Besides the shiny poison oak, flightless Europeans trapped in Santa Cruz clamoring for bikes to borrow, three new bike launches in as many weeks and over-caffeinated co-workers, the last couple weeks has the annual springtime influx of “bro” requests from all over for a new bike. That’s when I know Spring has come around, the snow is melting up North and in the northeast the mosquitoes are already buzzing after a wet spring. So the last few weeks I’ve been setting up a few of our long time TRP members on the APP bikes. The first is none other than our favorite prick, Jon Rayner. It seems like Rayner wants to get all flowery with his feedback like he’s the RC of Redwood City. But here it goes:

Rayner's XL Nickel, in yeller. Proudly displayed in the City of Redwood City

I hate reading bike reviews. Inevitably you get some variation of the following opinions:
a) It pedaled great
b) It felt like it had more suspension than the claimed xx inches
c) It just might be that ever elusive ‘one’ bike.
d) If only it was lighter, stiffer, less ugly, whatever.
We get this from some dickhead who thinks he’s hot shit whose opinion we really don’t care about. Blame marketing. Actually, fuck marketing – it’s useless.
So I embark on this review of the APP Nickel with eyes wide open. Knowing, as you already do, that reviews are half bullshit, half human shit, and all lame. So let’s dispense with the most common questions:
How does it ride?
Better than you can – that’s how. But hey – better than me too..
But.. that doesn’t help. How does it..you know….feel?
Like the bastard child of a Blur LT and Heckler.
Ah ha! You’re a liar! Those both have more travel.
Exactly.. See above.
Oh.
You’re welcome.
(head explodes).
Look. I’ve spent a lot of time on a lot of the Santa Cruz fleet. This bike….it just feels like home. If it had a couch, I’d curl up on it with a nice cup of tea in a slanket (http://www.theslanket.com/) . Let me give you some examples.
Carving turns: I’ve never felt a more centered pocket of goodness in carving turns than I do on this bike. You press into the turn and you actually know where your rear wheel will be with the aid of that one-eyed pivot.
Jumps: not the ‘I’m about to enter earth’s orbit’ kind, but that little roller, which we all boot off of while we imagine that we’re in that rock video/bike porn we know we were destined for. Does it feels like it has more travel? Of course not – that’s stupid. But it does make you realize that we’ve been missing out on the full potential of 5 inches of travel. If this is what 5” feels like – why do other bikes with more travel feel like less (I’m looking at you Heckler). Again, Damnit.
Rockin the knar knar: See above. More, betterer travel.
Head angle: I have no idea but it’s spot on. Never felt wandery, never twitchy. Granted, we’re talking about the bay area from Santa Cruz to Marin, so unless you’re doing some mega poaching (not me officer), then I’d have a hard time complaining.
Climbing: Think single pivot efficiency with a little boost from suspension trickery.
Geometry: Damn nice, but maybe a bit long. I ended up reining it in from a 90mm stem to a 70mm stem – much nicer.
Still more? Let’s do an A/B comparison.
Nickel vs. the heckler? The Heckler’s a great bike. A simple bike. The Nickel is not the heckler. It’s not simple (can you say 4 pivot single pivot?), but you get an extremely refined suspension platform that makes you realize the full potential of 5 inches.
Nickel vs. the Blur LT? The LT pedals like a champ, and would probably beat the Nickel in a head to head climbing competition by a gnat’s ass. But what goes up, must come down.
Bacon vs. Beer Can: http://baconorbeercan.com/ That’s a tough call. I want both.
Insert awkward segue here: Stiff? For an aluminum bike: yes. Light? See aforementioned answer. Strong? Jury’s out.

Obligatory parting shot of beer and pickle post ride yum yum.

