The demo Sultan was in a near virgin state since the bike had just come out, and it had not seen any real sort of use. “Oh, if it’s not a personal question, are you a virgin?” Leaving the main demo area towards the trails you first encounter a gravel road with the usual stutter bumps. I never felt the stutter bumps at all and the Sultan pedaled up without any wallow. Stutter bumps always give many bikes the fits, and although it’s obviously not real singletrack terrain it does show a bikes composure. On the trail the 4.7 inches of travel felt very nice indeed and the nasty rocky terrain of the lower was hardly desernable. It was like floating along on a velvet path! What was hard to deal with was the Maxxis Crossmark 2.1 tire on the rear in the loose rocky and gravely sections of the trails? It had very little traction and made some moves difficult. The Maxxis Ardent 2.25 front tire on the other hand was fine and held up well when railing and plowing along on the trails.

The elevated chainstay was nice, no chain slap to worry about!

The demo bike was outfitted with the Fox F29 120mm fork, FSA headset, bars and stem, Avid Juicy Ultimate brakes, the aforementioned tires and other basic part selections. The White gloss frame with the ubiquitous Fox RP23 was their 17 inch size a.k.a. the medium. The Aluminum frames are designed and engineered by Turner and built by Sapa Profiles in Oregon to Turners high standards.

The Turner Sultan was a plush ride (think soft and supple) that flowed over the trails, rocks and debris and did not send any unwanted jolts nor harsh feedback into the bike. The rear end had the typical Turner stoutness and I never the least bit of slop and the rear of the bike stuck like glue right where you put it. The bike had a great neutral feel and an uncanny sense of ease to ride. I was told that they have shortened the top tube just a hair and that was my only complaint, the cockpit felt a bit cramped to my old school tastes. Did it lack personality? That was very hard to tell since it just did things so matter-of-factly. I would love to do a long term test with this bike to get a better feel for this frameset. Dave you out there?

4.7 inch travel 29er with DW Link suspension
Aluminum frame with Fox RP23 shock
Frame Sizes: 15.5, 17, 19, 21 and 23 inches
Colors: Gloss White and Bronze Gilmmer
Weight: 6.8 lbs

Info: http://www.turnerbikes.com/09sultan.html

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 22nd, 2008 at 9:53 pm and is filed under Daily Coverage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.