Mountain Bike Carrera Fury 2009

Carrera Fury is a simple hardtail mountain bike with true bargain price and perfectly positioned for good budget option from Halford. This mountain bike maintains decent spec with considerable frame quality and recommended as entry level cross country bike similar to Voodoo XC and Dawes XC mountain bike range. It comes with little mountain biking profile with standard cross country usage. This hardtail bike gives reliable usage pattern with a little climbing and descending efforts on rocky gardens. It cannot be compared with other mid range cross country mountain bikes that always excel with performance and are little expensive.

Available at the price range of £550 from Halford, Carrera Fury would not disappoint riders rather this bike would let them enjoy normal mountain biking. This cross country bike is fitted with suitable groupset and matching fork on a reinforced frame. Fury is the popular XC mountain bike from Italy based Carrera brand and still liked by many riders who would like to save money and plans to go for hardtail instead of full suspension mountain bike.

Stiff Hardtail Frame Design

The frame of the Carrera Fury bike does not look like an average budget hardtail frame rather it has given a special treatment to incorporate a strong butted chassis. This cross country frame is fully made up of heat treated aluminium tubes, which are very stiff and strong with perfect shapes. It is equipped with disc facility and built with big weld contact areas behind head tube for reinforced front end. The top tube is featured with square shape near the point of contact with extended seat stay. The down tube projects great stiffness and strength and well gusseted with head tube. This butted down tube has oval shape near the bottom bracket shell and weld contact areas at head tube.

This hardtail chassis would show flex with spindly seat stay and we cannot avoid it but it is not a big issue for such a lower priced hardtail bike. This mountain bike has rack mount facility and featured with two bottle cage mounts. There is a curved gusset with bolted collar near the forward facing seat clamps for security purpose. The chainstay has rectangular shape and gives large keyhole clearance for rear wheel. This aluminium frame is finished with white colour paint and looks simple with brake and gear cables passing under the tubes. Seatpost of this 20” mountain bike is long enough to fit the rider more than 6ft tall and the butted frame looks like a racing bike with more comfy and long saddle.

Single-track Trial Riding

The cockpit has plenty of room to play around and the long top tube enables you to put your body weight in the front end, which means you can lean forward enough to control bike speed through tight corners. With the controlled speed, this hardtail bike can be used for long riding with comfort. The butted aluminium frame plays a vital role in putting your riding power down the wheel with great stiffness. The contemporary head angle along with matching fork gives good traction on the ground with full stability and confidence when you happen to push the bike hard.

Even less experienced riders would get more stable ride with this mountain bike and the top tube width gives enough control leverage similar to experienced rider riding with short stem. You can really push hard the bike on rocky drops and this cross country XC bike will nicely obeys with your muscle power on rough rides. Carrera Fury is a 120mm semi trail bike with certain limits for day riding with good tracking benefits and power delivery.

120mm Fork performance

Carrera Fury cross country XC Mountain Bike is setup with 120mm of travel Suntour Epicon fork with contemporary 69° head angle. With this setup riders can get most out of this bike and it is much suitable for steep climbs and steep descents. This mountain bike is designed with slightly slacker geometry under Carrera Fury production line for 2009-2010. With longer fork setup, Fury is meant for fast and hard riding on bumpy terrain. The fork can be maintained with less sag setting in order to achieve correct and intended bike suspension response without being to bouncy and stiff.

With the help of 120mm long travel you can comfortably go for trail riding on leaning corners and rocky gardens. This mid priced 120mm fork is fixed with adjustable damping facility, so that you can stiffen up the fork for easy climb and control the rebound setting for steep descent. The fork also comes with lockouts for climbing and rebound damping.

Impressive Components

The wheel setup comes with decent specs, which highlights the efficiency of Carrera Fury and at this price range you can expect ever reliable continental speed king tyres with Mavic XM-317 rims. In British winter condition the wheel will slide when you crank them over, apart from that it is good on most summer conditions. The Suntour Epicon fork really does a great job and gives room for adjustments based on riding condition and riders weight. The frame cut outs avoid any mud clearance.

The real highlight of this hardtail bike is screw through QLOC axle with 15mm size, which enhances the true definition of tracking and gives significant steering. This benefit would put this XC mountain bike more specifically on technical trail ride when compared to normal non technical cross country bikes. It is worth mentioning about groupset, which line up with SRAM X5 shifters and SRAM X5 gears along with Truvativ crankset and Powerspline BB. This mountain bike is equipped with Avid Juicy hydraulic disc brakes that provide good stopping power.

