Whats that....another Nukeproof Mega TR ???

Ryan Jones

Hi, so yet again another thread pops up for a Mega TR.
Mine is a 2014 TR comp, which I bought in favour of the Pro version partially because of the colour scheme (not great advice here, but hey ho). The other reason being was that the Avid brakeset and sram transmission which were on the pro version did not hold appeal to me so only the dropper post stood out as an upgrade for me....not worth the £400 premium (and losing the colour scheme!). This was going to be sorted anyway.....

I went to the leisurelakes demo day at Cannock Chase earlier this year and tried out the Lapierre Spicy 327, Whyte G150, Trek Slash, Orange Alpine and Cube Fritzz. Whilst all these bikes were contenders, none of them seemed very playful except the Orange. Forward to a end of July and after a thoroughly enjoyable first time at BPW and the current RZ120 has lost favour with thoughts of them demo bike's creeping in. Scouring the web, these Mega TR's sound the part. Not too much travel for the majority of my rides over Cannock Chase, more laid back than my current bike and tough enough for anything I'm likely to ride. Shortish like that Cube Fritzz was, but progressive suspension and a "poppy" feel sounds like the perfect receipe for fun on every ride.

As it landed, great what you can get for £1900 considering my RZ120 cost £1800 4 years ago !


Winning!

Ryan Jones

Instant thread update (should have started the thread earlier).

Took it for a ride over Cannock Chase, and a bit of food for thought. This bike is very playful, shorter than my cannondale but noticeably more stable downhill and oddly enough better on the uphill singletrack. The overall feel is of a bike that is lively and rock solid, but needs work on anything where gravity isn't onside. The sram x5 shifters felt pretty slick compared to the 9 speed ones on my commuter, however the X7 type 2 mech was a huge letdown. Loose feeling on it's mounting pin out the box, long cage on a 2x10 transmission but worst of all the clutch mechanism has nowhere near the retention of the Shimano xt fitted to the cannondale.
Having got used to the 1x10 transmission before, the 2x10 felt like a step backwards. This bike is far heavier than my cannondale was, with a lot more weight in the larger wheels, draggy tyres and boy did it show uphill. The issue came when trying to stay in the outer ring and running out of gears, resulting in a flurry of guessing gearchanges and losing momentum in the process. I did miss the 1x10.....





On went the XT rear mech with the one-up RAD cage, a 40t hope t-rex expander ring, 34t Superstar Narrowwide chainring and the XT 10 speed shifter all from the cannondale and only a few rides old themselves. Also salvaged from my old bike was the dropper seatpost, which will come in handy for the more serious trails. The other change from the OE spec is the brakes, which are now Deore M615's on the avid disks. Cut the hoses down and rode them over the Chase and revelled in far sharper braking than my old elixirs delivered. A bit of a letdown here was the bleeding process, basically when you remove the lever bleed screw and fit the syringe (epicbleedsolutions kit) you've lost pressure on one side of the seal which resulted in oil pouring out the lever. Solution was to tie wrap the lever body firmly to hold the seal, worked a treat and the brakes are now sharp as a sharp thing.

Long term upgrades may stretch to a lighter but tough wheelset to liven up the ride, with a slightly faster rolling rear tyre being the shorter term plan. Happy days

ilovedirt

Welcome to the club! Nice bike
I know what you mean about those SRAM mechs, not as crisp shifting, and the clutch just isn't strong enough, mine is still really noisy.

dusk

my X0 type 2 mech feels as though the clutch is a lot weaker than my slx s+, however I haven't lost a chain on either so must be strong enough on the sram!

Myster101

Got to agree with the clutch statements, I'm running an E13 chain device on my Mega AM as I couldn't get away with the noise with the Type 2 X7 mech.

Ryan Jones

Bit of an update, since my last post the bike has been my staple and has become without doubt my favourite bike yet !
It's been on a few sportive rides (Evans Cannock and Madorc), and whilst it is never going to win any races I still got around them. It's a belter of a bike downhill, seems to strike a good balance of feeling sturdy without being too much bike. I have also set a few PB's on downhill sections of my local, the monkey trail at Cannock, but even more surprisingly I have set PB's on the climbs.
Now I'm no strava elitist, if somebody slows me down I can remember this when looking back and shrug it off, I like it as it gives you the inclination to push that bit harder and get fitter. This leads on to what has been the biggest upgrade, spinning. Since the last post me and my riding mate have been busy hitting spin classes, and whilst he's even more pronounced than me as he trains a lot more, my own pace has improved dramatically.
I'd highly recommend hitting the local gym and giving it a go !

