Have been lucky enough to own many bikes over the years, but one will always hold a special place in my heart, my Gen 1 Tennis Ball Yellow Santa Cruz Bronson. Coming from an XC race background, I had never owned a longer travel trail/enduro bike. I had some great bike handling skills from riding around on XC bikes for years, but never owned a bike that could meet my need for speed.
The Gen 1 Bronson immediately unlocked my descending potential. The extra travel and relaxed geo (vs. an XC bike) gave me confidence to ride gnarlier, more technical terrain at higher speeds. By todays standards the Gen 1 Bronson is short, steep, and awkward, but at the time it made me feel like a damn WC racer.
What bike leveled up your riding?
P.S. Honorable mention to the Gen 1 Transition Patrol, I rode the gnarliest terrain I will ever ride in my life on that thing. While the Bronson leveled me up I had the most fun on the Patrol.
P.S.S. Just throwing in photos all the bikes I have owned since, and the one I ride now (Gen 6 Fuel Ex), for shits and giggles.
by rubberducky237
6 Comments
For me it was a canyon strive. I came from short playful trail bike to longer lower on the strive and the confidence it gave me on the downhill was night and day different. I could never “trust my equipment” till riding the strive.
I actually love this post, because I resonate with it.
I went from..
– Roscoe 7
– Stumpy Alloy Comp
– Santa Cruz Bronson R
– Canyon Neuron 6
– Santa Cruz Tall Boy CC
And now I am riding a, built from the frame up, Fuel EX Gen 5. Spec’d a tad higher than their 9.8 build equivalent. With everything I love in respects to component choices.
For me… I just vibe on the Fuel EX. I feel like I WANT to ride more, feel more confident, and excited every time I hop on. Some of that comes from me picking each component, XT DI2 is a favorite, but it also comes down to the bike itself. I guess I cannot really put it in words lol.
I’ve ridden Carbon, alloy, low-mid-high tier. I think I finally found a linkage that works for me, geo that I enjoy, and parts I’ve grown to love because they do what I like.
Great post! Taking me down memory lane over the last 8-9 years lol.
Ibis Ripmo v2, bike just felt natural. It pedaled so well that I was willing to ride longer, and descended so well that I would ride gnarlier lines. Still kinda miss it but I’ve moved to other bikes that are equally good or better.
My Rocky Mountain growler was my first long, low, slack bike. Absolute step change in terms of how confident I felt riding it, even though it was a hardtail.
2009 Specialized Enduro
hon. mention 2005ish Fuel ex9
First game-changer was the SC Heckler I got in 2003.
Before that I had 90s HTs and a 2000 Superlight. Heckler was one of the very first “All Mountain” bikes (before that everything was XC or DH/FR).
After that a series of 5 FS bikes that were incremental improvements.
Second game changer was my first (and current) modern geo bike: Canfield Tilt.