The skeptics and cynics and internet engineers have it all figured out, and I can understand. The APP bikes don’t look much different than many bikes before them, but it does behave differently – shock rate is different. And yeah, we got a patent on something that specific. But journos and frenchmen in particular are pretty cynical as well. So its ok. Until the A-team visits your town with a van full of radness, we understand. Just don’t post yourself into a corner out there. It’s not entirely bullshit. Cedric emailed this in with some Nickel feedback after the Otter madness:

the NICKEL , so happy i could ride the new APP bike ! it was a long time i was looking for a bike who give me the performance similar as a HARDTAIL and the confort of realy good fully suspension on the track ! the perfect conbination for me ! the other thing i coud feel right away as was the stiffness of the bike , surprise how good the bike was reacting on the hard pedal stroke out of the gate and at the exit of the corner .
i took the bike for a litle cross country as well because i like to have a bike who can do more than been excellent on the track , wanted to see the NICKEL on the off road terrain and XC trails as well , the results was amazing , the bike is really good overall and really easy to feel comfortable right away .

If there’s any confusion about specifically is different on the Nickel and the Syndicate/Cedric bikes leave a comment and I’ll put up something that is really specific, with images laid over each other and all that. I know, you want it slacker and lower. I want to make a horizontal fork and a BB that scrapes the fucking ground already…

So anyway, yeah its spring, even though it hasn’t quit raining here in Santa Cruz. Not that winter stops everyone from riding, but its better if its not on your own bike. The latest Dirt Rag is some kind of 29er fest issue, and has a nice review of the Tallboy. You should go buy it on the newstand, so you can’t blow it up here. But basically it says “best bike ever, wheels are big”.

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But check out Maurice in this next photo

is he yelling at a bear thats blocking the trail and about to eject off the bike?

And then there’s crazy craig, who sends in some regular updates on his bike testing, but after 3 forks, 15 rear ders, and four shocks, I get the feeling his bike might be getting a little clapped out. Just in time for spring no doubt. So we’ll be sending some new toys north soon for the royal canadian beatdown.

Craig rides his Driver8 while guiding blind Bobby in Whistler. Photo by Nadija Watson - www.nadijawatson.ca

He sends this in for a long term report on Driver8 usage:

Recap of action, Santa Cruz Driver8 the beat down lowdown. I have been a product beat down technician with Santa Cruz bikes since 2005 I do my own stunts and my best trick is getting up again after the crash. My introduction to the Driver8 was June of 2008 during the annual Santa Cruz engineering dept. pilgrimage to Whistler. The boys brought up a slew of new test pieces and this is how the test began. As every other test has taken place, the [test bike] is the full time machine. Coming fresh off a modified Blur 4x\2nd gen VPP testing it was amazing to move back to a longer travel set up. The first impressions of the Driver8 of course were greater than expected, pedaling like a Blur, tracking like a Blur and feeling like the V10. Living in the west coast in the early years of bikes complicated multi pivot bikes always had bearing issues, so bigger and heavier or mega maintenance was always required. The Driver8 was and is the be all and end all to these problems. Super beefy light lower link incorporating twice the bearings and the ability to wash and service with only a pump of the grease gun. This is the way to be – problems solved. The only lower link issues I had with this system in the beginning were quickly solved with blue loctite. Now you must take into account my story – the fact that is you ride lots, but I may ride more. Averaging 85 plus days in the [Whistler Bike] Park from May to the end of October and the six months in-between riding as much a physically possible. If you’re waiting for the rain to stop I have already been for a ride. In the time I have been on this bike I have consumed 15+ rear derailleurs, two sets of cranks due to pedal-to-ground contact causing a pedal loss, a single crown fork due to stanchion and bushing wear beyond repair and a dual crown fork to stanchion breakage. Three rear shocks have also seen the beginning and end of service on this wonderful machine. The only time I have pulled the bearings apart is to inspect for feedback [to SCB engineering] and every time to my astonishment this frame takes day-in day-out abuse with no more than new grease via the wicked hand pump and a nice wipe of a cleaning cloth. I may not have skill and or be smooth but when it comes to product testing this might be better than being the smooth pro rider of today. The test still continues but from what I have witnessed so far the Santa Cruz Driver8 is a solid do-everything machine.

