21/22 Bikes That Make Your Shorts Tighter.

[ticketchecker]

Agreed. I'll take straight angles over curvy, swoopy stuff any day of the week.

It's what keeps me from wanting a Ripley

[Andeh]

Keeping the YT froth going...I'm loving the cheater bike.

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I think my kid had a bigger bottle when he was 1 year old. I can't help but wonder why they didn't just pull the downtube forward a couple inches to make room for something normal sized.

[bennymac]

I think my kid had a bigger bottle when he was 1 year old. I can't help but wonder why they didn't just pull the downtube forward a couple inches to make room for something normal sized.

https://us.yt-industries.com/detail/index/sArticle/622

Because $40 water bottles. It’s like iPhones shipping without a power cord.

[climberevan]

I think my kid had a bigger bottle when he was 1 year old. I can't help but wonder why they didn't just pull the downtube forward a couple inches to make room for something normal sized.

Why would anyone riding a moped need a regular sized bottle?

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[grinch]

Keeping the YT froth going...I'm loving the cheater bike.

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Sooo fun! The duck rips. Good bike.

Liking my mulletized 21 meta 29 as well. Handful in the tight xc trails but comes alive at bp speeds. Added 165 cranks and one offset bushing. Few more things to add yet



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[MarcusBrody]

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Finally got her unwrapped. I dig the black/black fork.


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Gorgeous bike.

When I still had dreams of a two mountain bike quiver it was one of my favorites for a good value rowdy XC bike. Really I'm sure any reasonably competent bike handler could ride most of what I regularly ride on that class bike. I just want to the extra margin for error and smoothness of ride at this stage in my life.

[bennymac]

yes both those YT bikes and the meta-mullet are hot

[supermodel159]

Why would anyone riding a moped need a regular sized bottle?

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That bottle is such a joke, but for doing short laps, it’s perfect size. It’s also great for packing a post ride cocktail.

[SchralphMacchio]

Shaken, not stirred of course.
On the rocks (garden).

[Sandbox]

Sooo fun! The duck rips. Good bike.

Liking my mulletized 21 meta 29 as well. Handful in the tight xc trails but comes alive at bp speeds. Added 165 cranks and one offset bushing. Few more things to add yet



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That Meta is getting higher on my list... what size is your frame? Looks small. What’s the weight? Wish I could ride one tho....


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[grinch]

That Meta is getting higher on my list... what size is your frame? Looks small. What’s the weight? Wish I could ride one tho....


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Its a medium. Tons of standover makes it look small but the reach is looong.
Ya it'd be nice to try. Depends on your trails. Like i said, it great at speed or steep gnarly trails. Its a hanful in tight slower xc trails though. Its heavy too. I havent weighed it. I added a lb in rubber(1200g tires) and almost a lb for pedals so it could be 38lbs. With the ultra steep seat angle it winches up the steep logging roads. Slack head angle and long reach make it a task on singletrack climbs. Its not a trail bike. Squarely in the enduro/freeride/bikepark category. Its a lot of fun except for half of our xc trails. It does make you search for more speed.
Im probably going to add a 65mm stroke coil shock to make it 166 and bump the fox 38 to 180 and add a vorsprung secus to it

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[Sandbox]

Its a medium. Tons of standover makes it look small but the reach is looong.
Ya it'd be nice to try. Depends on your trails. Like i said, it great at speed or steep gnarly trails. Its a hanful in tight slower xc trails though. Its heavy too. I havent weighed it. I added a lb in rubber(1200g tires) and almost a lb for pedals so it could be 38lbs. With the ultra steep seat angle it winches up the steep logging roads. Slack head angle and long reach make it a task on singletrack climbs. Its not a trail bike. Squarely in the enduro/freeride/bikepark category. Its a lot of fun except for half of our xc trails. It does make you search for more speed.
Im probably going to add a 65mm stroke coil shock to make it 166 and bump the fox 38 to 180 and add a vorsprung secus to it

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That’s a great bunch of info! Basically rules it out as most my riding is trail, tech / punchy climbs. Still a great looking bike tho, really pleasing in the eyes.


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[scrublover]

That’s a great bunch of info! Basically rules it out as most my riding is trail, tech / punchy climbs. Still a great looking bike tho, really pleasing in the eyes.


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check into the 2020 Meta TR29

may be able to snag one still from Commencal directly. love mine for the east coast/new england riding.

if i were out west or somewhere with more sustained ups and downs, i'd probably swap to the newer version.

