Leatt Gear
YT Tues
I purchased a 2017 Commencal Meta AM V4.2 in the spring of 2017. I have put over 1000 miles on the bike and have been loving it! It is everything I wanted and nothing I didn't.
"How does it climb?" This is a question I often get and for me its really hard one to answer. First answer is, Like a Bike. Don't they all kinda climb pretty similar? I mean if I were into clearing every climb on some trail I would probably have a better answer, but I'm not. I happily hop off my bike and walk it when I don't make it up something. With the exception of those instances where the climb is a technical challenge, then I may give a good try or two and in those cases it seems great. I only use the lockout on fire road types of climbs and again it climbs. I think an Eagle 50 ring would make more of difference to me than a shorter fork, a few degrees more in the HT angle or even a few less pounds.
Trail Use: The AM is an ALL Mountain rig. I ride a fair bit at Daniels rd in Saratoga which is chunky and has zero flow and is mostly short punchy climb after short punchy climb and the occasional quick down. A long travel bike is not ideal for Daniels, but the Meta eats it up and can manage slow grinding and churning without issue. When you get to one of the steep rock rollers or sketchy drops your happy to have that travel. I might be able to shave a few seconds off my time on the Bee trail with a shorter travel, lighter bike and I might, might just have a tiny bit more pop over some of the little things but really none of that matters much to me. I could not care any less about times and as for playfulness, the Meta is playful on the little things and incredible on the big things (more on this below). I have never minded riding it at more intermediate trails like Gurney Lane or Luther. It maneuvers for me great on Twist N Turns at Luther and blast down Race Course at Gurney like I was at Killington :) The bike is agile enough to easily clear every rock obstacle on Rock Buster and gives me the confidence to huck all those things I looked at and thought better of, until now that is.
Downhill Use: The AM has spent almost half of it's life at bike parks. So yeah the bike is well suited to high speed runs down SideShowBob and it can certainly handle the jump lines (better than I can) but what surprised me the most was the more I pushed it on GoatSkull, The Beast and Steel Panther the more I realized just how capable it is. I have yet to have the balls to push the bike beyond what it can do on the these trails and I'm quite confident I will find my limitations long before I find the bikes. It is just so stable and so smooth as it blast through chunk, hucks off drops, and makes up for my lack of jump skills, its astonishing how much of a better ride I am because of the bike.
Buying:
Buying Direct is a bit of a different process. We are all used to buying from Amazon now and I looked at buying Direct much the same way. I did enough research to know that a size large was the right size for me. Beyond that I had no hesitation in buying Direct. I was not worried about "how the bike felt" because to be honest any bike with similar geometry is going to feel pretty much the same. For me I was purchasing the best bike I could for the best price I could find, I didn't care who made it. I built my spreadsheet of what I wanted and prioritized everything from geometry specs, components, warranty and cost. At that point it was pretty simple to narrow the field down to a few choices. I researched the support stories that I could find and for Commencal they were very positive which made the choice even easier.
Support:
Support is important to me and the thought of not being able to swing into my LSB for support needs was a factor on my choice. F, having worked in the industry and having been a mechanic at a bike shop for several years I was not concerned about anything other than major failures that would be warranty issues. Having read the positive feedback that Commencal was getting I had no concern. To add my own glowing comments on their support, I noticed a crack in my stem plate while cleaning after a day at Killington. I snapped a pic and emailed it to Commencal on a Saturday evening. The crack was more than likely my fault due to me over tightening. To my surprise I received a reply to my request simply asking for a shipping address. No questions asked! A week later the stem arrived.
General Spec's
Link here (2018 Model) -https://tech.commencal.com/bike/META-TRAIL-V4.2-ESSENTIAL-650B-BLACK-2017/151.html
So having spent the summer downhilling with these I have been happy. I did make the mistake of taking them on a trail ride. While they are comfortable enough for 12 hours at the bike park they were not so for a few hours pedaling. By the end of my 3 hour ride each knee cap had a spot on the top where it had been rubbed raw from the inside of the pad.
