[Closed] Show me your Santa Cruz Blur 4x

Oooh, that looks good 😛 . I love a happy ending Hora.

Hopefully these'll work from facebook...
The bike on a lift in Verbier this summer:
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In action on Jackass, one of the best trails I've ever ridden:
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DBW- thats the 05/5th air shock model?

Not sure on the year as it was Neil Donoghue's ex-team spare race frame. Got a 5th Element air though - going to shove an RP3 on it maybe sometime but to be honest, the 5th seems pretty good. Coped with descending nearly 7000m a day in Verbier!

You look happy!

Here's mine with Pikes...

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And now with 55s...

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Is that Stanage? I took the wrong (longer option) and went the longer route missing that bit

Yes it's Stanage.

Awesome bike. Click for full size
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Awesome little bike (not so awesome camera phone!)

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awesome bikes, i really miss mine. crap bearings and could easily be a pound lighter though.

I thought they fitted lifetime/sealed bearings on the latter models? I know the bearings now have a lifetime warranty any-huuuw. On the weight- I had both OrangeFive and the 4x in my hands- I swear the Orange is heavier (just a tad).

I'm nearly there with the build, how do you upload a photo? Agree with Hora on weight mine feels a tadligher than my Orange Five.

...and a tad more special

I thought they fitted lifetime/sealed bearings on the latter models? I know the bearings now have a lifetime warranty any-huuuw.

Nope, never in the 4X.

I think the only thing I'd ever swap mine for would be if there was a VPP[b]2[/b] 4X with grease points 'n'all but there's nothing in the pipeline AFAIK.

Can anyone tell me why to buy a santa cruz apart from that it is a designer bike?

Would really like some input back fromt he santa cruz crew.

I'm particularly liking the superlight but can't justify £1350 on a frame that is basically a better looking kind of GT.

ta.

Ah, your right- I was thinknig about the Heckler.

whyter- no alu frame is worth what they are asking now. However Ive always found SC's to be stout, honest frames. I definitely wouldnt describe them as designer- no way. They are mass produced in Taiwan. Only the carbon blur is designer. Plus Everyone else asks a similar price now so SC areny 'bling' alu frames? (apart from the VP2's I guess)

deleted.

whyterthanwhyte=troll

how is a single pivot anything like a URT?

Hora - lovin' your bike...apart from the layback seatpost. What's that all about!?! Doesn't it make the bike climb like a pig. The only time I am in the saddle of mine is when I am spinning up a hill and it is great to take advantage of the steep seat angle and get your weight forwards. Plus layback Thomson seatposts look just wrong 😉

Anyway, here's mine. No action photos unfortunately.

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Regarding the weight, for me its not really an issue, my bike gets used and abused, and substitutes for my DH bike on occasions, so a little extra meat is always welcome. It's not exactly heavy though. My bike as above, is 28.5lbs & there is plenty of scope to lose another pound or two.

The early frame came with the poor open bearing design, they were utterly useless, however they are standard size and any local bearing shop can supply you with some decent rubber sealed replacements for not much money. Its a relatively easy job to swap them out as well.

Such a great fun little bike for a more gravity orientated rider, compliments a DH bike nicely. My Mrs loved mine so much she's now got one and building it up now.

Hora - Your brown Spoon would look much better on my bike. Not interested in selling it are you (or swapping for my Flite)?

I already have a flite somewhere...I only put the laid-back on until I bought an alu shim fot the KS/pure racing dropper that I bought for £30 last week (now bought sorted).

Definitely recommend: http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/pure-racing-i850-post

Ive got a fair few Thomson posts and stems in various sizes knocking about 🙄

Good news 🙂

First ride today-corr blimey it is exactly how I remember it. I thought maybe I was viewing the frame with rose-tinted specs abit. First ride and you can tell its more than capable/a talent compensator/a little bit special.

The rear also felt very plush whilst the front felt like the SC Chameleon. Awesome. I'm going to get some mtb training to get somewhere near its potential.

First ride out on mine yesterday, after years of single pivots it was very interesting! Overall I love it and its a keeper for a long time I hope. Didn't quite manage to get used to how it feels off the lip of a jump but that will come, seemed to soak up the takeoff more than the 5 did, maybe I need to go faster! Did some nice mellow drop offs, about 5 feet, and it felt really solid and stable, so all in all really looking forward to getting lots of time on this bike. Looks ace in the flesh and surprisingly light about 30lbs all up I think. Set up is:

Large frame in Orange, 2010 RS Pikes, Hope pro II hubs on mavic 717 rims, Sunline V1 65mm stem and 710mm wide V1 bars, Gold (!) CK headset, XT cranks, V12 pedals, XT shifters, Formula K24 brakes 180 / 160 discs.

DD I dont 'do' air but I imagine run you're rebound faster or put more psi in?

Yeah had a bit of a tweak, one click faster on the rebound did help it was set quite slow, think the PSI is OK cos 25% sag is where I want it. I think its just a matter of getting used to it, felt better and better as the ride went on. Next stop Swinley forest for a decent bit of up and down and along... I must say it was the smoothest build I've ever done, no issues and its all working great straight off, must be a sign!

