Santa Cruz Bronson Carbon - Custom

paul.skibum

So here it is, Rockshox equipped and pretty much as I will leave it for a good while now (sure, sure).

Full spec:
Frame: Medium Bronson Carbon 2013
Rear Shock: RS Monarch Plus LL Tune
Fork: RS Pike RC 160mm
Wheels: WTB i23 with HR2 tubeless
Brakes: Shimano Deore
Shifter: Shimano XT
Rear Mech: Shimano XT
Rear Cassette: Shimano XT with One Up 42t and 16t
Cranks: Shimano Deore with Blackspire 30t
Seatpost: KS Lev Integra
Saddle: WTB Race
Stem: Truvativ AKA 40mm
Bars: Raceface Respond 740mm
Grips: Chromag lockon
Pedals: Wellgo something or rather

BloggingFit

Love the colour of the Bronson - my favourite SC colour. Bet you can't wait for your thumb to be ready and try out the Pike.

paul.skibum

BloggingFit wrote:

Love the colour of the Bronson - my favourite SC colour. Bet you can't wait for your thumb to be ready and try out the Pike.

Thumb is getting way better, out on the road bike but winter is fast approaching here which will either render the trails unrideable or give me other things to play with (skis and such) so not sure I am going to get a lot of riding in but at least it gives the thumb time to be solid and strong again for April when the trails break the grip of winter.

Not sure why that last photo is upside down! It is the right way up on Photobucket! Fixed!

paul.skibum

Finally got a ride in on the newly Rockshox equipped Bronson - just some easier trails to test my thumb out as much as anything, still wearing a thumb support but seems all good.

New fork and shock are chalk and cheese to the Fox sh*t that was on there, I didn't think the rear was too bad but the monarch is just a revelation in terms of smooth supple movement. I think I need to up the pressure a little in the rear but the fork feels great, 160mm lifts the front a little but overall the fork supports me better whilst still feeling like it has better movement and control. Will up the difficulty level of the trails in next couple of days and see what that feels like.

alex_luhrs

Lovely colour, heal up well!

paul.skibum

Loving the bike again and more so than before in its newly equipped form.

Climbs and rides so much better than before, being able to run the pike with just a shade of low speed compression rather than the old Fox in Trail mode means the fork works on small bumps so rocks and roots that previously gave a square edges hit and stalled the bike now the fork moves and the bigger wheels are able to offer up their roll over abilities. The rear seems to offer up more grip under standing pedaling too.

The RS suspension and 1x10 make this a dream bike for me and the best thing I have ever ridden - I may jump the brakes up to XT sometime over winter but other than that I cant see any changes being needed before another summer riding.

I am planning to chuck in entries for the Trans Savoie and Trans Provence races next year and see if I get an in to one of them. I think I have the perfect tool for the races and look forward to getting training for them.

paul.skibum

Current weight 13.5kg / 29.7 lbs - not bad I think for a 160/150mm bike.

paul.skibum

Minor update - HR2 on the rear is shot - worn and just picked up a cut that couldnt reseal so its out. I am swapping the front HR2 to the rear as it is still relatively decent and rolls well and trying a Bonty XR3 2.35 on the front. Bought and to be fitted tomorrow.

Done a fair bit of miles now on the new suspension and it is brilliant, so much more compliant, makes technical climbs a breeze (or within the limits of my legs at least) and is so much more supportive yet supple on the downhills. I have set a few PR's on mainly DH oriented tracks, anything with a little up in it my mid summer times are holding up, mainly due to a few degrees of fitness still missing in my legs.

Winter season on the mountain starts this weekend and I have been busy tuning skis and making sure my boots still fit well so I see riding time dropping but will be trying to get out still while the valley remains snow free.

Planned purchases for the winter months - new helmet, probably a Met Parabellum, possibly some slightly wider bars 760 maybe and some XT brakes.

whitey161

Awesome looking bike.
Not seen that colour scheme before.

Whats the main difference between a bronson and nomad?

Lewis A

The most obvious one is 15mm of travel, and the Nomad is longer and slacker.

whitey161

Ah ok so the bronson falls in between the solo and nomad then. Cheers

paul.skibum

Yep - Bronson is square in between the Solo and the Nomad. Nomad is 1x speed only, no fitting a front mech on it which having gone 1x10 on this I would love to lose the cable routing for the front mech.

For me the Nomad would be a bit overkill I think - don't ride hard enough or big enough stuff and anything I baulk at on a ride is down to my mind not my bike/skills - the fear of pain kicks in and stops me before I worry I dont have the bike for it. Having ridden the Bronson now with some decent suspension I am half thinking I could have gone for the Solo and not been disappointed with the ride if it was similarly kitted out.

