Mid-Day Monday Musings (3)

Amongst the tens of folks who read MEATengines, there are a few who love electronic shifting on their mountain bicycles. I mean, they aren’t quite putting it on a pedestal with dropper posts and disc brakes, but there is no modern mountain bike world where they are grabbing gears by spooling cables. What is this, 2018?

Some prefer the shifting speed of AXS Eagle; most have moved on to the precision-preoccupation of AXS T-Type. Even those who have had their battery die in the woods (which is pretty much all the folks I know personally) are still all-in on the system. Even those who have had to buy a replacement rear derailleur are still all-in on the system.

More importantly, for today’s musings, I am beyond certain that every single one of those AXS-advocates will agree with me that no matter what criteria are laid out, electronic shifting has no place in any discussion around ‘Value.’ A new stainless-steel shifter cable is what CA$5.00? A replacement battery is CA$87.00. That could be the end of the discussion.

New for ’25, check out the Giant Fathom for an SRP of CA$1900. Good geometry, CUES U6000 LinkGlide drivetrain (including cranks), Shimano 4-piston brakes, well-received Giant 34mm suspension fork.

{Image above: Giant Bicycles Fathom 29″ & Fathom 27″}

Not new for ’25, Kona’s CA$2650 Honzo ESD is rad out of the box. Single-speed it or run that XT shifter/SLX rear derailleur combo that is so sweet to see. Deore 4-piston brakes are a value winner, the tires are solid, and the 150mm Z1 fork is an air system away from a 160mm or 170mm DH-hardtail bump. Ditching the Shimano SLX rear hub would be my first upgrade.

{Above photo: Kona Honzo ESD}

There are no budget-friendlier chainring replacements to fit SRAM 8-bolt-spider cranks, even in the aftermarket. There are no budget-friendlier chain options to fit T-Type chainrings. The cheapest replacement T-Type rear derailleur is a GX unit at CA$583. Five hundred and eighty-three Canuck Bucks to replace a rear derailleur that provides what level of performance & experience upgrade over the cable-actuated equivalent for CA$180?

And someone is grumping that “value doesn’t mean inexpensive” and I agree. Amortize your life. Value could be stepping up a price point to get an improved rear hub, suspension fork, or brake system that is going to significantly reduce the pressure to purchase performance upgrades in the short term. But none of those upgrades are happening in a vacuum where their additional cost isn’t weighed against the improvement delivered on the trail.

Just so, any honest discussion of value needs to go beyond the shop floor and first ride to consider the cost of ownership of a bike. A mountain bike. A mountain bike that’s going to be smashed and crashed. Value needs to consider not just the performance of the brakes but also the cost of pads. Value needs to consider not just the performance of the suspension products but also the cost of routine service.

All the bike most anyone could ever need? GX drivetrain, DB8 brakes, Select+ suspension, and great geometry and 150mm front / 130mm rear travel. The Marin Rifty XR is a lot of bike for SRP CA$5400.

{Image above: Marin Rift Zone XR}

With excellent geometry, and a ready-to-ride build for CA$1350, I think the Marin SQ24″ is still the 24″ wheeled grom mountain bike to beat. I would love to see a second, higher, price point with a few key upgrades for kids putting on big miles and shredding technical terrain, but that’s for a future article.

{Above photo: Marin SQ24″}

More than anything, value is about experience per dollar. Both the initial experience and, for those brands that haven’t figured out how to support their products, the after-sale support. I’d say it’s common knowledge in the bicycle industry which bike companies are customer service legends and which companies are customer service loathed and it’s easy enough to take that into general consideration when writing about bicycles.

Value is not just about buying the highest-priced collection of parts for the lowest amount of money. Yet, somehow, the worst after-sale support offenders consistently sneak into talks about value because their bikes have an upgraded this or that for the same retail price. How much are months of downtime waiting for frame parts to arrive “in a couple of weeks, in a couple of weeks, in a couple of weeks” worth to you?

Looking for a big bike? CA$4600 scores you a Canadian-made 170mm travel frame, full Shimano Deore 12spd, ARC rims, Maxxis MaxxGrip DD rubber, and RockShox Domain suspension. Just add CushCore Trail and an MRP chain guide. The Chainsaw is such a fun (and capable) bike and uses a more basic shock as well as any suspension design on the market.

