Turner 5 Spot - 2009: Ride Impression
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After I returned the Turner Sultan, I had to wait around a bit to get the very popular 5 Spot out for a test ride. As we all know Dave Turner revamped his entire bike line to use the DW Link suspension system. You can refer to my Turner Sultan post for more on the DW Link. I had ridden one of the TNT versions of the 5 Spot, so I was at least somewhat familiar with the 5 Spot’s characteristics. I took the 5 Spot up onto the lower portion of the West Leg trail. It has some pretty gnarly sections that really put a bike to a great test of its steering, braking and suspension. The 5 Spot showed an almost telepathic sense of steering, it went right where you told it to go. The 5 Spot has the typical Turner neutral feel and the rock solid read end. Can you say you have a stout rear end? On a few spots when climbing or descending the rear end liked to kick out from under me, but the bike did stay planted. The 5 Spot nicely took the mini ledges and rock ramps on the trail, and it flowed nicely along the tight singletrack. Like most Turners the 5 Spot is a big beefy frame so inherently it’s a bit heavy and on some climbs you could feel the additional weight. That extra beef does give it a tad more stiffness when hauling downhill at a fast clip.
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