My riding mates took serious issue with that statement, insisting it was the height of retro cool. No doubt their view was helped along, I thought, by “Ye Olde English” typeface used for the Ellsworth logo on the blue anodised frame. Alright, if you say so, I’ll keep an open mind.

And it’s just as well I did. Despite using a monster rocker arm four-bar design approach that has been little changed for well over 10 years, it was a hoot to ride and pedalled superbly well.

The Evolve comes as either a frame only (with shock) that you can build up yourself, or it can be purchased built up with the specification level of your choice. The version I tested came with a Fox TALAS 95-120mm travel adjustable fork with 15mm through axle, Race Face Deus cranks with Salsa 34T single ring and chain guide, Shimano XT brakes, shifters and rear derailleur, and 12-36T 10-speed rear transmission. The cockpit was comprised of a WTB Silverado seat, Syncros FR seat post and Syncros FR stem, and Ellsworth’s own carbon bars. Wheels were Stan’s ZTR Arch 29er. The top end Fox RP23 Kashima Coat shock is supplied with all frames.

With a 100mm fork the head angle of the Ellsworth is a relatively steep 72.5 degrees, the seat tube angle 74 degrees, and the rear chain stays relatively long at 460mm. Normally such long stays would result in a bike that is sluggish to steer, but the steeper head angle counteracts this to give a lively feel.

The frame sizing is on the long side compared to most other brands. The supplied bike was a medium frame size, and at 610mm was just 5 or so millimetres shorter than my regular large size MTB.

Normally it takes me a couple of rides to feel at home on an unfamiliar bike. Not with this baby. Responsiveness in tight singletrack was excellent, and I felt instantly at home on a variety of terrain, from rolling fire road climbs to the twisty and technical sections of a very eroded Manly Dam.

On the flowy fire-trails of Terrey Hills, the big wheels just ate up the kilometres. On one group ride, supposedly at “social” pace, one of the guys complained “Hey, what’s with the race pace?” I wasn’t pushing hard (honest!) but the sections where a 26er tends to lose momentum, such as choppy, rocky trail surfaces and sand drifts, the big hoops of the Ellsworth just floated over with relative ease. Acceleration is a little slower, but once up to speed it just lopes along with less effort required.

A diversion to the out-and-back along Cowan Trail gave a preliminary taste of how the bike coped with more technical terrain. The 34T single chainring setup on the test bike and the bigger back wheel conspired to beat me on the tricky rock step-ups midway on the trip out, but the bike felt planted and sure-footed, coping easily with the rocky drops and steep roll-downs. On the trip back, attacking the loose rocky pinch climbs with a little more gusto saw me clear them with confidence.

The Instant Centre Tracking four-bar rear suspension felt like a contradiction.  The rear suspension pedalled like it was firm in the initial travel, but absorbed the hits with aplomb and felt like a bike with more travel. It also provided plenty of suppleness to keep the rear tyre in contact with the ground on technical climbs, without the sensation of effort being absorbed in power-robbing suspension bob.

The next test was on the iconic Manly Dam loop. Last time I rode this on a 29er, fork and wheel flex memorably shot me off-line though the rocky step-downs near the hydraulics lab, forcing a rapid unplanned dismount to avoid a crash. On the Ellsworth Evolve, the 15mm through-axle and stiff stanchions of the Fox TALAS 29er fork dispelled any concerns about steering accuracy. While a 100mm fork is recommended, I felt the 120mm on the test bike matched the rear end perfectly, and after a couple of flirtations with the 95mm travel setting, I left the fork at full travel for the remainder.

Winding through the singletrack required a little more body English than my 26er, but this is no bad thing and the increased stability and cornering traction was confidence inspiring. I had no hesitation in charging straight through the multiple technical descents the first time around on this bike, which with hindsight I find remarkable.

The Trig Track section, which is a tricky segment comprising non-stop baby head sized cobbles followed by a couple of hundred metres of step-ups and awkward rocks, was easier to negotiate, and with noticeably less effort.

One consequence of the longer chain stays is that lofting the front wheel over rocks and obstacles requires planning your moves earlier and shifting your weight further over the rear wheel, but this is something the rider readily adapts to. The roots and rocks that I didn’t quite clear, the big wheels just ploughed over.

After 8 weeks of exploring the trails with this bike I was not looking forward to giving it back, I was having that much fun. The 34T single chainring was fine on most climbs around my area, however with a 22 or 24T granny ring option this bike would have been almost impossible to resist.

Unfortunately, for me, there was one deal breaker that meant an application for funding to the Minister for Finance was off the cards: it is not possible to fit a drink bottle holder within the frame’s front triangle. There are bottle cage mounts fitted to the underside of the frame, but way down there is not only difficult to reach safely when riding at speed in the rough, the bottle is exposed to trail muck flicking up off the front tyre, including the inevitable horse poo around my local trails. A seat post triathlon cage could be used, I suppose, but then a dropper seat post is no longer an option and the bottle is still exposed to material spraying off the rear tyre.

I asked the manufacturer’s representative about this, and they said “it was not a concern for North American riders”, but I’d expect this decision is an issue for a large proportion of the Australian and Euro cross country and trail markets where the Evolve naturally fits. A Camelbak is not a complete substitute, as anyone who has loaded carb mix into theirs has learnt the following weekend when they discover black gunk growing in the bladder, tube and bite valve.

This isn’t going to bother everybody, though, and just how easy the Ellsworth Evolve 29er is to ride became clear the weekend after I gave it back: my much-loved 130mm travel 26er Cannondale Rize felt sluggish to pedal,  disturbingly twitchy, and unstable while barrelling down the Heath Track fire road descents in Sydney’s Cascades. It will be a while before I’m quite so quick to judge a bike on first impressions again.

Likes
Sweet and lively handling dynamics
Easy to ride and pedal
Fast and surprisingly good fun!
Surefooted feel on the trail
Handled a variety of different conditions superbly, without ever feeling either out of its depth or like “too much bike”

Dislikes
Lack of practical provision for  water bottle mounts is an odd choice for a cross-country mountain bike.

Ellsworth bicycles are imported by Paksport and you can ask your local bike shop or get in touch with Paksport directly (www.paksport.com.au). Pricing at date of publication:

X9 Build: $5649
Headset: cane creek 40 series
Stem: syntace f149
Bar: syntace vector alloy
Grips: Ellsworth odi lock on
Post: syntace p6
Saddle: WTB Rocket V Ellsworth
Wheels: Stans No Tubes Arch
Tires: Rubena Scylla /Kratos combination
Drivetrain and brakes: all SRAM x9
Fork: Fox Float (TALAS +$250)
Shock: Fox RP23 Kashima Coat

XT Build: $6249
Headset: cane creek 40 series
Stem: syntace f149
Bar: syntace vector carbon
Grips: Ellsworth odi lock on
Post: syntace p6 carbon
Saddle: WTB Silverado to Ellsworth
Wheels: Stans No Tubes Arch
Tires: Rubena Scylla /Kratos combination
Drivetrain and brakes: All Shimano XT
Fork: Fox Float (TALAS +$250)
Shock: Fox RP23 Kashima Coat

29ers have been on the fringe of the mountain bike scene for a few years, now they are almost mainstream – all of the big MTB brands have 29ers in their 2011 range. These big wheeled bikes have been the subject of vigorous discussion recently on the BNA Cycling Forums. Between steel, aluminium, titanium and carbon fibre, the Frame Material Wars seem to have had a temporary ceasefire, though no armistice has yet been signed. And belt drive is still so new that most people look at me blankly and ask “What did you just say?”

So when the chance to review the Spot Rocker came, I was excited. It was going to answer a lot of questions. Would steel actually be real? Would the 29″ wheels just roll over anything in sight? Would the belt drive go the distance, or would my legs win? Would singlespeed rule over gears?

