Do you need help selecting your next bike? My bike consultation service is over on Patreon, where I work 1 on 1 with you to help share my experiences and recommend the perfect mountain bike for your riding style and budget. You can sign up here: patreon.com/hardtailparty
Lots of great stuff here and I really appreciate the long form. The big take away for me was the way that Steve really connected with a lot of these people on a personal level, showing them love and respect for their work ethic, work product, etc. Not a lot of people have this kind of emotional intelligence and awareness. I have a whole new level of respect and admiration for Steve. Yes, he's a great rider and yes, he's a great reviewer, and yes he's a great mechanic but above all the thing that impresses me most is that he's a great human too.
I’ve seen a lot of the Sea Otter 🦦 videos and yours is by far the most comprehensive. If there was a cycling RU-vidr’s award season you just won gold!🙏🏼👌🏽👍🏽🥇
The Turner booth was amazing and and as an older singlespeeder, 2 by (double Speed) is at the top of my must have list!! Awesome coverage of Sea Otter.
Best review of Sea Otter by far, great work. The Wheels Manufacturing single speed conversion is super exciting. Also, your interview with Dave Turner was fantastic. Love hearing from industry heroes; I could talk to that guy all day long.
Prevelo is a top notch kids bike! My daughter started pedaling at 4 years old on a Woom 2, which is another wonderful light weight kids bike. The first time we hit a long downhill on the local MTB trails her hands got tired trying to hold the rim brake which led to an out of control downhill wipeout! I upgraded her to the Prevelo Zulu 2 with hydraulic disc brakes, made all the difference. She can run them with one finger. She is 5 now, has a Woom 3 and the Prevelo Zulu 2 ( both 16in bikes) and will keep using Prevelo to upgrade every year as she grows. Having a great bike in the correct size has given her confidence to take on challenges and become a shedder. Parents, don’t cheap out on your kids bike! Love the channel brother!
Taj, what a legend! Really stoked on the Fairdale Elevator. Short CS and hopefully not overly slack. I think there is a big market for hardtails that bridge the gap between dirt/street and trail.
Great video Steve. Loved seeing David Turner there. I remember calling Turner Bikes around 1995-96 to ask about the Turner Burner and talking to him for 30 minutes. Great guy and very passionate about bikes. Thanks for the video HP.
Great coverage, best I've seen. Didn't realize Manitou still made the R7. Had one of those years ago, probably back in 07 or so, and actually loved it. Still looks very similar. Those Turner bikes are sweet, really liked the coverage on those. Would love that 5Dev TI crank, but a bit too costly.
Super excited to see you do some Surly bikes. I can barely put into words what a fantastic do-it-all bike the Karate Monkey is. I've got more miles on it than anything else I own, and dispite its age and older standards and geo, i still come back to it again and again and again.... Glad to see some Hayes dominion love, FANTASTIC brakes! Also, when you asked if you should do more high end stuff or mass market, I like a mix of both, and feel you do that pretty well. While the normie in me enjoies seeing bikes I could actually affoard and maybe consider buying, I also enjoy seeing what you can get if you're wealthy and just dreaming...
Stoked to see Fairdale jumping into the MTB world as a 20+ year bmx'r that just got into MTB about 5-7 years ago. Taj Mihelich is my favorite BMX rider ever. He retired from BMX due to injury and created Fairdale and got into MTB and leisure riding with the big 27.5 and 29r BMX bikes. I have a Sunday 29r bmx as my cruise/barhopping bike and an NSbikes 29 hardtail to fit along my Flybikes 20" BMX.
I love my boys on their kids bikes. Mine are on Spawns, a 14" Furi, 16" Yoji, and 20" Yama Jama. They also started on the 10" strider and 12" Hot Rock balance bikes. I bought the Yoji new but the others used. Easy to work on with threaded BBs, sealed wheel bearings (the strider uses ABEC skateboard bearings!) , and awesome geometry. It's easy to keep your kiddos stoked on bikes that are light and function well!!
Interested in that Fairdale hardtail! They started odyssey? I use to use a lot of that stuff back in the late 80s early 90s. OMG that Klein was a dream bike back then. That and the Attitude, they always had the best paint job. Even when riding by 98 homegrown with the bass boat red-gold I still envied the paintjob of the Klein.
Good to see Ryan Palmer landing in Yeti. A pillar of MtB thats for sure. Hope to see the other BikeMag journos. They are my heroes that made me stoked to ride trails before mtb youtube existed.
I have been really interested in getting a middle child, but I’m an old BMXer and I used to love my Hoffmann Taj, so now I’m going to have to see how the Elevator rides. Looks really rad!
I got a 16 inch wheel rocky mountain edge kids bike for my daughter. They put the seatpost joint behind the bottom bracket. It seemed to allow a more upright riding position while allowing more stand over for my daughter. All that allowed her to start riding earlier when compared to her friends on department store heavy bikes.
Those Prevelo kids bikes look great, I wish there was something like that a couple years back when my girls were learning to ride. I ended up moding a specialized Riprock 24 to get it in that ball park. So many kids bikes come with bad geometry, heavy steel sprung forks, too long cranks just to name a few things. Can’t wait to see what mtb little Betty will start with😀
Outstanding showcase of See Otter Steve!!! It felt like we were right there visiting all the booths!!! Great showing of all the new innovative products and amazing bikes!!! I’m sure it was many hours editing this one ☝️ great job!!!
It’s very beneficial for companies to send you bikes to test. Because of your reviews I used your patreon service and ended up buying a bike. Because of my purchase two of my friends also purchased the same bike and every time I ride it anywhere whether trails or just down the path to get dinner, people ask about it. It’s like a ripple effect.
Great video and summary! Keep up the good work! One of these days Im going to go the Sedona, and hopefully I can ride with one of your groups. God bless brother.