The Tennis Ball Yellow was the in colour for the Bronson in the 2013 edition, although I quite like the black version too - just went yellow after years of white and black bikes!

whitey161

Colour is awesome

paul.skibum

No changes to my beauty since last autumn but I have a new rear tyre on the way - a WTB Trail Boss in 2.4 which I am hoping will give me a little more traction vs the worn HR2 currently on the back.

Shopping list of upgrades/changes to come this summer - new grips, carbon 760mm bars (little wider, little less trail buzz), ovalised chainring and if I wander into some decent cash then a set of those tasty new black XT brakes!



Looking at that picture maybe I should replace the cranks to keep her looking tidy!

paul.skibum

So I split the side wall of my HR2 yesterday which was timely as I had picked up a WTB Trail Boss to replace it late last week and not got around to mounting it. On peeling off the old tyre and tidying up the rim I notice it has a small dent in the rim, probably caused by the drop I took after the tyre had started going down.

Dont think it will impact on tubeless setup for the tyre - its sitting in the kitchen seeing if it has sealed first time right now.

Got some new grips on order - ODI Vans and I picked up a set of WTB i25 rims on deore hubs super cheap which will be my bike park wheels when I start instructing - got a set of discs and tyres and a cassette on order. Will have to see if swapping from one wheelset to the other is as easy as I hope and not too much tinkering with the mech and so on is needed.

MrBikerPanda

Great bike..

paul.skibum

MrBikerPanda wrote:

Great bike..

Thanks. I like it!

Rear tyre sealed on second time of asking. Not sure I am all that enamoured with the Trail Boss though, grip is not all that from what I can tell so far although its been wet roots and rock that are causing issues and they will always do that, just not sure the HR2 suffered as much when new. Vigilante on the front is great, should have got another.

paul.skibum

New XT rear mech and an absolute black ovalised 32t ring on their way to me for the Bronson.

Waiting on a pay cheque for some carbon bars - looking at race face SIXC 35mm bars but need a new stem too and CRC are currently lacking 40mm long 35mm clamping stems of any brand as best I can see. So may go with the 31.8 clamp version. Question is whether to go with the black with blue logos or white logos for the bike? Neither is great with existing black and yellow but erring toward the blue.

Anyone used the 35mm bars in anger? Do they make a noticeable difference?

BloggingFit

I have the SIXC in 35mm and NEXT in 31.5mm and while both are excellent I always feel more comfort form the SIXC bar. The blue is pretty dark in the flesh while the white is more a light grey and matches in with the light grey flashes on the Pike decals pretty well.

lawman

I've recently put some Easton Haven 35 bars and matching stem on my Foxy and I really rate them. The bars are pretty good, don't feel that much different to my old 31.8 carbon Havocs. The stem is a mighty fine piece of machining, looks the bomb and seems pretty stout, though at just 32mm long you'd hope it would plenty stiff enough!

paul.skibum

Gave the old girl some tlc today in between two rides - new BB fitted (not a glam part but essential) and pulled apart the pedals and regreased them which got ridden of some annoying creaks and clicks I had been having for *cough* a while *cough*

Rear mech and oval ring should be here soon.

Pay cheque soon, bars to follow.....

Thewaylander

I'm tempted by a carbon bar on my Dune.. just not sure where to go. not going to swap stem though so would definitely be 31.8

paul.skibum

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19623490#p19623490]Thewaylander[/url] wrote:

I'm tempted by a carbon bar on my Dune.. just not sure where to go. not going to swap stem though so would definitely be 31.8

The new stem does increase the cost of the upgrade a little and if you are running proper forward geo on the Dune, are 35mm clamp stems even an option?

lawman

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19623984#p19623984]paul.skibum[/url] wrote:

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19623490#p19623490]Thewaylander[/url] wrote:

I'm tempted by a carbon bar on my Dune.. just not sure where to go. not going to swap stem though so would definitely be 31.8

The new stem does increase the cost of the upgrade a little and if you are running proper forward geo on the Dune, are 35mm clamp stems even an option?

