WTB Convict Tire Test

Wilderness Trail Bikes has been around a long time. They came to creation in Marin county what many consider to be the possible birthplace of Mountain Biking. The scene in the late 1970's and early 1980's was much different in Marin. The times have changed and WTB has evolved and is now making tires, saddles, grips and their own rims. We gave them a call to get a set of Convict tires to test out. Our terrain is about 85% rock with spattering sections of soil the dusty kind with no traction and marbled out high speed loose trails with no berms. It takes a hell of a tire to perform well in San Luis Obispo.

"WTB was founded in Marin County, California in 1982, fueled by the need to create durable and reliable mountain bike-specific equipment. Back then mountain biking was a new and burgeoning sport, and mountain bikes weren’t much more than cobbled-together oddities. The original WTB crew was captivated by the experience of riding bikes on dirt trails, and they started creating more durable and functional components for their own bikes. Soon, local frame builders sought to outfit their bikes with WTB’s high-end components. WTB was able to turn our passion for bikes into a successful business.

WTB CONVICT REVIEW

Zerode Taniwha Review

So the Zerode Taniwha descends well in part due to having a very light rear end and one of the lowest centers of gravity around. Also, the simple suspension design works very well at eating rough terrain and is one of the easiest to set up. But how does the Taniwha climb or pedal? Let us get this out of the way now. You can tell it has a gearbox when pedaling on the flat ground. It makes a bit more noise than a standard bike with a full chain guide. It isn't as loud as the old school Mr. Dirt guide but it makes noise just a slight whirring from between your feet. Pinion claims the gearbox gets smoother as you rack up the miles. We put about 500 miles on the bike and would have to agree with them. It did begin to make less noise and seem to offer a bit less resistance. Honestly, if there is a bit a drag while riding the Zerode Taniwha it is very mild. In fact, it may entirely be in my head. Getting to the trails from work is about a 2-mile flat pavement pound. I never made it there as fast as I have on a few other bikes. Now shifting the Zerode takes a bit of forethought at the beginning. The Pinion will not shift into an easier gear under load. When I say load I mean like the weight of you leg will prevent it from shifting. So essentially you have to stop pedaling the Taniwha to get it to shift. On the steep technical climbs make sure to shift when you can and not when you need to since it may not be possible. Another thing that was noticeable was the lack of engagement provided by the Pinion. We had i9 wheels with 120 points of engagement and it still had some play. This was really obvious when you back pedal and then try to pedal forward. The gearbox would take about 30 degrees of rotation before it engaged. It would be interesting to see what an Onyx hub would feel like. Using a Pinion adds about 2.5lbs to The Zerode Taniwha and there is no great way to cut that weight back. As stated earlier we had an Insurgent with the exact same build in size XL and this Taniwha is a LG frame and still, the complete bike is about 2.2-2.4 lbs heavier. The new C-Line Pinion will shave about 250 grams off the bike so you will have a 1.75lbs penalty. Is the added weight and shifting issue worth it to avoid a derailleur? This is all dependant upon you, where you live, what you ride and how lazy you are on equipment.

Read Full Review At Link Below

Zerode Taniwha Test

Evil Wreckoning Test

Evil Bikes had a rough start with their initial production run. They learned from their mistakes and have since been making carbon bikes that are aggressive in nature with a suspension platform that is very efficient.  The brand originated making the first Chain Guide that actually worked for Downhill racing. It was a small start but soon the brand found it chain retention system on a majority of bikes out there. This lead to them creating some DH and Street hard tail bikes that would eventually prove to become collectable and the thing of legend.

Evil as we know it today is owned by Kevin Walsh. He purchased the brand from Dave Weagle back in 2008. Since buying Evil they had some problems on the manufacturing side with their first few runs of the Downhill bikes. With manufacturing happening in big quantities it took things awhile to get sorted out. Once production issues where sorted the guys at Evil took care of customers that had problems. Their carbon trail and downhill bike have been very successful. Last year Evil made the jump into the short travel Wagon Wheel segment with a bike called The Following that by many testers standards was considered The Holy Grail. Shortly after the launched The Insurgent a 650b trail slay machine offering 151mm of rear travel. Now Evil has launched the 161mm travel 29" wheeled rock crusher called The Wreckoning! Evil bikes is now using the same factory as Santa Cruz bikes for the production of the full carbon Evil bikes and with SC's experience in building carbon bikes it sounds like a good choice.

A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH 

With the Following, Evil Bikes gave the world a taste of what a 29'er was capable of when developed by a small company whose agenda was to have fun on bikes. This was soon followed by the Insurgent, a 27.5” machine that is aimed more at the clientele that Evil originally became popular with - a crowd who won’t shy away from pedaling to the top of the mountain, but who really come alive on the way down. It would be trivial to say that the Wreckoning is the love child of these two bikes, because it is certainly more than that. The madmen over at Evil have once again scrutinized the boundaries of mountain biking today and decided they could simply roll right over them, on stiff new 29” wheels powered by Boost 148, and 161mm of DELTA suspension.

EVIL WRECKONING REVIEW

2016 Guerrilla Gravity Downhill GG/DH Test

Guerrilla Gravity is a small mountain bike company located in Denver Colorado. They were sick of frame prices shooting through the roof while production moved overseas with little, if any, performance increase from year to year. All this while many bike companies grew in size and became more distant from their customers and what they really wanted in geometry and suspension designs. Who wants to buy a frame for $3500 and have part of it go to subsidize some road racers salary anyhow?

We tested their Megatrail last year and it proved to be an insane trail rig. Not only was it insane descending,  but when using Trail mode it was one of the best climbing enduro bikes we have ever ridden. The guys at Guerrilla Gravity emailed and asked if we would be interested in testing out their updated 2016 GG/DH frame? Hell yes we would!

GG/DH Review

Evil Insurgent Review

Evil as we know it today is owned by Kevin Walsh. He purchased the brand from Dave Weagle back in 2008. Since buying Evil they had some problems on the manufacturing side with their first few runs of the Downhill bikes. With manufacturing happening in big quantities it took things awhile to get sorted out. Once production issues where sorted the guys at Evil took care of customers that had problems. Their carbon trail and downhill bike have been very successful and last year Evil came out with a bike called The Following. Now it is time for Evil to enter the 650 market with The Insurgent. Evil bikes is now using the same factory as Santa Cruz bikes for the production of the full carbon bikes and with SC's experience in building carbon bikes it sounds like a good choice. With the overwhelming accolades being bestowed upon The Following it made perfect sense for Evil to jump into the 650b market. Their new bike The Insurgent is their go at the aggressive 27.5" Enduro bike market.

"Do you repeatedly attempt to seperate your tires from your rims in every corner, do you say lets take this ride mellow, does your trail bike find itself going slide ways.. Those up hill both ways days just got a little less sucky. Short snappy chainstays, long top tube and a low BB set the stage for a bike that likes to party.."

Upon receiving our Insurgent we opened it up and began assembling the bike. Again the finish on The Insurgent seemed top notch just like it did with The Following. Thank God for a Threaded BB and a 142 by 12mm rear hub spacing. Having the threaded BB makes assembly a bit easier and keeps the bike from making noises that should only be heard on a bikes purchased from WalMart. (Though we are running SRAM 11spd and that at times can make our Evil bike sound like a department store bike....) Overall our build kit is similar to others we have used. Our area is rocky and rough so a full chain guide, heavy tires, big brakes, and DH based cockpit round out the build.

Evil Insurgent Test