Reviewed by Brian Mullin aka Gram and MTBR.com Pastajet
http://www.gramslightbikes.com/

I have been using the DT Swiss EXC 150 fork for 6 months now, and the fork has stayed on my bike longer than any other test fork, which really says a lot. It is not only gorgeous looking, it’s an incredible all around, and enjoyable fork that just does most everything right.

DT Swiss History
DT Swiss AG was formed in 1994 by Marco Zingg, Maurizio d’Alberto and Frank Böckmann, and they are headquartered in the outskirts of Biel Switzerland. They manufactured spokes, which is still their bread and butter business, and is their main claim to fame. They have added hubs, rims, wheels, and shocks to their product line in the years since then, and they really got the suspension business rolling when they acquired Pace Cycles Ltd in 2006. They continue to make incredibly great products that meet that typical Swiss build quality, and they have evolved into being one of the premier carbon suspension and rim builders in the world. Mini quiz: what is the country code for Switzerland?

The ISO country code for Switzerland is CH, which comes from the Latin Confoederatio Helvetica (Swiss Confederation). The word Helvetica refers to the Helvetians, one of the Celtic tribes that lived in what is now Switzerland around the 1st Century BC.

DT Swiss EXC 150
The DT Swiss EXC 150 (i.e. 150mm of travel), is DT Swiss’s premier long travel All Mountain fork. The EXC 150 has some interesting features such as hollow carbon fiber reverse arch, carbon fiber legs, a proprietary 15mm thru axle, and an intriguing locked lowering system. EXC stands for Enduro X-Cross Carbon. The forks actual full name is the EXC 150 Air RTLC 15 (Rebound Threshold Launch Control)!

It is available with either a standard axle or their 15mm thru axle, which is what I tested. It has 32mm aluminum stanchions, an aluminum crown, 1 1/8″ aluminum steerer tube, post mount brake tabs, and is tuned using rebound, air, compression and platform adjustments.

The only change from previous year’s model is that the thru axle is now their proprietary 15mm axle instead of a 20mm pinch clamp axle. They have jumped full force into the 15mm axle bandwagon, and you can get many of their wheels and hubs with that axle variant.

Next -> Features

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Reviewed by Brian Mullin aka Gram and MTBR.com Pastajet
http://www.gramslightbikes.com/

I have been testing the Race Face NEXT XC crankset for 3 months now, and it is very lightweight,
highly engineered, very trick looking, and best of all it is extremely stiff.

Happiness is a nice Stiff one

The Race Face NEXT XC crankset system is comprised of the EXI bottom bracket, the drive side arm with bonded CrMo spindle, the non drive side arm, and arm protection end caps. It comes in a very pretty box with everything very nicely laid out.

Race Face has been making carbon cranks for 10 years, and they spent 2 years of extensive R&D to create these 100% carbon cranks. The workmanship, innovation, design, materials analysis and artistry of that allocated time really shows in the quality of this product. The cranks are manufactured in their British Columbia Canada manufacturing facility.

Carbon Fiber 101
The history of carbon fiber starts out in 1958 in the hands of a freshly minted Ph.D. in physics, Roger Bacon. While working at Union Carbide Parma Technical Center located outside of Cleveland, he was doing carbon arc testing using stands of rayon, and he created some deposits, which contained carbon fiber whiskers. Unbeknownst he may have also created the first carbon nanotubes?

Carbon fiber is composed of carbon atoms bonded together to form a long chain of extremely thin fibers about 0.005–0.010 mm in diameter. Thousands of carbon fibers are twisted together to form a yarn, the yarns are used in several processing techniques: the direct uses are for prepregging, filament winding, pultrusion, weaving, braiding etc. It is usually then combined with an epoxy resin to form a composite material. Carbon fiber needs precursors for its creation, and either rayon, PAN or pitch is used. The mostly widely used precursor is polyacrylonitrile (PAN), which was researched by the Japanese in 1961, and then developed by Japanese and the British. Using PAN as a precursor creates much higher strength and higher modulus fibers.

In a nutshell: carbon fiber is a high strength, high stiffness material that when combined with a resin matrix creates a composite with exceptional mechanical properties.

Next -> Construction & Installation

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Recession Buster

The MBT crew prides itself on the fact that we don’t need investment portfolios, stock trading values, or financial advisers to clue us in on the state of the economy. No, we’ve got a method far more current and accurate and we call it our inbox. We receive dozens of reader requests each week seeking information on various bikes before purchase and it’s pretty easy to spot trends. You’ve asked for tests on sub $1000 full suspension mountain bikes and we’re glad to deliver. Just a few short years ago the concept of an adequate full-squish model for less than a G was akin to finding Bigfoot or swimming with a mermaid. These days it’s not so far fetched and we’re here to prove it.