So recommendation, if you want a downhill pad skip this and go to the Hellion and get more suitable protection, as for trail riding, just skip them. That said there are lots of people out there pedaling in them and loving them so if you have the chance to try them on do so and look for a spot at the top of your knee cap after you do a couple squats.
https://www.dakine.com/en-us/sport/bike/protection/anthem-knee-pads/
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The BrassKnuckle is a SOLID, heavy rack. I was shocked at how heavy it was. The BrassKnucke is very simple to use and loading and unloading the bike is quick. Among its best features are how easy it is to get the bike on the rack and in position and how durable and well built it is. The wider rail makes it very easy to place the tires onto the rack.
Of the two I prefer the BrassKnuckle but only a little. The down side to this is a less secure
locking system and the weight. I am very happy with both and would recommend either. The Frontloader is a little easier to attach to the rack bars, both are very secure and lock to the crossbars with no concern for theft.
UPDATE: After months of use the BrassKnuckles is becoming a clear favorite for the ability to easy load the bike. The wide tray makes it easy to set the bike onto and place in position and then very easily you swing the arm up and slide it into place.
CUSHCORE
Update at bottom
Commencal Meta AM V4.2
Gimbal Review Video
Dakine Anthem Knee Pad
RockyMounts BrassKnuckles & Yakima Frontloader
CushCore - + update
510 Sam Hill Shoes
Rylo 360 Camera
Gimbal Review Video
Dakine Anthem Knee Pad
RockyMounts BrassKnuckles & Yakima Frontloader
CushCore - + update
510 Sam Hill Shoes
Rylo 360 Camera
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Leatt Gear
So first off, Leatt has been a sponsor for a couple years now. I chose Leatt after using there products and being overwhelmingly impressed with the company and what they do. Currently I use their helmets, pants, knee & elbow pad, body armor, neck brace, jerseys, shorts and gloves. I have used several other brands of protection and nothing compares in comfort and protection. I have put this equipment through enough crashes to be confident I am protected as well as I can be. To me being as protected as I can be allows me to push with confidence that I have done what I can to minimize the risk as best I can.
The quality and durability of their products have been spectacular. The DH pants have over 1700 miles on them and dozens of crashes and are still holding up. Leatt pads are some of the most comfortable I have worn and it makes it easy to pull them on for every ride. Uncomfortable pads are easy not to wear making them 100% ineffective as protection. The Airflow knee pads are so comfortable that even on long rides I forget they are there. Elbow pads that stay up and don't fall down seem to be rare but the Leatt pads do just that. Put them on and no matter how chunky the trail gets and how long the ride is the pads are where they started when you're done smashing laps. The All Mtn helmet is the first helmet that I have worn that is comfortable. Period! The DBX 3.0 V20 provides astonishing protection at the price point. Leatt is an innovator, always on the cutting edge and pushing.
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YT Tues
I have been riding the base model YT Tues for a several years. It has held up fantastically despite the nonsense I have put it through. I currently have over 1700 miles on the bike. The only change I have made was swapping over the coil in the Boxxer to an Air spring. This was really mostly just to do it. The bike is solid. I have not found anything to complain about. The only slight annoyance I have found is that the star nut creeps causing the head set to loosen. Replacing the star nut fixed the issue. The bike gets up to speed easily and is very composed. It likes to go fast and clearly has the ability to win races. I spend as much time on the jump trails as I do pounding tech and the bike feels excellent in the air. While it might be a race focused bike it's a perfect all around machine. At the price point there are not many (if any) bikes that compete.
The All Mountain Bike:I purchased a 2017 Commencal Meta AM V4.2 in the spring of 2017. I have put over 1000 miles on the bike and have been loving it! It is everything I wanted and nothing I didn't.
"How does it climb?" This is a question I often get and for me its really hard one to answer. First answer is, Like a Bike. Don't they all kinda climb pretty similar? I mean if I were into clearing every climb on some trail I would probably have a better answer, but I'm not. I happily hop off my bike and walk it when I don't make it up something. With the exception of those instances where the climb is a technical challenge, then I may give a good try or two and in those cases it seems great. I only use the lockout on fire road types of climbs and again it climbs. I think an Eagle 50 ring would make more of difference to me than a shorter fork, a few degrees more in the HT angle or even a few less pounds.
