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SOC13: Turner Czar 29er Mountain Bike – Tech Talk & Actual Weights

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Turner Czar 29er mountain bike actual weights and technical details

Turner’s Czar 29er carbon fiber mountain bike was announced on Wednesday, and now we’ve got details directly from Dave Turner about the construction and his first use of carbon fiber.

During development, they provided competitors’ frames to their manufacturing partner’s lab for stiffness testing, which helped set a baseline. This helped the factory better understand what they were looking for, and where they wanted to improve. A few prototypes with different layups were made, and Turner set up the suspension the same across all of them and swapped bikes around between riders to get back to back to back comparisons.

“Some of the bikes were super stiff, which were very efficient in a straight line, but got torsional flex cutting diagonally across ruts,” said Turner. “Carbon’s exciting because of the tunability. The goal for me was to make something that rides well and wasn’t so stiff that it passed impact forces on to the rider, but it needed to be torsionally stiff so the wheels kept in plane when hitting off camber stuff and rough terrain.”

Rock past the break to see it on the scale and more…

Turner Czar 29er mountain bike actual weights and technical details

Being their first carbon bike, Turner says they punished it in lab testing with higher cycles and heavier loads than safety standard require. Even so, all of their rideable test samples are still in the field being ridden, even after passing EN safety testing.

Turner Czar 29er mountain bike actual weights and technical details

Lest you think this is the beginning of the end for his US-made bicycles and business, frame parts are being brought in then checked and assembled in the USA. And, he hinted there’s something else metal coming later this year.

Turner Czar 29er mountain bike actual weights and technical details

Getting the chainstays so short required a lot of back and forth with Dave Weagle. Shown above are the starting position of the bike with no sag on the left, and full compression shown on the right.

Turner Czar 29er mountain bike actual weights and technical details

Check out how close the lower yoke is to the BB shell!

Turner Czar 29er mountain bike actual weights and technical details

During compression, the chainstays move up and round the seat tube.

Turner Czar 29er mountain bike actual weights and technical details

Mounts for dropper post cable guides are on the bottom of the downtube. Not using a dropper? They’ll all but invisible.

Turner Czar 29er mountain bike actual weights and technical details

We hung our scale upside down and zeroed it, but the closeup is rotated to show the 22lb 11oz total. Pretty good considering the build with alloy Thomson post and stem, ENVE wheels and alloy-crown SID fork on an XX1 drivetrain.

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RoDe
RoDe
10 years ago

Something metal coming? Could it be the RFX at last?

Tony
Tony
10 years ago

I wish it was the RFX, but it’s probably a 650B Flux…

Eddiecycle
Eddiecycle
10 years ago

I’m hoping it’s this bike in aluminum. Anybody know if it accepts low-q cranks?

Tandumb
Tandumb
10 years ago

Another nice offering from Turner.

But “Czar” for the name? WTF, seriously?! From a US company no less. Might as well call it the “oppressor” or “the dictator”. Yeah… maybe a history lesson is in order.

erichwic
erichwic
10 years ago

Tire clearance looks minimal.

Mike
Mike
10 years ago

Maybe the name “CZAR” fits, being that the frame is no longer made in the U.S.A..

Padrote
Padrote
10 years ago

erichwic, not only that, nobody actually rides crossmarks.

ron hans erez
ron hans erez
10 years ago

22.11 with out pedals with out sealant with the most expensive element , write the cost?
write the wieght only the frame ?

K11
K11
10 years ago

having a couple made in USA bike frames, and a strong preference for high end usa products, american made xc suspension mtb frame options are becoming more and more rare.

NOTHING has appealed to me in the carbon xc suspension mtb market until this turner. classic style (not the wavy style top and down tubes). Not sold yet, but you have my attention.
(maybe USA ultra alum version?, think 2013 pre trek Klein).

Brad
Brad
10 years ago

I can’t tell – press-fit or threaded BB shell?

Mindless
Mindless
10 years ago

@K11 – Made in USA is good, made in Germany even better.

Steve M
Steve M
10 years ago

I kust dont get it. Dave T- you are paying Dave W for what? The lower pivot link does not do anything. You have a high, single pivot frame here.

Alex
Alex
10 years ago

“Pretty good considering”…

Considering what? That the bike was built up with more or less the lightest possible components, including $2k wheels? Ha.

WannaBeSTi
WannaBeSTi
10 years ago

A full suspension 29er? That’s so 2011.

Steve M.- put your bifocals on. It is clear the lower pivot is doing something…

ccolagio
ccolagio
10 years ago

hey hey hey…that aluminum post is the masterpiece model…that post is only 3grams heavier (at the 31.6) than an enve carbon post

Dan
Dan
10 years ago

So why are we ok with bushing pivot hardware? honestly at this point it seems like it was only to drop a bit of weight out of the frame. certinaly they are not easier to maintain or longer lasting in this day and age. give me EASY to replace bearings a’la santacruz or giant.

and yes I would expect it to be a bit lighter with that kind of build up as well. you are looking at a near $8000 bike here.

2Turners
2Turners
10 years ago

Technically they’re journal bearings. The advantage is that I rarely need to take apart the pivots to service them. And even if I do, it takes a hex or Torx head wrench and no special tools and about about 10 minutes. It’s much easier and require less service than skateboard bearings, especially if you ride in wet conditions.

It’s a PF30 shell.

The one thing that they didn’t go top shelf on with the demo bikes (I got to ride one) was the fork. They used the SID RCT3 rather than a World Cup. Other than that, the components were top shelf, easily obtainable, parts.

Jon @ thebikeshoptemecula

New Czar video is out!! Spread the word people!!

http://youtu.be/nYz5rPFaclY

RoDe
RoDe
10 years ago

Tony, I saw this pic on Zen Bicycle fabrications facebook page could this be a new Turner RFX?
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.493205580715038.1073741825.201329869902612&type=1

lowellb
lowellb
9 years ago

Tandumb, you come across as someone who thinks pretty highly of their intelligence, but I think you might need the history lesson. Not saying the name is particularly great, but it is certainly not inappropriate nor does it carry any negative connotation in history. A czar is a political name typically given to someone who runs an organization or sometimes special projects in the US or UK government, like the “US Drug Czar”. What is your history lesson?

Are you concerned with the similarity to TSAR Nicholas, the last emperor of Russia in 1917? But…why? Tsar vs Czar, two completely different things and even spelled 50% differently.

Strange you should throw something so smug out there without doing a simple Google search to see if you yourself know what a Czar is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czar_(political_term)

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