Forum menu
As there's a thread over there about a first ride on a 29er (Santa Cruz Tallboy) I thought I'd post up my thoughts on my new 29'er HT.
So I headed out for the first time Chumba HX2, not really knowing what to expect from the bike (bar the obvious it's a bike type stuff) I took a trip into my local forest onto familiar terrain.
First impressions were that the bike got up to speed just fine, no lack of acceleration. The bike handles the twisty/rooty/muddy single track we have round here just fine, in fact it felt a lot like my Cove Handjob, just faster.
Once on smoother trails it really covers the ground quickly, to be fair it just covers the ground quickly.
It handles really well, and now I've got the Reba RL's dialled in nicely - if you're interested I'm 185lbs kitted up and have 110psi +ve and 100psi -ve with rebound 6 clicks from slowest.
The bike climbs very well too and it's easy to pop the front wheel up to clear roots, rocks and other trail obstruction that crops up and the rear wheel follows over nicely.
There's tons of mud clearance round the tyres on the seat & chainstays, but the front mech doesn't have a lot of clearance, probably 10mm tops, so it creates a bit of a mud shelf, but it's not an issue that affects the riding or shifting.
The tyres - Specalized S-Works Ground Control 2Bliss 2.1" - are pretty good too, nice traction, predictable slip, clear well, decent rolling resistance, all round pretty decent tyres for the kind of riding I do. Pressures are 30psi front & 32psi rear.
Anyway enough of the words, here's a couple of leafy autumnal pictures.
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
Some swine's ruined your bike with that bottle cage whilst your back was turned...
Nice saddlebag
Cheers guys, they may not look great but they're far nicer than a camelpac for local rides 
Is it a medium?
Totally agree with you on the bag and bottle cage mate, have em on my HX2 as well, soooo much nicer riding without a pack. Bike is looking great BTW, always thought mine would benefit from dropping the front a little, although rated to 120mm (what my rebas are set to)it doesn't always feel right.
and ****ed up your camera settings 😛
Ivan - yeah it's a medium, I'm 5'10 and a bit and the fit is great.
Al - cheers for pointing that out, I was playing with instagram app.
Brake - yeah it's just easier, less faff and better IMHO
That looks a nice bike can't wait for my 29er to turn up
al, you ready to buy one yet 😉
How much do the bike weigh?
Vondally - without the unsightly water bottle & saddle pack it's 26lbs on my bathroom scales, so the same as my Cove was
Did you find the rear end harsh at all with a relatively small rear triangle?
dlr - not particularly, it just feels like a hard tail.
My mate who loves his full suss' rode it in some rooty single track and commented on how the ride felt fine to him, not overly harsh and nicer than his Argon that he sold
I do fancy one Si, I already have a 29er though, and a SS, and I don't have £299 to blow.
So buy mine for £200 with headset Al 😉
Bargain tastic!
I like your bike a lot Steve. looks great fun!
but your yard needs sweeping
Brake-neck - Member
So buy mine for £200 with headset Al
Tempted but I run drop bars and the TT is too long...
always thought mine would benefit from dropping the front a little, although rated to 120mm (what my rebas are set to)it doesn't always feel right.
I totally agree...dropped my Minutes from 120mm to 100mm and it felt much better on climbs but gave a less desirable feeling on descents...I've settled for forks at 120mm and flat bars for now.
Now reduced to £180.
I like the style of the photos. Frame looks a little harsh. I cant see it being comfortable after being out all day on it.
Can't comment on the HX-2 but my HX-1 is amazingly comfortable, something I wasn't expecting at all....
ooopss, sorry mate didn't mean to post that on your thread, was meant to be on the sale one, will see if I can remove it.
soma_rich - Member
I like the style of the photos. Frame looks a little harsh. I cant see it being comfortable after being out all day on it
Cheers Rich 😉
Despite how it looks and the general chunkiness of the frame it's actually very comfortable, I did a 2 hour ride on Saturday and a 3 hour one on Sunday and all was good.
As I said in the original post it feels a lot like my Cove Handjob only with bigger wheels and on first impressions it's as comfortable.
I'll probably do a big day on it over winter, but I generally ride my Nicolai FS on big days out.
Looks great, don't listen to the camelbak losers
Nice!
Have you got those forks set at 80mm or 100mm? Just curious as I've just bought a pair.
rocket - couldn't agree more, they're fine for long days in the hills but for local ones with a planned cafe stop they're a PITA.
gee - they're set at 100mm, just as they came out of the box, it measures up as having a 70.5 deg head angle unsagged, slightly slacker than quoted on the geometry chart, but that could be measuring inaccuracies.
devs - cheers
Well just thought I’d write an update for anyone who’s interested in how my Chumba HX2 handles different terrain to my first two rides through the woody single track of Delamere Forest.
On Sunday I headed out to Macclesfield Forest with a group of friends for a ride, as my Nicolai was still manky from its last trip and the Chumba still has new bike awesomeness attached to it, I thought what the hell I’ll take it and see how I get on.
We headed out of Macclesfield Forest and up a fire road climb, that in places was quite steep, we then turned onto the road that leads up to Charity Lane where it goes into a normal trail, climbed to the top of that, dropped the seat-post and descended to the bottom. I was very impressed with how the bike handled the loose rocky surface and the water bar drops along the way – I’ve just got to remember to use my legs to absorb the landings a bit better 😉
From the bottom of Charity Lane we went up past the church and descended down a similarly loose rocky trail with bigger steps/drops again I was impressed with how well the bike handled and stayed on line through the loose corners, we came out on the road from Wildboar Clough to the Cat & Fiddle road – which we duly climbed to the bridleway that turns off by the pub.
Rode across/down that in some truly horrendous cross winds down to where it comes out on the Leek road, we then carried on to Cumberland Clough, up the bit of a loose climb which the bike handled pretty well, dropped the post again and descended the clough down to the stream at the bottom, this time it was rockier, looser with bigger rock steps & drops.
As the speed got up I had a couple of “moments” where I could feel the back end kick sideways off rocks, but the front end stayed planted headed where I wanted it to, I never at any point on that descent felt the bike was out of it’s depth or uncomfortable at the speed I was carrying. One of the guys on the ride was behind me on the descent and he said it certainly didn’t hold be back and I didn’t loose much ground at all to the guy in front of me on his full suss – who is a good descender.
We then headed back into the forest, up over the top on a bit of fire road that gets pretty damn steep and back down to the cars via a trail through the middle of the woods, on the steep climbs the front end stays very planted, the wheel doesn’t lift and the bike just climbs very well.
In my previous post I said how I thought the bike felt similar to the one it replaced – a Cove Handjob – but to be perfectly honest it climbs better and handles the descents better, best of all after the ride I felt perfectly fresh and could’ve done another couple of hours had the weather not been so bad, quite a surprise for an alloy HT with chunky stays.
I really do think that the big wheels roll better over rocks and loose obstacles and on climbs they seem to hold their momentum better, despite have a 11-32t cassette on a 22/32 front I never really felt that I needed a lower gear once climbing.
Nice review, cheque in the post 😉
Cheers Si, I look forward to receiving it 😆