So before you just figure that he’s exaggerating, check the video of winter testing on A-line. More silliness on the bikerguysctrp channel on youtube.

And that snow will set the scene for our regular blogmaster general to give the update from snowy Fruita. Me, I’m going to Portugal, there’s DHin’ to be done.

We are not a big company, and we don’t do a good job of presenting a glossy facade to the world. Nobody here wears collared shirts, at least not if they don’t want to be made fun of, we don’t have inspirational posters hanging from the walls, there is not a museum in the lobby, there isn’t really even much of a lobby, period.

The front door of SCB corporate. What, you were expecting a glass tower?

Visitors to Santa Cruz Bicycles will be greeted by people moving backward in forklifts, toting cardboard boxes from A to B, and a general air of a factory full of people getting shit done. It can be a bit unsettling for some, especially visiting journalists who are used to being dazzled by polished presentations. Instead of a man in a company branded polo shirt and pressed khakis with a well rehearsed company line on the tip of his silvery tongue, visitors will almost inevitably run right into Danny B:

At least he's wearing socks, albeit really short ones. And while he may not have the company mission statement memorized, he will crush you at music trivia. Doesn't matter who you are, Danny B will crush your musical knowledge. Crush it like a bug. To say nothing of his powerful UPS gong-fu.

Basically, we don’t really have any room or time to spend on getting the place all gussied up. Bikes designed, prototypes made, bikes in, bikes painted and prepped, bikes built, bikes back out. Somewhere in the midst of all this we take pictures of the bikes and make some ads and throw together a catalog, and have endless arguments about graphics and the merits of simplicity versus bold new decals every year. So, from the marketing perspective, it’s really kind of flattering to hear us get mentioned as something bigger and more deeply sophisticated than we really are.

For instance, we just launched three new bikes. This one, and this one, and this other one. The launch included sending out some mass emails, dripping info onto the eyeballs of a few forum groups, and getting some journalists drunk after taking them riding. We also produced our first ever video project to try and explain what was going on with the new APP suspension design, the backstory of which can be viewed here, and here. The final video, which is the most polished thing we could ever hope to do on a non-existent budget, was a showcase for the bikes, and it looks like this:

We are pretty stoked on it, and feel that it not only shows off the bikes, but does a decent job of showcasing our own sometimes janky and less than totally polished way of getting shit done. Right around the time we were wrapping up this project, we were contacted by a video producer who is used to working with pockets much deeper than ours. To showcase his talents, he offered up an example of his most recent work for another client:

Let this be an example of how we don’t roll. It’s a nice video and all, but I can’t think of a better example to show the difference between “us” and “them” than this. They are huge, we are not. They have big budgets, we have holes in our tiny pockets. They have deeper voices than us, and use way more expensive cameras. To say nothing of sound effects. We are rough around the edges, and we like it that way.

But sound effects would be pretty cool…

Anyway, all that said, the rumors of our nefarious viral marketing savvy are beginning to get a bit out of hand. Following some heavy-handed speculation that we might be venturing into alt-material for downhill frames, fueled by a certain gregarious Frenchman, the spin machine went wonky. As a badly photoshopped pic of an existing v-10 wrapped in faux carbon weave made the rounds, the serpent eventually ate its tail, or accused us of eating it.

You just can’t buy publicity like this, I tell ya! We’re happy to be hacks, and it is a helluva lot of fun leaning on this virtual pinball machine until it tilts, but there is no way in hell that we have it together enough to produce ultra-slick videos with rad-tarded animation, nor are we anywhere near smart enough to engage in a full-on anti-marketeering, marketeering campaign featuring carbon weave and all the subtle insinuation that we’re playing puppetmaster. Too busy, got shit to do.

That said, next transmission from this slice of the blogosphere will come from Fruita, Colorado. There will be no downhill bikes involved. And it might be snowing…