Trail Use: The AM is an ALL Mountain rig. I ride a fair bit at Daniels rd in Saratoga which is chunky and has zero flow and is mostly short punchy climb after short punchy climb and the occasional quick down. A long travel bike is not ideal for Daniels, but the Meta eats it up and can manage slow grinding and churning without issue. When you get to one of the steep rock rollers or sketchy drops your happy to have that travel. I might be able to shave a few seconds off my time on the Bee trail with a shorter travel, lighter bike and I might, might just have a tiny bit more pop over some of the little things but really none of that matters much to me. I could not care any less about times and as for playfulness, the Meta is playful on the little things and incredible on the big things (more on this below). I have never minded riding it at more intermediate trails like Gurney Lane or Luther. It maneuvers for me great on Twist N Turns at Luther and blast down Race Course at Gurney like I was at Killington :) The bike is agile enough to easily clear every rock obstacle on Rock Buster and gives me the confidence to huck all those things I looked at and thought better of, until now that is.
Downhill Use: The AM has spent almost half of it's life at bike parks. So yeah the bike is well suited to high speed runs down SideShowBob and it can certainly handle the jump lines (better than I can) but what surprised me the most was the more I pushed it on GoatSkull, The Beast and Steel Panther the more I realized just how capable it is. I have yet to have the balls to push the bike beyond what it can do on the these trails and I'm quite confident I will find my limitations long before I find the bikes. It is just so stable and so smooth as it blast through chunk, hucks off drops, and makes up for my lack of jump skills, its astonishing how much of a better ride I am because of the bike.
Buying:
Buying Direct is a bit of a different process. We are all used to buying from Amazon now and I looked at buying Direct much the same way. I did enough research to know that a size large was the right size for me. Beyond that I had no hesitation in buying Direct. I was not worried about "how the bike felt" because to be honest any bike with similar geometry is going to feel pretty much the same. For me I was purchasing the best bike I could for the best price I could find, I didn't care who made it. I built my spreadsheet of what I wanted and prioritized everything from geometry specs, components, warranty and cost. At that point it was pretty simple to narrow the field down to a few choices. I researched the support stories that I could find and for Commencal they were very positive which made the choice even easier.
Support:
Support is important to me and the thought of not being able to swing into my LSB for support needs was a factor on my choice. F, having worked in the industry and having been a mechanic at a bike shop for several years I was not concerned about anything other than major failures that would be warranty issues. Having read the positive feedback that Commencal was getting I had no concern. To add my own glowing comments on their support, I noticed a crack in my stem plate while cleaning after a day at Killington. I snapped a pic and emailed it to Commencal on a Saturday evening. The crack was more than likely my fault due to me over tightening. To my surprise I received a reply to my request simply asking for a shipping address. No questions asked! A week later the stem arrived.
General Spec's
| FRAME |
2017 META AM V4.2 650b Travel 160mm
|
| SHOCK |
ROCKSHOX DELUXE RT, 230x60, 2 positions
|
| FORK |
ROCKSHOX LYRIK RC, 170 mm, solo air, boost
|
| HEADSET |
RIDE ALPHA ZS44/ZS56
|
| STEM |
RIDE ALPHA, Alloy 2014 Forged, 50 mm, 0ยบ Angle, ⌀31,8 mm
|
| BAR |
RIDE ALPHA, Alloy 7075, double butted, 30 mm rise, 780 mm,
⌀ 31,8mm
|
| GRIPS |
NEW RIDE ALPHA, ergonomic grips, one lock, super soft
compound
|
| BRAKES |
SRAM GUIDE R, 200mm / 180mm
|
| SHIFTERS |
SRAM GX, 1 x 11 speed
|
| FRONT / REAR MECH | – / SRAM GX, 11 speed, long cage |
| BOTTOM BRACKET |
SRAM GXP Press Fit BB92
|
| CRANKSET |
SRAM GX X-Sync, 32 T, boost 170 mm on S/M, 175 mm on L/XL
|
| CHAIN |
SRAM PC 1130
|
| CASSETTE |
SRAM XG 1150, 10–42 T, 11 speed
|
| RIMS |
MAVIC 427, 32 holes, hookless, tubeless ready, 27 mm inner
|
| HUBS |
FORMULA, 32 holes, Sealed bearings
|
| SPOKES / NIPPLES |
Pillar Spokes, Stainless steel, 2 mm, Black, Nylock
|
| TYRES |
MAXXIS HRII 27,5" x 2,4" EXO Tubeless Ready front / MAXXIS DHRII
27,5" x 2,3" EXO Tubeless Ready rear
|
| SEATPOST |
ROCKSHOX REVERB STEALTH, 31,6mm, 125mm on S/M, 150mm on L/XL
|
| SADDLE |
RIDE ALPHA, SuperLight foam, CrMo rails
|
|
WEIGHT
|
14,04 kg |
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Gimbal Review Video
_________________________________________________________________
Dakine Anthem
I purchased the Dakine Anthem knee pads in early spring as I wanted to have a
dedicated pair of knee pads for riding park. While the Anthem are not "downhill"
pads they do offer excellent protection. I have had several crashes that the
Anthem saved my knee from minor to possibly major injury. I like the ability to
open them and put them on without taking my shoes off, however this does require
aligning the straps perfectly or the velcro will slowly eat at your flesh as you
ride throughout the day.So having spent the summer downhilling with these I have been happy. I did make the mistake of taking them on a trail ride. While they are comfortable enough for 12 hours at the bike park they were not so for a few hours pedaling. By the end of my 3 hour ride each knee cap had a spot on the top where it had been rubbed raw from the inside of the pad.
