wow… that’s actually a very impressive bike!!!
Looks like a kick stand plate giant put on some of there bikes…
Yeah, really good spec although it looks like a deore cassette rather than XT but thats no biggie, wheels are meh but thats the same for everything in that price range and easy to upgrade.
The elephant in the room is that it says ‘cell’. If you dont have an issue with that, its a great bike!
^ Only makes passing the guy on the Swerks XX1 all the sweeter.
Mike, I’ve been looking at bikes around that pricetag and they all have average wheels and low spec cassettes/chains. You pay a wicked premium for a bike that comes with nice wheels.At least its got SLX brakes, XT drivetrain and a Reba RL fork. Could do a lot worse.
So you buy it and immediately flip the wheels for a couple of hundred and buy a set of Hope Pro2 x Stans ArchEX off Wiggle for the difference of $300. No brainer.
Anyways, you know all this already.
Do you guys think that the wheels are that bad? They come tubeless compatible from scratch and novatech hubs seem pretty solid. I was planning on trashing them and buying some LB carboniumz later down the track. Do you think I’d be better off replacing them ASAP.
Also I’m kind of holding out for FLOW’s first ride review before dropping the coin.
I’m sure they are ok wheels and being tubeless ready (as opposed to tubeless compatible or convertable or whatever) is a big plus, but yeah either just run them whilst saving up then keep as spares or sell as brand new.
and riding a new 29er sure beats typing about one eh.
Without knowing which Novatec hubs they use its really hard to say (They make heaaappps). Yup sealed bearings are great but if it it will probably have a steel carrier, a 2 pawl freehub with low number of PoE. The rear hub will probs weigh around 500g (a Pro2Evo by comparison weighs 285g, has 4 pawls and 40 PoE). Stans Rims will at least 50g be lighter than the AlexRims and are welded rather than pinned/sleeved. Flip em, someone will be keen on them for their communter and you’ll get more interest if they are ‘new’.
You could probs save 500-700grams by getting slightly nicer wheels and thats where you want to save weight.
These are good value and can be had under $1900 online
Merida Big 7 XT-Edition (2014) | 99 Bikes
Bit of a stretch. I’ve got some low-end Formula mtb hubs and the rear is I think 420g or so. And they are shitty.
Nope. The Kona Unit that I was looking at had some SS hubs that weighed 540g. The whole build was 12.5kg for a rigid SSer - with the except of the brakes the build was absolute rubbish.
The Shimano M4XX hubs that are on a lot of cheaper bikes are also bloody heavy and they have the added bonus of their cup and cones constantly rattling loose when you take them over rough terrain.
Solid advice.
Buy the bike you think is shiniest/coolest/whatever that fits in your budget and ride the shit out of it. The wheels will be fine, in 12 months time once you’ve beat it up, then consider dropping a few hunj on a nice wheelset.
Sounds good. Might drop the coin on it tonight!
yep, its a kickstand plate!
“In a nod to commuters or tourers, there’s rack mounts, and also (the only blight on this otherwise very nice frame) a mount for kickstand. Yes. A kickstand”
Thats a very positive review huh. Nice looking bike - and so well spec’d for the dough.
Edit: found out what i was after, google is a wonderful thing :rolleyes:
Flow…
“…so our first ride on the Cell was a long fire road bash. In reality, this is probably the kind of riding a bike like this will spend most of its life doing, so it was an appropriate place to kick off”
WUT? Those guys been drinking to much rotorburn
Also, the pro geo, custom offset crown, on a reba rl… Does that mean rockshox are making forks especially for CELL? Or CELL is making their own crowns and retrofitting to reba stanchions?
Looks like a great bike. That kick stand plate could come in handy for towing… wouldnt be hard to make a super solid attachment for a chariot or similar.
Nah thats just a load of crap. Originally I think they were making the 51mm offset for solely for Trek but they are now more widely available, even aftermarket now or so I am lead to believe.
Art’s Cyclery Blog » Ask a Mechanic: 29er Forks – 46mm or 51mm Offset?
So many MTB websites seem to think that you need a 140mm enduro dually to do any kind of gnarly descending…
Don’t plan on having kids any time soon! I could probably run a pedicab service with a chariot for drunk uni students from civic to daley road.
Prepare for any eventuality… =)
So nobody cares that the frame says ‘Cell bikes’ on it??
Guess I’m superficial.