Nukeproof Scout Review (2022 Gen 3 )
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Cons:
- Still a good value
- All parts swap over from previous scout (and other Nukeproof models)
- Excellent cable routing
- Not extremely modern or extremely outdated geometry
- Happy on most trails
- Threaded BB
- External Cable Routing (except for the dropper, of course)
Cons:
- Not as great a value as prior models
- Stiff riding frame
- Vanilla ride
- Could use a longer reach
- Not very playful
Who it's for:
- people looking for an all-rounder that's up for anything
- people who are on a tight budget but still want modern components
- people who want to get the most bang for their buck
- heavier riders who don't want a flexy frame
Who it's NOT for
- xc racers
- enduro shredders
- riders under 160 lbs due to its stiff ride
- people who are looking for a bike with a ride feel that really stands out from the crowd
My full thoughts on the 2022 Nukeproof Scout Hardtail
today we're reviewing the esker jaffe j1 build
today's the onboard ride review of the esker jaffe j1 build i'm 5'6 180 pounds i've been mountain biking for 25 years and i raced bmx before that that's a little bit in my background this bike's kind of meant to be an exploration rig and just a good trail bike not meant to do anything super spicy super crazy it looks like it's built to be a great bike packing rig or just kind of a do it all on the tamer side of things so today we're going to take it on some of the green and blue trails here in sedona to see how it rides i'm on a size medium this has a 450 mil reach one thing that's super cool about this bike is it's 29 plus compatible i love 29 plus it's kind of a less popular wheel size this is my fourth ride on this bike so i've put some miles in to get used to it get to know it
it's got a really nice steel feel one thing that esker does that's fantastic first of all their tubing is quad butted which is pretty rare these days they also use different tubing profiles for each size of the bike which is awesome so smaller riders get a similar feeling tube set to large riders if you're a really small or really large rider you know that bikes aren't really built with you in mind but it's really refreshing to see esker doing that so lighter riders don't get a tube set that beats them up it doesn't feel completely overbuilt like so many steel bikes these days it's not crazy light i think the frame online says it comes in around 6.2 pounds i really love 29 plus it is such a cool wheel size i wish more companies embraced it it's especially good for a bike like this for exploring adventuring where you're not racing you're not trying to you know get king of the mountain and hammer out the fastest lap ever you're just out there to have fun and i like 29 plus excuse me sorry to startle you and i like 29 plus even more than 27.5 plus one thing i'm not crazy about on this build
are the narrow rims that come on this there are these weird shimano wheels that feel really heavy especially with that dior 12 speed cassette but they're only 30 millimeters internal that's not nearly wide enough for a 2.8 i feel like if you're running a 2.8 tire whether it's 29 or 27.5 the minimum wheel width you should go with this 40 i really like 45i and if you go 3.0 i like 45 to 50. otherwise there's not a huge benefit to going with such a wide tire the narrower rim makes it want to squirm and kind of fold and tuck in corners and nobody wants that and if you have to run your plus tires at 25 psi to prevent squirm there's no real point in having plus tires all right let's talk geometry how this bike feels
these bars are kind of interesting they have forward sweep and then back sweep i don't mind more back sweep but this bar shape is really weird i feel like the front center is too long i normally like a 450 mil reach bike when it's an aggressive bike when the head angles slack when the stack's tall and the seat angle steep but i feel like the front center is a lot longer on this medium than most part of that's the 50 mil stem they spec it with part of it's the esker bar
but it just feels way out there and then you couple that with the seed angle which feels extremely slack i'm quite hunched over on this bike when i'm seated and pedaling because that seat angle is so far back i really have to lean forward to reach the bars i've got my seat slid all the way forward in the rails and it's still the bars feel too far away i don't know what the effective sea tube angle is but it is one of the slackest seat angles i've ridden in a long time it's too bad i feel like this bike would have a little bit more zippy nature if it had two or three degrees steeper seat angle now i took this bike out the other day with my control wheel set my nuke through horizon v2 wheels so i could see what the frame felt like so i didn't just attribute the soft feel to these 2.8 tires and those are the wheels i ride on every bike and that helps me get a comparable feel for what the frame feels like stiffness wise and this is one of the more comfortable steel frames it's so nice to be