So having followed the £1K fatty thread and the Calibre Dune love, and previously seen the Voodoo Wazoo, last week I bought a Voodoo Wazoo from Halfords. £499 rrp, 10% off Voodoo Bikes and 10% BC discount so £405 all in. I declined their offer to built it and did it myself the night before an overnighter at Afan.
Weight from “standing on bathroom scales holding it” was 16kg, so closer to the O-O Fatty with steel forks and heavier than the Dune? Headset is sealed cartridge not the open cage listed in the spec. The OE saddle weighs 410grm, the seatpost 350g 😯 , so you could probably fit a reverb and your chosen perch and be weight-neutral. The wheels felt surprisingly light to a fatty virgin in the ‘heft’ test (but probably because it looks like it came off a 4×4…). Coming from 15 years of riding FSers weighing over 30lbs my frame of reference is probably different some others.
Matty456 and boriselbrus from a previous Wazoo thread were good enough to reply to emails (and may be prompted to post reviews 😉 ) and both said the front end was too low and they’d fitted risers. With all the spacers under the stem and the stem in the positive position my bars and saddle were same height, which is how I have my main bike (Alpine 160 with CCDB and RC3Ti). FYI I’m 5’10 (176cm?) and bought the 18”. Feels spot on.
Day 1 in Afan (afternoon after having driven down) we rode Y Wall and Blue Scar. I started with 10psi in the tyres and slowly let air out, settled on 7.5 in front and 8.0 in rear (I’m a 66kg racing snake) – I bottomed the front rim out on one square edge in a compression so stopped there.
There is a lot of ‘self steer’ with anything that knocks the front tyre off vertical (be it camber or an obstacle) trying to turn the bike, so steering needed a far more assertive effort and a firmer grip, which in turn gave my wrists a battering on the rockier sections. Turns out 4” of balloon tyre doesn’t take hits like 6” of oil-damped coiled titanium spring- who knew 😉 Pegged it back a bit on the faster/rougher stuff and really enjoyed it, and Blue Scar which is smooth and groomed was a total hoot.
Gears- well they work, 2×8 so a big jump to the granny, and the choice of front cogs (24T and 36T?) meant I spent more time on the little ‘un than I normally do. Basically it’s higher geared than my Alpine but with bigger effective wheels making the gearing even higher. Brakes were fine, levers have reach adjust, could probably do with a bleed out-of-the-box and some better pads wouldn’t go amiss, but never had any real problems slowing/stopping.
Build and finish all looks good. Single clamped grips have been criticised for rotating, but whilst I could get a couple of mm of twist in the car park test I never noticed it whilst riding. V-Rubber Mission tyres seemed right for the hardpack trail centre conditions but everything I’ve heard suggests they’re poor in mud. I’ll find out this weekend and if so get some Floaters.
In short, it’s far more fun than any (potentially) 400 quid bike has a right to be. No fundamental problems that need sorting, and would be worthy of future upgrades. As my N now stands at 7 (!) this will stay a budget toy: mud tyres, a 750mm bar to get the set up to match my Alpine and a shim so I can use my Gravity Dropper. When the drivetrain wears out, probably a budget 1x set up.
And it matches my £17 (from halfords) Bell Stoker 😎
I can rubber stamp it with day 2: I left the Alpine in Afan Lodge lock-up and took the Wazoo out again to ride Blade and Whites.