I'm going to get some mtb training to get somewhere near its potential.

Someone else on here (I forget who, sorry) once said that you need to ride these bikes at ten tenths for them to make sense and that they punish you if you are "off your game". At the time I didn't know what he meant but now it completely makes sense. Somehow mine feels bloody hard work if I am not nailing it, flat out. The good thing is that the need to nail it flat out has definitely made me push my riding further and harder, and at ten tenths it is such great fun.

Chasing a young lad on a pink Stiffee, who was a much better rider than me, down Whytes Level was the most fun I've had on a bike 🙂

ddmonkey - Swinley is my local play area too so I'll keep an eye out for another Blur 4X there.

Sure? I rolled mine down blue pig and it felt utterly effortless. Normally I'll grab abit of front brake as well (I know) but I didnt go near the front brake yesterday.

jfeb - that makes a lot of sense, I found the ride I did yesterday a lot of fun but hard work, partly because I'm not very fit at the moment, but I kind of got the feeling I was going faster than normal and felt on the edge at times. I had put that down never having ridden a VPP bike before and the whole getting used to a new bike thing.

Drop me a mail timbo_tepATyahoo.co.uk and I'll let you know when I'm heading over to Swinley, probably the weekend after next.

Hey guys just imported this little beauty from America as I couldn't find one here in the UK for a reasonable price, they just hold their value so well!

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Let me know what you think, it''s still a wip, but I can't wait until it's all finished. I'm gonna stick all the best bits on it as I think although the frame is getting on a bit it's worth it.

Looks nice - what Magura forks are they? Done similar with my bike, taken all the best bits from two bike plus frame to make one... I like the simple choice now, do I want to ride my hardtail or my full sus? Easy!

I managed to get out on mine for the first time in 3+ months yesterday. She obviously didn't take too kindly to not being ridden, I got spat off over a big double resulting in an impressive crash and a large amount of pain.

That will teach me!

the forks are magura menja's got 130 travel, they are a stop-gap to get a working bike together faster, were cheap you see. I want either fox float 36's or XX U-turn Rev's eventually, not sure which yet.

I am currently trying to convince myself I don't need RF Atlas FR cranks to go in the Hope Ceramic BB I have!

Full spec will be Sram X0 gears XTR Front mech, Hope BB and Headset, Hope Tech M4 brakes floating rotors Blue with matching bore caps, crank bros/KS Cobra/Maverick Speedball haven't decided yet/depends what I can get hold of.

I'm also gonna do a full rebuild next year including, bearing overhaul and paintjob possibly, the anodizing looks a little sorry with scratches and rub marks, might leave it though as it looks quite stealthy.

Silver ano with the white graphics is the best way, doesn't shout 'look at me' as they are!

Looks like yours is a large, i'd forgotten how small the medium is until I rode mine again. I forgave it after the crash though, and started to get used to riding it again. Still good fun!

yeah it had to be a large I know it's only a .5 inch difference but at 6'2" it's still a push for the large one, although TT length feels good, I've only rolled it down my street once so far so i'm reserving judgement for a proper ride which may take some time.

If I leave the anodizing the graphics are anodized also so are practically invisible which I quite like. What is the absolute max travel you'd suggest on the frame without affecting performance or handling?

you can get away with 140mm as long as its ajustable i reckon. i tried 150 and 160 and it was fun on fast open stuff but just didnt feel good on the kind of stuff that the bike normally excells on eg twisty lumpy steep stuff.

Duckcm18- I had a large. Prefer a medium (6ft1)

well the large is a big step down from what I was riding 21" cove handjob, so the bike feels tiny! I looked more at top Tube length when buying it and saw it was only half a mm shorter then the Cove and that felt great on long climbs and downhill, although when I stand on the bike it does feel like I'm directly over the front wheel and not in the cockpit of the bike if you get what I mean?

Must be just me... I run my forks at 160mm all the time but then I ran my Paces on my old Soul at 130mm all the time despite 'the knowledge' reckoning 110mm was best.

And steep, lumpy, twisty stuff is pretty much what I get out of bed for and my Blur at 160mm up front excels in that setup with a 50mm stem, wide bars and an inline post. The slower, steeper and more technical it is, the better! Jumping off my 4X onto Ed O's Ragley Ti felt almost the same - slack and super quick.

OK here goes...

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A*se 🙂

Can't work out why that didn't work... linking to facebook, any ideas?

although when I stand on the bike it does feel like I'm directly over the front wheel and not in the cockpit of the bike if you get what I mean?

I run mine with Fox 36's at around 135/140mm, feels just about spot on. Using a 50mm stem, but could definatly do with some wider bars to increase stability when bike swapping.

I'm als just over 6ft, prefer bikes on the small side hence the medium for me.

Wow.. I'm 6'1" and I wouldn't want to swap my large for a medium, it would be way too small for me. Running a 65mm stem which feels perfect.

ddmonkey - just right click on the photo on facebook and it works. The link you posted links to the shared FB page itself.

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There you go - looks awesome!