So recommendation, if you want a downhill pad skip this and go to the Hellion and get more suitable protection, as for trail riding, just skip them. That said there are lots of people out there pedaling in them and loving them so if you have the chance to try them on do so and look for a spot at the top of your knee cap after you do a couple squats.
https://www.dakine.com/en-us/sport/bike/protection/anthem-knee-pads/
RockyMounts BrassKnuckles - Yakima Frontloader
I recently purchased a roof rack for my car, a Frontloader and the BrassKnuckles. The Frontloader is a rack that is simple to use, stable and solid. Among its best features it can accommodate almost any wheel size, the cable lock loops the frame for great security. The Frontloader is low profile when not in use and does not generate a lot of wind noise. On the down side its not the easies to load and it takes a good minute or so to spin the keeper wheel in to secure the bike. I also added a small Velcro strap to keep the cable lock from slipping out of its holder and bouncing around the cars roof when not in use.The BrassKnuckle is a SOLID, heavy rack. I was shocked at how heavy it was. The BrassKnucke is very simple to use and loading and unloading the bike is quick. Among its best features are how easy it is to get the bike on the rack and in position and how durable and well built it is. The wider rail makes it very easy to place the tires onto the rack.
Of the two I prefer the BrassKnuckle but only a little. The down side to this is a less secure
locking system and the weight. I am very happy with both and would recommend either. The Frontloader is a little easier to attach to the rack bars, both are very secure and lock to the crossbars with no concern for theft.
UPDATE: After months of use the BrassKnuckles is becoming a clear favorite for the ability to easy load the bike. The wide tray makes it easy to set the bike onto and place in position and then very easily you swing the arm up and slide it into place.
______________________________________________________________
CUSHCORE
Update at bottom
So CushCore had been on my radar for a while and although I have only had
one pinch flat in the last 2 years I liked everything I was hearing about
the product. As I was sitting and watching YouTube vid's and doing
some more reading up on CushCore a video cued up with a follow up from Phil
Kmetz on his experience. I was sold and pulled the tigger with out even
really thinking about how much I spending. The power of marketing!! Anyway,
they are expensive and for me to spend $$$ to prevent a pinch flat would
seem a little silly, but it wasn't really the pinch flat that had me
dropping the $$$ for the CushCore, it was the idea of improving my ride and
preventing damage to my rims. My ride is already amazing and with 170mm and
160mm I'm sitting pretty (pun intended) when it comes to dampening but if
the CushCore claims are true in regards to dampening, lower tire pressures
and rim protection then money well spent.