[grinch]

That’s a great bunch of info! Basically rules it out as most my riding is trail, tech / punchy climbs. Still a great looking bike tho, really pleasing in the eyes.


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check into the 2020 Meta TR29

may be able to snag one still from Commencal directly. love mine for the east coast/new england riding.

if i were out west or somewhere with more sustained ups and downs, i'd probably swap to the newer version.

Thats a good idea. 2020 should be a little more well rounded. Mine was a great value. Old stock should be amazing.
You might want to put canfield on your emailing list. Also good value . The recent sale they had was really well priced. They seem to have occasional sales. New bikes are looking tight

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[alpinevibes]

Ride report please. I might jump on one of these. It's not super high on my "want list," but somehow, YT seems to be getting them out there while lag times on the Spur, Hei Hei, and others seem to be appx. 1 billion years.

Yeah i ordered it on Sat 12/5 with a Jan 20th listed ship date. They had a FedEx label created on the 8th and it was at my door on the 15th. Unexpected, especially as the wife’s Ripley v4 is still late June delivery...

Not sure when I’ll ride it. Possibly a Jan/Feb desert run if we get high pressure here for a while. Otherwise I’ll sit on it and tech talk debate swapping 175mm cranks for 170mm... It sounds like the Spur/Izzo type crowd are getting a lot of pedal strikes.

Oh and fwiw: 27.2lbs for the large Pro Race w/ tubes (as shipped) and no pedals/bottle cage.


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[smartyiak]

Yeah i ordered it on Sat 12/5 with a Jan 20th listed ship date. They had a FedEx label created on the 8th and it was at my door on the 15th. Unexpected, especially as the wife’s Ripley v4 is still late June delivery...
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Where on earth is YT getting their frames and parts from? It seems bikes (esp. Spur, Ripley and everything Speshy) are sold out...with massive wait times. YT had some initial struggles with the IZZO...but seems like they pulled it together and are just chuggin along.

[alpinevibes]

Where on earth is YT getting their frames and parts from? It seems bikes (esp. Spur, Ripley and everything Speshy) are sold out...with massive wait times. YT had some initial struggles with the IZZO...but seems like they pulled it together and are just chuggin along.

From lurking on other Izzo threads it sounds like they had inventory backed up at US customs this fall. That delayed late summer and early fall order completion but maybe created some kind of oversupply of USA bikes when they were all cleared? I dunno

Otherwise, likely a timing bet win: YT betting on getting real traction from the market once bikes were in customers hands during the summer (April 2020 launch). Ripley v4 had a Fall 2019 launch and Spur had plenty of hype ahead of their June launch, leading to salivating buyers. I think the Izzo just didn’t have the instant demand of the others and has stayed more available as Taiwan production started to play catch up.


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[smmokan]

Quick update on the Forbidden Druid that I built up a couple of months ago and posted about a page or two back. I originally posted the bike for sale but after thinking about it, I decided to keep it over the winter and do some tinkering. In a nutshell, I'm glad I did. The bike rips and the changes have made a noticeable difference already.

I swapped over all the carbon bits and nice parts from my GG Trail Pistola (which I was planning to sell anyways)- I9 stem, carbon RF handlebar, X01 cranks, etc., which probably helped me shave a pound or more off the weight. Then I started making tweaks to the drivetrain setup, based on a few things I had read on FB and MTBR. There was a post by Forbidden saying that on the larger sized frames, there was essentially no issue in removing the lower chain guide. One of my original issues with the bike was the way it pedaled, so I decided to give it a shot. I removed the lower guide and the bash guard, and then shortened the chain quite a bit to make it way tighter than before. Both of those in combination made the drivetrain WAY smoother, with virtually no perceptible chain drag. The idler obviously adds something, but the cranks spin so much better than before.

Anyways, all that adds up to a bike that climbs just as well as my Trail Pistol (which I'd compare as a heavier version of the Ripley V4). It's feels a tiny bit slower on the long, smooth climbs but absolutely floats over anything techy. On descents, it still kicks as much ass as before. I can definitely push the rear end of the bike and hit stuff a lot harder than with other bikes, and it feels so smooth. On little drops (I don't do big drops), you can feel the stability when the rear end extends on impact. I do notice that the bike seems to be a bit harder to wheelie/manual than my Trail Pistol, but I suck at that so I'm not sure if it's worth mentioning.