The Bike
It’s immediately obvious the Spot Rocker is not your run of the mill mountain bike. Firstly, the bulky frame tubes we are all so accustomed to seeing are missing. In their place are relatively slender tubes reminiscent of the days of old when steel ruled the roost for frame construction.

Secondly, the wheels: they’re huge. The proportions made the Large frame size I rode look like a Small. Next to our 26″ dual-suspension bikes and my 700x23c commuter, and it was enormous. My teenage son dubbed it “The Horse”.

The usual crowd of chainrings on the front and the forest of sprocket teeth up the back are? missing. No derailleurs either. In fact there isn’t even a chain.

In the place of the usual whirligig of gears is a simple Gates Carbon Drive toothed belt. No sharp-toothed cogs, rather ‘sprockets’ that seemed to be half air, these gaps grab the ‘teeth’ in the belt itself. The belt drive was probably the most controversial component on the bike, a couple of fellow riders speculated about higher friction levels and a skipping drive train under load. Trail testing would soon tell the truth on those claims.

Belt drives pose special challenges to frame builders: it is not possible to break and rejoin belts like we are accustomed to do with a chain. The Polyuerathane and Nylon compounds of the belt cover carbon fibre bands that run the length of the belt. The Spot overcomes the difficulty of a non-breaking belt with a neat and strong bolt-together joint at the junction of seat and chain stays, on the drive side. Removing the rear wheel to change a tyre is also much simpler than on chain-driven single speeds with rear-facing dropouts. The Spot has vertical dropouts that integrated with the belt tensioning system and the disc brake calliper mounts.

A benefit of this arrangement is that regular external bearing cranks can be used. On the test bike Shimano LX were fitted.

On the Truvativ Noir Low-Rise carbon handlebars were a pair of Avid Elixir brakes and a lockout lever for the fork. A very nice Rockshox Reba 29er dual air fork performs the front suspension duties providing 100mm of plush travel. The handlebar fitted for the test was a light and stiff Truvativ Noir low-rise carbon unit, mated with Spot’s excellent infinitely height-adjustable stem. Grips are blue foam ESI Chunky Silicone and a FSA SLK carbon seatpost and white Selle Italia SL saddle looked after the back end.

The Ride
On the first time out on this bike the immediate sensation was of being perched up high, instead of being “in” the bike and part of it. The combination of 3″ larger front wheel, riser stem and riser bar felt a little awkward. While this upright position was great for descending I found it unsettling when the track got twisty, and it affected my confidence negotiating fast direction changes and selecting the line through slow tricky technical trail sections.

The first attempt at the rocky roll-down near the Manly Dam Hydraulics Lab resulted in getting way off line and what must have been an amusing-looking over-the-bars clipstack.

Flipping the stem dropped the bar down and the bike immediately felt more balanced. A flat cross-country bar would have improved handling even more.

Despite the Crossmark tyres being a poor match for the wet and greasy conditions, the Spot Rocker performed well in the corners, the longer tyre contact patch that the larger wheel generates providing more grip than I expected.

This extra grip was particularly noticeable on the climbs. As the gradient steepens, you no longer have the option of sitting and spinning. With a singlespeeder you must stand up out of the saddle and grind. Normally this translates to instant wheelspin over loose rocks and dusty hardpack. Though with the Spot Rocker it just seemed to catch traction again, after spitting out the occasional rock, and keep going. Locking-out the fork with the handlebar lever became second nature whenever the track tilted upwards, and I found myself flying past guys on geared bikes as I sought to maintain momentum and a sustainable cadence. The big wheels just flowed over the bumps.

Of course this soon cames to an end about a third of the way up Manly Dam’s Heartbreak Hill. It doesn’t matter how strong you are, with a singlespeeder you will eventually have to walk some trail sections. The guys on geared bikes spun their way past, but were eventually beaten themselves by the last water bar. I caught them again a kilometre or so later at the start of the medium climb up to 19th Hole. By the time I reached the turnoff they were no longer in sight behind me, though the heart rate let me know maintaining cadence had its price.