Until now we were quick to point readers looking for such recommendations to the venerable Woodstock 707; a bike we tested back in 2006. Unfortunately, Woodstock since closed up shop and left many riders (and many journalists alike) struggling to find a suitable substitute. The closest model we discovered up until now was the Giant Yukon FX. The good news is that the bike delivered in all of our rigorous criteria. The bad news is that demand of the model has proven so strong that the MSRP has been steadily creeping upward with each passing season. As it stands the Yukon FX still sneaks in at under $1000, but just barely and who can say if it still will when you decide it’s time to make your move?

Enter the Base 2.0 from K2. After years of searching for a true full suspension trail bike that won’t break the bank, it appears as though we just may have found what we’ve been looking for. Full suspension, a host of quality components and an MSRP of $799- Mythological you ask? Not a chance.

Specs

Taking a walk around the K2 Base 2.0 reveals a host of goodies starting with a heat-treated 6061 aluminum frame and high-mount single pivot linkage. Drivetrain is full SRAM X-5 (trigger shifters, front and rear derailleur); hydraulic disc braking comes in the form of Tektro’s Auriga Comp. The four inches of suspension travel are handled by a Rockshox Dart 2 fork (with preload, rebound, compression adjustment and lockout) and an air-sprung SR Suntour Epicon shock (compression and rebound adjustable). Other odds and ends include an NVO stem, UNO Ultralite bar, Cane Creek headset, FSA Dyna Drive cranks, WTB SX24 rims wrapped in WTB Moto Raptor tires. Finally grips and saddle are WTB (Speed V) and K2 even throws in a pair of Wellgo platform pedals to get you underway.

Mounting Up

Climbing into the K2 Base 2.0’s roomy cockpit reveals a nicely sloped top tube, which allows for generous standover clearance. The reach to the bar is short and seated position is quite comfortable (upright and relaxed). Sizing seems to be spot on with the unofficial standard followed by most brands- in other words if you usually ride a large sized frame, you’ll likely be sticking with a large here as well.

Moving Out

Like most high-mounted single pivot frame designs, the Base 2.0 pedals surprisingly well, even from a dead stop. Chalk part of this trait up to the wonderfully aggressive tread pattern of the Moto Raptor tires. Rather then burst forward with each crank rotation, the Base accelerates with an even head of steam that steadily builds into true momentum as you work way through the gears. Shifting from the SRAM X-5 group was a pleasant surprise as in smooth and precise. Having tested dozens of bikes adorned with the X-7 and X-9 group, this was our first experience with the more budget-friendly X-5 and we hope it isn’t our last. While not quite as precise as its higher-end brethren, the X-5 gear train works with typical SRAM effectiveness, which is to say deliberate and slightly more mechanical than its Shimano counterparts.

While SR Suntour may not be the first name that springs to mind when you think of mountain bike suspension, the Epicon shock found on our Base 2.0 certainly isn’t to blame. We pressurized the air chamber to 80 PSI (half our tester’s body weight) and then fine-tuned the shock’s responsiveness through the rebound adjustment. Coupled to the high mount linkage configuration resulted in a lively chassis that resisted energy-sucking pedal bob surprisingly well (in spite of a lack of true pedaling platform or shock lockout feature).

The Rockshox fork’s performance mated pretty well to the president set by the rear end even though we would love to have had the infinitely tunable compression range an air-sprung fork would have provided. As it stands, however, the Dark 2 is no slouch. We began by dialing in our sag with the preload adjuster (top left leg) then worked the compression dial (top right leg) until the fork felt small bump compliant enough for our tastes. Finally the rebound action is fully adjustable as well (bottom right leg) and we settled in at about three-quarters from full fast. We encourage riders to take the time to set the fork and shock up correctly as the Base’s chassis responds well to fine finesse (fork especially).

Once dialed in, the Base 2.0 strikes up a balanced feel with a slight rearward rider-weight bias. We suspect the tendency of the front end to wash out in high speed or sandy switchbacks was nullified by the WTB Moto Raptors’ incredible grip. Our testing took us from rock-solid hardpack to slippery oozing mud and just about everywhere in between and we couldn’t unsettle the Base’s solid handling characteristics.

