So, now something about bike. I em worry that I would say nothing new about Wildcard, because Rob have written perfect review and I agree with his opinions .My first inpresions were lightness and smoothness. Only the frame is 1Kg lighter than my previous Chaparral. I chose coil Fox DHX 5 damper, because it better suits my more freeride oriented style. Progressivity of coil damper is fine on big drops, road gaps.. I tried to build the bike whit two different forks: marzocchi 66 (180mm of travel) and older marzocchi Z1(150mm). It works fine whit both of them, but I thing that the smaller and lighter Z1 fits the bike batter (I going to change it for new rock shox domain 160mm whit U-turn). I really love the geometry of Wildcard. Lower bb, short chain stay , longer top and nice head angel make wildcard very controllable in every riding situation. Low center of gravity and short chain stay is perfect for agresive turning, wheelie and jumping.
My first test ride was on dirt jumps and it was really fun!
It is like jumping on hard tail but with much more confidence.
Bike is fast, pedaling and accelerating very well. Jumping is its strongnes. Thanx to low center of gravity is very easy to do tabletops or handle it in the air in general. Longer top tube give you lot of space for x-ups and barspins and make bike confortabel on big airs. Good weith is big advantage too. At the 5" at front and rear setting it will be perfect choice for dirt jumping and I will prefer widcard for dirt in stead of my hardtail.
Than I ride the Wildcard on local DH/freeride trail (on snow). Wildcard is not a downhill bike, but suspendion works good and bike was perfect manageable even in steep technical sections. I have to say again how great is wilcard in corners.
I cant weight to ride Wildcard in better conditions on more trails and on some bigger stunts.
Chapparal was great bike but the Wildcard is perfect, I love it! Good job!
