2Stage Bikes Zed8 Review

This article is by our test pilot ad boy genius mechanic Romo Kadri, who we hope to have more from soon. Views are the Romi’s own and not reflective of FreeFlow Bikes; for example I know Neil keeps insisting the new Intense 951 is his weapon of choice. Anyway, read on for an in depth review of the revolutionary two shock freeride bike the 2Stage Zed8.

One of many things that we mountain bikers rarely admit to is our constant questioning of ourselves: “What kind of rider am I?!”

Am I a smooth or heavy rider? Do I drift or stick? Do I use my weight to bomb through sections Rennie-stylee, or keep it light and floaty like Gee and Rachel? Do I throw the bike around, or do I let it do all the work; Do I hit jumps big or keep it low and fast; Do I pedal or pump to pick up speed; Do I rail the berms or cut them tight?? And on, and on, and on it goes… With all of this questioning being subconciously driven at choosing the bike or components that suit our own personal riding style to perfection, you sometimes begin to wonder; how far could I actually take this process?! After years of this, I finally met and quickly became familiar with 2Stage Bikes, and eventually decided to try something which seemed a little different. Although I was unsure how the 2Stage’s major technological difference would unravel itself down the trail, it took just one run of our infamous track at Fort William for me to realise that it was inevitable for this to be the first bike in the world that would truly blow your mind, no matter how YOU ride it.

Having worked at FreeFlow Bikes, Scotland  for over 2 years now, I’ve built, ridden, maintained and analysed a hell of a lot of bikes down to the very finest detail. We conduct these standard ‘tests’ on all new technologies and innovations we receive at FreeFlow Bikes. These are simply to ensure the respective technology’s mechanical sustainability, along with its genuine rideability that so often lies disappointingly deep below the marketing blurb it’s plastered with. Although these are simple tests, we can quickly tell which new technologies will, and won’t take off.

I was the first of our staff to notice the gorgeous 2Stage Bikes when I was doing some team mechanic work down at the 2006 UCI World Champs in my beautifully fragrant hometown of Rotorua! There, grabbing unheard-of attention, like an angel had hit the trade stands, I saw this:

Just as confused as everyone else, I spent a good few weeks trying to work out how those linkages could possibly function effectively? Still confused, and deeply curious about this unique bike, I contacted 2Stage in an attempt to fill in the end of the story. Little did I know, 2Stage were only on the second page having perfected their design, and were soon planning to expand into the UK, the Americas and the rest of the globe. Sadly, it took me almost a year from my first sight of these bikes to be straddling a 2Stage Zed8 for my truly mind-blowing first ride at Fort William. But, this beast couldn’t possibly have been more worth the wait! Even the Zed – an 8” travel freeride rig designed for that ‘all-round’ day out – was taking me faster than ever down one of the most varied and painstaking downhill tracks in the world. In fact, the 2Stage was the first ever rig on which I could be faced with the most mental looking section of track and simply want to pedal straight into it..   this bike is so confidence-inspiring from the moment you sit on it, it’s something quite unbelievable that makes even the toughest tracks so much more enjoyable; it’s so ‘easy-riding’, it almost feels like cheating.

I’ve seen so many reviews of 2Stage bikes that simply boast about how their ride handles every single track or jump-based scenario possible, but I’m not going to hesitate to boast about these yet again! So here goes:

• The Straights – If you want to take it slow, it grips. If you want to plough, pedal and sure as hell, it ploughs!
• The Corners –  If you’re a nutter of the Sam Hill variety, throw that weight forward a touch and feel the most perfectly tailored drift swipe beneath your shorts every time. Or, if you’re one to retain a little sanity like the rest of us, whether you kneel the bike in or keep it straight, keep your weight anywhere behind the ‘drift point’ and both wheels will anchor:- I promise, you’ll soon have the speed and confidence of a leopard chasing a sheep round a tree.
• The Rocks – Forget them! Huck, suck, pump, roll; whatever you like – it’ll take it on its back.
• The Roots – Keep the tyre pressure low, and 2Stage does the dirty work – just visualise that line and keep it pinned!
• The Jumps – Any pilots out there?! I’ve never ridden a bike before now that I can truly justify myself in saying: pull back to go up; keep it straight to stay level; push down to go down. Honestly, get a demo and go try it!
• The Drops – Whether it’s a step-down, gap-drop, rock-drop, whatever; you name it – you’ll be craving a huck 3feet bigger than your previous ‘max’ from the moment you turn a 2Stage’s pedal.
• The Airtime – Sailing in the wind: whether it be a Zed or Elite that you fly, you couldn’t feel more confident in the air if you tried. Now give us a suicide no-hander! It sure ain’t suicide anymore…
• The Landing – Like a blowtorch through butter; melt into that landing! Even if your jump wasn’t the most desirable on the planet, the smoothness of your landing will come as a warmly welcomed surprise.
• Everything – Just ride as you want to ride; hit what you want to hit; lean where you want to lean; do everything exactly as you want to: you’ll have the ride of your life, and the next one will be the ride of your life all over.

Because I discovered all of this about our Zed-8 and Elite-9 demo bikes during my first couple of days riding, I began to drift back to that fundamental question I mentioned earlier. But this time, it wasn’t with the bike – I was having the time of my life; it was purely the components attached to it.

Again, doing things differently, I decided that to eliminate the ‘what’s the right componentry for me’ question once and for all, I’d make an attempt to build the perfect downhill bike. I wanted to create a bike which was truly incredible to ride, no matter where it was ridden, no matter what the conditions, no matter by whom, or how they were riding.

So, being slightly clueless as to how to go about this, I put together a tonne of spreadsheets with different specs; different prices, weights and technologies. Eventually, I settled for a sort of ‘collocation’ of the mountain bike industry’s newest technologies – those of which the FreeFlow Bikes team had tried and tested to find nothing but perfection in terms of performance, weight, strength, durability, and value for money. Although I couldn’t keep my hands away from a couple of in-the-limelight components that brought weight down and kept performance up, the bike is very much standard spec. Built straight off the shelf, my custom Zed-8 with Shimano Saint & XTR Shadow drivetrain, ‘zocchi 888 SL ATA forks, Formula Oro Bianco brakes, fizik contact points and Spank finishing kit would weigh in at just over 35lbs – just 15.9 kilos, and would lighten your pocket by a very reasonable £3,800GBP ($9,865NZD).

For those of you new to donwhilling this may seem like a lot of money, but when compared to other top end bikes like the Foes 2.1 DHS Mono at £2,700 ($7,000) for the frame only, you begin to realise the value of the 2Stage; which, in all honestly, far outperforms any other top end downhill bike out there anyway. Besides, which one would you rather get dirty with?!

Okay, so maybe I did’t quite do it justice; but see below how stunning this bike truly is when built with some thought. With a few post-build tweaks, the bike is so successful that we have every intention of using this build on our Zeds and Elites across the breadth of our team for next year’s season here at Glasgow Cycles, and team replicas will also be available from our street and online retail stores along with any other build you could possibly desire. Build it well, and you’ll find it simply impossible to get bored of this bike.

Don’t believe me? You’re missing out big time.

UPDATE: You can see the 2Stage Bikes in action here: