One of my favorite New Mexico rides is a lunar landscape northeast of Albuquerque called . The trail is mostly roller coaster, flow-style singletrack that鈥檚 stained white thanks to the gypsum in the soil. But there鈥檚 a craggy ridgeline in the middle of the ride that鈥檚 totally out of character from the rest, with a pair of rocky step-downs like a dragon鈥檚 spine, including a five-foot ledge. I鈥檇 long been told the feature would roll but never worked up the courage or the vision to try it.
Then came the 鈥攁 140mm aluminum 29er that鈥檚 made for slamming descents. I鈥檝e mastered that move every time I鈥檝e taken the bike out to try it. I鈥檝e also ridden this bike on some of the rockiest, techiest descents anywhere, things that normally entail plenty of hike-a-bike鈥攕uch as the Bugs-Molino-Milagrosa drop on Mt. Lemmon鈥攁nd the Mason FS made quick work of those obstacles, too. This bike is an excellent rock-crawler that skitters through tough trail like a mountain goat and hands out confidence like lottery winnings.
A couple of years ago, the sense in the industry was that while 29ers were great for XC bikes and hard tails, they weren鈥檛 well suited to bigger travel platforms. I actually had one major bike manufacturer tell me that because of the limitations of pairing the large circumference wheels with slacker geometry, it was impossible to make a 29er with more than 120mm (that鈥檚 five inches) of squish.
So much for that theory. Bike companies, including Diamondback, have sorted out geometries to easily integrate big travel with big wheels. Now there鈥檚 half a dozen excellent long-travel 29ers, including the ground-breaking BMC Trailfox TF01 and the , both at 150mm, as well as the with 160mm. And 140mm 29ers are commonplace.
This bike is an excellent rock-crawler that skitters through tough trail like a mountain goat and hands out confidence like lottery winnings.
What these bikes, the Mason FS included, offer is not just six or more inches of suspension, but also slacker head angles and lower bottom brackets for more confident descending. The 66.5-degree head angle mated to 60mm stem on our size medium tester makes for one of the most confident descending bikes we鈥檝e been on this year, especially with the Crank Brothers Kronolog seat post dropped.
The full aluminum construction and the (okay, we have to say it, awkward looking) Knuckle Box linkage mean the Mason FS isn鈥檛 exactly light鈥30.6 pounds to be exact. But in some ways we like the extra heft. No, it doesn鈥檛 make for the most chipper climbing, though most testers agreed it went up better than that weight suggested, perhaps partly because of the quality Easton Haven wheels. But on burly descents with big steps and drops, the weight gave the Mason a confident, solid feel while lighter weight bikes tended to ping-pong around a bit more.
Our Mason FS Pro is equipped with a SRAM XO1 11-speed drivetrain, a 34mm Fox Float fork, and Easton Haven wheels mounted with meaty Kenda Nevegal tires. It retails for $6,000. Diamondback also offers a more economical build, the Mason FS, for $3,500. With the same fork and shock and still solid SRAM X7/X9 groupo, it鈥檚 an excellent value for a great-riding bike.