Seconding everyone else, Oneup is the best option for a combination of value, reliability, and weight.
I do find the Oneup is needs slightly more maintenance than some other droppers, but definitely far less than the horrific non-axs reverbs of the past. Luckily the maintenance for the oneups is very simple, as in less than half an hour for most tasks. The issue I’ve had twice in the last year is cable/housing getting slightly pulled out from actuator at base of post, both caused by packing frame into bike bag.
Your choice but they have 20% off one full price item at Backcountry / Competitive cyclist right now and they have the v3 in stock. Makes it pretty small difference, but to be fair you can get the v2 on sale too.
I disagree there. There are 3 downhills that are not only steep and fast, but have decent drops. 2 of them I’ve bottomed out my 120 shock and I always use all the travel on my 120 fork at some point. On top of that there’s definitely a few other downhills where a dropper is faster and safer. Though somehow I got some downhill PRs (YOLO). That being said, that trail is decided by the climbs so a few seconds lost going down are easily made back going up.
Not the case for me either as I’m constantly using my Twinloc going from open, trail/pedal and fully locked out. I do find prioritizing that easier though by removing a dropper post in the mix.
Exactly, no thought/decision at all as the sections are obvious since I’ve ridden it dozens of times.
My buddy and teammate just got a 1:10:23 with a rigid post (Supercal) and took the all time 2nd place for a triple Poto (6th for a double).
Anyone seen the uswe outlander pro and race 2.0 pro? I’m having a hard time figuring out the difference, is it just a slightly lighter different materials on the race 2.0 for a 30g weight savings? Is the race 2.0 cooler, more breathable? Also seems like the race 2.0 comes with a bladder sleeve. Anything I’m missing?
First ride on my new epic 8 today. Coming from a 2017 Spark RC (100/100), the epic feels more like my long travel trail bike than the scott. Super smooth and controlled, just a different deal and feels like more than 120mm of travel. Pedals up hill really well and very confident going down. I’ve been a big fan of the 3 way lockout on the Scott and the lockout on the Epic was a big selling point for me. I’ll certainly use the lockout, but I’m amazed how well it pedals fully open compared to the spark. I went with the expert build on the Epic, not the lightest but has the same wheels as the pro version. I swapped to an AXS dropper and put a XXSL powermeter crank on. I’ll put a carbon bar on as well, but it should be race ready other than that.
All the talk of dropper weight in this thread, I was surprised that the AXS dropper was slightly lighter than the x-fusion manic (w/ cabling) that came with the bike. The x-fusion was a 170mm drop and the AXS is only 125mm, but I’m still surprised the reverb was lighter. I probably would have been happy with the x-fusion, but I’ve run an AXS dropper for years with no issues and it was 50% off at the Planet cyclery clearance sale.
I haven’t been so excited about a new bike in years, this one was probably overdue. The epic 8 hit on all the stuff I wanted and not too much of a weight penalty compared to my scott. I should sell the scott, but I’m considering keeping it and making it a drop bar gravel racer for chunky courses. It’s been one of my favorite bikes I’ve ever owned, lots of good times and some decent race results. Not sure if it’s worth that much as an older XC bike, but still a pretty capable and light bike for someone focused on marathon stuff that isn’t too technical.
I had very similar experience coming from a 2019 bike to a 2024 bike. Different to/from bike in my case, with my old bike (2019 Oiz) being on paper pretty similar to my new bike. New bike is a little lighter, a bit slacker. They pedal completely different though, the new bike feels so much more efficient.
Each time a new bike is released they always claim it is X% more efficient, Y% stiffer, etc, and I mostly write that off as marketing that is imperceptible in actual use. But maybe over the past 5+ years the industry has accumulated enough small increases in pedaling efficiency in their designs that it actually is a meaningful difference.
I also wonder how much performance degradation happens to the shock after a couple of years of riding that even a full service doesn’t fix. I also know I haven’t kept up with manufacturer-recommended service intervals, and could use fresh bearings and every other part of the bike.
Either way, I’m scared to test a new Epic because it would be a clear jump from my '19 Blur that my wallet doesn’t need right now.
If you send it in for full refurb, it’s gonna pretty much perform like new if you fix everything they find. It’s just a question of what they find. My experience with fox is that sometimes they will see wear in high dollar stuff and give you the option to get a discounted new fork for not much more.
Yeah, don’t ride an epic if it’s not in the budget. My original plan was another couple years on my spark (I upgraded/replaced the fork less than 2 years ago). Then, I had a trip coming up and my suspension needed service and they are backed up and my bike wouldn’t have been ready. And my scott really needed another full bearing set, wheel bearings, etc., just the stuff that happens over multiple years. I should have sorted that all last winter, but it just got away from me. Painful hit to the wallet on the new epic, but almost 7 hard years out of the scott is pretty good. I’ve done a ton of road training on it also, certainly has over 15k miles on it, probably more like 20k.
The x-fusion must be a chonk of a dropper if it’s similar to the AXS dropper. I think the OneUp V3 & cable/housing & remote is about half a pound lighter than the equivalent AXS dropper setup. With that said, though, and having just gotten an AXS dropper myself, it is incredibly nice being able to just yank the post out of the frame without having to negotiate the cable/housing.
I’e been waiting patiently for a competitor to do exactly this. Bike Yoke had an article out a year ago hinting toward a 2024 release… but crickets since. Hopefully someone steps up!
I too am interested in the Bike Yoke wireless dropper. They seem to have received some backlash for their design. I think it’s not a bad idea to remove the dropper from time to time to keep it from seizing in a carbon frame… I also like Bike Yoke’s design in that they don’t use a “single use” cartridge like other manufacturers. I‘m using the Divine SL and a Revive 2.0 with great success so far.
I assume that open isn’t optimized for pedaling on the epic either, they both have 3 settings. Just surprised how different the bikes pedal. I’d even say the epic bobs less while open than the spark in pedal mode. Not sure how much of that is kinematics of the frame or different shock tuning, but I could see racing the epic fully open without a lockout and that would be a non-starter for me on the spark. I was constantly switching modes on the spark and used open mode very sparingly, I expect I’ll spend more time open on the Epic when riding/pedaling chunky sections.
It is the kinematics of the frame. The Spark has around 85% anti-squat at sag, which is very low for an XC bike, it makes perfect sense why it needs a lockout to perform well. The new Epic is advertised at “just below 100%” anti squat", which is much much better for pedaling in open mode.
