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Santa Cruz Blur LTc


cambowambo's picture

By cambowambo - Posted on 14 February 2013

My Santa Cruz Blur LT carbon. A sweet ride Smiling

4
Pete B's picture

Very nice, I like it. Smiling

I've not seen a mudguard on a bike since I was in England!

Martin Danger's picture

And even the mudguard has this sweet line to it that makes you feel guilty for just staring at it. And then you notice the little link on the seat stay with its nice curves and hope for the love of god that your wife doesn't come into the room right now.

Sweet ride dude!

mikethebike's picture

A serious case of bike envy is happening to me now. Where is the 'like' button?
What rear hub is it running?

MurrayW's picture

Looks like a Rohloff Hub

cambowambo's picture

And yes it is a Rohloff Hub.

Lach's picture

With a Rohloff? I thought the big advantage of the hub gear was no rear mech? Or front mech for that matter?

bmar560's picture

I think that rear-der looking thing is a chain tensioner and the front mech looks like a chainguide to me.
Sweet looking bike Smiling

BT's picture

As a massive SC fan.....SO MUCH WANT RIGHT NOW! Smiling

TrekWrekka's picture

That is pure bike porn.
Everyone should own a SC once in their lifetime!

Oldernslower's picture

On a rear sus bike you need a chain tensioner with any single sprocket hub as the chain needs to have tensioner to deal with the chain slack that the rear sus creates.

Has me thinking of doing the same with my 29r S-works. Currently the Rohloff fitted to a stumpjumper HT.

Disadvatage of Rohloff is slow shifting, can't shift down under power, sometimes have to get the right gear before you hit the hill if it is steep or by the time you stop pedalling, shift gear and start pedalling you may be stationary. I find that if need to shift on uphill I shift two gears at a time on hills.

hawkeye's picture

I thought one of the advantages of Rohloffs and the Shimano equivalent was the removal of all the shifting under load issues with derailleurs?

I confused Puzzled

Oldernslower's picture

(Apologies for thread hijack)

Not Rohloff or any of the geared hubs as far as I'm aware. The Rohloff handbook indicates that when there is pressure on the gears, gear changing is harder. The issue is pressure on the sliding of the gears or "coupling elements" as Rohloff calls em.

They suggest changing gears when the cranks are vertical when climbing but if you on a steep climb then I've found I have to back off a fraction otherwise it becomes hard to change and may lose momentum, so on 15% grades I change down 2 gears to reduce gear changes. It's often easier to get in the gear you need before you need it. With practice it gets a little easier, but I've found derailleurs far superior in handling changing under load when climbing. Maybe others have a different experience?

Back on thread and to the bike, what gearing you using. I'm using 34*16 on my 29r - gives me similar to a 2*10 with 36/22 front rings, 11/36 cassette. Will be trying a 33 soon.

Lach's picture

... you get the extra weight of a hub gear and still have pretty much a rear derailleur there as well. I suppose there's no adjustment / cabling with the chain guide, so it's less maintenance etc, but it still seems to negate at least a chunk of the potential advantage of a hub gear??

cambowambo's picture

@lach the shifting with a Rohloff is inside the hub - what the chain does has no effect.

On a hardtail you would not need anything else. But because this bike has suspension the chain length varies with suspension position, so the tensioner and the chain guide need to be there to keep the chain in place.

A Rohloff will shift from and to any gear independent of the chain (ie you don't have to pedal forward to make the chain go to another gear combination) and you can shift from/to any gear when pedalling or when standing still.

But it won't shift across gears 7 and 8 under load - you need to unweight those gears for a microsecond while you are shifting. It still requires less unweighting than shifting up chainrings on a "normal" setup and you don't need to be pedalling. Those gears make a different sound so you know where you are and what to expect.

BTW this bike originally came with a SRAM 2x10 XO/XX transmission which I rode for 6 months. I prefer the Rohloff.

Lach's picture

I understand the mechanics of a hub gear (I installed a Sturmey-Archer 3 speed on my bike as a kid), but my point was that a big advantage of the hub gear is losing all the messy mechs that derailleurs involve (and also losing some offsetting of the extra weight of the hub gear). If having a duallie means that you need a chain tensioner at both ends, then you lose a big part of the advantages that a hub gear provides. And if there are a few shifting issues as well....

Mind you, I always try to back off a bit when changing down even with derailleurs. Only takes a few broken chains to make you realise the advantages.

cruzer's picture

Cambo wambo that is an awesome looking bike. And good to see something different to the Shimano / Sram set up on a bike like that. Tensioners or not.

MurrayW's picture

I have read years ago that there is only a slight overall weight gain when setting up a hard tail and a little bit more with a dually. You should get better chain life as it is running in a straight line.
Do you notice the extra weight in the rear end?

cambowambo's picture

The Rohloff Hub is definitely heavier - in my case the hub, tensioner, chain guide and etc. added about 400g compared with the X0/XX that was there before. That is probably about the weight I saved by going for the carbon frame.

Most of that extra weight is on the back axle. If you pick the bike up yes you can feel it.

But when you are riding it is not at all obvious except perhaps that the bike wheelies quite easily.

No weight weenie could go for a Rohloff Hub. Personally I am a heavy rider anyway and I value strength, reliability and low maintenance ahead of grams.

And it is still quite a light bike Eye-wink

jacojoco's picture

To get dirty!

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