2 Nov 2011

Turner 5 Spot review by Sam Bennet


So the bike. It is a DW link, Turner 5 Spot with 5.5” of travel on the rear, coupled with a set of 150 mm travel, Rock Shox Sektor Coil U-Turn forks. She rolls on a pair of Hope Hoops Pro 2 Evo Hubs laced onto No Tubes Flow Rims. I have made my own tubeless kit by sealing the rim with aluminium airframe repair tape, cutting a Presta valve out of an old inner tube leaving a bit of rubber on and winding them into the rims with the knurled lock ring. I have made my own sealant from 1 part art latex, 1 part glycol anti-freeze, 2 parts water and a small dose of Slime to help it seal larger holes quicker. More on tubeless in another blog. I run a Maxxis Minion DH on the rear and a Maxxis Larsen on the front. The rear tyre grips well under power and braking on all but the most slimey surfaces, where as the front rolls smoothly giving plenty of controllable drift on the front. Stopping power comes from a set of Hope V2s 203 mm on the front and 180 mm on the rear. The chainset is an X-Type Middleburn RS8 through Hope external BB shells, 22 inner, 34 middle and a bash guard on the outer. groupset-wise, I use Shimano XT shifters and front mech with a durable medium caged SLX rear mech. The stem and bars are from Hope and FSA respectively with the seat post and Saddle being from Thompson and SDG. Finally, Ergon grips give great control whilst reducing fatigue on the wrists on the longer days out.