What the spinning has shown me however has lead to my first upgrade since, the 34T chainring has been ditched in favour of a Hope 30T. I'm pushing a much harder gearing than in class, and as my gentleman vegetables found out at the Marin, standing pedalling is not too clever on rooty, wet, steep climbs.

rockmonkeysc

Nice bike but that 30t ring must be quite limiting on downhills. I found 34t a nice compromise. Have you got a cassette expander?

paul.skibum

You gotta get up to get down though right?

I run 32T (because they were out of 30T when I bought it!) and think that's a good compromise for me but my downhills tend to be of the technical rather than flat out nature. Want to get an oval 34t in spring.

To the OP - nice bike and sensible upgrades, definitely the weak points on the TR when I was looking at them. I think the 34T you were running is OK but you have to work to do more than just hauling the gears standing like you would on a spin bike, that is a recipe for spinning out on a root - read the trail and shift the weight as you go and you can work the bike over trickier obstacles.

rockmonkeysc

I find a taller gear easier for climbing (up to a point) just blast up quick rather than spinning away. Even in the Lake District the 34t wasn't a problem but on descents I found 32t wasn't enough when I first went single ring.

Ryan Jones

Thanks guys, The quick blast climbs over Cannock were okay on the 34t, but the Marin quite literally went on for miles and at similar gradients so killed. I dread taking this to Nant Yr Arian. I'm not particularly keen on the 30t setup in use so I'm going to revert back to my 34t chainring. Just feels like I've lost a few gears going downhill with less noticeable gains on the climbs.

Looking at the gear calculators it's pretty obvious why, at a 70rpm candence I'm losing 2mph in the 11t cog (15.7 vs 17.8mph). 70rpm is about as fast as I'd want to be standing pedalling on a downhill section and it's over 10% drop in every gear. I'm running a 40t expander at present, so to be honest I need to continue the spin classes and MTFU

The bike is going to remain as it is until it breaks otherwise, it's a brilliant bit of kit and won't be holding me back for sure.

The Rookie

The daughter went back to a double at the front just for Nant.

With a 40t expander though you really should be able to use a 34 up front though.

I'm older and probably less fit than you but I cope fine at Cannock on a 32 front with an 11-34 (9 speed) rear.

Ryan Jones

Well the 34t is back on, where it shall be staying as it rides much better for it. Indeed over Cannock there isn't much call for that expander, however as my only MTB it needs to be a compromise for everything.

It has had a bit of a treat, with a set of Superstar Tesla TL28 wheels converted to tubeless now fitted. A ride around the chase on Sunday and I'm stoked, never tried tubeless beforehand and it feels brilliant. It's like riding with a lower PSI, only without the drag or vague feel this can cause. The advantages of losing what must be over a pound of weight out the wheels has played a part too

Doing the Little Devil event over Nant Yr Arian this Sunday, time to find out how versatile this bike is ! (Pic's shall follow !)

rockmonkeysc

Thats an odd choice of replacement wheels. I would rather have the standard Nukeproof wheels, much better hubs and not much in it for the rims.

Ryan Jones

These wheels are noticeably lighter than the Nukeproof wheels, and the bike certainly feels perkier to ride although whether that's more to do with going tubeless is debatable. I'll have to see how the hubs fare long-term, but so far so good !

The main thing for me is that it's easily my favourite bike yet, and aside from the slightly unreliable dropper post it leaves me wanting for nothing.

Ryan Jones

Quite a few alterations since the last post, with a new set of forks and dropper post finding their way onto it.
The Specialized Command may seem like a less-than obvious choice, however I wanted a bit of extra length in the bike and this is probably the most reliable offering with layback. The lever is very ergonomic and it just works exactly as it should, so it's seeing a lot more use than it's predecessor.
The X-Fusion Sweep's were fitted and, once again, may seem like an odd choice to replace Revelations, however they have impressed. They're noticeably stiffer, but most obviously they have good damping so I run them pretty soft but they don't blow through their travel like the Rev's seemed to. Really impressed by them !

The wheels are still doing the business, so can't knock them as an upgrade from the originals. I still can't get over how impressed I continue to be with this bike, and the latest upgrades just put the icing on the cake .

ilovedirt

You know what, having been a long-standing fan of rockshox, I agree with the revelations, mine were very plush, but really blew through their travel. They're broken at the moment, so I've stuck on some fox 32s that a friend lent me, and though they're 140mm rather than 150mm, they sit much higher in their travel as they're much more progressive, meaning the bike feels much more balanced and doesn't get so nose heavy on the descents. I wanted to hate them, but I really couldn't.