confessions of a luddite
I'm a luddite
This cycling season -my focus has been on improving my technical skills.. I'm a good technical rider - but I want to get better.
I've mused on the limitations my physical stature have imposed on me. What it boils down to is bike manufacturers just don't make high end bikes with all the fancy techy features for people the size of 5th graders. (4'10" & ~105lbs)
But with that said In my quest for being a better rider - i've never wanted to be a person that relied on technology to ride technical terrain. I've always thought it was important to have the skills to ride vs. letting the bike do the work for you. And I'll shamelessly admit that I take pride in the fact i clean a lot of technical terrain on my rigid SS and hardtall w/63mm of front travel.
Seriously - who needs all those techy bits if you have skills? Besides - it would always be a mute point for me - in my 6+ years mtn biking - I've never been able to ride an off-the-shelf bike. Issue closed...right??
Enter the Safire
My friend, Tracy rides a Safire. I've always thought it was an unusual looking bike with it's sloped top tube. But I didn't think much about it until last weekend I stood over it and I *almost* had enough standover on the medium. Tracy mentioned that Jason had a demo bike in the small size that I should try.
so I thought - why the heck not?
Fit
me on the Safire
I liked the way the bike fit. The cockpit felt good - i wasn't too stretched out or cramped up. It was definitely odd being so upright as all my other bikes are XC race style bikes. And the big fork with a whopping 120mm of travel - that is an odd feeling too. It was definitely different than what I'm used to but I wasn't in the least bit uncomfortable.
Oh! I can't forget to mention the standover and the water bottle cage!!! The specs say 27" standover. My inseam ins 26.75 - so with my bike shoes and standing on my toes - I have a whopping 1/2" of standover. That's pretty much what I'm used to and in the 7 hours of riding the bike I haven't had any standover issues.
I'm pretty stoked about the water bottle cage. I LOVE doing epic mtn bikerides ~25 - 40 miles- so I'm out for hours on end. So it's nice to carry a camelback with water and then have my Hammer sustained energy in a water bottle. This is very important to me.
A water bottle cage one of the things lacking in many smaller FS bikes.
However the bike weighs in at 27(!)lbs - 26% of my body weight...Everyone goes - "that's light for that much travel" And I think to myself - 'yeah - it's still 26% of my body weight'.
Type of trails bike tested on
I've done 2 rides on the bike.
It took me a bit to get used to the bike on the climb on Sourdough. At first it felt really bouncy and I noticed the tires had more psi than i liked - so i let some air out. that helped. As i rode along the trail - I purposely tried to hit the biggest rocks and hardest lines. The fork rolled over everything with ease.
Most notably - the bike rolled over log piles like nothing. hmm....just point and shoot...no thinking involved...nice.
The CT trail ride had every kind of climbing you could imagine.
It starts off w/a mellow graded road climb in which I locked out the front fork. The bike was great on this - but I could definitely feel the extra weight (my HT is ~21lbs and my SS is ~18lbs). But i just put it in an easier gear than I was used to and kept spinning.
Then we hit the singletrack - pretty buff with a few small techy spots here and there. I'm always in my middle chainring on this climb (i run a dura-ace road cassette on the HT - 12/27) however not with the Safire. I had to put it in my little chain ring to not blow up. and when I tried to stand and hammer a few sections - I never could do that for long. The bike seems to make you want to sit-and-spin and not stand-and-hammer.
The next serious section of climbing was after the Platt River. The climb is a super loose with pea-sized gravel - a punchy 4.5mile climb. This climb is deceptive - rolling climbing interspersed with short, STEEP, pea-gravel pitches that required you to power through it while maintaining traction. In the heat of the day - this climb can wear anyone down. Here's a picture of the terrain and of Dana standing and powering through a steep little pitch
.
The Safire excelled in this terrain - I was amazed at the traction I got with this puppy. As long as I could keep pedaling (ie. my cardio ability could keep up) the bike would grip the ground and propel me forward. i was very surprised all the sections I was able to make it through. However, I could still feel the weight of bike on each pedal stroke.
Descending
On the Sourdough trail the girls i was riding with were eager for me to put the bike through it's paces on the descent. So we took off - at first I was tentative and then I realized with that fork - there is no need to 'pick a line' - just point-and-shoot baby. and P&S I did. Until I pinch-flatted. grrrrrrhh! I threw a tube in a pumped it up and *tried* to take it easy on the rockier sections but I couldn't restrain myself - i just prayed I wouldn't pinch flat again and let it rip.
Holy moly - did this bike rock the descents on Sourdough. I felt very stable at speed and was railing the corners. The wheelbase on this bike is a whopping 5" longer than my hardtail and I never realized what a difference that could make. Plus it seemed really easy to lift the front end - I was effortlessly manually over small drops at speed. Oh my!
i didn't seem to have any problems on the switchbacks on Sourdough - I thought a longer wheelbase would be a problem - but I rode through them just fine.