Braking from the Tektro Auriga Comps was effective and often times impressive despite a fairly poor reputation from online users. While perhaps not quite as grabby (or powerful) as some of the top contenders in the hydraulic disc category, make no mistake that once properly burned in, the Aurigas give up very little in the way of smooth modulation. Also keep in mind that a majority of the bikes offered in this price range typically come equipped with manual disc or even manual rim brakes, either of which the Tektro Aurigas absolutely decimate. Editor’s note- These are the exact same brakes we’ve been running on our Fuji Thrill LT 2.0 (6 inch rotors) and they’ve proved to be fantastic performers over time.

Strengths and Weaknesses

We like to think that all bikes, regardless of cost, have a combination of traits that makes them excel in certain conditions and suffer in others. For the K2 Base 2.0, we found that the geometry is such that the bike works best in wide-open areas, endless flats, and on moderate climbs. Of course this isn’t to suggest that it doesn’t carve a nice line on a moderate descent or flow like liquid across a tight ribbon of singltrack either. Just bear in mind that this is a 4-inch travel trailbike and hence isn’t designed for the type of abuse associated with downhill hammering or big-hit riding.

We had ample opportunity to test the Base along some Western NY singletrack as well. Here the specs really begin to shine. If your definition of a good ride includes coiled up singletrack, rocks, roots, and off camber, the Base 2.0 will answer your beckoning call.

Because there is no factory platform valving to rely on, the only modification we required was a slight increase in shock air pressure, which though sacrificing a bit of small bump compliance, offsets the chassis’ tendency to weight the rear of the bike… Or in other words stiffening of the shock puts a bit more of the rider’s weight on the front to keep the wheel from wandering. This trick also works wonders on extended climbs.

Conclusion

Despite what you may read in the headlines of the newspaper, these are great times to be a mountain biker. K2 proves with their Base 2.0 that the days of having to suffer with the inadequacies of a hardtail due to lack of cash are strictly optional.

About the only negative in this situation to report is the difficulty in securing a K2 Base 2.0 of your own. We’ve searched high and low and were quite unsuccessful at finding a single unit in stock (even the ever-fruitful eBay turned up nothing). This is the type of bike that we try to add to our long-term test fleet due to the fact that anyone we let take it for a test ride at the trailhead ends up remembering that they’ve been meaning to buy a bike for their girlfriend, fiancée, or wife (don’t worry, we won’t blow the secret that you really want a second bike for yourself). At this price, it’s hard not to start scheming. If you do manage to locate one, grab it up quickly because if you don’t, we’re going to.

This review has been brought to you by your friends at http://www.mountainbiketales.com

As an avid mountain biker and a volunteer with the East Bay Regional Parks Bike Patrol, I can easily put a product through its paces. Recently, I was given the chance through MTBR.com to evaluate the Deuter Compact EXP 8 and the Deuter Hydro Lite 3.0 hydration packs. The Compact EXP 8 is a new extended hiking/biking hydration pack that carries 3L of water and was made for those who hike or bike for greater than two hours as recommended by Deuter. The Hydro Lite 3.0 is marketed to those who will be on the trails for two hours or more. This hydration pack carries 3L of water, about 1L more than the competition.

Compact EXP 8

Features:
Like all hydration packs, this one comes with your standard, shoulder and chest straps that are fully adjustable but also include a waist strap where each side also has a zippered pouch to store small items as well. If you are looking for a hydration pack that can literally carry everything, your search is over. This one has a small zippered pocket and a large zippered pocket with key ring on the outside of the pack, plus an area to hold your helmet or jacket via adjustable straps and bike pump sleeve. Hold on, there’s more! Inside the pack where the water is stored, there is another zippered pocket and another fairly large storage pocket that is behind the water reservoir, this one unzipped. Even the area where the water reservoir is located has some additional room to store things, if needed. And if you still don’t have enough room, there is a zipper that almost encircles the whole pack to almost double the volume of storage.

Included is a mouth piece cover that is connected via a cord to protect the mouth piece from grit and dirt while you are on the trail. The mouth piece also has a built-in shut off valve activated just by turning the mouth piece clock wise by one turn. There is a tube fixation piece on the right shoulder strap for those who prefer having the tube and mouthpiece secured while on the trail. The water reservoir uses an innovative slip clip called the streamer clip to open and close the water reservoir for filling and use. There is a reflective tail light strap and Deuter uses what they call Airstripe that is supposed to hold the pack onto your back and still have airflow to keep your back cool and not sweaty. The whole reservoir system uses an anti-bacterial material that inhibits bacteria growth and doesn’t add any taste to the water.

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