on natural trails as opposed to trail centres, a mixture of terrain that doesn't really feature a lot of "features" but does have a lot of bumpy stuff to smooth out with the odd rock step and jump thrown in.

Setup was generally easy, although getting the remote lockout attached was a bit fiddly (in particular, you have to make sure the gear cable was both long enough to reach the clamp, and short enough to not foul the fork attachment - the cable length needs to be cut carefully). Other than that, nothing that was any different to any other fork - tap on the crown race, drift the star nut into the steerer, pop the fork on the bike, fit brake calliper, tighten up the stem, set the sag. All done in the space of about an hour. Alloy steerer - so easy to chop to the right length.

Suntour vs The World

How does it ride then?

Actually rather nicely. After getting the sag and rebound dialled in, it was out for a quick test ride up and down my local hill.

Initially, I'd have expected a bit of stickiness in the forks’ movement, until it bedded in, but the fork was pleasantly smooth right from the get go. The remote lockout: useful on tarmac (well, got to get to the hill somehow), but on anything other than smooth roads my preference is to let the fork soak up the bumps - but I climb "sit and spin" style, I'm not out of the saddle.

And, soaking up bumps? Yeah, very nicely. The forks air spring is progressive, it feels sensitive around the beginning of travel, which is just what you want, really. The rate ramps up nicely to cope with bigger lumps, bumps and hits, although with 100mm of travel anything really big will overwhelm the fork and have you at the bump stop (but at this point in a ride, you’re probably riding the wrong bike - this is an XC fork, short travel). Its probably a better test of this fork's abilities to ride staircase-like rocky descents, and here the fork didn't pack down, and made fairly light work of the terrain - so I'd say the damping is nicely controlled, and it never feels like the fork was unable to control the motion here.

I'm not going to comment on "stiffness" and all that jazz, mainly because I never felt like I've ever ridden a fork that isn't stiff, so I don't know what a stiff fork vs a not stiff fork feels like. I turned the bars, the wheel went the same way, no sensations of wobbliness, or whatever.

Sunset

Summing up then; this fork rides really very well. It’s a controlled and capable piece of kit. A couple of years ago I would never have even considered Suntour, I would have been straight to the RockShox range for a decent value performer, Recon or Reba, but RS's prices have drifted upwards - a lot - of late, and from what I can see, Suntour seem to be filling that lower/mid priced area of the market with what are (based on my admittedly small sample size of one) very much comparable quality products.

I've had several similar RockShox forks - Recon Race, almost identical to this fork in terms of features, which even 5 years ago was retailing for more than this, and a Dual Air 140mm Revelation. Yeah, ok, the Rev was better, but not by much, and only because I do like the dual air system and it had low speed compression control, and of course it'd be better to compare that to an Epicon fork that has compression adjust. Anyway my gut feeling is that the Epicon is very much their equal.

I'd love to say what the long term ownership is like on the Epicon, but I haven't had it long enough. Word on the forums is that they are pretty good for reliability.

Anyway, I am a happy bunny, and looking forward to getting some more miles in on this fork.

Epicon forks for the xc rig...

Well, what with moving house recently there's not been a lot of time to either ride or write any blog posts here. A seemingly endless stream of small jobs on the place has conspired to keep me away from riding bikes or fixing them.

New arrival in the ride it fix it shed recently is a suntour epicon x1. My xc bike had a rigid fork, second hand, which arrived with a cut steerer. I kind of put up with the low bar position for as long as possible, but I'd always been keeping my eyes open for a half decent spring fork with a complete intact steerer. Could I find one? Could I sausages.

So the answer had to be a new fork. As usual, budget was low, so it wasn't going to be a kashima coated fox... I hadn't really considered suntour - rs were the first choices, but it turns out that the suntour forks, in 100mm travel anyway, are easy to pick up from Taiwanese shops selling internationally. And the price is right, a good £100 lower than a comparable rs (I think recon air forks are comparable weight and features). And suntour have been making forks under other brands names for some time now, plus their recent own brand efforts are being well received.

Press pay, wait...

And wait...

Three weeks later they're here in the flesh, so to speak.

