Lenz Lunchbox 6.0

6” 29er Trail/AM

Mikesee offered me the opportunity to ride his 6.0 Lunchbox at I-bike and after thinking about it for a nanosecond I accepted his offer. He brought both a large and a medium and after trying both around the demo area I settled on the medium. The large felt fine too but with the big suspension and big wheels it just felt a bit too large for the techy stuff I was going to be riding it on. I didn’t care for the flat swept back bend of the bars on the medium but I got used to them fast enough. I still think I would’ve preferred the more traditional riser bars that were on the large.

The bike looked nice and it doesn’t seem be crowding things to get 6 inches out of the Lunch Box even in the medium. Perhaps a bit out of proportion compared to what I’m used to looking at, but not odd looking. It was equipped with WB 150 fork and RS Monarch air shock which worked really well. With the stiff Mikesee laced wheels (I presume) the bike just seems to flatten the BC choppy rocks without any side to side twisting and squirming. I didn’t notice the flexy wheels too much on other 29er bikes until I rode Mike’s. Wow. What a difference. If I build a 29er I know who’s building my wheels. On climbing Mother to West Leg I didn’t feel any bob or pedal feedback. The tight switch backs were a bit more of a challenge than on some of the 26er offerings but I made it around each of them with little drama. The bike just felt a bit longer and more gangly than what I’m used to. Not sure what the weight on this bike is but it felt to be in the low 30s and did not tire me out while climbing. This was the last bike I rode after two full 8 hour days and I ended up going on an extended loop up West Leg then up Boy Scout to Skyline. It took two tries to get the 4 foot step up at the start of Caldera that I cleaned first try on the Tracer but that may have been by tired brain and legs conspiring against me. It did feel like a big bike though even in the medium. Big wheels. Fairly upright riding position. Very similar to the Rip 9 in rider position and feel. I didn’t notice the short chain stays making the front end that much easier to lift over ledges but it wasn’t hard. Going down Skyline to East leg it worked really well also. The only bike that felt better on this section was the Delirium-T. This section can be described as medium fast techy flow with a constant drop-off to your right and lots of step ups, step downs, and rocks to keep you on your toes. The big Lenz just let me relax and cruise right down despite my tired body and addled mind..

I was pretty impressed with the WB 150 which felt as good or better than most of the Fox 36 offerings I tried at the show though maybe not as stiff. The Monarch seemed to soak up small stuff pretty well and ramped up nicely without bottoming. Very RP23 like.

Bottom line: It’s a great bike. Does it do anything that a 4.5 or 4.7 inch Rip 9 or Sultan won’t do? I don’t know. And if it does (bigger drops I’m assuming) would I feel comfortable doing them on a big wheeled bike? I don’t know. It handled the little two and three footers I tried very well but so did the others. It seemed to be a solution looking for a problem a bit. For the kind of terrain where a burly 6” AM bike like the D-T shines I think the 26inch wheel platform still holds some advantages. Maybe it’s just a matter of me wrapping my head around the idea of a long travel 29er because it rolled really nice and was very capable of handling rough technical terrain.

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