On to the install; the first issue I really had to struggle with was which bike to install them on, the DH rig or the Daily. Knowing I wouldn't be riding the DH for another month or two made it even more difficult but I was pretty sure that I would get the most benefit on the DH rig. I thought about installing on the Daily and then swapping to the DH when the time came but I had read enough about the install to know that was not going to happen. Although I wouldn't get to feel the awesomeness for awhile I decided the DH rig was the right choice. The install is tough, point blank, not easy but not horrible if you have the mindset that its not going to be easy and you set aside enough time not be rushing. As I installed I played around with how I was attempting every step in the hopes that I would figure out some tricks to make it easier. I was able to come up a few little tricks beyond what I had seen in all the videos and what I had read that helped. The first install took me about an hour. I was purposely being slow and again trying different things looking for the easy buttons. So with the CushCore installed on the rear tire of the DH rig I decided my arms where just to tired to work on the front and went back to watching YouTube vids. I rewatched Phils video and in it he made a comment about only running the CushCore on the rear. Hmmmm maybe I could install the second one on the Daily and get to experience the CushCore without having to wait forever. So two days later when I had recovered mentally and physically from the install I was back at it. Installing the CushCore on the Daily only took me 20 minutes and I was again taking my time. I think the combo of the little tricks, mounting into an older tire and just knowing how much force it is going to take made it so much easier.
The experience:
Can you say NorEaster!! Thats what happened over and over again, most of the East Coast was hit with three NorEasters in the matter of a few weeks. We went from being a few warm days away from spring riding to full on winter conditions again. It took another two weeks and 400 mile trip to get to play on some dirt. Unfortunately Maryland (or at least the places I rode) is not the gnarliest of places to ride. Even with what seemed to be a lot of over groomed trails I found enough chunk to really feel the CushCore at work. I had kinda forgotten all about it until I started to hit some good rough sections and then BAM whats up with this??? My bike was reacting very differently to these sections. It was then that I realized I was feeling the CushCore working to dampen out these sections. It was pretty amazing. I stopped and dropped a few PSI so that I could see how that felt. I am not dialed in enough to normally feel a few PSI and can't say that I did so I will have to do some future testing for that.
Wrap up:
So although very limited I am currently very happy with my experience. I will certainly do a follow up once the trails start to be ridable again. I also will be able to share some Huck Norris info because I decided to buy a set for the front wheels of both the bikes and I should be able to provide some insight about my thoughts on both products.
www.cushcore.com
Update - I have been riding the CushCore on both my Meta and Tues for a while now. Love them,
love them, love them, hate them. I have been pretty lazy about tire pressure recently and I knew I was getting carried away when I got home from a day at Killington and checked my pressures. 11 PSI in the front and 8 PSI in the rear. Now I knew I was running pretty low pressures that day and I kept saying on the lift up that I have to add more air at the top. I just kept forgetting to, even when I was squirming on berms and hearing faint pings of rock strikes to my front rim (not back front where I am running Huck Norris). So if I can get past the laziness of not checking pressures there will be no hating them, until I have to change a tire, then there will be far more hate than love. At least until I am done.
Picked up a pair of the Sam Hill shoes because I was having a ton of foot pain. I started looking for a stiffer shoe and the Sam Hill's fit the bill. Normally I ride the FiveTen's Freerides and love them but my feet have been taking a pounding riding DH every weekend. After the 3 day and 86 mile Bike n Brew I was wrecked from top to bottom. After a week of recovery my feet were stilled killing me. So after one ride at Killington I can say no increase (not none) foot pain. The shoes are wide which makes pedal placement difficult, which should not be a thing a few more rides in. The stiffness kills sensitivity which is pretty important to me but not at the cost of crazy sore feet all the time. I love the protection of the toe box, feels like steel toes boots. I will be saving these for days at the DH Park as they are heavy and really designed as a gravity shoe.
Ill UPDATE in the future after I get some more rides in.
****** Update: After riding these for a few months I have to say that they have relieved the foot pain I was experiencing. I still have problems with foot placement but I have adjusted well and its less of an issue. My foot is not as "stuck" to the pedal as with a soft sole and occasionally I loose contact with the pedal. Its more common on jump lines when my feet are weightless on the pedals. The width of the shoe caused me to tighten them to the point of cutting off the circulation which caused numb feet. Once I relaxed the laces everything was comfortable and I am pretty happy with the Sam Hills.
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The camera it self is easy to use and the quality is awesome. The Adventure case is excellent however it muffles noise and I needed to modify it for sound quality. I drilled two small holes to allow sound into the case. This is then covered with a deadcat to reduce wind noise. The deadcats need to be very accurately placed or you will see them in the edge of the video. The features are spot on and using the look here and follow features you can really create some awesome and smooth motion clips.
