I spent a lot of time deciding what mountain bike I wanted to purchase. While I occasionally work at a shop that sells both Trek and Specialized, I extended my search to include companies like Santa Cruz and Niner, as well as just looking for dirt cheap frames that I could build up for next to nothing. I tried hardtails and full suspension, as well as 1x and 2x drivetrains. I skipped over the idea of a single speed because people who ride single speed mountain bikes are either really fast, or hate their legs. I'm neither of those.
I ruled out full suspension early. Between cost, floatiness and the fact that I'm not really skilled enough, I just didn't like any of them. Niner and Santa Cruz left the building because I didn't want to spend that much on a bike. They're awesome bikes, but I wasn't sure how much I was really going to end up riding trails, so that kind of money was more than I was willing to drop on my first MTB. I will say, if I ever open my own shop, I would carry Niner in a heartbeat. Awesome bikes.
So we're left with the dirt cheap option, Trek/Fisher and Specialized. The dirt cheap option was the next to go. After parts group and wheel set, it didn't add up to be as inexpensive as I thought. Combine that with closeout offers from the two Goliaths and it was a done deal.
I don't like the geometry of Fisher bikes. We also don't carry regular Trek MTB very often, so other than a carbon Superfly, I didn't have a chance to ride a Trek bike to see if it was much different from a Fisher. The top tube is too long and they feel flexy to me. They're not bad, I just didn't click with it.
Specialized. Lots of people don't like Specialized as a company because they can come off as being a little dick headish and they tend to throw around their weight a little bit. They also market like crazy, and that annoys a lot of people. I often catch a ton of shit because when I roll out for a ride, I'm a huge Specialized billboard. Arm warmers, knee warmers, jersey, vest, shoes, helmet, gloves, not to mention bike, saddle, bartape and stem on my road bike. I rock a shit-ton of Specialized gear. While a lot of the above has to do with my having a connection to a shop that sell their accessories, no one really questions why I ride their bikes. They make awesome stuff. They wouldn't be the second largest bike company if they didn't. Their mountain bikes happen to be some of the best, period.
Last year, on the ride that busted my hand, I was on a StumpJumper Comp demo bike and I made a comment along the lines of "It's like a Tarmac for trails." I still feel that way. It was the main reason I wanted to get a Stumpy, confidence.
I also wanted a 1x. I found myself stumbling around with the front shifting, trying to figure out where I should be when. I lost more momentum that way and I was planning on riding my bike a whole bunch of different places, so I felt okay with the decision.
Lastly, I wanted an all black bike. Murdered out, if you will. Taking in all of my wants, a Specialized StumpJumper that was all black and had a 1x, I figured I would be buying a StumpJumper in the blackest colour scheme I could, and putting on different components. Then I looked at Specialized's 2012 MTB catalog and saw the StumpJumper Evo 29er (a 26" wheeled bike never factored into the equation, for the record). It's everything I wanted. So I bought it.
Thank you for reading all of that, because I know this is the part you care about. It's awesome. In every situation, it's just awesome. I'm so happy I bought the bike, and there were/are only 6 things I can think of that I would change, or consider changing.
1) Go Tubeless. The bike comes with 2Bliss tires, so with some Stan's tape and latex goop, they go tubeless quite easily. After making this change, I'm really happy with the traction but more importantly, the feel.
2) The bars are 720mm wide. That's really wide. It's supposed to be for aggressive climbing, which you will need sometimes, with the 33T chainring, but for a new guy in tight spaces, I hit a lot of trees. I'm getting much, much better but there is still one trail in White Clay where the trees are 730mm apart and there's a rock. I will be cutting them down a half inch on each side, soon.
3) Grips. They're just round grips. Nothing really "wrong" with them, but I would like a more ergonomic shape to prevent the swelling I get from a round bar just pushing into my palm all afternoon. I'm looking at getting some Ergon grips in the future. Jeremy hooked me up with his old set to try and see if I like them, so when I cut the bar down, I'm going to throw them on and see how I like them.
4) The 1x. This really isn't that big of a problem, I just thought that I would be riding a bunch of different places and actually spend most of my time at the Wiss. There's a lot of rocky climbing there, and some really steep sections that make it really tough for me to maintain enough momentum to get over things. I find myself occasionally wishing for a 2x with a 24T small ring, but at other places, I've found the 1x to be perfect. While I made the mistake of looking at the all black SRAM X0 group and found myself really, really wanting it, I'm going to stick with the 1x. Even if I went with lower level parts, and only the parts that I would need to make the 1x a 2x, I'm looking at a new crank, front derailleur, shifter and rear derailleur. The X0 RD that's on their now is the downhill, short cage version and if I switched to a 2x I would need the medium cage RD.
5) I need to bleed the brakes. It's not really a change, but every ride ends with my rear brake touching the bar. I use the lever adjust to get it back to where it doesn't, then it happens again. They feel mushy and I don't like it. Brake bleed is #1 on my "things to do" list.
6) The bolt holding on the chain guide is gold. As soon as I bother to figure out the size, I'm getting a black one. It just throws off the whole thing. Yeah, you know I'm that petty.
Below is my ride from yesterday with some of the "guys" from the shop in Wiss. We stopped a bunch to take pictures (which can be found here) but it was a nice pace and a lot of fun. Kolb was feeling great on his single speed and Anna and I had dead legs, so we bickered a bit about the last climb (Summit climb) but I'm glad we did it.
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