on a steel bike that isn't over built for hucking off cliffs and massive jumps steel can feel awesome when it's not overbuilt and this is a great example of that so i feel like this is a really solid spec for the price 2 300 bucks is a lot mountain bikes are getting more expensive every day it's got dior 12 speed which a lot of people want a little bit heavier but it's got a marzoki bomber z2 up front in 120 mil travel unfortunately it's got a 51 mil offset and i think this bike would come alive with a 44 mil offset yeah i just feel really stretched out on this if i were to do a long bike packing day my back would be killing me with how much i'm reaching forward i would definitely want to size down to a small then yeah i think if they'd made the reach 440 for the style of bike this is it would have really helped it it's interesting some companies will get modern on one or two numbers but not the whole package it just doesn't quite feel balanced still a fun bike it feels good but it could really be unlocked with a few simple tweaks just a great trail bike like this it doesn't make me want to charge i don't feel fast on it i just kind of feel like i'm enjoying the scenery enjoying the ride it's a really fun bike for exploring on it's a good blend between the old school classic hardtail feel and the new school bikes a little bit steeper seat angle and i think it would have been just right see the reach is fine when i'm standing up now it feels really good so maybe they don't need to change the reach and they just need to change that seat angle to steepen it up so my effective top tube is not so long when you lengthen the reach but don't really change the seat angle the bars just get further away when you're seated and that makes it quite uncomfortable that's one big reason i'm always pushing for steeper seat angles because i like a long reach because i feel stable in terrain like this but i don't love being hunched over on climbs steepening the seat angle fixes that i also feel like a steeper seat angle puts you in attack position on the climbs gets your hips ahead of the bottom bracket so you don't feel like you're riding a beach cruiser up the hill you feel like you're riding a unicycle where you're slightly ahead of the center of gravity and it just helps you motor on up what a nice ride feel though i wish it had a shorter offset fork it's just the way i'm used to riding make sure you check out my video on fork offset it'll explain what i'm talking about a lot better so this does ride more like a traditional bike with that 51 mil offset but yeah if i had a 44 to 46 i think it would just rail these corners a little bit more and it would really benefit me from my riding style hello yep am i okay here all right thanks would you rather i walk my bike or ride all right thank you very much appreciate it just me have a great day thanks a lot very nice equestrians we all share the trail especially in sedona with equestrians hikers and mountain bikers and the trails are busy so please be courteous if you ever come here and encounter other trail users because when we're rude or we run people off the trail we run the risk of losing access to our trails and while that may not affect a tourist only comes here once a year it sure affects us local so we appreciate your good trail etiquette so yeah a little shorter offset fork and this thing would steer a little bit more the way i like but it's not bad this spike still corners exceptionally well you just have to change to a different cornering technique than i'm used to howdy just me have a great day so yeah this bike isn't an xc racer it's not a hard charging enduro bike it's a comfortable steel trail bike just like trail bikes used to be in the 90s
the wheels feel a little heavy
but for 2 300 bucks you get a lot of bike for the buck out of this thing and it just rewards kind of a relaxed neutral riding position not particularly playful
but it's also not stuffy feeling like a xc race bike just a good all-around trail bike and i think most people are going to be able to ride this quite well especially if you haven't adopted a modern riding style that modern bikes require
i love 29 by 2.8 and 3.0 just so fun so much traction and it serves as suspension being able to run 15 psi in here with big tires really helps i sure hope we see a lot more 29 by 3.0 bikes this bike has sliding dropouts so you could make it single speed or you could change your chainstay length to kind of get the feel that you want my chain stays about in the mid position and that's about as far forward as it can take with these 2.8
