2015 Devinci Spartan Carbon : First Ride Impressions

During my search for a new full suspension MTB I have ridden a Devinci Troy Carbon, Cannondale Trigger 27.5 Carbon Team 2, and most recently the Devinci Spartan Carbon. I also threw a leg over an Orbea Rallon X10 for a bit more than your typical parking lot ride. I was looking at bikes around 140mm. Living in Central Texas 140mm seems to be the more common travel choice. However, with new bikes and suspension designs/technology, suspension travel these days seems to impact the weight of the bike more than the performance. Being 200lbs or more most of the time I figure an extra pound or two of bike would easily be tolerable and and extra 1.5 inch of travel would be welcome. My Chumba XCL was about 31 lbs with 140mm and I never felt strung out riding it on long rides or climbs. I tend to like hard charging down through the chunk and dropping lots of ledges. So this all brings me to the current demo...

I am demoing a 2015 Devinci Spartan Carbon XP. The budget priced XP spec Spartan Carbon leaves plenty of money to upgrade the wheelset and drivetrain and that’s exactly what Wes at Velorangutan did. The XP includes the Pike RC Dual Air 160mm, RockShox Monarch Plus RC3 Debonair shock and a Reverb Stealth 125mm. The Shimano Deore brakes area solid, I was not left wanting in the brakes department, I probably wouldn't upgrade them until they are functionally in need of replacement. I would certainly take them over Elixirs and I am much more a SRAM fanboy than Shimano.

In my opinion the only things that “need” upgrades are the wheels and drivetrain. The demo I’m riding has Stan’s 330 HD hubs and Flow rims, probably shedding a pound off the Jalcos, since the combined rim weight difference is about a ¼ pound in favor of the Flows and the hub difference is more than a 1/3 pound, not to mention spokes and nipples (they add up and they rotate). The quality difference alone is worth the upgrade.  The 2x10 drivetrain swap for a 1x11 is what I would do and that’s what the demo is kitted with, 30T NW with a 10-42 cassette.  Another minor change was the rear tire, the Hans Dampf was switched out for a Maxxis Ikon, I might consider a similar swap to save the spare HD for the front later on. Other than these changes the rest was spec, shock, fork, dropper, brakes, cockpit and controls. You could get $500 or more easily selling the take-off stuff, almost paying for your wheelset upgrade. Let's get on with the ride.

We headed to Reveille Peak Ranch since it was raining the day before and the morning of my first ride on the Devinci. After about 5 minutes of sag set up, we hit the trail. I did not adjust the compression settings, so they were “open” during my ride. We rode the Race Loop to the Upper Loop first. The Race Loop has some nice, easy to overlook huck spots that were made more fun being on the Spartan. The bike was nibble and gobbled up the chunky stuff on the way to the Upper Loop after the Peak Loop turn off. On the second half of the Upper Loop you get to open things up a bit, pumping and jiving. The fast section was a blast and the bike performed well. 

Next up was the Peak Loop. I wanted to see how it would climb. While RPR doesn’t quite have the same technical climbing as Austin it does give you some longer than average climbs with plenty of steps, rocks, gaps and tight turns. I never felt that the Spartan was out of place at all during the climbing, nor did I have to go to the 42 to keep it moving, in fact I found myself in tougher gears and standing a bit. I realized that even standing and pedaling out of the saddle the bike climbed very well with little bob. We then headed up to the Epic Peak (where the cross is). That jeep road climb wasn’t bad either, never felt ragged during any climbs.

Now, it was time to hit the Super D – from the very top – the Lonestar Granite Enduro start with the bonus fun up top. Everything was smoother than ever on the way down. Even with a screw up in gearing causing me to stand up and grind the short climb after the bridge I managed a PR on both Super D sections. I honestly wasn't pushing it hard, things were just made smoother and faster on the Spartan. I’m not a big jumper (love drops, but not a huge fan of pointing my wheels up off a lip) but on this run I got more air on the jumps going down Super D than I have before. I was a lot more confident dropping, launching and even rolling things a lot faster/bigger than on previous bikes/rides.

Finally we pedaled over to Sweet Skull and the Flow Trail. Just one run each, no sessioning. I tried a new approach on Sweet Skull. I wanted to see if the adage “slow is fast” is true for this section or if it’s just slower. The result is inconclusive; I was 2 seconds off my PR set on the Devinci Troy Carbon in December. I say inconclusive because conditions were different, the turns were way slicker during this run and I slid out on at least two turns. I feel confident given a couple of runs even in the slicker conditions I could blow away the PR. First off the chunky section Lil Diesel and the Sweet Skull Jump were faster on the Spartan. Lil Diesel was much smoother than on previous rides and the jump was as much fun, but seemed more like a ripple even though I know I aired it higher and farther.

The run down the Flow was fun, fairly uneventful as I was not trying anything silly, little whips with little air. The Spartan is easy to get airborne and feels confident landing. We headed back after the Flow run.

First ride impressions…SOLD! I am going to try to get in a ride at Lakeway and possibly Deception before I have to relinquish it to Wes, but I see those rides as a bonus and a formality. I do want to make sure there are no surprises on the climbs at Lakeway and the ledges, g-outs, chunk and tightness at Deception.

Things I would change, aside from the "needed" upgrades mentioned (wheels and drive train):

• Bars - I would go with RaceFace SIXC 3/4 rise - less arm fatigue and less jittery.
• Stem - RaceFace Atlas in blue - purely for the bling.
• Grips - ODI Rogues - hand and forearm relief for days!

With the drive train, wheels and cockpit changes I expect the weight drop to be closer to 2lbs or a bit more putting the bike around the 30lb mark, not the lightest carbon 6.5in bike, but not a pig either.

Stay tuned...

Demo courtesy of and thanks go to: