Ultraromance<\/a> or whatever he\u2019s called these days]<\/p>\nBut that one at least had the excuse of being over 100 years old. This one was nearly as bad, and is apparently still in production, which is, quite frankly, shocking to me, and suggests humans have learned absolutely nothing as a species during this time.<\/p>\n
So yes, given all that, I\u2019m reluctant to draw too many conclusions about the beam at this point. However, I can tell you how to adjust the saddle height, and you do it by loosening up this bolt and sliding it up or down\u2013though it\u2019s a trial-and-error thing since it flexes as you ride you ride and so you\u2019ve got to kind of figure out a midpoint:<\/p>\nI can also tell you that the beam does what it\u2019s supposed to do, which is keep you suspended and isolated from jarring impacts. I can see why someone would enjoy this floaty feeling\u2013for example, my elder son tried the bike for a minute or two and loved it. Of course he\u2019s also a kid who\u2019s mostly digging the novelty factory, plus he\u2019d just made a catapult for the Science Olympiad so he probably still had them on the brain. That said, I never felt like the beam was going to launch me from the bike. That could be because of the damping material that\u2019s supposed to be in there, or it could be because I simply didn\u2019t push the bike\u2019s limits. Certainly the beam allows you to ride over this sort of thing while seated despite 26-inch tires inflated to a relatively high pressure, which counts for something:<\/p>\nThe fact that your saddle height is constantly changing as you ride didn\u2019t bother me as much as I thought it would\u2013I mean, yeah, I wasn\u2019t crazy about it, but you shift position so much anyway when you ride a bike on irregular surfaces that it wasn\u2019t really as bad as you might think. There\u2019s also a real advantage to the beam, which is that when you\u2019re out of the saddle to accelerate the bike behaves like a regular hardtail. However, this is also a disadvantage if you consider that when you get out of the saddle for other situations which might still warrant suspension\u2013like bombing down a rugged descent\u2013you get no benefit from it at all. In that sense the bike has sort of a \u201cLady in the streets, freak in the sheets\u201d type thing going on; when you\u2019re sitting down it\u2019s a softail and when you\u2019re standing up it\u2019s a hardtail. I\u2019m sure this was a big selling point for some, but to me it makes about as much sense as a drivetrain that lets you freewheel while climbing but is a fixed-gear while you\u2019re descending. To me, a bike should be one thing or the other, not two things at once. Mostly I liked the bike much better when I was out of the saddle\u2026but again, that might simply be the transcendent awfulness of said saddle, and the fact that getting out of it was more of a relief than any form of suspension could possibly offer. <\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the front suspension as furnished by the stem:<\/p>\nLike the beam, it works quite well to isolate you from the terrain when you\u2019re cruising along rough surfaces. However, due to the lack of damping, anything more than that is like riding a pogo stick. This is most apparent when you weight and unweight the front end to lift the wheel, as you might when hopping a curb or riding over a log\u2013first it compresses, then it snaps right back in a somewhat jarring fashion. Hitting an obstacle while descending can be even more disconcerting, since the handlebar just comes right back at you. Sure, hitting an obstacle while descending is also pretty jarring on a a rigid bike, but it\u2019s more predictable than a spring-loaded handlebar. Basically, it works fine just as long as you\u2019re on level ground and not shifting your weight. This seems to be the theme both fore and aft\u2013it\u2019s as though they designed a bike with the idea that the rider should maintain a constant position at all times. That\u2019s not really a viable proposition for riding up and down on varied terrain. However, if you had, say, a long and flat commute on a cobblestone streets this could very well be the bike for you.<\/p>\n
Anyway, the TLDR of it is that the suspension works pretty good on rough, level surfaces when riding seated, but gets increasingly quirky as you move out of that plane. Today it seems downright goofy, but relative to other suspensions at the time it could probably hold its own. Also, plenty of people who laugh at it today are probably riding similarly silly bikes, like\u2026oh, I dunno, dual-suspended crabon garvel bieks with dropper posts and Lauf forks or whatever. <\/p>\n
After the saddle, the second-worst thing about the bike is the shifters:<\/p>\nI remember very well when these shifters came out, though I never tried them until now. Basically, the idea is they work like Shimano road shifters, and you change gear by moving the brake levers up and down. As I recall, shifting was supposed to be super-fast since you\u2019d just kinda nudge them, like using paddle shifters on a race car or something.<\/p>\n