6'3" on a Large and it already feels like a toy bike to me (which is what I want, to be fair), although the top tube feels longer than it measures due to the steep seat tube angle, if that makes sense (front-centre measurement)

Thanks DBW - it does look rather good doesn't it? Pikes going on tonight, woo hoo!

Yeah I wanted the bike a bit smaller too, just like you said jfeb a toy bike for thrashing and jumping and dropping and any other ing ending words to describe riding! except that last one a bit obvious.

DDM bike looks sick in orange really striking! Is that a standard frame colour?

I'm thinking of getting a Tech V2 for the front now and still sticking a Tech M4 on the rear, do you think it'll be too much, just trying to cover all bases so I don't want for anything when it's done.

Yes I think its standard colour... 8)

What Pikes you got going on? i had a pretty mint set of 326 Coil's that I sold just before I got the frame, am starting to wish i still had them, although I think the floats adjusted to 140mm will be awesome, just got to find some now.

All the 454 airs available seem to have been ridden by complete novices with massive scratches and gouges everywhere so you're not sure what condition the internals will be in, if they've done any maintenance or anything.

Set of brand new 2010 454 coil pikes. I hope they are half as good as I'm expecting. Big changes for me, no more single pivots, now no more marzocchi forks either.... I'm changing the habits of the last 6 years!

Pushed air pikes permanently wound down to 125mm for me at the moment. Would love to try a 36 Float set at 130 though. I run a 1X9 setup as the bike pedals SO badly in the granny gear combined with the tendency to drop the chain to the granny in the really rough stuff.
5'11.5" on a large with a 40mm stem

I presume the granny ring thing is a chainline vs pivot point issue... I didn't notice it much on the one ride I have done but am thinking of putting a dual ring with chain device and bash type set up on. Especially if it drops the chain alot on rough stuff.

I run mine as a double + bash ring and try to stay in the larger chain ring whenever possible to mitigate pedal feedback. I also find myself using Propedal on anything flat or undulating (setting 1 on the RP23), saving the Propedal off for the downhill stuff only.

Also, FWIW, I run the my air Pikes at about 125mm for 90% of the time too, winding them out for just steeper downhill sections (which there aren't much of in Swinley Forest and the Chilterns).

jfeb - we need to try these out at Aston Hill - we'll be winding the forks out for that! Also looking forward to a trip to Chicksands to try this out on the 4x track and see how it goes in its natural element!

let me know when you're going to go to Chicksands as I was gonna take mine there as soon as it's built for a little jumpy action. Gonna order brakes when I get paid on Friday.

jfeb and DDM where are you guys?, i'm in Harlow, Essex.

I'm in what appears to be crime central, Amersham.

I'm in Berkhamsted, Herts.

Why is Amersham "crime central", ddmonkey?

I've never been to Chicksands but I am up for a trip. Blur 4X group ride - very niche 😉

Tongue in cheek reference to a thread on here about a Pronghorn being stolen from Dees Cycles - that's got to hurt... I was in there at the weekend and the frame alone is the price of most bikes added together.

Blur 4x group ride at chicksands / swinley has just got to be done. Lets set a date.

never been to swinley, I have holiday in the middle of Nov so I'd be free, also work shifts so can usually get an odd day or two here and there as well, what are people thinking?

How about Sunday Nov 22nd at Swinley? I reckon this is a better venue for the innaugural ride as it suits all sorts.

I'd be happy with Swinley.

Don't base this around me - who am I kidding 😉 - but I can't do 22nd. I could do 15 Nov or 28/29 Nov FWIW.

I'm good with all those dates I can do 12th-23rd inclusive so just let me know where I should be going and when.

I can't do w/e of the 14th and 15th, so does that mean that there is no weekend in Nov we can all do? 🙄

Sounds like it. To be honest, I am pretty unreliable anyway so don't base it on my availability. I will have to make the next one 🙂

28th 29th is still rest days for me I said I was good with the suggested dates, is it going to be a winter ride then?

I'd love to come. Thinking about forks. Should I experiment and try longer forks? I didnt get on with longer forks on my slacker Orangefive at all whereas (for me) shorter felt better. If anyone fancys a px on a pair of rev dual air maxles for a fox 36 talas- let me know 🙂

All the 454 airs available seem to have been ridden by complete novices with massive scratches and gouges everywhere so you're not sure what condition the internals will be in, if they've done any maintenance or anything.

You mean they've been ridden? Bastards...

mtb kit should have scratches/cable rub etc etc. If your buying a roadbike then yep- it should be as new but our kit- well dirt gets onto it for a start 😉

Is the weekend of 28th / 29th a goer then? 🙂

Sounds like it's the 28/29th Nov at Swinley then, who's in?

Me

Yup me - I suppose we can fix the day nearer the time depending on weather. 😛

Got the Pike on last night BTW, much lower front end now so I think I'll probably run them at full travel all the time after all that...

Here's mine on Saturday...

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I am up for 28/29 Nov. Lets pick a day though, otherwise it won't happen. Sunday is probably better for me so how do you guys feel about 29th (Duckcm18, ddmonkey + anyone else interested)?