Nobody does it better. Your showing of the Recycled Schwinn bike was more detailed than others I'd seen of the event- it just looked like a beater bar bike without your close-ups and description. Very cool coverage of that bike and the event.
Glad you and David T got to chat, hopefully you’ll get a Nitrous to check out. I put in a good word for you when I talked to him a couple of months ago, funny enough I bought a Cyclosis and not a Nitrous. Man, that thing is SMOOTH! Nice vid!
It's so cool being able to get a sense of all this awesome industry stuff going on at an event like Sea Otter. Love that you made this vid! Listening to someone as knowledgeable and experienced as Hardtail Party give a rundown on this stuff I find to be informative and a very worthwhile watch. Also, would love to see a vid on the NS Eccentric Alu if you ever get a chance! I'm thinking about buying a frame and doing a build and there doesn't seem to be many reviews on it out there. Guess they're not as common stateside, but as a lover of short chainstays I think that frame could def be to your liking! Thanks for all the cool content as always, brother 🤘
Fascinating coverage. I know a lot of work went into this. Have to watch several times. Box Components showed the Gen 2 Prime 9 Drivetrain at Sea Otter Classic this last month. This is very exciting!!!!!!
Awesome video. I love the recycled Schwinn. My first BMX race bike was a Stingray that I chopped to raise the bottom bracket for 7.5" cranks. I begged my neighbor to braze it in his garage.
I’d like to see a Krampus reviewed. So much great stuff on this video. Liked the Turner bikes . Would like to see the Norco aluminum Torrent reviewed as well.
The Fairdale bike looks amazing. I have their urban singlespeed run-about the Taj, and it rocks. Their bikes seem really user friendly and practical. Very excited to see them provide a MTB. I wish it was designed around a 27.5 but regardless, that chainstay length is bonkers.
Geeking out right along with you.... love the small guys & custom builds with all the "jewelery". I'm going to camo anodise my ti hardtail.....Nerd on my man.
Incredible video! Great job! I really love the focus on small companies. I search out companies like these to not be like everyone else. keep up the good work!
My sons Cannondale cujo 24+ is under 24 pounds. I was not expecting those 20 inch bikes to be 24. However his cujo is full rigid, as most kids bikes should be. Sorry for blowing up the comments, but this content is so good!!
I like what this Turner guy is talking about. I have mentioned that we have found the sweet spot in geometry and from here only small tweaks are needed. My Esker Hayduke geometry is super dialed. From there bikes can go a little slacker, maybe a bit more or less reach, 425 ish chainstays are pretty good. I just don't think we need to keep going to the extreme like so many companies are doing. A long low and slack 63 degree head angle hardtail pretty much just serves one purpose and isn't a good all around bike.
Lezyne stuff is SO underrated. It's extremely high quality for the price. I use an Alloy Drive CFH as a pump and CO2 inflator in one. Worth the extra weight, and I slip in into one of my 3 rear jersey pockets. Had it for 3+ years and it's still butter-smooth.
Thanks so much for making this video. It was really well done and you are so good at talking about bike tech and products. Your enthusiasm shines thru. Definitely the best coverage of Sea Otter that I’ve seen. I loved every minute of it. I own 5 Surly bikes but not the Krampus or the Karate Monkey. I do own an Ice Cream Truck which on bike insights is very similar to a Krampus. It’s one of my favorite bikes to ride year round. It has 26x4.8 jumbo jims on it, but I’d like to try a set of 29x3.0’s. I watch every one of your videos. Thanks
I will have to go check out District Bicycles in Stilly (aka Stillwater, Ok) to look at a Merman if they have one. They carry some beautiful bikes live Revel and Moots. I personally love Orange Seal Endurance. I started using it about 3 yrs ago and it has worked flawlessly, once even sealing a 1/2" puncture from a sharp stick enough to get me back to the trailhead.
Steve, you definitely need to review and compare the Ti tubing differences and ride feel of those Alchemy frames. Enduro BB is definitely a problem solver for those of us to have to deal with replacing BBs all the time. I have to on my SS MTB’s and since I ride them all the time. Passchier bars seem like a great option for comfort.
Really interested in that Alchemy bike once it comes in for testing. I used to have a Fairdale Goodship road bike, but sadly met its' demise when I crashed into a guard rail on a bridge, so that mtn bike offering is interesting as well.
I haven't finished watching the video yet but I didn't want to forget. I would love to hear if you can make a single speed/ double speed work with that internal hub. I'm a die hard single speed rider but occasionally I think maybe two years would be good...?
Thank you and God bless for such a wonderful review. I am waiting for your Pinion gearbox review. I have been eyeing on them for some time but just shy of getting it. Maybe your review will change that.👍🙏
No mention of the Fluid HT at the Norco booth?? It has a 66.5° head angle, and short chain stays... Obviously I watched all the way to the end, loved seeing all the new stuff!!
@@hardtailparty I have no idea if it was there, but, after having a couple of rides on my new one, I am very curious if you will come to the same conclusions that I have about the bike. I am going to write them a review, and I will for sure mention Hardtail Party and tell them that they need to send you a bike!
Thanks for the video Steve! Products I thought were most interesting: - Classified Hubs - will be interesting to see the price point and initial reviews - Fairchild Hardtail - hoping this will be a decent steel mid priced mountain bike - Lenzyne Mini Hand Pump - add to cart
I'm sure you've heard about Tanglefoot cycles who makes atb/rigid mtbs designed around the idea of a 0° stem. They have the Hardtack which gives modernized 90s mtb vibes with the ability to fit 27.5x2.6 tires & design around running 0 degree stem. I vote to see the Krampus as it can fit 29+ even though the kid in me likes the Karate Monkey name.