.:: DonnieNix.net ::.

I spent Sunday morning cleaning the new rig. I took my time and got it looking real nice. Then I went over to Blankets Creek and got it dirty as hell. Hey, that’s the way you’re supposed to do it, right?

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Some notes:

* We used hockey stick tape for the chainstay protector. That stuff is GREAT and highly recommended.

* Yep, Specialized bar and stem on a Santa Cruz. Spec makes excellent components and these two items were free. They came off my bro’s Spec Stumpy Expert.

* The cable running from the fork is the Manitou IT adjuster. It allows you to change the travel on-the-fly. What you do is press the lever on the handlebar, shove down on the fork, and release the lever. This locks the travel in that position. Neat feature, but I need some practice with it before I can’t make good use of it.

* Yes, the gold Hope stuff was originally meant for a new liquid blue or black Heckler. The orange one was a deal I couldn’t pass up, and I don’t feel like dropping another $70 bucks to buy a better color matched set yet. I’ll get some blue Hope skewers and clamp soon.

* Race Face bash guard – Brown Cycles in Grand Junction, CO, $15. Brand new (OEM) Hell yeah.

I took the new Heckler over to Blankets Creek this afternoon for the initial shake-down ride. I intended to use this ride to get the suspension dialed in and get used to riding a full suspension. After riding a hardtail my entire life, I thought it would take some getting used to.

After we got to BC, I re-checked the suspension air volumes and added some to the shock and fork. I made sure ProPedal was maxed on the shock because I am still running a spring with a lower rate than I need. I tried to guess at what the fork should be set to as far as SPV volume and setting. I planned to ride half the trail and then make adjustments where needed.

I started off on the beginner loop to get a feel for the bike. My initial reaction was that this was a great setup. The cockpit of this bike feels like it was made for me. I was able to get my arms in the right postion, and slid back over the rear tire with ease when needed. The steering was very responsive and the bike felt very light in the front allowing me to toss it around at will. I tried to pay attention to any pedal-induced bobbing, but couldn’t sense any at all. Casey was riding behind me and said he saw very little movement while pedaling, but I couldn’t feel any at all.

We headed out to the Dwelling Loop and I figured this would be the first real test. The things I’ve heard about the Heckler would be proven true or false here. Would it “climb like a dog”? Would I be tossed off the bike by brake jack? Would the bob be too much to handle?

No, No, and No. This bike was great. It climbed as well as my hardtail, except the weight was noticible, but I am attributing that to my own lack of fitness and being used to a lighter bike by 4lbs. I rode faster than I have been because the bike was so smooth. The shock felt great, absorbed all the small bumps, responded to the big ones, and didn’t bob at all. At first it climbed great, but I noticed that as I reached the top of the hill, my legs really felt it. But heck, what do I expect? I haven’t been out as much as should have been and I was wearing a fully loaded Camelbak (just in case some trail maintenance was needed) and my weight is not exactly that of the racer-type XC rider.

Still, the bike inspires confidence. It handles so well and feels so good in the rough spots that you are encouraged to go faster. I was taking turns and switchbacks faster than ever and we turned a pretty fast lap.

I still have a tiny bit of tuning to do. I noticed on the last big climb that my brakes were making this moaning sound while I was pedaling, which freaked me out, but just indicates the brakes need to be dialed in a tad. That’s no big deal. I had to stop once and adjust the SPV control on the Manitou fork, but after I did that the fork was amazingly responsive to all sizes of bumps and roots.

I very happy with this bike. Happy with the price, the build, and the way it rides. It begs to go riding which should make me a better rider overall, because I WANT to get out more now. With the hardtail, I was starting to lose a bit of the passion. It’s back in full force now. I look forward to a great year of riding with this bike.

Casey and I finished the Heckler build Friday night, and I handecd over my first born and a pint of blood to Free Flite for them to run the derailleur cables and get it all adjusted. We have no problems building everything else, but we don’t mess with the derailleurs.

We started on the build at about 4:30pm and finished around 9:15. It was the fastest, easiest build we ever did. The only problem we ran into was getting the crown race onto the fork. We had to rig up a “whack-whack” tool to smack the thing down flush with the fork crown. It consisted of 3 old Cane Creek headset bearings and cups, and the star-nut install tool, a monkey wrench and a hammer. It was not pretty. When we started cutting the steerer tube on the fork, the cutter wheel completely fell apart, so I had to make an emergency run to Home Depot for a new aluminum tube cutter. Other than that, the build went amazingly smooth.

Click thumbnails for larger versions

I decided that if I kept trying to save enough money to buy a brand new Heckler, I would never get over the hump. Putting money in savings, running a savings acct for our vacation, and then trying to slip some into a bike fund was just not working.

So I took the $900 I had saved, dumped it back into my primary account and found a perfect Heckler on eBay. The bike is a 2005 medium in orange. It isn’t the color I wanted but so what. The orange is cool.

The bike comes with a new-ish Fox DHX 5.0 shock and a Thomson seat tube. With the geometry on this bike being different than the new ones, I will be able to use the brand spankin’ new Manitou Minute 3:00 IT fork that I bought back in October.

The bike has a few nicks around the chainstay where it looks like the chain bounced into it, but that’s nothing. Normal wear and tear. The seller said he put new bearings in the pivot which is nice.

It should be here in a week or two, and I have all the parts I need to get it built up.

It’s not the ultimate bike that I wanted, but it is a very very good alternative. I’m extremely happy.

Here’s the pictures from the eBay auction, taken by the seller.