I tried an older 5 Spot after hearing all the “homer’s” raving about them but was unimpressed, a boring ride with a quirky fit and only excellent handling going for it. Other than the change to DW Link suspension I’m not entirely sure what other changes have been made that would effect the ride but considering the more than rave reviews that this version is getting I thought I’d better go check it out. The first thing I noticed was that I felt at home straight away on this one even though it was a size too small for me. It doesn’t accelerate as fast as bikes like the Trance X and the geometry isn’t as good for climbing but how well the 5 Spot carries speed is very noticeable. Descending is pretty amazing, like faster and more agile Lapierre Spicy is how I would put it. Compared to the very similar Maestro suspension on Giant’s bikes I didn’t notice the suspension doing what it does as much, it also seems to take more to overwhelm the suspension than with the Maestro suspension, I’m inclined to blame that on a bad choice of factory shock settings from Giant than anything else. Together with the 5 Spot’s usual great handling this made it a really great bike to ride, just a shame about the price…
I was also interested to try the Nuke Proof Generator hubs as I’ve still got a nice set of older Nuke Proof carbon hubs. These newer type Nuke Proof's spin smoothly and for a long time, the freehub is very quiet, engagement is on the same level as Hope or the newer Shimano stuff and they run on sealed cartridge bearings. Apparently they share similar internal bits with the WTB LaserDisc hubs and are made by the same company so they should be great.
Merry Christmas!
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