Old 11-19-16, 03:11 PM
  #7  
gsa103
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: SF Bay Area
Posts: 4,401

Bikes: Bianchi Infinito (Celeste, of course)

Mentioned: 19 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 754 Post(s)
Liked 104 Times in 77 Posts
Originally Posted by FrozenK
I disagree. That Hal bike looks like yet another generic catalog frame. Based on what BD has done until now, that is the most likely scenario. It isn't on Kinesis website, so probably a different supplier.

Maestro is a really good suspension system that Giant has been developing since 2005. I have ridden Maestro bikes -wife owns one- and the suspension is a great performer.
I'm sure it's a fairly generic frame. But the Specialized FSR patent expired about 3 years ago, so just because it's generic doesn't mean it can't have a sophisticated linkage design. They're using the same shocks as everyone else.

Basically, everyone has converged on a few successful suspension designs, Horst link (FSR, etc), VPP/DW-Link (Santa Cruz, Giant, etc). Trek's ABP design is essentially an FSR with concentric pivot. Yeti is the main exception, with Switch Infinity. Within that design space, there's a fair bit tuning over the leverage curve, but that can be done in an Excel spreadsheet. I would guess that the HAL linkage take a very middle of the road leverage curve, since it's probably a generic design. The HAL bikes get good buyer reviews, but don't get reviewed by major publications. Will it be the best bike, unlikely, but for the money they're excellent value.

Back to the OP's case, I'd probably buy the Giant and bank the ~$500 to use on service and upgrades/accessories (dropper post, pads). If the OP is comfortable doing some of his own work then it's a solid value. If the OP is going to need a LBS to do everything, then buying new suddenly becomes a much better value (suspension &shock service typically runs ~$200).
gsa103 is offline