I’ve since replaced the rear shock with a Rock Shox air shock and I’ve got a Suntour air fork on order. I went to my local store and tried the same bike and the shock in the store made the same noise. The forks aren’t much better - they compress far too much under my body weight, no matter how much pre-load I put in them. Ride on gravel or a rocky path and it sounds (and feels) like the bike is shaking itself apart. Every bump you go over results in a clunking sound. However, the rear shock is TERRIBLE! You get a loud knocking every time it compresses. It rides well in terms of positioning and the wide bars give it a good feel. The good points - it has a good frame (looks like pretty much the same frame used on higher range models, with the exception of the head tube, which I’ll talk about later), it has a good group set (the micro shift system has some good reviews - and it has a clutch), and the brakes are good. I always intended to upgrade certain parts, I just didn’t know I’d be doing it this quickly. I bought this bike as a good starting point. How can you allow 150mm of play in the saddle and only 10mm with the handlebars? I'm sorry to criticize what is otherwise an excellent design, but this really needs to be thought through by the designers. I'm 195cm tall and will have to add to the handlebar stem and lengthen the brake tubes and gear cable, just to get the handlebars to the same height as the saddle. In this way the riding position for men of all the sizes in the XL range could be accommodated. To claim to be able to fit men between 185 and 200cm, the handlebar stem would also need to adjust by at least 100mm, if not 150mm. The consequence is that the height of the rider dramatically alters the riding position. The seat stem can vary in height by 150mm without a problem, but the handlebar stem is designed to adjust a mere 10mm or even less. This is probably true of many mountain bikes, but to claim that this bike fits people who vary 150mm in height is just not the case without adapting the bike.
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