i really do want to try this with some wider wheels i'd love to try it with the shorter offset fork love to try it with some taller rise bars the stack's a little low for me it's a sprightly little bike though it rides a lot lighter than 32 pounds still wants to keep its momentum kind of keep rolling through all this and that's a huge advantage of 29 plus over 27.5 plus to me is they just roll through stuff a little bit better now 29 plus ends up being over 30 inches tall when you measure it so it's hard for frame designers to fit 29 plus wheels in small sizes and i applaud esker for keeping it up even in a size small a lot of companies will step down to a 27.5 plus in their smalls but even though i'm a short rider i still love the big wheels especially out here in the desert in the chunk wow what a joy this has been to ride on this trail i picked the perfect trail for this bike nice and flowy not too chunky not too steep just real scenic and mellow and chill it'll pick up speed when it gets pointed downhill real comfortable ride so after four rides i'm used to the way it steers and that longer offset fork slightly longer chain stay
oh we're here already so yeah this bike isn't the most playful manuals are tough wheelies are good surprisingly probably because of that slack c tube angle get your weight way far back standing up and sprinting feels good so yeah it's really the seated position that i struggle with more than anything i still wish stack was a little taller and when you go on a 120 mil bike you lose some of that stack the axle the crown shorter the bars are closer to the ground spec wise what would i change i'd run a shorter offset fork different bars and i'd toy with stem length so yeah if this were my bike packing bike i'd either get this warhead that shifts the seat forward it's probably what i do or i'd size down i really like the size of this when i'm standing up and flowing on the trail but when i'm seated it just feels too long and hunched over it's a really smooth and quiet bike i love the external cable routing i love the look of the small tubes love the matte paint job i think this white color is awesome i love that it has sliding dropouts i love the 29 by 2.8 clearance aside from that climbing position this bike is a joy to climb it feels far lighter than its numbers suggest and i think a 120 mil travel is the perfect fork to spec on this most trail bikes do not need more than 120 130 max i don't feel like i need more at all especially with those 29 plus tires they almost add an element of suspension to the ride and smooth the trail out which is so nice on a hardtail yeah just a nice blue single track riding bike if you don't charge everywhere you ride and you just want an enjoyable spin adventurous cruise it's a great bike for the price a few weeks ago i took it out in the snow when sedona had a big snowstorm and i just went exploring on it and i had an absolute blast i wasn't going fast
i wasn't setting any records i wasn't charging i was just out exploring having fun on a solo ride the attitude of this bike is one of those old indestructible land rovers with modern electronics in it just a great exploring option you're not going to go fast but you know it's going to get you where you need it to and you're going to have fun on the journey and slow down and stop and smell the roses a little more this bike reminds me a lot of the rsd sergeant v3 in its character and attitude it's not sluggish to pedal around surprisingly i like that they inspect it with 170 mil cranks not 175s 12 speed dior is working just fine no drama there hopefully we get to see a lot more 29 plus bikes on the channel they are so fun yeah i'm just sitting on the nose of the saddle trying to shorten up that effective top tube bars are too far away for climbing and seated riding but like i said there's fixes with that 9.8 forehead what a neat little frame though all right it's time to wrap this review up let's talk about a few things first let's talk a little bit about the marzoki bomber it's letting me down a little bit in theory it's great and i should love it but there's two issues i have one i find that they're not very supportive and i have to add quite a few tokens to them to keep them riding high in their travel to not kind of dive so i got three tokens in this right now which is quite a bit for a 120mm fork but it's feeling better the other thing i'm really disappointed about on this is the cheap rebound knob has snapped off i have no idea when that happened for reference i've ridden the same three helm forks for two years now and i haven't had a single problem with them and i've had this on four rides and the rebound knob is gone and i'm not the first person to have this problem when i searched on the forums like other people have had this problem as well so down here we should have a rebound knob but it completely snapped off no idea when that happened or how haven't had any crashes on the bike and so that's a big bummer to me even the bomber z1 i feel like i have to add volume tokens to they just are a little divey especially on a hard tail still i think it's a good spec fork you just have to tune it a little bit i do wish it had that shorter offset but that's just me and my modern writing style if you're curious about the difference in fork offset go watch my video on that topic i also don't love the bar shape it feels kind of weird and it actually feels like my reach is a little bit longer because of that seat tube angle is fairly slack and i wonder what the effective seat tube angle is these wheels