Secondhand Postilions – A Used Mountain Bicycle Review Series (Part I)

About The Series

Dave Smith - a long-time photographer of the local dank, dark, damp, and dreary mountain scene - told me that one piece is a feature, two is a coincidence, and three is a series. He also made the excellent suggestion of naming this undertaking “Raising Other Peoples’ Children” which is what it can feel like sometimes working on a well-used bike. Cy told me that if it becomes a series, he’ll artwork up a cover image for it. So here we go, threepeat or die trying.

Part one, write about writing about used bikes. Part two is a first-look style piece on my Spire build. Part three, review the Transition Spire as if it were any other test bike brand new out of a box, even though it’s not. Then, it’s down to pitching other brands to provide a used frame or bike to keep the process going. Preferably something with some provenance behind it. You know, something like “This was the IT person’s rig after <<pro rider’s name goes here>> was done with it, but we traded them for the new one with an HP+I* suspension setup so you can talk about how great our last generation of bikes was and how awesome the performance vs. price ratio is picking up a used one in good condition instead of buying our latest and greatest.”

Okay, so clearly there may be a small flaw in my plan as the laws of specification and diminishing returns collide such that some brand’s newest models have riding or design characteristics, kinematics, or complications that could make them potentially less enjoyable to the average potential owner. What bike company wants to hear about how good their previous generation product is when the new-new doesn’t stack up?

*HP+I = High Pivot and Idler

Anyway, everyone in my echo chamber who I’ve bounced this series off has come right back to me saying it’s a fantastic idea. Ha. But I’m a bit skeptical about support from brands. I’m going in material agnostic – aluminum, steel, or carbon are all fine – but I think there needs to be a clear focus on bikes that are generally, genuinely, good options for used purchases.

What are some red flags that would prevent me from taking on a used frame? If I need to customize my bearing installation tool to swap in new fidget spinners, that bike is out. If I need a proprietary tool that any random mountain bike shop wouldn’t have on hand, that bike is out. Proprietary shock that runs the risk of not being supported going forward? Out. Heck, if I need four hands and an endoscope to work on the thing, that bike is out.

What are some green flags? If you’ve never checked out Transition’s Support Page, it is worth a visit. Select your model, including a deep archive, and then you can see the whole catalogue of frame parts, and even purchase them directly if you prefer. For example, here’s the small parts list of the 2021-2024 Spire model I’m riding. Need a cable holder, geo-chip, or a fresh main pivot axle? It’s all there.

View the 4 images of this gallery on the original article

Why the Transition Spire?

When I think of used bikes my daughter’s Early Rider 20” always comes to mind. Thanks to the raw finish, from a few feet away the bike, now ridden by my nephew, looks fresh. But get up close and personal and it’s easy to see the hundreds of hours of trail riding it has endured.

Unlike a protective film, a raw finish doesn’t hide anything about a bike’s history. This, at least, thrice-owned Transition Spire alloy doesn’t try to hide its scars and wrinkles, but it looks wizened not roached. Let’s be clear, it was a bit roached. No amount of reconditioning was going to un-seize the main pivot bearings, they were essentially solid circlets of oxidized steel. It wasn’t lightweight, to begin with, but now it’s weighed down by half a jar of waterproof grease.

Now the bearings that needed to be serviced are spinning (or at least indexing less) on fresh grease, the seized main pivot bearings have been replaced, and there’s fresh cable and housing for the dropper and drivetrain. The Spire arrived as a frame & shock, so it’s wearing all the parts off my Marinster Truck. It’s not unlike, to hit at the theme here, any number of friends who’ve bought a used frame and moved over as many of the parts from their current bike as possible.

This Transition isn’t the first bike in a series because it has a raw finish or due to the simple suspension layout that’s mechanic-friendly to work on. Heck, they had me at external rear brake routing. Those are all great features as is the long seat post insertion (I can fully bottom the 170mm Crankbrothers post in the large frame), and the straight ZS56/ZS56 headtube that’s friendly with a wide variety of reach and angle adjusting headset products.

No, as it goes this is a proof-of-concept. My dream for some years was to go beyond talking about used bikes to write reviews about them. They could be previous-generation platforms that are a teensy-weensy bit less long, low, and slack than what’s currently on shop floors. They could be models like the Spire that have been around for a few seasons (this is a 2021 model) but are so dialed geometry-wise, that it’s hard to imagine the next iteration being better for most riders.

This bike notably belonged to both Julia and Cy previously. Before that, it belonged to a lumberjack, or maybe a fisherman, who traded it to Cy for a downhill bike, or possibly for a painting of a downhill bike, or maybe a limited-edition Wildstyle hand-dyed cycling jersey. In short, this project only makes sense if a physical, used bike was associated with it, and this frame was available.

More Spire Talk

So, after Cy won this frame in a yodeling competition with three lederhosen-clad Ferndaleians and then Julia took it off him in a high-stakes game of pinfinger using a hydraulic brake hose cutter… yeah, used bike provenance is always a bit of a question. I’d never expect to buy a used rig and not have both the fork and shock serviced, and to have whatever frame bearings need to be replaced, replaced. In my case, the Trunnion bearings will need to be replaced before summer’s out, but the only bearings that were immediate must-changes were those seized 6903 MAX bearings in the main pivot.

With a used bike I'm looking for a minimal number of potential issues, so maximizing micro-adjustability isn't desirable in the way it might be with a brand-new rig sporting full warranty support. It helps that the Spire already has longish chain stays, and there’s the aforementioned ZS56/ZS56 headset for folks who want to change Reach or headset angle but can just run a regular old press-in headset for folks who can’t be bothered.

The only built-in adjustment of note is the High/Low geometry chip at the lower shock mount. The low setting slackens the head tube angle by 0.5° and shortens Reach 5mm while lengthening Stack 5mm at the same time. Small changes but in this case, I appreciate the presence of the adjuster as the ‘High’ setting combined with my 27” rear wheel (mullet setup with a 29” front) preserves the ‘Low’ geometry, or at least hits close enough.

In addition to Dave’s suggestion, almost everyone whom I bounced the idea for this series off thought that it was a good idea, and I had some very solid suggestions for names. My friend Toucan suggested ‘Rescue Bikes - Adopt Don’t Shop’ and I suppose just like rescue animals a used bike is likely to have its share of traumas to unpack together. This one is perhaps less so since it was a frame-only, and otherwise, parts are my known old entities or review pieces like CUES and the DVO Onyx D1 SL fork.

Either way, I hope that you’re half as excited about this series as I am, and find it entertaining, informative, and maybe even inspirational. When the Spire is ready for its next-next home my fingers are crossed that another well-used, interesting, (hopefully) ultra-reliable, and easy-to-work-on frame or bike with some provenance shows up and we can keep the ride going. Just like any magazine would with the latest-and-greatest.

And yeah, it might be hard to top the history of this Spire - after all, Cy and Julia had to sword fight multiple mermaids for it – but I know from my time wrenching on bikes that some rigs make particularly excellent options for second, or third, etc., ownership.