Morewood XC Bike

[jayz]

SHOT. look yes I am a fan but what got me worked was someone giving another person advice and saying the linkage and sus system was crap.SO i've put down the red bull and started the grape juice.

[jayz]

OH! before I forget. I have to apologise for ABSALON. HOW dare he beat a little 22 year old boy on his hardtail ORBEA. AS for nino well! THE GUY IN THE SPEZ FULL SUSPENSION was recovering from winning the under 23 world champs. APOLOGIES he could not compete with NINO on his SPRK H/T.   

[SwissVan]

SHOT. look yes I am a fan but what got me worked was someone giving another person advice and saying the linkage and sus system was crap.SO i've put down the red bull and started the grape juice.

 

Shot Bru...You gonna get lots of contrary opinions about opinions about onions about nothing serious or life threating???you know what I mean.

 

 

[SwissVan]

 

So any whitecoat specialistz know what Zula means?

 

 

 

 

[GoLefty!!]

Jayz, Specialized is a over hyped, crap bike. They break and are high maintenance. If you want to replace pivot bearings often, buy a Specialized. I can't be more blunt that that. I race wins is all you have to back up your opinion then an Orbea Hardtail is the ultimate MTB. We should go DH'ling on it too.

 

nuff said

 

BOS, I did not say that the suspension designs were crap. I said they are over rated, over hyped. They offer little if any benefit but do offer higher purchase cost and higher maintenance cost. The marketing of these designs is rubbish (note, not the designs).  I do believe that linkages have more disadvantages than advantages.

 

 

 

All the designs works, i.e the wheel goes up and down. I've stated what I don't like about linkage designs and I feel those are huge drawbacks.

 

Virtual pivots points on VPP, DW or HOrst can vary from one end to the other by as much as 15cm! your CofG can vary by as much as 30cm depending on whether you're out of the saddle or off the back over a steep drop. So the Variance is high. Its a smaller variance with a Mono Pivot which I feel means the bike feel more consistent.

Perhaps I'm more sensiive to feel than others..

 

 

the other parameter that varies is your weight. A rider can loose a couple of kilo's over a 3-4 hr ride and so does your hydration system. Theres a 2-4 kg variance already. Depending on the leverage ratio of the rear shock this is a factor that WILL affect suspension performance, increasing the inconsistency.

then we set up a VPP statically but its used dynamically so the suspension is working at a higher temperature and pressure than when the sag was set. this affects performance and its hard to find that sweet spot. Much easier on a mono pivot.

 

I think anyone can feel that but it does not bother them because they have no reference.

 

I had the opportunity, thanks to Andre (Rush Sports) and William (Williams Bike Shop) to test this bike out against others and there is a marked difference in consistency between the Zula and e.g the BMC or the Ellsworth. The Zula just feels good from start to finish. No matter the terrain. It just rides the bumps with ease.

 

I recognise most people don't buy bikes based on performance because very very few have had the opportunity to try before they buy. Instead most people will buy what their friends tell them to buy, even if that is coming from a point of view generated by, limited experience.

 

Like I said I agree with a lot of what you said, I just wanted to add that my experience is different which illustrates the inconsistency in performance you can have in a VPP Design.

 

everyone I know who has ridden the Zula, raves about it's handling and suspension. No much inconsistency there.

 

Sure it's not been around long but thats does not mean that those who have compared it directly with other bikes are wrong. 

[jayz]

HANNA HANNA PUS PUSS.YOUR overhyped crap story holds no water.VPP,DW. THE end of the day people like to associate with winners.(THATS LIFE)and no matter what you sh*tty opinion is about SPECIALIZED. MANY will buy and enjoy and KNOW that it is one of the best manufacturers around. SO take your single pivot and go play nicely. THATS A GOOD BOY     

[Iwan Kemp]

You forgot a few. Using the same logic' date=' Specialized also make the 382'nd best bike in the Western Cape ( Lourensford 2009 )[/quote']

 

 

 

And we have a winner for funniest post of the year!

[SwissVan]

 

Jayz' date=' Specialized is a over hyped, crap bike. They break and are high maintenance. If you want to replace pivot bearings often, buy a Specialized.

 

nuff said

 

 

[/quote']

 

GoLefty your'e generalising so much that its also could be classified as crap.

