If you read the origin story, you’ll know how we got here. And how excited I was to get the new Droptimator drop-bar mountain bike on the trails.
The time crunch leading up to Sea Otter, where the Droptimator was unveiled, kept me from getting a ride in on my home trails in Portland. So, it was off to Monterey, CA, to break it in. Here’s how it went…
The proving grounds
The Sea Otter Fuego XC course is a 3-lap, 21-mile mix of singletrack interconnected through a network of gravel roads. It also has 3,500 feet of climbing. And the Short Course is similar, but with a higher percentage of singletrack.
For both, you need to ride gravel roads to get to the next section of singletrack, rip through the woods for a bit, then connect to the next section. No matter what, you’re spending time on a fire road.
There are very few flat spots on the course where you can sit back and relax. Everyone earns their turns, but they are worth it. Passing is hard to do in the singletrack here, so maintaining speed is critical to stay ahead of the riders behind you otherwise you will get swallowed up and have a difficult time getting ahead of people again.
In other words, it’s the perfect test for a bike that blends the best of an XC mountain bike and gravel race bike.
First rides were… weird.
As we rolled out of the expo area up to XC short course, we were on a mix of pavement and gravel. Here the bike felt just like my GP gravel bike. Same body position and feel, so my body thought I was just riding my gravel bike.
When we got to the backside of the Laguna Seca Race track, we dropped into the first bit of singletrack, a flowy downhill with some decent ruts and a few potholes to keep you on your toes.
Riding the berms in the turns was critical otherwise you would get sucked into the ruts, and that would not end well. I dropped my 150mm seatpost all of the way and let the bike go, rolling into the downhill.
And here’s where the difference first hit me – it felt like I was too far forward and perhaps the design was incorrect. It was a bit nerve wracking to say the least.
Maybe I needed to adjust to it, the same way I adjust between riding gravel and MTB.
Because, hey, it’s a new bike…
The short course is like a bowl. You start on the high side of one side of the bowl, drop down to the bottom, then climb your way back out of it up the other side. Then you ride the rim of the bowl around to the start of the second lap of the bowl and repeat.
When I got to the bottom of the bowl, I stopped to take stock of how I’d felt on the descent. Too far forward, like my weight was pushing too much on the fork and it was diving on me.
Granted, I had not properly set up the fork except for approximating the air pressure. The Flight Attendant was not set up nor was the rebound dialed in. I probably needed some volume spacers as well.
Regardless, I was still riding it like a gravel bike and felt way too far forward on the bike. I sat there, stumped. And a little annoyed. But worst of all…
I was questioning my design choice
Climbing out of the bowl felt like I was back on my gravel bike. I raised the seatpost to full extension and pedaled away. I was on the hoods and pulling on the bar like I was on a gravel bike, but I had more traction than I was used to, especially out of the saddle on steep climbs.
Once I hit the gravel road at the “rim of the bowl”, everything felt right again. I spun easily and felt completely normal.
Hmmm…
Maybe I did get it right. I rolled back to the expo, made a few fork adjustments, and decided to sleep on it.
The next day I rolled out to do the full XC loop so I could get more feedback on the bike. After a short ride with the Sage crew, I split off to ride solo so I could focus on “feeling” the bike as I rode it.
I needed to find its flow.
The Fuego XC course has far more gravel fireroad than the short course, as well as different sections of singletrack that can push a XC bike to the limit.
The gravel sections felt super fast. The large tires easily chewed up the terrain and the fork smoothed everything out. When I got into the singletrack, I remembered how I felt the day before and started shifting my body around to find a position that worked better.
And then it all came together
I hit a flowy section of smooth trail with nice, gentle curves. No potholes or up/down sections. Nearly perfect singletrack, with a pleasant downhill grade.
It was here that I started to understand the bike better.
I dropped my seatpost like I normally would in this scenario, which let me flow through the trail as if I was on my XC bike.
As I rode the section, my body naturally drifted backwards on the bike so that I was a bit more rear biased than I would have been on my gravel bike. Counterintuitively, the front wheel felt more planted even though I wasn’t as far forward as before. And the suspension wasn’t diving in as far, so I felt more balanced.
The higher XC bottom bracket and fatter tires floated over chunk, and I could rail the corners with my hands in the drops.
All of a sudden, the bike instantly made perfect sense. We now spoke the same language. It was pure harmony. The trick, as it turns out, is to ride like a gravel bike on gravel and a mountain bike on the trails.
This bike is ridiculous…in the best possible way
The Droptimator loved the singletrack. It loved to attack the small punchy climbs. It loved to roll quickly and efficiently on the gravel roads. And it loved to climb while on the hoods as I attacked all different types of climbs on the course.
I was quite pleased. I felt like I had bonded with the bike because I now feel like it also loved me.
When I got back to the expo area to help finish setting up, I just thought about the ride and how blown away I was by it.
But what would the pros think?
Thursday was the show opener and the Droptimator was on display. Sure enough, it attracted a lot of attention.
But I was most excited that I had cracked the code and could share my experience with everyone there. Well, actually, I was most excited about riding it again.
So, early Friday morning, I rolled out with two of the Sage athletes for a proper photo shoot. They rode their Storm King gravel bikes and I rode the Droptimator. It was not my intention to be a part of the photo shoot, but rather to help the photographer as the riders were certainly more than capable of looking good for the shots, with the epic Laguna Seca scenery as the backdrop.
This time I got to put it to the test on the same short course from my initial ride. A little nervous, I attacked the course, this time with a bit more spirit. It was a blast, and it confirmed my impressions.
Jeremiah Bishop approves, too
With a professional photographer and two former National Championship cyclists on hand, I figured one of them should ride the bike. For science, of course. But if we happened to get a pic of them drifting corners and having some fun on the bike, that would be cool, too.
If you haven’t heard, Jeremiah Bishop has joined Sage Titanium Cycles as an athlete and ambassador. He’s a multi-time Pro National XC Champion, and a notoriously fast and hard rider.
So he was the obvious choice, and also eager to try something so unique as the Droptimator.
Sure enough, he ripped the bike and absolutely loved it! On one occasion, as he was looping back to the start of the section of trail we were using, he turned to me and said “This is cheating.”
At that moment, I knew I was definitely onto something. We finished out the photo shoot with some pics of us goofing off and having a great time. We rolled back to the expo to put the bike on display again and share our experiences with everyone.
What did everyone else think?
Sea Otter is a massive celebration of cycling, with the largest consumer cycling expo in the world. So, we inevitably get the gamut of comments from booth visitors.
In short, they loved it. I’ve already got orders on the books, which is a nice confirmation of my thinking that this bike is something special and meets a need in today’s landscape.
But, I want to wrap up with a quick summary of how we explained it at the booth.
No, the Droptimator is not a regurgitated 1990’s MTB with drop bars. It is not a modern XC bike and it is not a modern gravel race bike. But it is fully modern, just sitting somewhere in between the two.
It has the ability to spin it out on the gravel in a more aero position, and also carve singletrack and tackle tougher terrain. Component selection as well as gear choice will be critical for this setup, but if chosen properly, this could be the bike to slay all other bikes at the most demanding of races.
Want one?
Get in touch…send us an email or call us at the office, each one is custom made to order based on your bike fit and component selection, which we can help you with. Lead time is currently 6-8 weeks, so order now to get it in time for those big summer races!