Mountain Biking - Don't they make a cute couple?

Thought I would post a pic of my bikes getting ready for their ride to the race this past weekend. Wasn't sure until after the pre-ride if I would want a hard tail or a fully for that particular course.

man.. it must be tough having to choose between those bikes ;) what's the weight difference between the two?

The Enlightenment weighs around 22 pounds. The Truth weighs around 24.5 - 25 pounds depending on the scale I use.

Whew, I was afraid I was clicking on another picture of Lance and that girl he's with. Still, I trusted in the better nature of human beings and found that yes, they do make a cute couple, except for one thing. You can't tell who wears the pants. Two cross country race bikes? Seems a little odd, if you get what I'm saying. And keeping it inside the family is definitely not cool. They should definitely hook up with these two guys:

The Enlightenment weighs around 22 pounds. The Truth weighs around 24.5 - 25 pounds depending on the scale I use.

so which one of those twin beauties do you like the most?

so which one of those twin beauties do you like the most?

Depends on the day and the course. The Enlightenment is definately faster of smooth courses with a lot of climbing. For rougher courses or if I'm just going out to ride with the guys and have fun I have to go with the Truth.


Whew, I was afraid I was clicking on another picture of Lance and that girl he's with. Still, I trusted in the better nature of human beings and found that yes, they do make a cute couple, except for one thing. You can't tell who wears the pants. Two cross country race bikes? Seems a little odd, if you get what I'm saying. And keeping it inside the family is definitely not cool. They should definitely hook up with these two guys:

Remember, this is WV. Keeping it in the family isn't that big of a deal around here. ;)

Do you have Marta SLs on the hardtail? How do you like them?
I ordered Martas a few days ago, can't wait... :D

Yup, have Marta SL's on the hardtail and the regular Marta's on the full suspension. I have been using the Marta SL's for two years now. I don't have any complaints about them. The modulation is great and the stopping power is excellent.

My only suggestion is don't spend the extra money on the SL's unless you just like the look of carbon. I weighed both the SL's and the regular Martas. The SL's only weighed about 10 grams more.

That's great! I ordered the regular Martas, couldn't afford the $80 difference. But I'm much happier now. I thought the difference would be much more than 10 grams. :)

I have pictures at home on my computer somewhere showing the weight differences. I'll try to remember to post them this evening when I get home. Won't get home until a little later though. Hoping to be able to pre-ride this weekends race course tonight. Not sure if the weather will hold off or not though.

That would be great :) And good luck in the race, I hope it will be a great race.

Well just got home and honestly I'm beat. I'll look for the pictures tomorrow. I pre-rode the course this evening. Unfortunately I didn't really enjoy it. I believe I may end up just taking the weekend off. I could use a break anyway. I could possibly end up doing a road criterium instead though.

I'm a mtb newbie but anywayz what's your reason for placing the seats so high??

For cross country riding, you place the seat at a level that allows you to have your leg almost completely extended at the bottom of your stroke, because that gives you the most average power during your cycle. On the other hand, you will see most downhillers will have their seat pretty low so they've room to give on drops without crushing anything really personal.

Sorry Lowcell, I didn't notice you were from WV. I guess it wouldn't be politically correct for me to criticise your bikes' lifestyle choices.

Choob - As mentioned above (by iamlucky13) the bike is set up for cross country racing. They are basicly set up to be as efficient as possible for my riding style. Now believe it or not the seat isn't a mile up in the air, the way the Ellsworth's are designed they have a rather compact frame which puts the back of the top tube down pretty low compared to most bikes. This makes it look like the seat is much higher than it really is.

Here are a couple of pictures of the bikes showing the true height of the seatpost. Compare it to the height of the handlebars to get a better idea of how they are set up. The seats are a little higher than the bars (Enlightenment about 3" above bars, Truth about 2" above the bars). Over time I have been able to set them up a little more aggressive, I believe this is mostly due to spending more time on the road bike and getting used to the more bent over postition. Strengthening up my abs and lower back have really contributed to me being able to lower the handlebars as well.

iamlucky13 - I talked it over with my bikes, they forgive ya. ;) BTW, to make matters worse they are both females. :rolleyes:

Thought I would post a pic of my bikes getting ready for their ride to the race this past weekend. Wasn't sure until after the pre-ride if I would want a hard tail or a fully for that particular course.
:D :D Show off ;) ;) :beer:

BTW, to make matters worse they are both females.

Hence my suggestion they start hanging out with the buff studs in my original post. :rolleyes:

BTW, to make matters worse they are both females. :rolleyes: How does that make it worse?
:p

OK, here are the brake pictures I told you I would post. These are pics of the front brakes. The first is the Magura Marta SL. The second is the standard Marta. With the front brakes there is a difference of 8 grams. Not much for the cost difference.

Here are the pictures of the rear brakes. On these the Marta SL is 6 grams lighter. What you can't really tell though is that on the Marta SL the line had been shortened. If it had not been shortened I believe that the standard Marta may have actually been lighter. The first picture shows the Marta SL, the second shows the standard Marta.

um one quick q, what fork you got on the truth?

Thanks for posting those marta comparison pictures LowCel. Using the same scale shows the real difference. I'll post when my martas come in some time next week (i hope).

erhan - no problem.

zx108 - The fork is a 2005 Marzocchi Marathon SL, unfortunately. Once I have time to send my White Brothers fork back to them to have a new steer tube pressed in I'll be switching back to that fork.