 

WTheF contaminate the Moorewood thread with all this crap, its just not right i tell u all

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SwissVan]

HANNA HANNA PUS PUSS.YOUR overhyped crap story holds no water.VPP' date='DW. THE end of the day people like to associate with winners.(THATS LIFE)and no matter what you sh*tty opinion is about SPECIALIZED. MANY will buy and enjoy and KNOW that it is one of the best manufacturers around. SO take your single pivot and go play nicely. THATS A GOOD BOY      [/quote']

 

Bru... you not doing SPECIALIZED or yourself any favours.

 

 

 

[jayz]

APOLOGIES did not realise we needed favours.

[Ox_Wagon]

Dude you know you have to be older than 18 to join the Forum

[Matchstix]

 

HANNA HANNA PUS PUSS.YOUR overhyped crap story holds no water.VPP' date='DW. THE end of the day people like to associate with winners.(THATS LIFE)and no matter what you sh*tty opinion is about SPECIALIZED. MANY will buy and enjoy and KNOW that it is one of the best manufacturers around. SO take your single pivot and go play nicely. THATS A GOOD BOY      [/quote']

 

You abviously have not ridden a singlepivot morewood and a doubt that you will ever. By the looks of things you are only believing the waffle and and some of theresults and putting the two together gives you your answer. I would rather stick someones opinion who has in fact ridden the bikes.

you sy believe the hype. .  I don't

on this year epic on the technical sections I passed people with there Hyped up specialized, mach 4, ibis, ellsworth, while they were crying like babies and pushing their bikes.

 

 

[jayz]

you the MAN! yOU and your moorewood are champions. its you not the bike. you are a star bike rider now.passing all the others on your special machine.LETS see I live in midlands close to pmb. MOOWOOD country i see them regularly over hyped and over rated!

[Matchstix]

Jayz Out of curiosity what bike do you ride?

 

 

[GoLefty!!]

I ask because no other manufacturer has gone the flexable chain stay route

Orbea also does it.

http://www.pedalator.com/VTT/inventaire/cadres/ORBEA_Oiz-UFO_2006.jpg

http://www.bikemagic.com/news/images/orbea_close_hi.jpg

Bianchi also had the flex chainstay' date=' dont know if they still use it
[/quote']

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above OPrbea also have a flex stay frame as does a Taiwanese company called Token.

 

Flex stays are not new but the idea of a localised flex zone is and is patent protected by Cannondale.

 

Why do I choose teh Zula over the Scalpel?

 

firstly it s a local design, and assembled locally so thats more rands staying right here.

 

2ndly I think it is a brilliant Marathon or XC race bike. The Scalpel is the best bike I've ridden. It hooks up well under acceleration, it's light its stiff, it steers as if its a slot car (Or slot bike) and it's dead simple to maintain. the Lefty is unique and an excellent design, the best fork in the business,

 

but the Morewood, because its South African and its a really brilliant bike that I can;t find fault with, will always get the nod from me, especially if they make a 1.5Headtube so I can fit my Lefty

 

Re Specialized pivot bearing wear being a generalisation>

that is a point of view. When I go looking for a bike to ourchase I look at what other people who actuallyown one have to say. Nearly every person that has a Specialized Epic or StumpJumper says the pivot bearings wear quite quickly.

Now I go to my LBS, strike up some chatter and get them comfortable and drop in a Pivot replacement cost question and they give me a price. Then I ask how often do you order so I know how long Iwould wait. No every week.

Then I go to another LBS, same story.

 

So if people in internet are saying their Spaz pivots wears quickly, the LBS orders regularly and its not like they're trying to stockpile bearings for one day when its orth more than gold, then I must conclude that Spaz bikes wear pivot bearings quickly.

 

Now I Some of you may consider pivot bearing repalcement to be routine maintenance, but when you come from an expereince where neither Scalpel you've owned nor the Rush or the Gemini, nor any of your mates or very few people on the internet nor my LBS carries stock of Cannondale pivot bearings,  then I should conclude (anecdotally) that Cannondales don't go through Pivot bearings as often as Specialized. Sure thats anecdotal but if you want to set up some proper research with decent sample sizes then be my guest.

 

I've done my homework

[GoLefty!!]

oh Yeah,

BB, I also asked the Morewood distributor how often they dispatch bearing kits for the main pivot on Morewood bikes.

 

the answer was:" very rarely, often we dispatch bearing kits with a shipment of bikes but we seldom have requests for extra bearings"

 

thats p[robably because Morewood uses a std size bearing in the frames, meaning you can buy spares at bearing man.

try that with most VPP bikes...........oh no!!! They're all propreitry bearings and a kit will cost you upward of R1000-00

 

No thanks, I'll take the Morewood thank you.