Morewood XC Bike

[Iwan Kemp]

DW Explained:

 

http://www.dw-link.com/reasons.html#

[Bos]

DW Explained:
http://www.dw-link.com/reasons.html#[/quote]

 

Knew You'd show up

[Bos]

I wish the little Pic's on the link were readable..they are so small I cant make out whats going on there..

 

appologies, I now found the zoom chart to the side..

 

 

Bos2009-10-07 01:51:13

[dirtrider]

Ok so that is basicly a sales pitch !!! A lot of whitecoat talk

[GoLefty!!]

 

Hi Guys & Girls

 

I am very keen on the new Zula but friends have warned me that the single pivit design is old technology and that the 4 bar is the way to go i.e. Ellswoth.

 

Do anyone have an opinion on this? I dont know the difference and dont have the opportunity to ride the Zula before I buy. I currently have an 07 Spec Epic SW and they say that I currently ride a better bike than the Zula?

 

I will keep the Spec but dont want to buy something that I wouldnt use?

 

 

 

 

 

BigBlade,

 

I'm happy to see that you have sought out opinions other than your "friends".

 

Some of what BOS has posted I fully agree with. A single pivot seems old school and then there is the Specialized propagated myth that it is inferior to their horst link design. Well they would say that won't they.

 

From my name you can see that I don't ride a Morewood (yet),I ride a Cannondale Scalpel which is a sort of SinglePivot. It's a leaf spring design.

 

Now to the crux of the matter. Should you consider a Morewood Zula.

Ans: YES you should.

 

I have had a privileged opportunity to ride the demo Zula and compare it directly against my Scalpel, a VPP BMC, an Ellsworth Truth and a Specialized Epic 2008 model.

 

Lets get your 2007 Specialized out of the way first.

I'll be honest, I do not like the way that bike rides. It's harsh and I find the rear suspension gets"confused". It's not the Horst link,just the overall execution of the design that tells me Specialized is all hype, no substance.

Horst link bikes are marketed as the holy grail. No suspension bobbing, reactive to small bumps, swallows big bumps etc.None of this is any more true or false than for any other well design suspension, whether VPP, DW or Mono Pivot.

 

What BOS says about the VPP only really holes true for a specific set of conditions that include correct suspension setup for the riders weight, atmospheric temperature and weight placement over the bike.

 

every rider is different and therefore the way they move their body over the bike on a descent or climb or even rutted road is very personal and therefore suspension set up and its reaction to changes is very important to overall ride quality,especially if you spend long days in the saddle.

 

what I find is that the linkage designs; DW, VPP and HorstLink arevery sensitive to suspension set up vs rider weight. Because the Instant centre that the makersclaim is dynamic often the distance between the riders centre of gravity and the suspensions instant centre is varying by a large amount, affecting the quality of the ride. It could feel harsh one minute then plush and balanced the next. Hence I do not like linkage bikes.

 

With SinglePivot designs, the suspension pivot point and the riders CofG is more constant,hence the suspension feel is more constant. At this point the linkage bike supporters will rally around the rear suspension stiffening under braking myth. That's non sense since

 

a) you should not be slowing the bike with the rear brake

b) its only true if the rear wheel is locked up,which is not good riding technique.

 

Having ridden the Morewood against the aforementioned bikes, I would recommend with great confidence that it is a superior product to your unSpecialized, It beats the best of the VPP and Horst link bikes in terms of consistency of the suspension feel. I do regard the Ellsworth to be a brilliant machine, better than your current mount.

 

The Morewood's suspension rides both small bumps and larger hits smoothly. The pivot placement allows for this sensitivity. It steers with greater precision than the Ellsworth or the BMC or a SCBlur for that matter. The only bike that beats it in steering precision is a Lefty equiped Scalpel or Rush.

The Ellsworth is very composed but not more than the Morewood. The Morewood accelerates on climbs as well as the Scalpel but bare in mind the bike I rode was too big for me so it could well be faster out of the saddle and a bit more sharp in the steering than I felt it to be.

 

The VPP bikes, I really cannot get along with. They are sensitive to not only rider weight and position on the bike,but they bob badly if the suspension is setup for comfort. Stiffen it and its harsh and bouncy.It requires a stay in the saddle riding technique which I do not like. I liketo move around to stretch or just the bike up for cornering.

 

I believe the Morewood is the Marathon bike for the privatier to have at the moment. It quite well priced, has world class performance at a world class weight and built to world class quality.

It is that good and this is coming from someone who rides a bike that has won the Marathon World champs twice, and the Absa Cape Epic once and is currently topping the podium in SA's XC and Marathon champs.

 

 

If I had R16500 to drop on a new marathon frame it would without hesitation be the Morewood Zula.

The Cannondale Scalpel would be my 2nd choice (but the Morewood did not exist when I bought my Scalpel)

 

third on my list would be a DW link bike. DWlink is a version of VPP where the compression curve of the linkage has been position so that it reacts like a mono pivot under acceleration and braking...

I find this quite ridiculous because if you want single pivot performance then build an excellent single pivot.

 

Well Morewood has done just that.

 

 

So I hope that you don't buckle under peer pressure and not consider the Zula.

I do understand that names like Ellsworth,Titus,Pivot are regarded as zooty and the pick of the crop because they are American and expensive and theres this whole American marketing machine tell you that their bikes are the best. Well you can listen to the yanks (look where that got us, recession, war in Iraq and a generally f*cked up world)

 

Take it from a kaapie who no vested interestin Morewood or the bike you ride and has been riding bikes for over 20yrs;  My next bike is going to be South African, because it's the best Marathon bike out there at the moment. I'm no racer, therefore to me it is a lot about the bike.

 

Morewood Zula,

 

nuff said

 

 

 

[Iwan Kemp]

Well said GoLefty. A confession: I'm not so much into graphs and white coat stuff myself. I wanna take a bike, set it up properly then go ride it out on the trails where I would normally ride. That's how I figure whether a bike does it for me or not. BUT: white coats have help to get suspension where it is today. Guys like Dave Weagle and plenty of other enthusiastic mtb'ers with a technical mind. Thanks to people like them a 30lbs, 6" bike like a Nomad pedals well enough to ride it to the top and still delivers top notch suspension performance to bomb it on the way down. I'm DW all the way. I've ridden more bikes than I can remember (maybe a sign of age and not the amount of actual bikes!), and for me nothing comes close to a DW. But when you look at the RRP of a Turner, Ibis and Pivot frame alone then you have to factor in value for money. And that?s where the Zula comes in.

 

 

 

Best is always to ride it before you buy it. And not just around the car park and not on a bike that hasn?t been set-up for YOU.

 

 

[Bos]

Hi Guys & Girls

I am very keen on the new Zula but friends have warned me that the single pivit design is old technology and that the 4 bar is the way to go i.e. Ellswoth.

Do anyone have an opinion on this? I dont know the difference and dont have the opportunity to ride the Zula before I buy. I currently have an 07 Spec Epic SW and they say that I currently ride a better bike than the Zula?

I will keep the Spec but dont want to buy something that I wouldnt use?

BigBlade' date='

I'm happy to see that you have sought out opinions other than your "friends".

Some of what BOS has posted I fully agree with. A single pivot seems old school and then there is the Specialized propagated myth that it is inferior to their horst link design. Well they would say that won't they.

From my name you can see that I don't ride a Morewood (yet),I ride a Cannondale Scalpel which is a sort of SinglePivot. It's a leaf spring design.

Now to the crux of the matter. Should you consider a Morewood Zula.
Ans: YES you should.

I have had a privileged opportunity to ride the demo Zula and compare it directly against my Scalpel, a VPP BMC, an Ellsworth Truth and a Specialized Epic 2008 model.

Lets get your 2007 Specialized out of the way first.
I'll be honest, I do not like the way that bike rides. It's harsh and I find the rear suspension gets"confused". It's not the Horst link,just the overall execution of the design that tells me Specialized is all hype, no substance.
Horst link bikes are marketed as the holy grail. No suspension bobbing, reactive to small bumps, swallows big bumps etc.None of this is any more true or false than for any other well design suspension, whether VPP, DW or Mono Pivot.

