Eeee I don't know...

hiswitsend

Thinking about a Zesty, the EI version is about £140 more (two different places) Is it worth the extra, or will it be better waiting until it's been out a while longer.

Up in Scotland and going out in all weathers, including the Puffer and also doing some races throughout the year.

Am in two minds whether to go for the simpler, easier to maintain version, or the techy makes things easier option, so thought I'd put it to the collective wisdom on here.

Cheers

cooldad

Not for me.

ej2320

Up to you, some people think it's great some don't.. Not because it doesn't work, cause it works fine but some people don't want all the tech and it will probably go wrong at some point. IMO The Fox CTD kashima is better than the Monarch that EI works with, but that's just me

rockmonkeysc

Anything is better than a Fox CTD

Tom Barton

More to go wrong, more to maintain, costly if fails, pain to clean VS questionably slight improvement in overall performance (i.e. shock switches are not that big a challenge to work - remotes even less so, from personal experience on my usual trails I know what I want my shock to do and rarely need to switch settings if its well set up....)

I hasten to add I've not ridden one - but despite being usually pro tech, I'm not sold by this idea...

poah

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Anything is better than a Fox CTD

that's only because they are made for 175 lb XC riders

poah

Hiswitsend wrote:

Thinking about a Zesty, the EI version is about £140 more (two different places) Is it worth the extra, or will it be better waiting until it's been out a while longer.

Cheers

I like the idea of it - there was a review a couple of months back that compared a standard shock and the EI version - the rider switched pedalling options about 5 times less than the electrics but wither that made any difference to the riding speed I don't know.

probably best to try them out - although I would prefer a monarch RT3 over a fox CTD anyway. £140 isn't too much extra

hiswitsend

Thanks for your input guys, still agonising over the decision :oops:

The EI one is also a local-ish shop, where the non-ei is an ebay vendor - think that is nudging me in the direction of the ei

Hoping to do some xc races and enduros so anything that helps!

97th choice

What kind of warranty does it have?

hiswitsend

Going to check, and also if there are any restrictions to use as will be using it on the Puffer 24 in January

hiswitsend

5 year warranty with Lapierre

hiswitsend

Well, opted for the 314 ei, as shop matched the price of the non-ei !

 

Was out on it for the first time last night and very impressed with the bike. Was concerned that the slacker front would feel odd, but by the time I had climbed up to the first part of single track had completely forgotten about it.

 

As for the rear shock, rather than play about between open, medium and locked on the move, I opted for the middle automatic setting. First impression was that the back was every bit as solid as my hardtail, so climbed really well. Once the climb got a bit rougher there were small buzzing sounds form the motor as it adjusted the rear shock – not sure exactly what level of changes it was making, but the bike was still climbing well.

 

For the small descents encountered on the way up, it was a second or so of not pedalling before the motor kicked in to unlock the shock. This meant that for the small step downs that the shock was still locked out when hitting them, but the landing felt like there was some give, compared to climbing, so it must have done something, but for any further one the shock was even softer, so shock had been moved to fully open.

 

Getting back on the pedalling and it was locked out quick enough, maybe as quick as one second, and it was rock solid again. For heading back down, it was great to know that the shock would be ready for landing and that if any pedalling were needed the back would be locked out and with no hint of pedal bob.

 

Was quite pleased to note that I had set personal bests on all the climbs – maybe not all down to the bike as had also set PBs on a couple of the climbs when out earlier on in the week, but at least it wasn’t slower – although the Zesty is about on a par with the Kraken weight wise.

 

Stopped after a couple of laps, moved the saddle forward, as was starting to get lower back pain and changed the setting to Auto 2, which is a softer option. Not sure whether it was down to me being tired, or the slightly different seating position, but felt that climbing was a bit harder work as there seemed to be a bit of give in the shock – unfortunately the phone threw a wobbly and the strava recording was stopped as it had forgotten login details.

 

No doubt I will be playing about a bit more with the settings, including setting it to medium, which is equivalent to trail, just to see what it’s like, but loving it all so far.