Hello all,

Sammy from Stif here. Would just like to give my 2 cents on the choices for the Taniwha’s build kit.

Rims – We chose the WTB i25 as its our staff favourite. They are 25mm internal, which we think its plenty wide enough to give a decent tyre profile and have a good strength to weight ratio. We’ve found that wider rims dent and ding much easier because they have a slimmer wall thickness to keep the weight down. Given the bikes intended purpose – it needs to be pedalled uphill and ridden HARD downhill, these rims are a great choice. I personally weigh over 15 stone and have used the same i25 wheelset for 3 Alps trips, multiple uplift days, plus regular riding without suffering any damage.

Hubs – We’ve picked the Hope hubs, as again they are a tried and tested staff favourite. Hope hubs work and keep working in grotty UK conditions, are very easy to service and if you are unlucky, Hope have the best backup in the industry.
Its the Trials/SS hub that we have specced, this has a shorter freehub body than a standard hub which means the hub flanges are spaced further apart. This means we can build a dishless rear wheel, which is stronger and stiffer than a conventional wheel. The trials hub also has 80 point engagement (near instant) versus 24 point engagement of the Zerode hub. This really helps efficiency by taking play out of the system, as there is also a freewheel built in the Pinion gearbox. We believe the Hope hub is superior to the Zerode hub for UK usage.

The rear wheel we are using weighs 884g and the front wheel weighs 748g. Thats 1632g – thats pretty damn light for a reliable set of wheels.

I’ve weighed the hubs too. A standard Pro4 rear hub in 142×12 weighs 242g, the trials hubs we are using (with steel freehub) weighs 288g. The Zerode hub is 275g (claimed).

Everybody whos ridden the bike so far with this wheel setup, has noticed the suspension action is significantly better than any derailleur bike they have ridden.

We have tried the KOM rims on SC Nomads before and written them off very easily. They are great for XC and light trail use but they aren’t cracked up for the Taniwha.

If you would like to try one, we have both Medium & Large sizes available for demo. Cheers, Sammy @ Stif

On a mountain bike not having a low enough gear is an issue, not having a high enough gear isn’t – when you’re descending you’re rarely pedalling. That’s been the whole argument behind 1x and 2x drivetrains. The range on a 1x is nothing like as wide as a Pinion.

Hi Sammy.

My main problem was the price when speced up against the NZ bike. I did email about this (i dont expect you to talk price on a forum) but never got a reply

Well sammy87 I can’t really argue with any of that 🙂 Nice to hear some sound reasoning behind the spec and confirmation about the weight of the hope hub

simons_nicolai-uk – Member
On a mountain bike not having a low enough gear is an issue, not having a high enough gear isn’t – when you’re descending you’re rarely pedalling. That’s been the whole argument behind 1x and 2x drivetrains. The range on a 1x is nothing like as wide as a Pinion.

Si, I’m not poopooing the taniwha, quite the opposite. I’m test riding it soon as it’s a very real contender on my short list. It is however, quite a departure from the other bikes on that list.

I’m just trying to find out as much as I can including what I may, or may not be able to do with it if I get it.

Maybe I’ll love spinning up climbs at 80rpm, or maybe I’ll want a higher gear for the unavoidable tarmac linking sections that my local riding involves.

It’s a wider range that what I have now, I’m just musing on what I can do with that range.

Rubber_Buccaneer – Member
Well sammy87 I can’t really argue with any of that Nice to hear some sound reasoning behind the spec and confirmation about the weight of the hope hub

Cheers! Give me a shout if you need any further info.

gixerator – Member
Hi Sammy.

My main problem was the price when speced up against the NZ bike. I did email about this (i dont expect you to talk price on a forum) but never got a reply Thats odd, I’ll double check our inbox’s, apologies.

Cheers, Sammy

Well, my thoughts after riding it are randomly thrown at the page below. However, before I start, it’s probably fair to say explain where I’m coming from.