{Above photo: Devinci Chainsaw Deore 12spd}

The (big) jump to the CA$6400 XT Chainsaw adds a Fox 38 Performance Elite fork, X2 coil shock, and a nice pair of RaceFace Vault hubs in addition to the full XT build. The only throw away part for me is the SDG Tellis dropper. Infinite space and budget I’d love to own a Chainsaw.

{Above photo: Devinci Chainsaw XT 12spd}

There’s also only incredulity to be found in any discussion of the relative value of luxury products. That’s no discouragement from me in terms of buying that sweet small batch titanium frame and building it up with SRAM XX SL T-Type, Project 321 hubs with We Are One’s latest hoops, and some EXT suspension. I am absolutely not passing judgment on your custom-painted carbon super-bike, it looks rad. But don’t justify these things beyond the motivation that you were stoked to buy and ride one.

Take my own one speed. Yes, my custom Waltworks is slacker, longer, and more lilac {Cosmic Lilac, even} but could I get a similar riding and resiliency experience out of a Kona Honzo ESD frame, off-the-shelf steel fork, external lower headset cup, and a crown race extender? Yep. For significantly fewer dollars? Yep.

I love the Trek Roscoe 7, now at CA$1600. Throw on some pedals and get the bike shop to comp you any half-decent dropper post remote so they can look you in the eyes (the stock one is a bad joke) and go ride! Six stock sizes to choose from, hardtail happy 2.6″ rubber, and a frame worthy of years of upgrades. (Photo: Me)

{Above photo: Trek Roscoe 7}

The G2 brakes are going to demand a bump-up in rotor size for many riders, but that aside, the Process 153 DL 29″ is a heck of a lot of bike for CA$3400. The Select RC fork works very well and the Select+ rear shock is excellent. The drivetrain is NX/GX. North Shore local riders may want to go MaxxGrip for the front tire for the slippery season and probably want to consider a ring swap to a smaller grannie gear than the stock 32x50t, but otherwise it’s rideable out of the box.

{Above photo: Kona Process 153 DL 29″}

[Aside] “But wait, Drew-Bob, what about people without thumbs? You elitist, gatekeeping, snob! You didn’t consider the thumbless before you started writing this? Battery-powered wireless shifting with effortless-action gear changes could be experience-altering for them and they may see huge value per dollar in their off-road experience! Value is so personal, how can you even attempt to say that one product can’t qualify for the discussion?”

1) I can’t wait for the minuscule-micro-minority use case straw-people arguments to go out of fashion. Okay, fine, thumbless mountain bikers in the top 10% of earners are good to talk about the value of their AXS purchase.

2) Also, GripShift.

[/Aside]

There’s no full suspension platform on the market I want to throw a leg over more than the new Chisel. The CA$4500, SRAM GX, Comp-level bike is a brake swap away from Shore-XC fun.

{Above photo: Specialized Chisel Comp}

I intentionally did not mention the used market in my photo caption asides here. For many riders a new bike purchase will consistently prove the best value in terms of knowing the condition of their rig and getting the right platform for their riding. That said, there are some beauty projects out there for not a ton of scratch! Buyer beware, but also beware it’s a buyer’s market. (Photo: Me)

{Above photo: Chromag Arcturian}

Okay, so, I recognize I am not some royal arbiter of value, and min-maxing performance and cost have a different meaning for every person’s budget and use case. But, am I safe to assume we can agree that at some point the return on expenditure stops being an investment in improving the on-trail package and becomes about owning a certain something or the technical magicifaction of marginal performance improvements?

I have plenty of hours on AXS Eagle and T-Type drivetrains and I’ve even written positive things about them. You want to hand a priceless mainstream mountain-bike-of-the-year award to a T-Type equipped machine and not only will I be unsurprised, well, truly, I would be surprised if any (non-DH) bike was nominated that didn’t have a SRAM T-Type drivetrain. And it’s going to be that way at least until Shimano wireless-re-Di2s XTR & XT HG+ 12spd drivetrains.

But is there really anyone out there, even working in marketing at SRAM, that is going to present a value proposition for adding batteries to (any) bike components?

Welcome to MEATengines, I hope you enjoyed this piece. If you did, please consider buying me a coffee. Any questions, concerns, or comments; feel encouraged to drop me an e-mail, or join us at r/MEATengines.

Mid-Day Monday Musings (3)

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