are really interesting they're 24 spoke i didn't have any issues with them they just feel heavy like when you take off that rear wheel it is heavy and you feel it the tires work fine but you have a hard time getting onto these cornering knobs because it's so rounded with that narrow profile so i'm curious what that'd be like with some 40 or 45i wheels i love the sliding dropouts i think the adjuster screws a little minimal there i love the color i love the graphics they've done a fantastic job all just the little touches look really good cool to see wolftooth headsets on here in the 2300 price range there are a lot of options to choose from but there aren't a lot of great steel options that ride great who would this benefit i think this bike would really benefit for someone who enjoys a slower pace more exploring someone who's not racing or trying to set the fastest time it will pick up speed well and it'll shred and it doesn't feel heavy going up hills it's just not anxious to do so this bike is for someone who wants a really nice ride feel that quad butted tubing and the specific tubing profile for each size really comes into play and it rides real comfortable i think this bike is going to be for people who like a little bit more traditional hardtail feel kind of like back in the 90s and 2000s where they're steering more with the bars the seat tube's a little bit slacker although with some slight modifications you could make this a really modern riding trail bike shorter offset run that forehead on a 9.8 dropper i think this thing would come alive pretty well this bike is not for people who are searching out the big drops and the rowdiest stuff they can find but the geo does real well on flow trails it does real well on a natural single track like this i think this would be a fantastic montana bike which makes a lot of sense since esker's out of montana i think this would be a fantastic bike packing bike if you size down that seated position that you're in all day when you're bike packing is just gonna favor you to size down on this bike it's weird they put a modern reach the head angle is pretty modern but that seat angle just didn't keep up with it it needs to be significantly steeper so that the bars aren't a mile ahead of you when you're sitting down and riding i know i've said that a lot but it really is an important factor it's just a really solid really neat bike and aside from that sea tube angle i think esker knocked it out of the park with this thing that said i know not everybody's crazy like me and some people like a longer effective top tube and a shorter reach feel this might be the bike for you in that case regardless i've had a lot of fun reviewing this and it's a real treat to find a steel bike that isn't meant for just huge sends that's over built and stiff this is a supple comfortable calm just beautiful steel frame that is just a joy to ride on swoopy single track and blue and green trails thanks for watching there's a party in the mountains and you're invited
today's the onboard ride review of the esker jaffe j1 build i'm 5'6 180 pounds i've been mountain biking for 25 years and i raced bmx before that that's a little bit in my background this bike's kind of meant to be an exploration rig and just a good trail bike not meant to do anything super spicy super crazy it looks like it's built to be a great bike packing rig or just kind of a do it all on the tamer side of things so today we're going to take it on some of the green and blue trails here in sedona to see how it rides i'm on a size medium this has a 450 mil reach one thing that's super cool about this bike is it's 29 plus compatible i love 29 plus it's kind of a less popular wheel size this is my fourth ride on this bike so i've put some miles in to get used to it get to know it
it's got a really nice steel feel one thing that esker does that's fantastic first of all their tubing is quad butted which is pretty rare these days they also use different tubing profiles for each size of the bike which is awesome so smaller riders get a similar feeling tube set to large riders if you're a really small or really large rider you know that bikes aren't really built with you in mind but it's really refreshing to see esker doing that so lighter riders don't get a tube set that beats them up it doesn't feel completely overbuilt like so many steel bikes these days it's not crazy light i think the frame online says it comes in around 6.2 pounds i really love 29 plus it is such a cool wheel size i wish more companies embraced it it's especially good for a bike like this for exploring adventuring where you're not racing you're not trying to you know get king of the mountain and hammer out the fastest lap ever you're just out there to have fun and i like 29 plus excuse me sorry to startle you and i like 29 plus even more than 27.5 plus one thing i'm not crazy about on this build