Our analysis

This 20” hardtail mountain bike weighs 13 kg and it is not a light weight bike but fitted with long fork travel for technical trail. When compared with other low priced cross country, Carrera Fury is really adds value for money with decent specs and quality frame. This mountain bike is now available with three frame sizes such as 16” (2008), 18” (2009) and 20” (2009) model. There is always going to be compromises on low priced hardtail bikes but Carrera seems to be well managed to build the Fury with better components and set the bike with 120mm fork as key selling point.

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Mountain Bike Voodoo Bokor 2010

Voodoo started its manufacturing for high quality production line of mountain bikes, which includes options for choosing kits, frame and other custom preference in late 1994. They are known for innovative line of full suspension and hardtail bikes, which still exist today in the market with good reputation. Voodoo company is not a well known brand but its range of bikes are liked by many mountain bike riders and even it has scored good ratings in dirty dozen tests. Voodoo bikes are designed by Joe Murray, an MTB legend and he is a well know person who used to design Kona bikes in late 1990s. Voodoo bikes are exclusively available at Halfords and they are the major dealer of Voodoo in UK.

Voodoo Bokor an All Rounder

There are few all rounder hardtail bikes available in the market that meets the expectation of budget racers. When narrowing down the price range around £700 few best know bikes would come to the list. Voodoo Bokor is one among the best all-rounder mountain bike that tops the list and it is purely made to satisfy a budget racer. This bike outperforms all those best hardtail if you put more emphasis on speed, spec and frame design. Voodoo Bokor is made with nice frame and loaded with decent finishing kit. It has been in the market for more than a decade and gradually developed to become one of the best suited bikes under £700 range budget in 2010.

Voodoo Bokor Mountain Bike

Versatile Bike to Ride

Voodoo Bokor mountain bike is loaded with 100mm of Rock Shox Reba Race air sprung and Avid Juicy 3 hydraulic disc brakes. It is not a hard hitting bike and does not provide much fun when you do quite tough riding in Wolftrax mtb trail in Laggan or Navis Red Route XC trail in Scotland. This cross country gives great pleasure in riding on natural XC “The Monkey Trial” in Cannock Chase near West Midlands in United Kingdom. Though Voodoo Bokor gained good mark-ups with couple of MTB test, what you can expect with this bike is excellent cornering, jumping, unbelievable agile that always urge you to take it for a ride.

Voodoo Bokor hardtail bike does not fall under the category of more specific kind of hardcore bike with long travel like GT Aggressor XCR. This mountain bike has correct range of 100mm travel that is completely utilized on a frame that is designed to tackle fast singletrack. The light weight fork Rockshox Reba Race considerably reduces weight and its motion control damping for both compression and rebound could be accurately set to rider’s weight. This hardtail bike is all about the best fork you can lay your hand on and the rest of the kit also add more value to the bike.

Voodoo Bokor hardtail has a well structured frame that takes up considerable amount of suspension action while riding on rock sections or damp roots. It makes the bike more balanced and gives confidence to the riders to try there skills to the limit. This efficient 100mm XC bike is lighter then the similarly priced hardtial and gives good response to the acceleration. The front end is designed in such as way that it gives more emphasis on front wheel that gives enough control near cornering.

Light Weight Frame

Voodoo Bokor is quite a race XC bike with well shaped geometry and mid-length stem along with strategically placed riser bar. The kit is well adhere to the quality of the chassis and the frame has unique design that gives much importance to handling. The head tube is logically connected with the down tube through open gusset. It has reinforced ring at the top that connects with the headset to manage the uncontrolled ride. There is enough space between neck of the down tube and top tube when sharing the head tube to give better control over cornering. Seat stay and chain stay meets 3D forged sliding dropout that is screwed with twin bolt and the frame is single speed compatible. The frame is available in 18” and 20” sizes and the dimension of the frame enables most of the riders to have comfortable position.

Valuable Kit

The most valuable kit in Voodoo Bokor mountain bike is 100mm Rock Shox Recon Race fork with motion control damping. It is sensitive to the adjustment and overall control gives big difference in the riding quality. This reliable fork delivers consistent stroke and light weight when compared to other type of mid range fork. The versatility of the bike could be experienced by unique transmission design which loads the rear mech with SRAM X7 and front mech with SRAM X5. The weight of the bike is much reduced by use of the light weight and efficient Mavic rims that rolls around formula hubs. The bolder size Geax Barro tyres additionally boost the speed and at the end this cross country hardtail bike is fully decked with race appealing finishing kit.