Last year, I built a very nice 650b 160mm bike for both myself and the wife. Long story short, those frames are no more and we’re left with a full build kit looking for a frame only. The Taniwha is a really interesting bike, but after talking to Stif, it’s complete bike only rather than available as a frame. We went away to crunch numbers and decide if it was still a contender. We decided to give them a test ride but with the caveat that it would have to be significantly better than the frame only competition to justify the cost. Opinions may vary if you’re in the market for a full bike at this price.

I had a car park spin and at 5’10”, felt better on the large, the wife, just under 5’9″ could ride either but decided on the medium.

It’s a really nice bike, there’s no getting away from that. It didn’t feel heavy lifting it into the car and there certainly wasn’t any weight issue riding it. You can notice the benefit of the weight sitting in the middle of the bike rather than over the back wheel both in terms of the handling and the suspension action. With the pivot in line with the 30t chain ring, the action was consistant and taught regardless of pedalling effort while in the saddle. It did feel as though it stiffened up if out of the saddle and moving forward, as you’d expect. This is in comparison to another bike I’m testing which has a more supple/active design that feels softer on smoother climbs but offered loads of traction on techy climbs. Because of this, it still feels supple when you throw your weight forward to just clear that last steep step or boulder.

The Taniwha was very composed and predictable in Berman and over tabletops which I think is due to the mass centralisation.

The need to ease off power for the gear shifts was apparent from the start, but improved as the ride progressed. I think it’s something that you would learn to work with without it really being a negative. On the plus side, shifting while stationary was more useful that I’d expected.

The rotational shifter required more effort than I’m used to and while the actual gearbox is precise, the shifter itself can feel a bit vague (my understanding is that indexing is in the gearbox, not the shifter). I also found the tapered shifter grip annoying. Most of my gripping of the bar comes from the ring and little finger but having the tapered shifter under the index finger/thumb felt awkward, no mis-shifts, just awkward. It felt better moving the hand off the shifter, but then having to relocate the hand to shift wasn’t any better. My wife actually ended up with a cracking blister after less than 3 hours riding.
My least favourite aspect of the bike was the gearbox freewheel. A quick examination suggests that there’s 36° of backlash/lag in the system. I found this while trying to clock the cranks for techy rocky climbs to avoid pedal strikes. For the sort of riding I do, I’m not sure this is going to work.

If you winch up fireroads to drop down the other side, this might not be an issue but as I say, my climbs are normally as engaging as the downs.

In fairness to Stif, they’ve offered me a longer test ride in light of my comments and if anyone is thinking of one of these, I do think a longer test ride would be the way to go. I might take them up on the offer after giving it a bit more thought but right now, my feeling is that it’s great bike, bit there’s just a few too many niggly compromises for me to up my budget so substantially.

Hope that’s of some use to folks.

Wouldnt worry about a fast engagement rear hub as the gearbox has the slowest pick up of anything i have ridden

Wouldnt worry about a fast engagement rear hub as the gearbox has the slowest pick up of anything i have ridden

That’s the whole point – the gearbox pickup is one of the weak points. You want the hub to add as little as possible to it (remember the chainring isn’t attached directly to the cranks.)

Si, I’m not poopooing the taniwha

I didn’t think you were – it’s just I’d be very surprised if they gear range isn’t in the right place.

I found this while trying to clock the cranks for techy rocky climbs to avoid pedal strikes. For the sort of riding I do, I’m not sure this is going to work.

Interesting. I don’t think I’ve found that an issue on my Nicolai but riding my 1×11 bikes I really miss the abilty to shift without pedalling on techy rock climbs – it’s easy to grab a gear in either direction to maximise traction.

Wouldnt worry about a fast engagement rear hub as the gearbox has the slowest pick up of anything i have ridden

That’s the whole point – the gearbox pickup is one of the weak points. You want the hub to add as little as possible to it (remember the chainring isn’t attached directly to the cranks.)

will be such a small amount.. The gearbox is about 120 degree pickup..

Was horrible to pedal in gullys and on tech where you needed to ratchet the cranks..

Hey Guys,
Sorry to bring back to life and old thread, I was wondering if anyone over at Stiff knew when they might be bringing in the new colours and the new lighter and supposedly cheaper c1.12 gearbox? I quite fancy a blue one!
Thanks!

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