Well, everybody hated them, and I totally see why. In theory they should be really easy to operate, but in practice getting your hands under the levers is like trying to reconnect a cable in your engine bay that\u2019s ever-so-slightly out of reach. To mitigate that, Shimano included some sort of bolt-on thumb lever, which you can sort of see sticking out on the front shifter, but which is absent from the right one. (Paul included it but it was too annoying to install and so I didn\u2019t bother:)<\/p>\nThis is quite a misfire (pun intended) from the company that created the wildly intuitive trigger (or \u201cRapidfire\u201d) shifter, and the lousy ergonomics of the shifters is only compounded by the bars. At first I kinda liked them since they offered more hand positions than a classic flat mountain bar. Eventually though I realized the tight curve at the outside only aggravated the rooting-around-in-your-engine-bay feeling. Also, with a stem that long the \u201caero\u201d portion is useless if you\u2019re not Graeme Obree<\/a>, and if you even attempted to use it offroad there\u2019s no way that single-bolt clamp would resist all that leverage:<\/p>\nBesides that, the awfulness of these features is only emphasized by the rest of the parts, which are quite nice\u2013though the Microdrive cranks is arguably another nod to evolutionary detours:<\/p>\nAnd the one good thing I will say about the shifters is that downshifts are quite effortless in conjunction with the RapidRise derailleur:<\/p>\nAlso, the XTR V-brakes are fantastic:<\/p>\n
\n
And who doesn\u2019t love the look of classic 26-inch mountain bike wheels?<\/p>\nWell, plenty of people probably don\u2019t like them, but I do.<\/p>\n
Boingy parts and questionable components aside, the bike handles like a racy pre-suspension mountain bike otherwise, which is to say it\u2019s quite nimble:<\/p>\nIt even has \u201cDirect Response Steering,\u201d which of course is way, way better than indirect response:<\/p>\nThough the bike sort of surrenders its already loose grip on composure on climbs like this, where the front wheel develops a mind of its own:<\/p>\nSo there you have it, a case study in how to overcomplicate a perfectly decent bike:<\/p>\nI suspect a cockpit and saddle swap would actually make it kinda fun\u2013and if there were a way to get rid of that lizard\u2019s tongue then you\u2019d really<\/em> be onto something.<\/p>\n\n
Like this:<\/h3>\n Like<\/span><\/span> Loading…<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7061-1.jpg?resize=736%2C552&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/kdh_softride.jpg?resize=736%2C546&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-06-165915.png?resize=490%2C401&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7073.jpg?resize=736%2C552&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/bag.jpg?resize=260%2C260&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/1200px-Blotched-Blue-Toungue-Alpine-phase.jpg?resize=736%2C432&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7074.jpg?resize=736%2C981&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7075.jpg?resize=736%2C981&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7081.jpg?resize=736%2C552&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7083.jpg?resize=736%2C552&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/IMG_6718.jpg?resize=736%2C981&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7088.jpg?resize=736%2C981&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/beetlejuice.jpg?resize=625%2C428&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7103.jpg?resize=736%2C981&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/mead-inline-leroica_h.jpg?resize=736%2C414&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7089.jpg?resize=736%2C981&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7080.jpg?resize=736%2C981&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7090.jpg?resize=736%2C981&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7087.jpg?resize=736%2C552&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7084.jpg?resize=736%2C552&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7100.jpg?resize=736%2C552&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7082.jpg?resize=736%2C981&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7092.jpg?resize=736%2C981&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7085.jpg?resize=736%2C981&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7093.jpg?resize=736%2C981&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7095.jpg?resize=736%2C981&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7094.jpg?resize=736%2C981&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7098.jpg?resize=736%2C981&ssl=1\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesnobnyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/IMG_7099.jpg?resize=736%2C981&ssl=1\")