Our Analysis

You no need to stick to a big brand name nor pay premium price to ride for general purpose MTB. Voodoo Bokor hardtail bike is a fantastic climber and best suits for cross country riders and even dual slalom rider. The extreme light weight of the bike is a selling proposition that undoubtedly gives benefit of great agility. Additionally the valuable kit also adds more technical confident for the riders. It is a great advantage for beginners to own such an all rounder hardtail bike.

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Mountain bike Rockhopper SL 2010

Specialized Rockhopper is a popular brand name that has strong presence in mountain bike market for more than two decades. It is known for its solid frame design and quality of ride. Though this market is filled with full suspension bikes, hardtail bikes are still liked by most of the beginners and intermediate riders who want to step into to full suspension bike after gaining good riding skills in hardtail.

Specialized Rockhopper SL is a new hardtail mountain bike that has fresh facelift and made with many changes that sure to impress the riders. It is well known that specialized engineer their bikes with perfect balance between quality and the look of the bike. It is great foundation to start with one of the best designed Rockhopper XC bike frame for new comers. This SL 2010 version is the current line of Rockhopper bike and it is a basic hardtail model, which is reasonably light and affordable.

Specialized Rockhopper SL 2010 Mountain Bike - Red

Popular Frame Design

This Specialized bike is made with M4 fully manipulated alloy frame with 100mm of travel. Its unique frame design flawlessly defines the backbone strength by intelligently built downtube that originate from headset with clean shape. It is not a straight downtube rather the upper end is well build along with rectangular shape cross section and it neatly bends to form straight downtube that come down towards bottom brocket shell. The toptube also well accompanies the full frame structure that has slightly curvy design.

Riding performance

This hardtail bike is built to work harder when it encounters bumpy ride and it prepares well to handle the balance. It is slightly heavier then recreational XC bike and its weight is a great advantage, which gives good pedalling response with acceleration agility on trail. Its all depends on the rider’s ability to handle the bike and this Rockhopper SL would obey your rules based on how you ride.

This cross country is a faster bike and the 100mm of travel can be fully utilized when you put the weight forward while driving and let the rear end follows without impeding the forward progress. The light weight alloy frame would help you to control the speed on little rougher trail and it lets you to easily navigate through the difficult path. All this is possible because this XC mountain bike has wide bars, fitted with suitable travel fork and nicely arranged frame design.

Specialized Rockhopper SL Hardtail Bike - Black

Valuable Equipments

This Rockhopper SL model comes with Dart 3 front fork and hydraulic disc brakes. The fork is made with coil shock, which works best for specific weight of the rider. This specialized mountain bike has detailed frame design along with intelligently built chainstays and seatstays, which gives room to try bolder tyres with enough mud clearance. It has good stopping power with hydraulic disc brakes and this cross country bike brings the rear wheel to halt during eccentric driving condition. It is featured with 9 speed drivetrain.

Rockshox Dart 3 is a basic and entry level fork that does its job well and suitable for cross country style ride. Rockhopper is also available with Air shocks but in the higher end model, which is expensive. If you can stretch your budget then you can also try Tora SLite fork with Avid hydraulic disc, which is available in the next model Rockhopper SL Comp that cost you extra £100. The shifter has average performance but not bad for what you pay. This mountain bike has achieved good reputation in ‘dirty dozen test’ and gives excellent riding experience.

Hardtail bike for Beginners and Intermediates

This XC bike would be a great experience for those who like to start their MTB sports as a beginner. It would definitely help them to improve their riding condition and act as a better platform for transforming from hardtail to full suspension mountain bike later in their riding experience. This Specialized Rockhopper SL bike has average component setup and performs at its best level, which gives true value for what you pay.

For beginners the bike would give good ride and no need for any immediate upgrades but for intermediates, this bike need to have little upgrades. If you have several years of hardtail bike riding experience and if you are in the edge of trying full suspension bike then this bike is not for you. You must try Specialized Stumpjumper FSR full suspension mountain bike.

Bike upgrades

This Specialized bike frame is light and strong enough for any future upgrades and it is easy to do and cost less. The fully butted alloy frame has good agility and performance, which satisfies all the need for recreational XC riders. For Intermediate riders, you must put bolder tyres and tubes along with Crankbros clip pedals in order to manage for hard trail ride. You must mainly consider fork, crankset, Rims, brakes and shifters for future upgrades in this Rockhopper SL basic model. After upgrades the bike would push you for better ride. Do not try this bike too hard for bumpy trail then you will end up replacing almost every component in it. This mountain bike is not meant for serious riders.