I've currently got a CC Inline Coil on the rear and I plan on messing around with an air shock to see if there's a trade off between weight and rear end performance. A lot of the comments on MTBR say that the bike performs just as well with an air shock, so why not give it a shot? Pro tip- the Cane Creek air shocks won't fit this bike due to the valve that sticks out from the air can, it's too wide to fit inside the "tunnel" on the rear end of the Druid.

[grskier]

Quick update on the Forbidden Druid that I built up a couple of months ago and posted about a page or two back. I originally posted the bike for sale but after thinking about it, I decided to keep it over the winter and do some tinkering. In a nutshell, I'm glad I did. The bike rips and the changes have made a noticeable difference already.

I swapped over all the carbon bits and nice parts from my GG Trail Pistola (which I was planning to sell anyways)- I9 stem, carbon RF handlebar, X01 cranks, etc., which probably helped me shave a pound or more off the weight. Then I started making tweaks to the drivetrain setup, based on a few things I had read on FB and MTBR. There was a post by Forbidden saying that on the larger sized frames, there was essentially no issue in removing the lower chain guide. One of my original issues with the bike was the way it pedaled, so I decided to give it a shot. I removed the lower guide and the bash guard, and then shortened the chain quite a bit to make it way tighter than before. Both of those in combination made the drivetrain WAY smoother, with virtually no perceptible chain drag. The idler obviously adds something, but the cranks spin so much better than before.

Anyways, all that adds up to a bike that climbs just as well as my Trail Pistol (which I'd compare as a heavier version of the Ripley V4). It's feels a tiny bit slower on the long, smooth climbs but absolutely floats over anything techy. On descents, it still kicks as much ass as before. I can definitely push the rear end of the bike and hit stuff a lot harder than with other bikes, and it feels so smooth. On little drops (I don't do big drops), you can feel the stability when the rear end extends on impact. I do notice that the bike seems to be a bit harder to wheelie/manual than my Trail Pistol, but I suck at that so I'm not sure if it's worth mentioning.

I've currently got a CC Inline Coil on the rear and I plan on messing around with an air shock to see if there's a trade off between weight and rear end performance. A lot of the comments on MTBR say that the bike performs just as well with an air shock, so why not give it a shot? Pro tip- the Cane Creek air shocks won't fit this bike due to the valve that sticks out from the air can, it's too wide to fit inside the "tunnel" on the rear end of the Druid.

Great write up of what you did and your thoughts. Now edit it to not admit you got any useful information off of MTBR before some here freak out

All of the modern trail/enduro bikes are pretty difficult to manual and wheelie. I got on my wife's bike before the last storm and looped out a few times (it's a 2013). I can barely get the front tire up high enough for 6 pedal strokes in a wheelie on my current (2020 Megatower) bike.

[smartyiak]

Great write up of what you did and your thoughts. Now edit it to not admit you got any useful information off of MTBR before some here freak out

All of the modern trail/enduro bikes are pretty difficult to manual and wheelie. I got on my wife's bike before the last storm and looped out a few times (it's a 2013). I can barely get the front tire up high enough for 6 pedal strokes in a wheelie on my current (2020 Megatower) bike.

Except: now I want one again!

Here’s to the tinkerers! [emoji482]


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[smmokan]

It's snowing today, so I took the upgraded Druid out back for a glamour shot in the snow:

[bennymac]

That is a shorts tightening bike for sure.

[Dromond]

It's snowing today, so I took the upgraded Druid out back for a glamour shot in the snow:

Naïve question but: does having half tooth engagement on the chainring have any downsides?

[smmokan]

Naïve question but: does having half tooth engagement on the chainring have any downsides?

I don't claim to be an expert, but my understanding is that only a few teeth of the chain ring bear the brunt of the stress/force/engagement. My guess is that's the first few the chain comes in contact with, around 2:30 on the ring. In my unscientific testing (ie., riding the bike), it doesn't seem to have any negative effect. The chain drag is noticeably lower now than before, however.

I probably wouldn't have removed it if the guys at Forbidden had not replied to a question in the Druid Owner's FB group asking about it. They specifically mentioned they only saw issues on the smaller-sized frames, and the L and XL frames didn't have issues removing the lower guide. Plus, if you look at the other bikes out there like the Deviate Highlander and the new Norco Shore, they don't use lower guides.

[jacob_dbu]

It's snowing today, so I took the upgraded Druid out back for a glamour shot in the snow:

How many links is that chain?