The Rylo is not an inexpensive device. At the same time its easy to spend the same amount on any other setup.
Camera - $500
Adventure case - $70
Adventure case replacement lens - 2 @ $24 - $48
Spare Batteries - 3 @ $24 - $72
SD cards - 1 128GB @ $90 1 64GB @ $65 - $155
$850 is pretty steep.
Currently there is not an external battery charger which means you have to charge each battery in the Rylo. This is a pain in the ass. I go through 3 batteries for a day at the Bike Park or 2 for average trail rides.
Coming Soon
On to the install; the first issue I really had to struggle with was which bike to install them on, the DH rig or the Daily. Knowing I wouldn't be riding the DH for another month or two made it even more difficult but I was pretty sure that I would get the most benefit on the DH rig. I thought about installing on the Daily and then swapping to the DH when the time came but I had read enough about the install to know that was not going to happen. Although I wouldn't get to feel the awesomeness for awhile I decided the DH rig was the right choice. The install is tough, point blank, not easy but not horrible if you have the mindset that its not going to be easy and you set aside enough time not be rushing. As I installed I played around with how I was attempting every step in the hopes that I would figure out some tricks to make it easier. I was able to come up a few little tricks beyond what I had seen in all the videos and what I had read that helped. The first install took me about an hour. I was purposely being slow and again trying different things looking for the easy buttons. So with the CushCore installed on the rear tire of the DH rig I decided my arms where just to tired to work on the front and went back to watching YouTube vids. I rewatched Phils video and in it he made a comment about only running the CushCore on the rear. Hmmmm maybe I could install the second one on the Daily and get to experience the CushCore without having to wait forever. So two days later when I had recovered mentally and physically from the install I was back at it. Installing the CushCore on the Daily only took me 20 minutes and I was again taking my time. I think the combo of the little tricks, mounting into an older tire and just knowing how much force it is going to take made it so much easier.
The experience:
Can you say NorEaster!! Thats what happened over and over again, most of the East Coast was hit with three NorEasters in the matter of a few weeks. We went from being a few warm days away from spring riding to full on winter conditions again. It took another two weeks and 400 mile trip to get to play on some dirt. Unfortunately Maryland (or at least the places I rode) is not the gnarliest of places to ride. Even with what seemed to be a lot of over groomed trails I found enough chunk to really feel the CushCore at work. I had kinda forgotten all about it until I started to hit some good rough sections and then BAM whats up with this??? My bike was reacting very differently to these sections. It was then that I realized I was feeling the CushCore working to dampen out these sections. It was pretty amazing. I stopped and dropped a few PSI so that I could see how that felt. I am not dialed in enough to normally feel a few PSI and can't say that I did so I will have to do some future testing for that.
Wrap up:
So although very limited I am currently very happy with my experience. I will certainly do a follow up once the trails start to be ridable again. I also will be able to share some Huck Norris info because I decided to buy a set for the front wheels of both the bikes and I should be able to provide some insight about my thoughts on both products.
www.cushcore.com
Update - I have been riding the CushCore on both my Meta and Tues for a while now. Love them,
love them, love them, hate them. I have been pretty lazy about tire pressure recently and I knew I was getting carried away when I got home from a day at Killington and checked my pressures. 11 PSI in the front and 8 PSI in the rear. Now I knew I was running pretty low pressures that day and I kept saying on the lift up that I have to add more air at the top. I just kept forgetting to, even when I was squirming on berms and hearing faint pings of rock strikes to my front rim (not back front where I am running Huck Norris). So if I can get past the laziness of not checking pressures there will be no hating them, until I have to change a tire, then there will be far more hate than love. At least until I am done.
____________________________________________________________
Picked up a pair of the Sam Hill shoes because I was having a ton of foot pain. I started looking for a stiffer shoe and the Sam Hill's fit the bill. Normally I ride the FiveTen's Freerides and love them but my feet have been taking a pounding riding DH every weekend. After the 3 day and 86 mile Bike n Brew I was wrecked from top to bottom. After a week of recovery my feet were stilled killing me. So after one ride at Killington I can say no increase (not none) foot pain. The shoes are wide which makes pedal placement difficult, which should not be a thing a few more rides in. The stiffness kills sensitivity which is pretty important to me but not at the cost of crazy sore feet all the time. I love the protection of the toe box, feels like steel toes boots. I will be saving these for days at the DH Park as they are heavy and really designed as a gravity shoe.