are the narrow rims that come on this there are these weird shimano wheels that feel really heavy especially with that dior 12 speed cassette but they're only 30 millimeters internal that's not nearly wide enough for a 2.8 i feel like if you're running a 2.8 tire whether it's 29 or 27.5 the minimum wheel width you should go with this 40 i really like 45i and if you go 3.0 i like 45 to 50. otherwise there's not a huge benefit to going with such a wide tire the narrower rim makes it want to squirm and kind of fold and tuck in corners and nobody wants that and if you have to run your plus tires at 25 psi to prevent squirm there's no real point in having plus tires all right let's talk geometry how this bike feels
these bars are kind of interesting they have forward sweep and then back sweep i don't mind more back sweep but this bar shape is really weird i feel like the front center is too long i normally like a 450 mil reach bike when it's an aggressive bike when the head angles slack when the stack's tall and the seat angle steep but i feel like the front center is a lot longer on this medium than most part of that's the 50 mil stem they spec it with part of it's the esker bar
but it just feels way out there and then you couple that with the seed angle which feels extremely slack i'm quite hunched over on this bike when i'm seated and pedaling because that seat angle is so far back i really have to lean forward to reach the bars i've got my seat slid all the way forward in the rails and it's still the bars feel too far away i don't know what the effective sea tube angle is but it is one of the slackest seat angles i've ridden in a long time it's too bad i feel like this bike would have a little bit more zippy nature if it had two or three degrees steeper seat angle now i took this bike out the other day with my control wheel set my nuke through horizon v2 wheels so i could see what the frame felt like so i didn't just attribute the soft feel to these 2.8 tires and those are the wheels i ride on every bike and that helps me get a comparable feel for what the frame feels like stiffness wise and this is one of the more comfortable steel frames it's so nice to be on a steel bike that isn't over built for hucking off cliffs and massive jumps steel can feel awesome when it's not overbuilt and this is a great example of that so i feel like this is a really solid spec for the price 2 300 bucks is a lot mountain bikes are getting more expensive every day it's got dior 12 speed which a lot of people want a little bit heavier but it's got a marzoki bomber z2 up front in 120 mil travel unfortunately it's got a 51 mil offset and i think this bike would come alive with a 44 mil offset yeah i just feel really stretched out on this if i were to do a long bike packing day my back would be killing me with how much i'm reaching forward i would definitely want to size down to a small then yeah i think if they'd made the reach 440 for the style of bike this is it would have really helped it it's interesting some companies will get modern on one or two numbers but not the whole package it just doesn't quite feel balanced still a fun bike it feels good but it could really be unlocked with a few simple tweaks just a great trail bike like this it doesn't make me want to charge i don't feel fast on it i just kind of feel like i'm enjoying the scenery enjoying the ride it's a really fun bike for exploring on it's a good blend between the old school classic hardtail feel and the new school bikes a little bit steeper seat angle and i think it would have been just right see the reach is fine when i'm standing up now it feels really good so maybe they don't need to change the reach and they just need to change that seat angle to steepen it up so my effective top tube is not so long when you lengthen the reach but don't really change the seat angle the bars just get further away when you're seated and that makes it quite uncomfortable that's one big reason i'm always pushing for steeper seat angles because i like a long reach because i feel stable in terrain like this but i don't love being hunched over on climbs steepening the seat angle fixes that i also feel like a steeper seat angle puts you in attack position on the climbs gets your hips ahead of the bottom bracket so you don't feel like you're riding a beach cruiser up the hill you feel like you're riding a unicycle where you're slightly ahead of the center of gravity and it just helps you motor on up what a nice ride feel though i wish it had a shorter offset fork it's just the way i'm used to riding make sure you check out my video on fork offset it'll explain what i'm talking about a lot better so this does ride more like a traditional bike with that 51 mil offset but yeah if i had a 44 to 46 i think it would just rail these corners a little bit more and it would really benefit me from my riding style hello yep am i okay here all right thanks would you rather i walk my bike or ride all right thank you very much appreciate it just me have a great day thanks a lot very nice equestrians we all share the trail especially in sedona with equestrians hikers and mountain bikers and the trails are busy so please be courteous if you ever come here and encounter other trail users because when we're rude or we run people off the trail we run the risk of losing access to our trails and while that may not affect a tourist only comes here once a year it sure affects us local so we appreciate your good trail etiquette so yeah a little shorter offset fork and this thing would steer a little bit more the way i like but it's not bad this spike still corners exceptionally well you just have to change to a different cornering technique than i'm used to howdy just me have a great day so yeah this bike isn't an xc racer it's not a hard charging enduro bike it's a comfortable steel trail bike just like trail bikes used to be in the 90s