Easton are now doing a Haven 35mm clamp stem in a super short 32mm length, I've just put one on my Foxy. It's only 2mm longer than the stock Mondraker forward geometry 30mm stem, can't say as I've noticed a massive difference, I mainly changed it to go with the 35mm Haven bar I got as I wanted to go back to a bar shape I prefer as the stock Mondraker bar was a right goofy profile. Feels much better now though and the bar and stem are, as usual with Easton, very high quality and nicely finished.

paul.skibum

Thanks for the advice fellas - I have a Haven Carbon 35mm bar and a 40mm stem to match in my wishlist waiting for pay day! Decided on the Haven over the RF for no obvious reason - anyone know how yellow/green the Haven colours come out vs say a Tennis Yellow Bronson!

On another note, I serviced my Pike the other day, new foam rings, dab of fork butter (or whatever you want to call it) on the old seals (wasn't up for three days trying to force new seals into place without the proper tool!) and fresh oil in the legs. Given that the old oil came out a black colour and there appeared to be about a fifth of what there should have been and the upper seals were drier than an old ladies whatsit I was hoping for good things.

And I got them - forks are superb, butter smooth and beautiful to ride on technical terrain. Going to have to pull apart the Monarch next and work some magic on that too!

paul.skibum

Couple of bits finally arrived after some issues with DHL and delivering in Canada - suffice to say however poor Canada Post might be, DHL manage to be worse.

Anyway - new XT rear mech - finally fed up with the broken clutch on the SLX currently on their and a mass of chain slap (more than I used to get with an XT with the clutch turned off). So I ordered this to put a little shine on my bike.



And - an absoluteBlack oval NW chain ring - 32t. We shall see how I cope with this - currently running a standard NW 30t, hoping the promised benefits of the oval make up for my limitations and the extra 2 teeth!



Will be fitting them shortly and test riding tomorrow on way to work.

paul.skibum

Hmmmm. Installed new chainring and then put the mech on.

Its a medium cage XT replacing a medium cage SLX. The arm that the cable clamps to seemed very close to the cassette on first installing and fiddling with the B screw and installing the chain and first trying some shifts it became clear the 42t ring was clipping the arm intermittently and the chain hit it as I shifted up through the cassette.

I fiddled with the B screw a little more but that did nothing to improve the position of the cable arm as I knew it wouldnt. In the absence of any other option, I have put the SLX back on and that works fine and shows loads more clearance due to a difference shape to the two arms.

Here's a photo of the two next to each other, they don't look that different but the shape of the silver arm on the XT is slightly different and it is slightly thicker.



Have just noticed that I ordered the non clutch equipped one. Twat.

paul.skibum

Recent change - New pedals. Shimano Saint flats - I whipped the washers from under each pin and threw them on the other day. They're awesome - so much grip.

I suspect one day they may make an awful mess of one of my shins!

paul.skibum

No major updates since last changes - I inadvertently bought an XT rear a while back with no clutch and decided the other day to chuck it on my hardtail (which doesnt see huge off road action currently) and put the SLX from it on the Bronson - must say its noticeably quieter now. I serviced the rear air shock the other day as well and put a couple of space reducing bands in. Going to have to play around a bit to see where the benefit comes from them.

In prep for winter months I also got a couple of Trustfire torches - one for the helmet and one for the bars, still waiting on the bar mount but rigged the helmet using some wire and old inner tube.

Quick pick of the bike on the Flank trail just about to roll into Legalize It

paul.skibum

I have been off here for a while but still been riding my bike (albeit a broken scapphoid stopped play for a bit this summer).

Changes to my bike since last posted:

XT8000 brake set went on in July - feel is great, power and modulation vs the deores is great. Really enjoying the change.

Easton Havoc Carbon bars - 750mm - picked these up cheapish off an acquaintance to try and get a bit of harshness out of the bars and reduce a numb/tingling in fingers. Has helped a bit but I now think I want to go wider and lower rise so on the look out for a lower rise set of sixc bars.

Maxxis DHR2 on the rear - like it - big improvement from either the Trail Boss or High Roller I have had before. Vigilante on front still which is a great tyre.

I put on a new drivetrain - just replacing worn parts - running a 32t one up oval with a one up 42t expander on an XT cassette, XT mech (new after the old one fell off clipping a tree stump) and shifter.

KS Lev is still going strong - flawless with no service as yet. Still would like to fit a longer drop but still need to get either longer legs, shorter cranks or a frame with a lower top tube to do that - am tempted to try shorter cranks but seems a pointless expense to experimentation ratio!

Pike and Monarch are still good - running the pike with less sag and a little more compression - planning to chuck in another token and drop a little pressure to see what difference that makes and planning to put in more bands in the Monarch as it is currently a bit deep in its sag but plush and supportive through the travel it has available. Just want to see if I can reduce the sag and increase the available travel without impacting the plushness and support in the stroke. Trial and error - mainly error.