Nice clean finish, kind of understated graphics, just the big "epicon" logo down the side plus a discrete suntour logo on the crown. It's light (ish), not quite Sid light but light enough at 1.6kg. Came with a remote lockout as well. My bars now have nearly as many buttons as my TV remote...

Stay tuned for a ride report after I've had some time on them.

Intense Tire Systems 909 DH part 2

Ride Report

Part 1 is here...

Intense Tire Systems 909 DH

Big Rubber

Following some recent advice I decided to purchase a set of DH rubber for the big bike. I'm hardly pushing the boundaries of crazy riding but rumour has it that a decent set of big treads is an idea on a bike being used on DH tracks.

There's a lot of options in the tyre game. Seemingly, Maxxis are the overwhelming dominant choice. Schwalbe seem to be a close second behind. Continental are there or thereabouts. ITS aren't usually on the radar.

Say who?

Upgraditis #2

Borrowed Rims

Well, I had managed to get the utility bike put together on budget... and then, wouldn't you Adam and Eve it, the trouble and strife wants her wheels back. Clearly, a fine excuse for fettling together a replacement set, if ever I done hear one.

Sharks With Frickin' Lasers

I fancy lasers...

Keeping Your Backside Dry

SKS Commuter Mudguards Review

I needed some guards for a road going mountain bike, the SKS commuter guards seemed to fit the bill: "high quality - low cost - full length mudguard set with high quality - stainless-steel fittings from the producers of the World s finest mudguards". Let's see if they match the hype.

Review updates

A quick update on my recent reviews, now I've been using the bits review for a few months.

On-One Max Hubset Review & Servicing

This is a Service Guide + First Impressions review of On-One's value for money AM hubset, sold as part of their "MAX Adaptable Maxle Wheelset", or on their own for £80 a pair (£40 each, front and rear).

Everythings cheaper up north...

Well, you can't argue with the price. This is about as good as it gets for a 20mm front hub, and a 10mm bolt-thru rear hub. These hubs will run you a total of £80 for both front and rear hubs from the Yorkshire based outfit On-One (or is it Planet-X? I can never tell).

Close competition comes from Superstar's Switch EVO hubs, which are £20 more but do have four cartridge bearings at the rear, Halo's Spin Doctor, Octane One Orbitals, DMR Revolver 3-pawl, the inevitable Shimano offerings - SLX at this price point, and of course a huge number of others I haven't listed. It's a fairly competitive sector of the hub market - although the prices for through-axle style hubs have yet to drop to the level of QR hubs.

On One?

Well, no, only "sort of". On-One are not Hope - so no in-house manufacture here. These are the product of the Chosen Hub Co. of Taiwan (you might have guessed it was a rebrand from the price). Anyway, lets take a look inside...

Novatec MTB Hubs Review

Bling

Hope, Chris King, Royce, Hadley, White, the list of aftermarket hub manufacturers is almost endless. You can find fans of most of them if you look hard enough. And generally with good reason: a lot of the boutique hubs are very well made and have good backup service. For this you pay a decent sum: here in the UK a set of Hopes will run you near on £200, a pair of Royce, closer to £350, and for Kings, about £500. Not for the budget conscious!

Not Bling

But what happens before aftermarket? When you buy a bike in the first place? Especially for the sub £1000 bikes, which makes up the vast bulk of the bike market.

It'll come with some hubs. They might even be quite good hubs. They'll invariably have the word "Shimano" written on them - or the name of the bike manufacturer. Everyone knows Shimano. That leaves the in house branded items.

Badge Engineering

Chances are, if you've bought a Giant, or Specialized, or Trek, that the hubs have been made in Taiwan, like the rest of the bike. The companies Joytech, Formula, Chosen, and a few others, knock out these components in huge volumes, often to be rebranded and sold on. Not just by the big bike companies, but by the smaller guys as well, for instance in the UK take a look at Superstar Components who are quite open about only sourcing their gear from mass manufacturers and rebranding it (without adding an expensive advertising service). A lot of companies who simply want to complete their existing component range will source bits from these guys - compare DT Swiss (who make rims, spokes and hubs) with Specialized (who get rims from DT Swiss and hubs from Formula and spokes from who-knows-where).