From the Blue Skye to the Deep Green Sea - Transition Spur

ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
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This was literally a Spur of the moment buy, been looking for a while, watching vids... hoping someone was going to get one and convince me. Not even sure if there is one in SA.
I gave my XC race bike to #1 son (permanent loan) so had a decent jump/gap from my gravel bike to my 160mm Highlander or 150mm HT.

The Story... big story.

Got all revved up by members here hinting on new shorter travel 29ers, throwing my 'Spur' guess in for @leitch and @beeb then beeb turns up with a Spur box for his new Transition Sentinel.
I was excited, I looked a bit harder and found that there was a Deore version available, this used to be GX, X0, AXS and frame only. Dug a little deeper and seen there was a Med Deore available online with $200 extra for shipping to me. In the colour I wanted, Deep Sea Green...

Slept on it, woke up and ran specs and weights in my head, on the internet and on an excel page. This Deore build could work out the best of all the options.

Phoned Super-Sports about 10am and had a 15 min chat with the distributor, last Med in Australia, they had small shipment of Deore bikes made available to Australia unexpectedly... September delivery of X0 is all sold, might be able to get me on December order... but there was this Deore spec one that was available right now.

I didn't mind the Deore spec, I certainly didnt want GX and X0 was too expensive. It was the frame only I was thinking. Now I get the SID fork, dropper and a rideable bike for an extra $1750... and it was all SHIMANO, no SRAM brakes or drivetrain and 2k cheaper.

The distributor said, I better move quickly as it probably wouldn't last the day and I could save the $200 shipping by heading to a bike shop and ordering it there. He advised me to call and order it as he was pretty certain it wasn't going to hang about long.

My head is doing a million miles an hour, I want this bike but I just spent a shit load on a new bike 3-4 weeks earlier... next minute the dog goes bezerke ! Postie comes up the driveway, needs me to sign for an envelope. It was my TAFE certificate for the Trainer and Assessor qualification I have just knocked my pan in doing for the last 14 months, spending 20hrs+ a week on the computer doing assessments and 5 hours a week on Rotorburn, lost all my fitness and gained 10kg. It was a sign :D

This bike is what I need to get fit again ! Actually I just fucking want it really bad and I now have a bag of excuses to get it.

45 minutes later I'm in the bike shop with deposit paid.

So I'm waiting for the bike, doing weight weenine stuff on an excel page, trying to work out why the GX bike is 2K more and basically very similar to the Deore, I knew the wheelset was shit but that would have been the first thing I had changed anyway, even on the X0 bike.
I also worked out that the Deore M6100 groupset on the bike was about 400-450g heavier than GX.

I could see that the Deore bike came with a SID Select fork (Charger damper) and the GX SID Select+(Charge 2.0) but it was only a damper upgrade difference to the Ultimate with the lighter raceday damper. No big deal.
Both bikes had the Select+ rear shocks.
The GX bike had a 1974g Arch S1 wheelset, the Deore had a boat anchor Arch D wheelset at a massive 2270g (weighed by me)

I could build a set of Nextie Premium wheels with 28h comp spokes and either DT350s or Tune hubs around the 1450g mark, putting the wheelset into the XX1 level.

So the GX bike was meant to come in at 12.2kg, I was expecting the Deore to be 13kg exactly.

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The deore bike weighs in at 13.53kg... and becomes clear that the specced GX bike at 12.2kg is it minus the 2 x 260g Tubes and maybe a little bit of a story on tyre weights. So I would be expecting the actual figure printed for the GX bike to be around ~12.8kg, coming in about right with the 700-750g penalty I expected as the difference to the Deores 13.54kg, that penalty being the 300g on the wheelset and the 400-450g on the GX groupset.

So in reality you can add about 500g to each of these weights when you get the bike initially, it only reaches that printed weight when the supplied tubeless kit is fitted.


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Upgrades in red


Current weight as ridden - 11.3kg
Frame - Transition Spur - Med - Deep Sea Green
Rear shock - SIDLuxe 120mm
Front shock/fork - SID - 120mm - 44mm offset - 35mm stanchions
Handlebars - OneUp Carbon, 20mm rise, 35mm clamp - 800mm wide
Stem
- 77designz
Headset - FSA
Grips - Ergon GE1
Saddle
- Specialized Romin Pro 155mm
Seatpost
- OneUp 150mm dropper with OneUp lever
Front brake - Formula Cura 2
Rear brake - Formula Cura 2

Brake Rotors - Shimano MT800
Bottom Bracket
- RaceFace BSA30
Cranks - RaceFace Next SL
Chain
- YBN SLA
Pedals
- Time ATAC
Rear derailleur
- XT M8100
Rear shifter
- XT M8100
Cassette
- e13 Helix
Wheelset
- Nextie Premium 28mm carbon, DT comp and DT240 hubs with 54t ratchet.
Tyres
- Vittoria Syerra DWNCNTY


Urgent upgrade -

Wheelset, expecting to drop from 2270g to sub 1500g = 800g :oops:

Not so urgent -


Cassette currently 589g (weighed by me)
Cranks currently 778g with chainring (internet weight)
XT shifter
XT brakes

So I took it for a 15km quick spin as we had a heavy mist/drizzle today... the hype is real, this was a fucking great buy, I am excited for the wheelset upgrade but it feels awesome as is.

I didnt think a bike with a 66° HA could climb the way this does and it certainly descends well with its mini 'enduro' bike geometry.

Well stoked after only 15km :)


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caad9

Likes Bikes and Dirt
It’s good to see something other than Banshee’s or Deviate for a week!

That thing is going to be a blast

Modern XC-ish bikes are a lot more fun than people realise and a hell of a lot more capable than the trusty Anthem everyone had 5-10 years ago, which turned them off the category
 

The Reverend

Likes Bikes and Dirt
You've got to be loving riding that. Good deal on a great looking bike. And once you get some decently light wheels on it you'll feel like an XC star.

You've got most bases covered now with the fleet.

Although, a big hitting enduro sled seems to be missing? :rolleyes:

Enjoy!
 

HamboCairns

Thanks for all the bananas
I'm seriously in love with this bike, the colour, the shape, everything!

Hard agree with the XT shifter, and lighter crankset and cassette.
 
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