07 August 2010

mmmBop review!

Here's a review from JJ on his new ride...

__________________________________________


The first Ragley Mmmbop in the Philippines...I think.


I have to be honest...I've never heard of Ragley, not since a month ago while going through some bike forums looking for a new hardtail project. Then I came across this ad for a Ragley. I had no idea what it was, where it came from or how it rode. So, I did my research. Went to some reviews looking for feedback and all I could find were praises for this simple yet very effective design. Thanks to Shedfire and Brant Richards.

I thought this was the perfect hardtail project! Thinking of building another bike aside from my full suspension trail bike, I contacted Lars from Blackcatbikes to checkout the frame in person. Fell in love as soon as I saw it. The color blue alone sold it. So the build began.

Transferring most of my parts from my trail bike to the Mmmbop, I was planning on building back my full suspension bike after leaving it with virtually nothing. But, after a ride on one of the more popular trails here in the Philippines, I decided that this one bike is all I need! It climbed well and went downhill even better. The geometry is perfect. I never thought just a slight difference in angles can improve a bike so much. With a Nukeproof 70mm stem (highly recommended), the bike rode perfectly*. I was never hesitant to point and shoot this bike anywhere from steep rocky climbs to fast downhills with some solid ruts.

What can I say... I love this bike. This one's for keeps!
_______________________________________________

*Note from Lars: Can't stress this enough - the blue pig, mmmBop and Ti are designed from scratch to run with a 70mm OR SHORTER stem to get the best out of the bike's geometry... any longer, too much weight in the front and it throws off the balance :)

Pictures below, and his camera is way better than mine, that's EXACTLY how the blue looks! Wish we could get some better pictures of the downtube, there's a lot of tube manipulation going on that never seems to make it to pictures.








No comments: