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One-Month on the eXotic 29er Carbon fork & twenty6 levers

I’ve got a couple of quick impressions on some items I’m testing. Each one has been on the test bike for about a little over a month and I’ve been able to put in a lot of rides on them since there has been excellent weather here in Southern California.


eXotic Carbon 29er fork, light, stiff & strong

The first item I’m testing is the eXotic Carbon Rigid 29er fork. The bike I’m testing the carbon fork on originally came with a nice steel fork. I’ll always be thankful for that steel fork because it really turned me on to riding rigid, so much so that I did not want to go away from it to ride a squishy up front.

Now that I’m back on the rigid my love for riding rigid has returned. Not only that but because its carbon, the front end is now so much lighter and trail chatter has been reduced. I took it out to San Juan trail and had a great time riding it both up and down the singletrack. I enjoyed the climbs because the carbon fork dropped about 2 lbs off the bike and I could definitely feel the reduced weight at times. As we were resting at the top, I did think it’d be a sufferfest back to the car. Although I did suffer a little the precision & predictability of the fork more then made up for it.


twenty6 dualie levers, very purty, very effective

I’m also testing out a set of dualie levers from twenty6. These are fitted to my Juicy 7’s and they’ve been great over this first month’s testing period. I originally swapped out just one of them so I could compare the difference between the stock Avid lever and the dualie lever. After a few weeks I swapped out the second lever to make things feel the same for me because there is a difference.

I’ve even had a chance to do a crash test with this lever and they not only survived they still look great. I really appreciate that the brakes grab earlier in the lever’s pull and due to the shape, they don’t end up squeezing my fingers when I’m braking hard. With the stock levers I’ll occasionally brake so hard that I have to go from one finger to two finger braking otherwise Mr. Tall would get pinched underneath the lever. With the twenty6 levers I don’t have this problem. One finger braking, which I prefer to do, works fine.

I’ll be putting some more time on both the fork and the levers before I write up a final review. Keep checking back in for more.