the wheels feel a little heavy
but for 2 300 bucks you get a lot of bike for the buck out of this thing and it just rewards kind of a relaxed neutral riding position not particularly playful
but it's also not stuffy feeling like a xc race bike just a good all-around trail bike and i think most people are going to be able to ride this quite well especially if you haven't adopted a modern riding style that modern bikes require
i love 29 by 2.8 and 3.0 just so fun so much traction and it serves as suspension being able to run 15 psi in here with big tires really helps i sure hope we see a lot more 29 by 3.0 bikes this bike has sliding dropouts so you could make it single speed or you could change your chainstay length to kind of get the feel that you want my chain stays about in the mid position and that's about as far forward as it can take with these 2.8
i really do want to try this with some wider wheels i'd love to try it with the shorter offset fork love to try it with some taller rise bars the stack's a little low for me it's a sprightly little bike though it rides a lot lighter than 32 pounds still wants to keep its momentum kind of keep rolling through all this and that's a huge advantage of 29 plus over 27.5 plus to me is they just roll through stuff a little bit better now 29 plus ends up being over 30 inches tall when you measure it so it's hard for frame designers to fit 29 plus wheels in small sizes and i applaud esker for keeping it up even in a size small a lot of companies will step down to a 27.5 plus in their smalls but even though i'm a short rider i still love the big wheels especially out here in the desert in the chunk wow what a joy this has been to ride on this trail i picked the perfect trail for this bike nice and flowy not too chunky not too steep just real scenic and mellow and chill it'll pick up speed when it gets pointed downhill real comfortable ride so after four rides i'm used to the way it steers and that longer offset fork slightly longer chain stay
oh we're here already so yeah this bike isn't the most playful manuals are tough wheelies are good surprisingly probably because of that slack c tube angle get your weight way far back standing up and sprinting feels good so yeah it's really the seated position that i struggle with more than anything i still wish stack was a little taller and when you go on a 120 mil bike you lose some of that stack the axle the crown shorter the bars are closer to the ground spec wise what would i change i'd run a shorter offset fork different bars and i'd toy with stem length so yeah if this were my bike packing bike i'd either get this warhead that shifts the seat forward it's probably what i do or i'd size down i really like the size of this when i'm standing up and flowing on the trail but when i'm seated it just feels too long and hunched over it's a really smooth and quiet bike i love the external cable routing i love the look of the small tubes love the matte paint job i think this white color is awesome i love that it has sliding dropouts i love the 29 by 2.8 clearance aside from that climbing position this bike is a joy to climb it feels far lighter than its numbers suggest and i think a 120 mil travel is the perfect fork to spec on this most trail bikes do not need more than 120 130 max i don't feel like i need more at all especially with those 29 plus tires they almost add an element of suspension to the ride and smooth the trail out which is so nice on a hardtail yeah just a nice blue single track riding bike if you don't charge everywhere you ride and you just want an enjoyable spin adventurous cruise it's a great bike for the price a few weeks ago i took it out in the snow when sedona had a big snowstorm and i just went exploring on it and i had an absolute blast i wasn't going fast