On the Colorado Trail on the rocky sections or just plain dirt trail descents the bike was true to form - fun, fast, flickable.
Dana on the CT trail
However, when we hit the sandier or pea-sized, loose gravel descents my front wheel almost washed out a couple of times. I became a bit more tentative after i almost crashed a few times. Of course it could of well been my handling skills - but I'm also thinking it might be the tires. Maybe they are good on the bigger rockier descents like Sourdough -but not so good on super dry loose stuff. On this type of terrain - I'm usually running WTB Mutano Raptors with Stan's and w/18psi. I had to run tubes and higher psi on this ride.
Also this time I had problems on some on the tighter switchbacks. Some of the switchbacks are very tight on the CT and I had to toe-dab through a few of them. Some I rode just fine and once I fell over while trying to ride one. My switchback skills need work in general - so I sure if I was skilled enough I could've ridden all the switchbacks without toe-dabbing - my toe-dabbing is not a reflection on the bike.
Summary
This bike is awesome. It climbs well and maintains great traction when climbing techy terrain and descends like a demon.(it makes you want to holler out "get the f$ck out of the way!")
The only con for me is the weight. For most people that are going to be riding this bike - the 27lbs isn't an issue for them. But i'm sad to say it's an issue for me. After the 5.5 hour ride - i could tell I wasn't climbing as fast as I usually do. I do like longer backcountry rides like this...and since so many of the rides in Colorado require big climbing - it's a trade off question. Move travel, better traction, less thinking vs less travel, less traction, more finesse, more thinking...
I'm thinking I could easily drop ~2lbs off this bike - maybe 3lbs if I got really creative. Would that make a difference to me??
And of course there's always the carbon version of this bike.
It seems like Specialized was thinking about me when designing this bike - a small person, that loves ripping it up on technical terrain and loves big/epic rides.
in the end - i'm officially ending my luddite status. Bring on the technology - I'm sold. ;)
This cycling season -my focus has been on improving my technical skills.. I'm a good technical rider - but I want to get better.
I've mused on the limitations my physical stature have imposed on me. What it boils down to is bike manufacturers just don't make high end bikes with all the fancy techy features for people the size of 5th graders. (4'10" & ~105lbs)
But with that said In my quest for being a better rider - i've never wanted to be a person that relied on technology to ride technical terrain. I've always thought it was important to have the skills to ride vs. letting the bike do the work for you. And I'll shamelessly admit that I take pride in the fact i clean a lot of technical terrain on my rigid SS and hardtall w/63mm of front travel.
Seriously - who needs all those techy bits if you have skills? Besides - it would always be a mute point for me - in my 6+ years mtn biking - I've never been able to ride an off-the-shelf bike. Issue closed...right??
Enter the Safire
My friend, Tracy rides a Safire. I've always thought it was an unusual looking bike with it's sloped top tube. But I didn't think much about it until last weekend I stood over it and I *almost* had enough standover on the medium. Tracy mentioned that Jason had a demo bike in the small size that I should try.
so I thought - why the heck not?
Fit
me on the Safire
I liked the way the bike fit. The cockpit felt good - i wasn't too stretched out or cramped up. It was definitely odd being so upright as all my other bikes are XC race style bikes. And the big fork with a whopping 120mm of travel - that is an odd feeling too. It was definitely different than what I'm used to but I wasn't in the least bit uncomfortable.
Oh! I can't forget to mention the standover and the water bottle cage!!! The specs say 27" standover. My inseam ins 26.75 - so with my bike shoes and standing on my toes - I have a whopping 1/2" of standover. That's pretty much what I'm used to and in the 7 hours of riding the bike I haven't had any standover issues.
I'm pretty stoked about the water bottle cage. I LOVE doing epic mtn bikerides ~25 - 40 miles- so I'm out for hours on end. So it's nice to carry a camelback with water and then have my Hammer sustained energy in a water bottle. This is very important to me.
A water bottle cage one of the things lacking in many smaller FS bikes.
However the bike weighs in at 27(!)lbs - 26% of my body weight...Everyone goes - "that's light for that much travel" And I think to myself - 'yeah - it's still 26% of my body weight'.
Type of trails bike tested on
I've done 2 rides on the bike.
- Sourdough trail - loose, fist-sized rocks. It's an out-and-back with all climbing on the out and all descending on back. It was short after work ride ~7miles total
- Colorado Trail from Denver,CO to Buffalo Campground - This is a long ride ~34miles of mostly all singletrack with 6300ft of climbing. Adding to the complexity of this ride was the heat that day - it was very hot (in the 90s) and some of the hardest, loose climbing is in a burn area so there was no cloud cover in the hottest part of the day. Ride time was ~5:30 and total time out was ~7hours.
