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:
Great review. How does it compare to the Troy? Can you comment on the advantages and/or disadvantages of the Spartan vs the Troy?
ReplyDeleteI put up my second review and talk a bit about the Troy vs Spartan - more specifically the geometry numbers. For me personally, being 200+ lbs most of the time I think the added travel is warranted. I really didn't feel much difference in the climbing to be honest. However, the Troy had the Fox Float CTD and the Spartan the Monarch Plus RS Debonair (very similar I think). At Lakeway, if your're not familiar there is a lot of climbing - long climbs, lots of switchbacks. Still this is not the technical climbing you find more places around Austin, but there is enough to make sure the bike performs. It did. I rode the Troy at RPR, Deception and a very tech trail that I cannot name here with lots of climbing, lots of drops, a few jumps and the Troy was great. I gotta say it's a very close call and it comes down to me being more comfortable having the extra travel for bigger drops. Again, the Troy is probably sufficient, but I like knowing I could take the Spartan off unexpected drops with no issue and to real mountains and not need to rent a DH bikes to ride most things.
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