gus6464

This was lost in another thread and it really needs it's own. New Topstone with single crown Oliver version of their Ocho.

https://youtu.be/mcoRzApJAcA

They basically fixed all the issues I had with my slate with this one and price is not really that bad compared to what's out there.

mstateglfr 

Front and rear suspension, but no dropper? Gotta hit that price-point, I guess.
Seems like if any bike in this wide ranging category is begging for a dropper post, its this.

Metieval

Droppers add weight...

I am pretty sure the entire point of the Kingpin, and Lefty is to Save weight and have suspension front/rear be it real/or fake....

this isn't going to be your 26 lb bike. HELL I don't even run a Dropper on my Lefty Scalpel! and I can guarantee you I do far more with the Scalpel that begs for a dropper than I would with this Topstone.

trailangel

mountain Bike with drop bars.
Just doesn't look right.

thehammerdog

love it
a proper slate

Steve B.

it's pretty and all but there's no way I would buy one. Shock fork that doesn't, as far as I'm aware, have any beneficial features over a standard 2 stanchion fork but now requires a proprietary hub, etc..... Ditto the rear end as well as a wheel that needs to be specially dished to work on this dropout. That's a PITA when you get a 2nd set of wheels as you need a shop to re-dish.

I just don't get the point.

Metieval

apparently the last Lefty was too stiff, so they made a new lefty. I love the last Lefty!!!!

as far as redishing a new wheel, yeah well Im not going to replace my cables anymore until they break mid ride, because adjusting anything on my bicycle is just too much work.

faulker479

Would you mind sharing what issues you have with the Slate? Honestly curious to see what other owners feel/felt were its hangups.

I was at my local shop on Wednesday and a guy was getting fitted for GRX one you have pictured above. To be honest, the paint scheme looks way better in person.

GrainBrain

Would be cool, but I don't think I'd have bought it. The fork is a kilo heavier then the rigid fork. I think the single arm design would work well by not binding as easily. Also they used needle bearings instead of bushings. It's supposed to have awesome compliance and be really smooth, specially tailored for gravel. I saw a review where the reviewer thought it was the best implementation of front suspension on gravel, besting Lauf and Niner.

gus6464

Sure.

1. Sizing was hot garbage in the larger sizes because they had to accommodate 2 sizes with 1 size oliver
2. Dual crown and headshock 1.5" throughout headtube and the 1.5" stems were a pain to get so I did the Project321 1-1/8" steerer tube conversion
3. A lot of cash for an aluminum bike even though it was their top of the line aluminum
4. Post mount fork with a flat mount frame
5. Tire clearance extremely limited and even though a 650x47 tire fit there was almost no clearance when using it so if you were planning on doing a lot of real offroad 650x42 was your only option

ArchEtech

I looked heavily on getting a Slate but talked myself out of it because of the maintenance required on the fork and after talking to a couple of local people, for whatever reason the skates suffer from issues with cable routing and being really hard to tune for smooth shifting. With that and the propriety fork, I ended up looking at something else.

I still really like the form factor and the looks of the lefty especially now with the rear suspension too. It will be good to know how these perform.

I contemplated a superX with a lauf fork but ended up with a Warbird and a lauf fork. The weight, function and zero maintenance of the lauf is hard to beat.