Hey its Rob Cole here from London, England
I'm feeling a little sore today as there's nothing like the excitement of getting a new bike to get you all fired up...I spent most of yesterday blasting around my local trails on my new Team Wildcard
The Wildcard had looked pretty cool in the pictures i'd seen over the last few months, but there's nothing like getting the frame in your hands to really have a good look over it...but this frame gazing didn't last long as I put it straight into the workshop here at Freeborn Bikes Esher, and built it up with a choice selection of parts
The aim was to get the most out of the Wildcard's potential, and that is where the dilemna comes in...do you build it with heavier "freeride" parts or lighter "all mountain" parts...or a mixture of the two? Or do you spend more money to get the lighter parts that have enough strength for freeride and slopestyle?
We know the Wildcard is being marketed and has been designed as a "Slopestyle" bike, but that is not to say it can't operate outside of this style of riding...in fact you will find that many riders look at the amount of travel and geometry of a frame, and then have their own ideas about what kind of riding it would be good for...their kind of riding!
This was my thinking with the Wildcard...we don't actually have any "Slopestyle" parks here in the UK and to be realistic, Slopestyle is really a professional, showcase event - not something that is easy to jump into without having some serious skill and experience on a bike...unless you want to take a trip in a "white taxi" to the nearest casualty department
But what we do have in the UK is lots of small venues with short-course DH tracks, places like Esher Shore, PORC and Chicksands that are littered with jumps, small hucks, drops and bits of North Shore elevated trails - all terrain that is perfect for a lighter, mid-travel play bike
Lots of people will ride hardtails at these venues, and there is nothing wrong with riding a hardtail, but why not have a sweet full-suspension bike so you can ride harder with more control? We've all ridden hardtails in the past, and might have had moments when you've pushed the bike beyond its control limits, or backed off from trying a trail or stunt as you know you really need the cushion of some rear suspension...
Riders in the UK are waking up to the potential of short travel and mid travel play bikes, and Mythic's new frames like the Rampant and Wildcard are ideal for these riders - it might be designed for "4X" or "Slopestyle" but the UK rider is thinking "perfect for Chicksands" or "yeah just right for Esher Shore"...
Of course we are actually building a Slopestyle flavoured bike park here at Esher Shore, on the site of the old Dirt Jump park, and this is a difficult design brief, as people want to jump and practise their tricks, but without killing themselves in the process...I've worked it all out and its gonna be dope
And of course having a bike like the Wildcard means that i am going to be testing and riding all of the new stuff we build long before we open the gates to the public...the Wildcard for me brings a wave of change to my riding, on the back of all the BMX riding I've been doing the last year
I've been riding long travel hucking bikes for past couple of years...and enjoyed it...but suffered with the extra weight and clumsier handling..especially when trying more new school stuff like rotations and dirt jumping - ever tried to 360 a Scream on a step-up? ( I didn't get past 270 degrees...)
Again it all comes down to terrain, and the market here in the UK is radically shifting as the mid travel and shorter travel bikes are making the sales. Increasing rider skill and smoother trails mean you don't have to have a huge hucking bike to do some freeriding...and from riding the Wildcard the past couple of days I am totally stoked on the possibilities to have one bike strong, nimble and light enough for anything from trail riding to full-on freeride
Its funny how things work out...the UK distributor had a mix-up in their warranty dept and sent my Totem Solo Air to another customer...which was cool as they offered me a new fork - i opted for the 2008 Lyric 2-Step which was in many ways a better fit for the Wildcard
I've seen the prototype Wildcards running the Totem and Marzocchi 66 forks, and both are awesome forks for a more freeride orientated build...but with the Lyric the fork is slightly lighter and a touch shorter, and has the 2-Step adjustment to give 115mm or 160mm which balances really well with the Wildcard's 5" and 6.5" travel settings
This theme of lighter weight continues with my build, after the forks the wheels are very important and I built up some Sun Singletrack rims on Hope Pro 2 hubs, with a special 10mm bolt-up rear Pro 2 hub which Hope make to order - this has huge 10mm allen key bolts instead of the usual quick release axle / skewer setup - this makes things tight and secure at the back, I am not a fan of quick release axles on any Mountain Bike!
I chose some Syncros BHT tires in Kevlar bead which are stupidly light - around 750gm each - which is awesome for a 2.5" width tire, and inflated these using the Stan's No-Tubes tubeless conversion system.
The Stan's rim-strip and liquid sealent only adds around 90gm to each wheel instead of the usual 400gm for a DH tube, and you don't get pinch flats anymore, but the most noticeable change is the hugely increased "ground feel" from not having the inner tube fighting the tire as it deforms over rough ground - this has to be tried to be believed
Full parts list all in weight - 34.9lb
Mythic Team Wildcard, medium size, Fox DHX Air shock
Cane Creek Double Xc headset (1.5" -> 1.125" reducer)
Rockshox 2008 Lyric 2-Step fork (115-160mm)
SRAM X-9 shift pod and X-9 mid cage rear mech
SRAM PC-971 chain and PG-970 11-28 cassette
E13 STS ISCG 05 chain device, E13 Guide ring 36T
Sun Singletrack rims, 32H, 26" - Hope Pro 2 hubs (20mm and 135mm), DT Swiss d/b spokes
Syncros BHT Kevlar 26" x 2.5" tires, Stan's No-Tubes conversion kit
SDG Bel Air saddle, Praxxis alloy post, M-Part seatclamp
Thompson 4X 31.8mm, 50mm stem and Easton EA-70 31.8mm bars
Avid Juicy 7 brakes with 185mm G2 rotors and Straitline levers
ODI Lock-on grips, Syncros Mental Alloy pedals
Yesterday I went riding up in North London's Hampstead Heath, an area with 3000 acres of ancient woodland, and did some long technical climbs, singletracking, some fast downhill runs with plenty of little jumps and drops...and the Wildcard flew over these trails way faster than any of my previous bikes...bearing in mind its the first time i've been on a Mountain Bike in 3 months, that is saying something
Its early days yet, and I haven't had the chance to give the Wildcard a proper beating...I've had a couple of runs down the big Stuntgod trail in Esher Shore, and overshot every landing!! This bike is definitely gonna be alot of fun to ride
Banshee are definitely onto something with the Wildcard, I am really stoked to finally have a light weight freeride bike that will actually climb very easily and feels very quick under power, yet has the right geometry for high speed descending and technical riding, and a suspension system that works with an air shock yet does not feel constipated!
Its got a totally different feel to the older Scream and Chaparrals, and I'm not just talking about the reduced weight, the Wildcard is slightly longer and doesn't feel "chopped out" which means it rails the corners way better, and of course the full lenght seatube is a huge bonus for those times when you gotta go climb up some mountain
Awesome work Jay and Keith....
