Saturday 27 December 2014

Carver 420 TI Review

Last year when I partnered with Carver, we talked about me doing a review of this bike and how it performed in my events and training. After a year of training and testing it out during the races I've completed, I have great experience on it and can give it a solid review.
I received this bike in November 2013 and went about setting up my fit on the bike, which for me always takes a bit of time as I'm always looking for the optimal fit and keep tweaking it as I'm on it 10-15 hours a week.

I've had this bike set up on my trainer, ridden it in the snow and on the trail and roads.  With a great deal of summer riding and races in the bank, I've tweaked it to a good fit and have a solid opinion of my ride and its features, so let's get started!

Out of the box the bike has clean welds and is very well constructed with certain design features that I really like, including:
  1. Tapered head tube
  2. Cable guides that allow the use of full cable housing
  3. Rear sliders that allow the chain stays to be adjusted  down to 420mm, or shorter depending on the tire.
  4. Good rear tire clearance 2.35
  5. 73mm THREADED BB shell, with ample clearance for any size chain ring
  6. Ovalized down tube
  7. Awesome TI goodness
  8. Solid build and clean welds



One of the nicest build qualities that I find it has is how the top tube is welded to the down tube and the head tube (as one), then both are welded to the head tube. I think this really makes the front end of this bike stiff. The other added feature is that the likelihood of a crack at this intersection is much less than other TI frames on the market, that don't make their connection like this. It's definitely a week point (IMO) and takes away relying on the welds alone.

I initially set the Carver up for the trainer and then on the road; 2 very similar setups and the use of my 48T chainring on my 1X10 system. On the road I could really feel the stiffness of the wide BB shell, I am used to the 68MM of my Lynskey, and I truly hated how soft the bottom end of the bike felt on the Lynskey. My SS type riding style has me spend the majority of the time out of the saddle mashing on my peddles, it was a welcome sensation to feel the bike push ahead on every pedal stroke on the Carver vs the slight lag I felt on my old Lynskey. Obviously the shorter stays of the Carver (420mm) over the (445mm) that I was familiar on the Lynskey played a hand in this as well. Handling was harder to evaluate on the road (or trainer for that matter) I can tell you this, the bike went where I pointed it.

I ordered the bike with the Carver Trail carbon fork, as this came with the 15mm TA.  My idea was to race my next 24 with this bike as a fully rigid setup.  Speaking of which, fast forward to race day 2014 24hrs of OP, Tucson Arizona. The 420 did exactly what I wanted, the carbon fork was super compliant throughout the whole event. It was only in the last few hours of the event did my hands feel sore from running the carbon fork and this was only because of how rough some sections of the course had become due to the shear number of riders in the event.

My next event was the 6 hours of Salty Dog.  I ran my Fox terralogic fork in this event and was happy I did. With 2 days of steady rain prior to the event and then sunny the day of the event, I found the exposed sections of the course in really good condition, but once you got into the trees the wet roots and muddy conditions were pretty sketchy. The Carver performed excellently under these conditions.

I raced next in the 24hrs of Round and Round. I really liked this course, and it was very well suited to my setup. Long climbs with some flow and some tech in between. I got a viral bug during this event so an 8 hour ride at this event was all that I could get done.

Since Spokane I have been able to get some decent long rides in the dirt. This is where I have really been able to evaluate this bike. No pressure while racing but just connecting with this tool while on the trail. Some of the highlights I really appreciate about the Carver has been the ability to ride in some really twisty single track. I can really lean into the corners, and kick myself out of the corner with enough time to setup for the next corner. It is uncanny how quick this endurance rig is.

My idea of an endurance bike is equal amounts of compliancy and stiffness, so as to get the job done and not be too beat up. This machine delivers!  With a few tiny adjustments, you can change this bike into a single track monster that you can throw into berms, or you can change it up for a bit more compliancy for some all day riding.


The next event I raced at was the 24 HOA at Canmore. I love this course and I loved riding this bike on this course. A great result and a fantastic ride left me in great shape after the race. No discomfort at all during the 24 hours of racing.

With my setup, I spend most of my time riding with the chainstay's set at 420mm and run my Carver Carbon fork with a 2.4 ardent up front and a Ikon 2.2 on the back. I really like this setup for training around Calgary and most trails in Bragg and Canmore. It is smooth enough ride that it saves the wear and tear on my suspension forks and makes me better at choosing lines. I find it's a much more compliant rigid bike than my old Giant, with the Niner carbon fork.

In Summary, with 4-24 hour races under my belt this season  and a pile of training hours on this bike, I will definitely be riding and racing it next season as well.  In fact, it's so awesome...that I'll be ordering another 420 TI this winter for some SS action .

A big thanks to Forrest Carver for setting me up with this rig.


http://carverbikes.com/bikes/titanium-420/

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