i wasn't setting any records i wasn't charging i was just out exploring having fun on a solo ride the attitude of this bike is one of those old indestructible land rovers with modern electronics in it just a great exploring option you're not going to go fast but you know it's going to get you where you need it to and you're going to have fun on the journey and slow down and stop and smell the roses a little more this bike reminds me a lot of the rsd sergeant v3 in its character and attitude it's not sluggish to pedal around surprisingly i like that they inspect it with 170 mil cranks not 175s 12 speed dior is working just fine no drama there hopefully we get to see a lot more 29 plus bikes on the channel they are so fun yeah i'm just sitting on the nose of the saddle trying to shorten up that effective top tube bars are too far away for climbing and seated riding but like i said there's fixes with that 9.8 forehead what a neat little frame though all right it's time to wrap this review up let's talk about a few things first let's talk a little bit about the marzoki bomber it's letting me down a little bit in theory it's great and i should love it but there's two issues i have one i find that they're not very supportive and i have to add quite a few tokens to them to keep them riding high in their travel to not kind of dive so i got three tokens in this right now which is quite a bit for a 120mm fork but it's feeling better the other thing i'm really disappointed about on this is the cheap rebound knob has snapped off i have no idea when that happened for reference i've ridden the same three helm forks for two years now and i haven't had a single problem with them and i've had this on four rides and the rebound knob is gone and i'm not the first person to have this problem when i searched on the forums like other people have had this problem as well so down here we should have a rebound knob but it completely snapped off no idea when that happened or how haven't had any crashes on the bike and so that's a big bummer to me even the bomber z1 i feel like i have to add volume tokens to they just are a little divey especially on a hard tail still i think it's a good spec fork you just have to tune it a little bit i do wish it had that shorter offset but that's just me and my modern writing style if you're curious about the difference in fork offset go watch my video on that topic i also don't love the bar shape it feels kind of weird and it actually feels like my reach is a little bit longer because of that seat tube angle is fairly slack and i wonder what the effective seat tube angle is these wheels are really interesting they're 24 spoke i didn't have any issues with them they just feel heavy like when you take off that rear wheel it is heavy and you feel it the tires work fine but you have a hard time getting onto these cornering knobs because it's so rounded with that narrow profile so i'm curious what that'd be like with some 40 or 45i wheels i love the sliding dropouts i think the adjuster screws a little minimal there i love the color i love the graphics they've done a fantastic job all just the little touches look really good cool to see wolftooth headsets on here in the 2300 price range there are a lot of options to choose from but there aren't a lot of great steel options that ride great who would this benefit i think this bike would really benefit for someone who enjoys a slower pace more exploring someone who's not racing or trying to set the fastest time it will pick up speed well and it'll shred and it doesn't feel heavy going up hills it's just not anxious to do so this bike is for someone who wants a really nice ride feel that quad butted tubing and the specific tubing profile for each size really comes into play and it rides real comfortable i think this bike is going to be for people who like a little bit more traditional hardtail feel kind of like back in the 90s and 2000s where they're steering more with the bars the seat tube's a little bit slacker although with some slight modifications you could make this a really modern riding trail bike shorter offset run that forehead on a 9.8 dropper i think this thing would come alive pretty well this bike is not for people who are searching out the big drops and the rowdiest stuff they can find but the geo does real well on flow trails it does real well on a natural single track like this i think this would be a fantastic montana bike which makes a lot of sense since esker's out of montana i think this would be a fantastic bike packing bike if you size down that seated position that you're in all day when you're bike packing is just gonna favor you to size down on this bike it's weird they put a modern reach the head angle is pretty modern but that seat angle just didn't keep up with it it needs to be significantly steeper so that the bars aren't a mile ahead of you when you're sitting down and riding i know i've said that a lot but it really is an important factor it's just a really solid really neat bike and aside from that sea tube angle i think esker knocked it out of the park with this thing that said i know not everybody's crazy like me and some people like a longer effective top tube and a shorter reach feel this might be the bike for you in that case regardless i've had a lot of fun reviewing this and it's a real treat to find a steel bike that isn't meant for just huge sends that's over built and stiff this is a supple comfortable calm just beautiful steel frame that is just a joy to ride on swoopy single track and blue and green trails thanks for watching there's a party in the mountains and you're invited
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