Cheers! Give me a shout if you need any further info.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
Thats odd, I'll double check our inbox's, apologies.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
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 1x11 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 riddenThat'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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