Even though I don’t really ride my road bike much, I still wanted to keep it around for days I couldn’t do a full MTB ride. I came across a great deal on this new ‘12 BMC RoadRacer with 105 Group on eBay and took a risk in being able to sell my old frame to cover the costs. I swapped over all of my old parts and sold off my old Omega Ti frame and the new 105 set to squeeze out a small profit in the end. I dropped over a pound vs the Omega and got an updated frameset to boot. 15.68lbs without pedals.
This is the new 2014 Intense Carbine! I discovered a molding defect on my Carbine SL when I attempted to install a dropper seatpost. The seattube had some very deep grind marks in the tube:
It’s my opinion that Intense (or whomever manufactures these for them), preps the tubes a bit and somehow created these marks. Intense says that they don’t use any sort of process as their molding technique does not require it. In any case, I contacted them and they had me send it in for a closer look. A week later, they called me and said they would cover it under the warranty. Since they didn’t have any of the Medium SLs left, they offered a clean swap for their new 2014 Carbine frameset instead. I was happy with this option, as I knew that the Carbine was only about half a pound heavier (due to non-Ti bolts and Alloy upper linkage) than the SL. But the nice thing about the Carbine frame is that it uses their “G1” dropout system, which means you can swap in 27.5/650b compatible dropouts if I want to upgrade to the latest fad wheel size. Another bonus is that the rear shock is configured for 140/152mm (5.5/6.0″) travel vs 120/135mm for the SL.
Turns out the frame is only marginally heavier at 5.40lbs for the bare frame, versus 5.04lbs for the SL version.
I swapped over the parts from the SL and left the rear shock at the 140mm setting for now. I also added a Specialized Command Post BlackLite dropper post, after trying out a KS Lev Integra and non-Integra (more in another post about that).
Total build weight came to a nice and light 24.32lbs with pedals!
Sure it’s a somewhat weight-weenie build considering the nature of this trail category bike, but it’s more than tough enough for my riding and trails so I’m pretty happy with it.
Update 01/28/14:
OK, so I’ve had the Carbine for a few months now and have some updates on how it rides. Until last weekend, I had it in the 140mm rear setting. But it never felt right. The rear seemed overly harsh and I felt like I was getting pretty beat up on the trails. It wasn’t a bad ride per se, but not exactly what I was expecting from one of the “best” trail bikes available today. In fact, I would say it wasn’t even as good as my old ‘09 Fuel EX in terms of ride quality and feel, and that bike only had a 120mm rear!
So last weekend I decided to try the 152mm (6″) setting in the rear and to my surprise, I had to pump into 140psi to get the rear back up to 30% sag. (previously I was running 120psi at the 140mm setting to achieve 30% sag). Hmm, that’s interesting. Why would changing the shock setting induce so much more sag? I have no idea, but I immediately felt the shock actuate much more freely and actively than before. All of a sudden, it was PLUSH! WTH??!
Anyway, I took in on my usual trails last weekend and wow, what a difference! I only used about 90% of the total travel, but the rear was super plush now and I never felt any of the harshness that I did before. I could feel the bike compressing on the hits and smoothly coming back up ready for the next one. Best of all, my body wasn’t beat up at the end of the ride. I’m going to continue to experiment with the 152mm setting and maybe switch back to compare some more.
Another update I have is that I managed to crush part of the rear rim on once of my last rides. I’m not sure how I did it exactly, but I suspect it was from hitting a rock from the side of the wheel and not from a direct impact from bottoming out on one.
The damage wasn’t too bad. The affected area is about 4-5mm deep:
I ended up taking the tire off, cleaning and sanding the area a bit and applying some Gorilla epoxy to patch it up a bit. The wheel is still totally true and round and holds tubeless just fine as well. I’ve since ridden it 3 times with no issues, but you never know…
I contacted Calfee about a fix and they said there wasn’t enough material to do it properly. Ricthey has all but sold out of these wheels/rims, plus they’ve been discontinued for a while anyway. They did have a “WCS” version of the carbon rim available (apparently just a different finish than the Superlogic), but at $400, I passed on it. I didn’t want to have a mismatched set either.
