Saracen Zen Mini Review if you are interested..

I have been going about this elsewhere on stw so in thought I would give my new bike justice and tell you everything about it so far. I just bought a Sarcen Zen 2 for 570 delivered from singletrackbikes.co.uk. It was supposed to be a donor bike for an as yet undecided universal mtb missile bfe/456evo/transition transam (they is like all steel frames innit), but right now it is holding it’s own on the doing everything front. (which has mostly invloved climbing stoke hill, hitting the jumps and berms in the woods, push up repeat, and then bombing down stoke hill to get home, and a trip to haldon)

It climbs really well, descends like a true hardcore hardtail, I am loving the steep on this bike. I’m a metallurgist/materials engineer done plenty of time working with steel and aluminium alloys. I cannot really find much difference in “feel” between this and my bfe in terms of “zing” or any other bullshit bingo you care to play. Yes the geom is slightly different, but then I am a shit rider and a bit of a donkey on a bike so maybe a more refined type like GW could tell the difference just by smell from 40 paces. But not me.(not that steel is bad you understand, my fave material actually)
In the haldon rock gardens it feels equally as harsh as my old bfe did. Just relax and float..

Upsides
0) Cheapety cheap cheap
1) Slack ish geom
2) excellent basic shimano m590 brakes (so far have coped with my incredible mass), I love simple brakes, they work, no faffing, just reach adjustment by allen key. Seem to have buckets of power.
3) fast as a very fast thing
4) nobby nics are a total surprise to a died in the wool high roller kinda guy..
5) groupset is good enough, whilst it isn’t bling bling, it changes gear smoothly.
6) Its anti cool. It has that kind of halfords look about it, mainly because it a Saracen, which I really like for some reason.

Downsides
1)cup and cone wheels (even though tis 15mm front) well I think it’s a downside, you might not, the jury appears to be split. So suck it up.
2) sektor fork is a bit basic but for 75 quid you can get a revalation rlt motion control unit which just bolts in. Total improvement in forkage. (despite being a tapered frame the fork is 1 1/8th all the way down)
3) As a short fat fussy bastard I had to get a shorter stem (65 down to 40) and wider bars (680-740)
4) The deore shifters come with permanant windows which is uber irritating for those of us that like one finger braking. Apparantly you can just chop them off and fill the hole with silicone, but as it’s new I have resisted this. Not for long.
5) Standard seat qr was shite so I had to replace it with a chromag, but then I even hate the hope ones so I am a bit qr fussy. Moot as reverb is coming.

None of the downsides are unsolvable for not much cash.

More bulletins as events warrant

Ohh I forgot – I had to spend 17.98 on a pair of 23mm park tool cone spanners for the 15mm bolt thru cup and cone front wheel, I am about to become a disciple of the loose ball hub!

Dam that’s cheap! Good spec for the money i’d say. Good purchase!

You only need one cone spanner and one adjustable wrench to do the 15mm hub.

I has thought that so I will try with one and return the other if I don’t need it. Should arrive today. Thanks for the heads up. Do you have experience with that hub?

The replacement Moco for the Turnkey will make a big difference, the dual flow rebound assm from the Revelations will also get them working working even better (in conjunction with a moco or DNA Moco)

Great review Toys19. Is that an XT rear mech? You could get a job in the mag. nice grass roots review 😀

Thanks popocatapetl. It is a deore xt

Shimano Deore XT M772 Shadow

from the spec.

Loco, given that I have the moco, can you supply the dual rebound thing? my user name at hotmail dot com.

Yep got a few in stock and they come retuned as well, have mailed you with details 😀

nice one loco, I’ll be in touch in the morning.

Zen update! I’ve been having difficulty sourcing a mech hanger after breaking mine, Madison Saracen have sent me a couple free of charge. How nice.