It took me a bit to get used to the bike on the climb on Sourdough. At first it felt really bouncy and I noticed the tires had more psi than i liked - so i let some air out. that helped. As i rode along the trail - I purposely tried to hit the biggest rocks and hardest lines. The fork rolled over everything with ease.
Most notably - the bike rolled over log piles like nothing. hmm....just point and shoot...no thinking involved...nice.
The CT trail ride had every kind of climbing you could imagine.
It starts off w/a mellow graded road climb in which I locked out the front fork. The bike was great on this - but I could definitely feel the extra weight (my HT is ~21lbs and my SS is ~18lbs). But i just put it in an easier gear than I was used to and kept spinning.
Then we hit the singletrack - pretty buff with a few small techy spots here and there. I'm always in my middle chainring on this climb (i run a dura-ace road cassette on the HT - 12/27) however not with the Safire. I had to put it in my little chain ring to not blow up. and when I tried to stand and hammer a few sections - I never could do that for long. The bike seems to make you want to sit-and-spin and not stand-and-hammer.
The next serious section of climbing was after the Platt River. The climb is a super loose with pea-sized gravel - a punchy 4.5mile climb. This climb is deceptive - rolling climbing interspersed with short, STEEP, pea-gravel pitches that required you to power through it while maintaining traction. In the heat of the day - this climb can wear anyone down. Here's a picture of the terrain and of Dana standing and powering through a steep little pitch
.The Safire excelled in this terrain - I was amazed at the traction I got with this puppy. As long as I could keep pedaling (ie. my cardio ability could keep up) the bike would grip the ground and propel me forward. i was very surprised all the sections I was able to make it through. However, I could still feel the weight of bike on each pedal stroke.
Descending
On the Sourdough trail the girls i was riding with were eager for me to put the bike through it's paces on the descent. So we took off - at first I was tentative and then I realized with that fork - there is no need to 'pick a line' - just point-and-shoot baby. and P&S I did. Until I pinch-flatted. grrrrrrhh! I threw a tube in a pumped it up and *tried* to take it easy on the rockier sections but I couldn't restrain myself - i just prayed I wouldn't pinch flat again and let it rip.
Holy moly - did this bike rock the descents on Sourdough. I felt very stable at speed and was railing the corners. The wheelbase on this bike is a whopping 5" longer than my hardtail and I never realized what a difference that could make. Plus it seemed really easy to lift the front end - I was effortlessly manually over small drops at speed. Oh my!
i didn't seem to have any problems on the switchbacks on Sourdough - I thought a longer wheelbase would be a problem - but I rode through them just fine.
On the Colorado Trail on the rocky sections or just plain dirt trail descents the bike was true to form - fun, fast, flickable.
Dana on the CT trail
However, when we hit the sandier or pea-sized, loose gravel descents my front wheel almost washed out a couple of times. I became a bit more tentative after i almost crashed a few times. Of course it could of well been my handling skills - but I'm also thinking it might be the tires. Maybe they are good on the bigger rockier descents like Sourdough -but not so good on super dry loose stuff. On this type of terrain - I'm usually running WTB Mutano Raptors with Stan's and w/18psi. I had to run tubes and higher psi on this ride.
Also this time I had problems on some on the tighter switchbacks. Some of the switchbacks are very tight on the CT and I had to toe-dab through a few of them. Some I rode just fine and once I fell over while trying to ride one. My switchback skills need work in general - so I sure if I was skilled enough I could've ridden all the switchbacks without toe-dabbing - my toe-dabbing is not a reflection on the bike.
Summary
This bike is awesome. It climbs well and maintains great traction when climbing techy terrain and descends like a demon.(it makes you want to holler out "get the f$ck out of the way!")
The only con for me is the weight. For most people that are going to be riding this bike - the 27lbs isn't an issue for them. But i'm sad to say it's an issue for me. After the 5.5 hour ride - i could tell I wasn't climbing as fast as I usually do. I do like longer backcountry rides like this...and since so many of the rides in Colorado require big climbing - it's a trade off question. Move travel, better traction, less thinking vs less travel, less traction, more finesse, more thinking...
I'm thinking I could easily drop ~2lbs off this bike - maybe 3lbs if I got really creative. Would that make a difference to me??
And of course there's always the carbon version of this bike.
It seems like Specialized was thinking about me when designing this bike - a small person, that loves ripping it up on technical terrain and loves big/epic rides.
in the end - i'm officially ending my luddite status. Bring on the technology - I'm sold. ;)
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