Ill UPDATE in the future after I get some more rides in.
****** Update: After riding these for a few months I have to say that they have relieved the foot pain I was experiencing. I still have problems with foot placement but I have adjusted well and its less of an issue. My foot is not as "stuck" to the pedal as with a soft sole and occasionally I loose contact with the pedal. Its more common on jump lines when my feet are weightless on the pedals. The width of the shoe caused me to tighten them to the point of cutting off the circulation which caused numb feet. Once I relaxed the laces everything was comfortable and I am pretty happy with the Sam Hills.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Rylo
The Rylo is Awesome and it kinda sucks. It does everything it claims
and does most of it very well, however there is one (a few maybe) huge
drawback to using the Rylo... Time. It takes so much time to go from
shooting to finished video. I'm going to say on average 3 times
longer. You have to download every clip to the App on the phone, then
edit it on the phone, then save it to your photos, then transfer it to your
computer, then start the editing process on the computer. With the GoPro its
just pop in the card and download all the clips, then edit. The
download process to the phone app is not fast (iPhone 10) and you have to
individually choose each clip you shot. Next you can start editing, which if
your the passenger on a long ride home after a day of railing trails, it can
feel like your getting ahead of the game. If you want check out your buddies
crash so you all can get a good laugh you can have the clip edited and
posted to Instagram in minutes, its awesome. Beyond that the editing
is a nightmare to get it all done. I shot about 200 clips at the US Open DH
race at Killington (thats way more than a normal ride). It will take me
about 1-5 minutes per clip. I could easily be looking at 6-10 hours of
editing on my phone. After that you have to download each clip to your
Camera Roll. You also need a method for remembering which clips you have
edited and which you have not. For me this is either by "staring" clips or
actually using a pen and paper to log what work I have done. After you get
all of that done it's time to transfer everything over to your PC so that
you can then use your movie editor to create your video. For me the transfer
is from the phone to my Macbook is about twice the time it take to copy from
an SD card shot on a Hero5. Once there I am where I would be if I used the
GoPro and copied the files from the SD card. I import everything into iMovie
or FinalCut and my editing begins. Once your done transferring all your
clips to your computer its probably now safe to go and delete all the clips
you downloaded to the rylo app. Unfortunately this is also super time
consuming, you have to delete each clip individually and its about a 3
tap process. If you have decided to spend all of your free time durning the
week editing and transferring clips you may have it all done just in time
for your next ride.
The camera it self is easy to use and the quality is awesome. The Adventure case is excellent however it muffles noise and I needed to modify it for sound quality. I drilled two small holes to allow sound into the case. This is then covered with a deadcat to reduce wind noise. The deadcats need to be very accurately placed or you will see them in the edge of the video. The features are spot on and using the look here and follow features you can really create some awesome and smooth motion clips.
The Rylo is not an inexpensive device. At the same time its easy to spend the same amount on any other setup.
Camera - $500
Adventure case - $70
Adventure case replacement lens - 2 @ $24 - $48
Spare Batteries - 3 @ $24 - $72
SD cards - 1 128GB @ $90 1 64GB @ $65 - $155
$850 is pretty steep.
Currently there is not an external battery charger which means you have to charge each battery in the Rylo. This is a pain in the ass. I go through 3 batteries for a day at the Bike Park or 2 for average trail rides.
Some stats
- 4K video @ 30fps
- Dual lenses (front and back)
- 208° field of view (7mm equivalent)
- f/2.8 fixed aperture
- 6K panorama capture capability
- 60 minute record time
- Rechargeable battery
- 108 grams
- 16Gb microSD included; expandable to 128Gb
*****UPDATE: Rylo has released an external battery charger. They continue to
update the camera and it now shoots in 5.2K @ 30fps. Rylo has also released
a Desktop app which helps in the editing process but you still have to edit
all of your footage twice. I have replaced the lenses on the Adventure case
several times and at $30 a pop its a little disappointing how easily those
scratch. I have done about 30 rides so far this year (May) and have only
used the Rylo about 5 times and of those I think I have only used footage
twice. So I have over $900 invested in a camera I am not using.
:(
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