Impressions of the Epic Carbon Comp

Dave Hauschild has been riding bikes a long time. He knows about half-step gearing. He has a penchant for steel road bikes. His mountain bike, until recently, was a 26″ model with zero suspension. I was surprised and pleased when Dave picked out a carbon Epic for his demo. Here’s what he has to say:

This bike is an eye opener. While it violates a whole ton of my deeply held convictions regarding the KISS principal, I absolutely love riding this thing. The suspension was easily tunable and has improved both comfort and traction. Technical, sketchy sections are simply easier and more fun. I can’t exactly call the bike nimble, but it does gain speed and hold it well. It allows me to bomb log bridges and drops with far less drama to my spine. The bars are a bit wider than I would like, but they do have enough pull back to still not crank the wrists at an uncomfortable angle like so many others do, and I quickly forget that I’m riding bars that wide. I tend to suck a lot of water when I ride and don’t like to have any more weight on my person that is absolutely necessary, so appreciate being able to carry two full size water bottles in the medium size frame; let the bike carry the weight, not me. How many other full suspension bikes can do this? Not only is this bike more fun to ride, it allows a longer day in the saddle before the body gives out. What could be better?

Back to Tim here: I’d been lusting over this bike since our rep brought one into the shop when they first came out. The idea of a slightly burlier, less-twitchy Epic seemed perfect. But unlike almost every other time a feeling like this hits me, I exercised some self control. I kept myself from even riding one of our demo bikes, must less purchasing one for myself.

A few weeks ago I put our demo Epic on top of my car, drove to Custer and had a wonderful time. “Wow!” thought I. “This is really something.” A few days later our demo found its way to the top of my car as I drove to Yankee. Turns out the fun time I had a Custer wasn’t a fluke. I ordered one the next day. In the time since, I’ve had a chance to hit The Maple Hill Trail, Custer (again) and the Trails at Andrews. I’ll write something longer later, but I am 100% impressed with this bike.

Mine’s pink so Dave and I don’t get ’em confused..