What BOS says about the VPP only really holes true for a specific set of conditions that include correct suspension setup for the riders weight, atmospheric temperature and weight placement over the bike.

every rider is different and therefore the way they move their body over the bike on a descent or climb or even rutted road is very personal and therefore suspension set up and its reaction to changes is very important to overall ride quality,especially if you spend long days in the saddle.

what I find is that the linkage designs; DW, VPP and HorstLink arevery sensitive to suspension set up vs rider weight. Because the Instant centre that the makersclaim is dynamic often the distance between the riders centre of gravity and the suspensions instant centre is varying by a large amount, affecting the quality of the ride. It could feel harsh one minute then plush and balanced the next. Hence I do not like linkage bikes.



I

Morewood Zula,

nuff said


[/quote']

 

I am Really really tired of long threads that becomes a debate based on personal preferance. So Im just going to hilight this, and not try contradict what I just said. I just want it open to the reader to make his own desision.

 

Lefty: you are making some assumptions here that dont hold water on which you base your argument that VPP, DW, 4 Bar and horst links are all nonsense.

Because you say BLUE ABOVE

 

Lefty I do want to make the point that every single bicycle out there "only works depending if the bike is set up correctly or not".

 

I also want to make the point that the Centre of gravity argument is also a bit of Dramatization here.. what mabe 2cm in change of Centre of gravity is now goung to make these systems obsolete? ant full travel is reached when you are plowing through a rock garden while your "centre of gravity" is lower due to travel of bike anyway, who notices 2-3 cm when youre plowing through rough stuff and the bike is bouncing around underneath you?

You are also making assumptions about a bike that is hardly avalable to the South african public, It has not proven itself yet and theres hardly any reviews. Going by the normal excelence as far as Morewoods Quality of build & workmanship goes, Im sure it Is great.

 

Having said all of that. I dont think singlepivot is a bad choice. It does what most expects of a FS. and If you dont consider yourself to technical or good a rider then these differences will hardly be noticable.

 

As your statement about a true Marethon priveteer bike and Proudly south african. I think you are on the money there.

 

 

[bigblade44]

Thanks Guys for all the technical stuff, help me to motivate what my heart wants, definitely the Morewood Zula! 

[Aurora]

I must say after having a Raleigh RDS 2 years ago which is a single pivot and now iv tried the new ibis mojo and pivot bikes, the DW suspension makes alot of sense and works very well to!

[Iwan Kemp]

Another one for the white coats: (from Trek's site)

 

 

 

 

http://trekmountain.typepad.com/king/fuel_ex/

[Iwan Kemp]

One other thing, these graphs and reviews are written by bofs. A lot, not all of them. (cough bicycling cough). What I'm trying to say is this: like Bos said, if you're not technically inclined or aware of how other bikes ride, your bike will be the bee's knees provided it was an upgrade from your previous bike.

 

 

 

Coming from a hardtail you won't notice the spikes in Spec's Brain suspension. If you're not into descending you can run your shock hard so you won't notice insufficient pedaling platforms and the rest.

 

 

 

Go with the Zula. If you have more money to spoil yourself: a Mojo all the way. Spend about a hour on a Mach 4 vs anthem vs racer x... DW ALL THE WAY!The Crow2009-10-07 03:08:12

[Bos]

which one is the Green line making a comeback after shooting for the stars?

 

If that scale is done 1:1 there would be hardly difference in those bunch in the middle. The vertical scale is showing a chaingrowth of 1800mm over the 180mm of wheel travel.. that is exagerated beyond reality? what they are saying is that over 180mm of travel, the chaingrowth is 1.8m??

 

Make no sence? I think the blur site said the blur LT 2 is brought down from something like 18mm to 7 or something.. but dont know, one cant ffeel it though..

 

This diagramm is to small, I left my magniyer in my white coat pocket at home! 

[Thug]

Thanks Bos & GL, very enlightening !!

[bigblade44]

Will the DW and other link setups provide less chaingrowth than a single pivot? Does that mean less power?

 

There is nothing like a good rocky / technical descent but you dont want to lose power on a technical climb!

 

[dirtrider]

Bliksim with all these big words and fancy graphs I am lost for words . This all is awesome reading and has convinced me that I am on the right track and will not be selling any of my SP bikes .

[bigblade44]

Anyway, thanks for all the white coat stuff. Interesting, even for an accountant.

 

i will post you a pic when i received it, should be towards the middle of the month.

 

keep the airtime long!