Hmmmn...
Well it's been a few days since the blog was found by the mountain bike community - I suppose I knew it would happen eventually. It would have been nice to have a pic of a prototype first though.
Regardless, I've immediately been bombarded with questions and have seen comparisons of the Wildcard to a host of different bikes. Comparisons range from the Iron Horse Sunday to a Turner Enduro bike... ok maybe visually the bikes look similar but you really need to look at the geometry... which of course we haven't provided cause we're not yet at the stage to publish the information on this bike yet.
I've heard others say its just a marketing gimmic and that slopestyle bikes are no different then any other freeride bike... well that depends really on how advanced a rider you are. After all, originally I'm sure people thought that the sport of mountain biking was a gimmic, then freeride was a gimmic, and street... the list goes on... I prefer to think of it as evolution broadening the horizons of the sport.
If you are at the level where you're pulling 360s, can cans, tailwhips, etc I think you'll be able to appreciate this bike far more then someone who isn't into tricks. Look at the seatpost size for cues; the small is 14.5, medium is 15, and the large is 16. The large is for a guy 6' tall - normally a 16 is a small size for most bikes.
Also the weight at 7lbs is about as light as you really want to go... if you could get it lighter and still have the strength that'd be great but really a slopestyle bike should be around 35lbs completely built.
I would like to see Alan and Chris's bikes come in at 30lbs for Crankworx but we'll need to hook them up with brand new gear specifically for the competition and then tear the stuff off right after... if its light then they'll have a competitive advantage, but if its light there is an increased chance of breaking stuff and this increases more every time you uses it after.
When designing a bike its all about compromises and no bike could be great for everything... to be honest this bike will probably not be the best for climbing cause you'll need a super long post that will just be at min insertion and still you might not get the seat at the correct height unless your a smaller rider, if you want a bike designed for climbing check out the pyre maybe?
Its not a downhill race bike... it is too short and slightly low on the rear travel, it will cope fine at speed on relatively smooth terrain, but pinning it through rock gardens is not what this bike is really about, although it will cope, it will not be the best at it.
Its also fairly light and designed for the smoother riders out there, if you want to huck to harsh landings, then get a scream or a chap, this bike is for the styley smooth riders with lots of flow.
The priority for this bike was to make a bike that you can go big, do your trick and then land on a smooth transition.
If you go big and don't do tricks then you might not need the low standover. If you go big and don't land on smooth trannies or you're a hack you might be better off buying a burlier rig.
If however you're a pretty skilled rider, that loves styling it out on trails, competes in slopestyle competitions, wants a full suspension dirtjump bike, or something they can jib the boneyard, aline or Esher Shore with then this will be a great bike for that.