Rockhopper variants

Specialized Rockhopper hardtail bike is available in four variants such as SL, SL Comp, SL Expert and SL Pro. The most important difference among the four variants is front fork, hydraulic disc brake and rim. All the variants uses same M4 fully manipulated alloy frame. The basic Rockhopper SL bike starts with £700.

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Mountain Bike

Norco DH

Author: Chris Armstrong | Created: 2010-09-16 08:54:52 | Location: Whistler, BC

Norco has a steep tradition in the freeride market. From the original VPS models from years past to the newer Shore line of bikes, Norco is deeply rooted in the North Shore style of riding. But they also make a DH specific line appropriately called the DH Race / Park. Falling in the lineup between the A-Line and the Atomik is the younger sibling to the Team DH, the DH. With a more affordable build kit, could the DH be the best value bike park ride?

Norco DH.

Coming in at just over 41 lbs, spec for the DH are well thought out and designed to keep quality up and price down. The DH is spec'd with a Rockshox Boxxer Race 203mm fork, Marzocchi Rocco Coil shock, Avid Elixr 5 brakes, Gravity Moto cranks, Sun wheels & Maxxis Ardent 2.4 tires. SRAM holds down the shifting duties with a X7 trigger, & derailleur. The cockpit is a mix of Funn bars & Stem, WTB Silverado saddle & a Norco housebrand seatpost.

Norco DH rear end.

Aesthetically I think this is one of the best looking bikes Norco has made. They have toned down the use of highlight colours on the bike and kept it simple with a white, black & anodized red scheme. The new hydro-formed tubes look cleaner while still being designed for style and use.

Geometry (as tested, M) for the DH was slack with a 64-degree head tube, almost 71-degree seat tube and a wheelbase of 1168mm. My initial impression of the DHs fit was that it was comfortable and very similar to my current ride. After adjusting the controls around to moto style, I was ready to get out and see what she could do.

Norco DH controls.

When I jumped off the lift and pinned it down the first run of the day, I noticed that the front end felt a bit twitchy. Almost like the angle was steeper than the advertised 64 degrees. After sliding the stanchions down slightly in the crowns and some minor adjustments to the compression on the Boxxer, it smoothed out the twitchiness and made the bike instantly more enjoyable.

The FSR suspension design works very well in a long travel configuration, eating up all the sutter bumps, holes & general roughness that the bike park becomes at the half way point of the season. Torsionally the bike feels quite rigid with no noticable flexing under load and it tracked very well.

Norco DH.

Specs:

FRAME	Norco 2010 DH frame
Fork	Rockshox Boxxer Race
Rear Shock	Marzocchi Roco Coil with piggy back
Headset	FSA Orbit E 1.5 R
Grips	Norco design MTB grip
Handlebars	Funn Fat Boy 15 mm rise butted
Stem	Funn RSX direct mount
Seatpost	Norco double bolt 2014
Saddle	WTB Silverado Comp
Front Brake	Avid Elixer 5 6" rotor
Rear Brake	Avid Elixer 5
Brake Levers	Avid Elixer 5
Shifter Front	N/A
Shifter Rear	SRAM x7 9 speed trigger
Front Derailleur	NA
Rear Derailleur	Sram X-7 med cage
CASSETTE	Sram PG-950 11-28T 9 sp
CHAIN	KMC Z-9000
CRANKSET	FSA Gravity Moto X Mega Exo 36T
BOTTOM BRACKET	with crank
CHAIN TENSIONER	E-13 LG 1 with Taco
PEDALS	Norco alloy flat with replaceable pins
FRONT HUB	20 mm alloy sealed bearing
REAR HUB	150 x 12 mm alloy sealed 9 sp
SPOKES	Stainless black
RIMS	Sun Equalizer 31
TIRES	Maxxis Ardent 26 x 2.4
TUBES

Changes I would make:

The fit of the DH was very comfortable, but if I had to make one improvement it would be wider bars, closer to the 800mm mark for increased stability.

Opinion:

With the DH coming in three sizes, priced very affordably, and performing up to the task, it might be the best value for the budget minded rider.

Plus:
Durable, affordable..

Minus:
Needs wider bars.

Rating: 4.5/5

Price: $3650 cdn.

Website: http://www.norco.com/archives/2010/?id=dh

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What do you think of the Norco DH? Talk back here:

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