not that weird.
I want opinions on the Honzo vs Timberjack as aluminum hardtails. My work is a dealer for both and I think I’m gonna buy my 1st MTB this year.
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Just grow like 4 sizes and I’ll sell you my XL Fuse when my custom is done
Honzo is probably a bigger departure from what you’re used to, slacked out and rowdy. It’d take some time to adjust to that, but it’s worth it if you want a MTB that goes hard. If you’ve got your eye on bike packing, Timberjack might be a better pick.
timberjack also has threaded bb instead of the pf of honzo so thats nice. i enjoyed my timberjack and that was even with the old geo, would be happy to own one again.
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Hate bikepacking. Indifferent to PF. I’ve had the same bb30 on my squid for 8k miles
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I recall @rancid_burple having some good take on this, like the industry figured out how to size and angle bb shells properly for pressfit, but
when presented with the options of “thing that only creaks when it’s broken” or “thing that may just creak whenever it feels like it”, I know which way I’d go.
Honzos aren’t that rowdy anymore unless you go with the ESD. The Timberjack and the Honzo are pretty much the exact same bike:
I had the Big Honzo that now @lantius owns and never had a creak from the BB. It’s an aluminum BB so easy to bore accurately, and it’s PF92 so the bearing angle is improved over the narrower BB30, which puts less transverse loads across the BB. Kona put the wider shell to good use for tire clearance.
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Someone post the Our Lady Of UN54
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I don’t think either of those geos are accurate anymore.
@emory I would go Honzo, by my comp you get a little slacker headtube angle and a little steeper STA, a bit more “modern” than the timberjack. (this might be 130mm fork on TJ vs 140 on the 'zo though) I don’t know if you’ve seen both bikes in person but I think the fit and the finish is a little nicer than on my Kona than the Timberjacks that I’ve seen, but I haven’t looked at a Timberjack closely in years.
I like my Honzo ST. One bonus of the Honzo is the dropouts let you do SS or gears without changing any parts. The Salsa uses replaceable drop-out plates. Looking at the ~$2700 builds the Salsa probably has the edge by a bit.
Either one is a great choice, I’d probably wind up going with whoever gave me the better pro-deal
I’ve owned both! Honzo bb was pretty damn low, so tech climbing was a pain for a clod like me. Bike ripped on descents. Biggest con, I broke the frame at 150 miles on the odometer.
Timberjack is a better balanced bike. Doesn’t excel at anything but just feels solid and planted. I like that it has a ton of mounts for water bottles as a thirsty person. I’m running mine with a 140 travel fork now, and I prefer it to the 120 I used to run.
The point is that the Timberjack is our aggressive trail hardtail. If you want the XC/bikepacking/old-school geometry, that model is the Rangefinder.
My shop is a Kona and salsa dealer.
I know myself and I would rather lean XC than trail. I don’t drive to ride I just do in town trails.
You could go with a Kahuna which is a little more XC
I really want to try the Hei Hei
A lot of early PF problems in general were caused by assembly problems and tolerance issues. Not only tolerance of the shell but tolerance on the crank axles. The narrow bearing placement of OG BB30 didn’t help anything either.
When I was doing customer service and warranty for a company with all PF bikes I don’t think I ever had a single complaint from a customer or shop where a shimano crank was on the bike. It was always 30mm axle cranks with a metal on metal axle/bearing fit. A shell so far out of tolerance that it was the actual source of the issue was incredibly rare, at least in 2016-2019.
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ahh, interesting! I’d misrecalled it
And note that as soon as the Hollowtech patent expired SRAM dialed the 30mm axles down to 29mm DUB so they could add in Shimano’s little nylon top hat to isolate the bearing the from the axle.
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Yeah if you’re going metal on metal it needs to be a really good fit. If you take apart a cartridge square taper or ISIS BB the inner race is a light press fit on the axle.
28.99 FTFY
We ordered a Kona Coco for sup as a baby hauler. Will get the 12s GX kit I have, some wheels I have and Shimano deore brakes.
Should be fun.
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