AM The B-Line Bandit

S

SlowManiac

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Frame - Canfield Lithium V3 - raw
Rear shock - Vivid Ultimate Coil
Front shock/fork - Lyrik Ultimate
Handlebars - Title
Stem - Burgtec Enduro
Headset - Cane Creek
Grips - Canfield Lizard Skin
Saddle - SDG
Seatpost - SDG Tellis
Front brake - XT
Rear brake - XT
Cranks - Canfield 165mm
Chainguide -
Chain -
Pedals - OneUp Composite
Front derailleur -
Rear derailleur - SLX
Front shifter -
Rear shifter - SLX
Cassette - eThirteen Helix R
Front hub - Project 321 G3
Rear hub - Project 321 G3
Front rim - Wingman Origin Silver
Rear rim - Wingman Origin Silver
Spokes - Silver something
Nipples - Yes
Tyres - Maxxis Assegai, DHR
Tubes -
Total weight - Not as much as I thought
 

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Noice! I have the same wheelset from The Brig on my Starling. The Project 321 G3 makes such a nice classy refined sound. Very quiet, but sounds so good. Love my loud hubs for road cycling, but love a quiet hub for the trails!
 
First ride yesterday and I'm beyond happy with the bike.

First up - it's the right size. A small but important detail when buying online!

Climbing was great. Didn't really notice shorter cranks but it's also my first 12sp bike so maybe the extra gearing helped.

I dropped into a flowy descent (some might call it a blue flow trail :p) and I was immediately blown away. The bike just handled so well and was so composed and quiet. There was a feeling of reliability that I can only compare with the feeling of closing the door on a very expensive German car. My main impression here was a feeling of stability and planted-ness but the bike was also happy to pop off the lips of a few small jumps.
I'm trying to get better at jumping so first indications are good for that.

I had been expecting to take the first rides a bit easy as I got comfortable with the bike (my previous bike I crashed on the first 5 rides...) but I was comfortable to ride some harder trails. My next major impression was that the bike seems to actually pick up speed through the rough stuff. I'm sure this is just the fact that my previous bike got hung up in rock gardens but the feeling is uncanny.

I've never had a bike with such fancy suspension before (so many dials!) and I'm far from a suspension guru so to have the bike feeling so good straight out of the box is amazing.

Got some riding trips lined up later this year. My son has always ridden but lately he's really re-discovered his passion (a new Meta SX helped) and it's been so awesome to get back into riding together. That's what I'm looking forward to the most.
 
I see you can now adjust the chain stay length on these, where previously all sizes ran 435.

What size frame is it, and what CS length are you running?
 
I've got a medium and and it's set up 29 and the longest CS length (442mm)

Can run 3 CS lengths - 427 / 435 / 442mm
The longest is 29 only, the shortest 27.5/Mullet. The middle length can be run either.

My thinking for running the longest length is that I'm not the most advanced rider and it would be a bit more forgiving.
 
Feels completely different to anything I've ridden before. I'm not really good with bike words but the bike feels quieter. At the same time when you want to pop off something the feedback is there.

I don't know all the technicalities all I know is that I'm grinning like an idiot!
 
I really enjoyed the Revel Rail I reviewed a few years ago. There's something about that CBF setup, seemed to be both poppy and plush.
 
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