It did feel odd at first that my thumbs had nothing to do, and I kept trying to push down on the brake levers to change gears more than a few times until I remembered that I had to spin a bit faster on the downhills and harden up going uphill.

Climbing out of the saddle with the fork locked just seemed really natural, and when necessary lofting the front wheel up onto the top of tree roots and rock step-ups happened without needing to think.

Even in very wet conditions, the belt drive worked really well. When tightened to the tension indicated on the supplied tension gauge, there were no problems whatsoever. One of the test rides was particularly wet and muddy (you will notice this on the photos). Anything caught by the belt was simply squeezed like vegemite through the holes between the cog teeth, and spat out. It spins up to speed really well, and the feather weight of the belt more than makes up for the extra rotating mass of the bigger wheels. As to extra rolling friction, I didn’t notice any.

The belt drive does require attention to tensioning. Neglecting it won’t send you over the bars or result in lost belt teeth, but the tendency of the belt to “ping” if not quite tight enough was a little disconcerting until I learned what it meant. With the supplied gauge and two Allen keys, setting tension is at most an easy two minute job before the start of the ride.

The 39/24T gear ratio was excellent for most of the trail, but it does work your legs hard on the climbs. The high demand it places on your cardio system takes some time to adapt to, and forces a change in your riding style. You soon learn to stay off the brakes and focus on maintaining momentum – which is what we should be doing anyway if we want to go fast.

The Spot hub and freewheel had a quick takeup which came in handy when ratcheting over technical trail sections.

The combination of steel frame, big wheels and carbon seat post I loved. It really took the sting out of the trail bumps, and it just ate up the rock garden section of the Wakehurst Parkway singletrack as I reeled in a couple of guys in dual-suspension 26ers.

The Rockshox Reba Dual Air fork was smooth with great small-bump compliance. The thumb-operated lockout was convenient, removing the need to take a hand off the bars and feel around for a lever on the fork crown. The fork however is somewhat flexy, the combination of big wheels, flexy stanchions and 9mm quick release axle had a noticeable impact on steering accuracy through the rough stuff. A 15mm or 20mm through-axle fork would go a long way to addressing this and making the most of the responsive geometry.

The Verdict: One Ring to Rule Them All?
I really enjoyed myself on this bike. Far from being a retro eighties throwback thing, I can see that steel frames have a firm place in the current market and I found the ride qualities very attractive. So attractive in fact that – fitted with a 27 or 30-speed transmission – I can see myself getting one for enduro racing.

The 29 inch wheels offered a noticeable improvement in the rolling resistance. This was most obvious when the trail got choppy. The Spot Rocker just seemed to flow over the bumps, and climbing and cornering traction was outstanding.

The belt drive does require a little attention to accurately set the tension. On the plus side is the much lower rotating mass (no gears), an excellent tolerance to  mud, and a silent ride. Plus, you’ll never have to lube your drivetrain again, just hose it off. It makes for the perfect wet weather bike.

Does one gear rule them all? I’m not sure about that yet. With time I reckon I could get to enjoy it. The intensity would certainly push my fitness to a new level – although on my late forties legs that might take a little while. It’s a very different style of riding to what most are used to and I can see why it has such a strong following.

What I am sure of is that if singlespeed is your thing, the Spot Rocker is a great ride.

The Highlights
- Low rolling resistance in the rough
- Very comfortable ride

The Lowlights
- Needs flat bars
- Stiffer fork needed

Spot Bikes are available in Australia from Black Mountain Sports www.blackmountainsports.com.au. The Spot Rocker frame alone retails for $1695 and the bike as tested retails for $3995. A Trail-build version is available for $2995.

They also carry Carver Bikes and together with the Spot Bikes, you will find a comprehensive range of 29ers, 650B (27,5″) and Belt Drive MTBs.