So this all got me thinking about upgrading to 27.5 wheels. Unfortunately, I have expensive tastes, but I don’t like to spend a lot of money. A new 27.5 carbon wheelset plus a compatible fork (RS Pike) would probably set me back at least a couple G’s or more. Ouch.
Lo and behold, ebay came to the rescue! A seller in Greece had a pair of new Superlogic rims for sale! I sniped in a bid and got them for just under $400 shipped and they should be here in a few weeks.
Well, now that I’ve sorted my rim issue, I’ve also sort of dedicated my wheel size to 26 for the time being. I’m happy with that. Everything I’ve read about the 26 vs 27.5 size is that there’s not that much of a difference in terms of real world feel. I think if you are buying a new bike, sure 27.5 makes sense. But if you are like me, and have a big investment in 26″, it may not make much sense to spend that much money on a 27.5 upgrade when the performance difference may be negligible.
To that end, I’m now in the process of collecting the necessary parts to convert my Carbine rear to 142×12 and changing the axle of the rear Superlogic (a rebadged DT 240s) to 142 as well. That should stiffen things up a bit back there.
OK, I think I have a sickness. I’m addicted to bikes! The Carbine SL was always at the top of my list, but the price was just outrageous. $2800 for the frame alone. That’s just crazy talk! But when I heard that Intense was closing them out at $1599, well, I had to consider it.
Even though I just bought the Felt Virtue LTD in May, and was relatively happy with, I knew deep down that I had to have this frame. Fast-forward a few weeks later and here it is.
It’s a pretty sweet frame indeed. The matte carbon finish looks really stealth and the red accents are a nice touch. I added in the bling red Chris King Inset headset to top it off. The cockpit carried over from the Virtue, but along the way I upgraded to these superlight, but supertough Ritchey Superlogic carbon hoops with DT240s hubs. I also managed to find the Dual Position version of the Revelation World Cup fork, in Keronite grey no less. The “2P-Air” allows on-the-fly travel adjustment from 120/150mm; great for dropping the front end on climbs.
The best part? I dropped over a pound vs. the Virtue with the same build. Total build weight is just under 23lbs! With pedals! 22.96 to be exact. Woot!
This is my first experience riding the VPP suspension design. Honestly, it looks a lot like DW-Link and even Felt’s Equilink to me. But right away I noticed the rear was much more plush, similar to how Trek’s ABP felt to me. With Felt’s Equilink, I left the platform full open all the time and never fiddled with changing it for climbs. With VPP I’m back to flipping the platform to “Trail” or “Climb” settings. Not a huge issue, but I can tell that the design isn’t as well-suited to climbs when compared to Felt’s Equilink.
Overall, though, the plushness makes for a better ride than the Virtue. I feel like the trail seems smoother and quieter. The Carbine seems to just float over the bumps. With the Virtue, the rear was so stiff that it felt like the platform was always set to firm. And by stiff I mean that it didn’t feel very active, especially on the smaller hits.
Anyway, only 2 rides on this bad boy so far and I’m digging it. But one other bike is also on the radar: The SL’s bigger brother, the Carbine (non-SL).
The standard Carbine has a different rear triangle than the SL, and it features the ability to swap the rear dropouts to accommodate the latest craze: 27.5″ wheels!
It also adds about half a pound frame weight, but when the bike is only 23lbs to begin with, what’s half a pound? I must say my eyes are open for one of those to come up at the right price…
Ever wondered what price a seller accepted a Best Offer at on eBay?
Well, if you use a desktop browser to view past auctions, eBay won’t show it to you. eBay simply lists the original selling price with a slash through it and a message “Best Offer Accepted”.
But I stumbled on a way to see the prices. All you need is your smartphone and the eBay app.
Just do a search for your item in the app, then Refine the search to view Sold Items only, which will then show you the past auctions.
Voila!, the Best Offer prices that were accepted are now shown and you can make or adjust your offer using that information.
Hopefully this doesn’t become common knowledge so eBay can fix this “bug”…so keep it to yourselves!
