2011 Morewood Makulu review article

First Impressions of the 2011 Morewood Makulu

Rider Overview


I’m an intermediate-aggressive downhill rider coming into my fifth full season. The Makulu has been tested on 140,000 vertical feet of fast flowy and rugged singletrack downhill riding in Kelowna, Kamloops, Merritt, and Vernon, and at Silver Star Bike Park. The riding has been done in a short space of time, focusing more on shredding and having a great time on the bike, with little desire for detailed suspension testing and tuning. That process will be the next step of my life with the Makulu.


Fit for Purpose

The Makulu is a downhill race bike. If you’re looking for a cushy DH sled, this isn’t really it. If you’re looking for something couch-like to soak up the rough gnar to make your furrow easier, smoother, and more comfortable, I would suggest this isn’t the bike for that purpose. It needs to be fed an aggressive diet of speed, challenging terrain, and vertical to make the most of all that gravity offers us. As for any full DH race bike, if you don’t have the trails to provide a feed of gravity and technical challenge, you won’t be able to make the most of what the Makulu has to offer. Speed is it’s friend.


The Makulu is part of the new breed of DH bike, leaning towards a longer wheelbase, a solid efficient pedaling platform, and very low centre of gravity with a very flat and long “squished” feel to it – long, low and slack. The medium has a wheelbase of 46.5”, chainstay of 17.25” and head tube angle of 64 degrees. I found the sizing to be very comfortable for a 6’ rider on a medium frame, however I do like a compact, but not cramped, cockpit.

Build


Custom build by Sovereign Cycle, Westbank, BC, using a Cane Creek Double Barrel, Mavic 823’s, Hope hubs, UST Minion DHF’s, X0, Saint cranks, Formula The Ones, SDG post/seat, 2010 Boxxer World Cup, Point One pedals and direct mount stem, and ENVE carbon bars, weighing 37lb 12oz.

The Technology


Morewood is based in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, and comes with a ten-year pedigree of rapid technical development though rigorous rider testing and constant product R&D. The Makulu has developed rapidly since being launched, and the 2011 model has received a few tweaks. The top tube is now straight, adding some structural integrity (apparently WC racer Mitch Delfs broke a couple of the old design) and is now shared with the Makulu’s 7” travel little brother, the Kalula. The suspension has been made more progressive, helping avoid bottom out and creating a more responsive feel to the ride. The frame now has a new decal design, with clearcoat laid over top, making the product more resilient to your typical shuttling, uplifting, crashing, and general wear and tear.


The Makulu has 8” of travel with a single pivot linkage driven suspension, SPi2 or “Stable Pivot Interface” linkage system, a very simple arrangement of rocker plates and pull system, using refined pivot caps to eliminate the need for a pivot axle by incorporating them into the cap itself. Morewood’s unique selling point is low leverage ratio suspension (2.3:1 for the technically minded). This system prevents changes to the wheelpath meaning that despite having a linkage, the frame is still single pivot, with the link simply manipulating shock rate. Lama Cycles of Quebec are the Canadian importer/distributor and they stock all of the small parts required to keep a Morewood owner riding, with shipping times of a couple of working days out to Western Canada. Warranty is one year unlimited, and two year limited, for the first owner

The Ride Experience

The bike is very stiff, as any race bike should be. You can feed the stiffness in the back end the first time it gets opened up on a rough fast technical line. A trail bike, this is not. It does a couple of remarkable things. Firstly it remains stiff when needed, for example when getting a bit wild and needing a little extra edge to keep you on track to hold a line. Yet when the suspension needs to be more forgiving and veer towards a natural plusher feel, it seems to deliver that too. I can only describe the feel as “naturally adaptive” in terms of the suspension adjusting to the speed and terrain and the amount you are pushing towards the limits of the bike or rider. I found that I could either pick a line and hold it confidently with a fair amount of rider input, or stay loose and let the bike choose the path through rougher lines. Either approach works, but I tested both techniques in a fast section with chunky baby heads scattered everywhere coming into dry off camber roots with a large precarious tree perched aside the trail at an off camber left hand corner, and the latter technique seems to require less rider input and effort, holding a nice natural line, and seems to get the best from the bike.


The Makulu tracks terrain tremendously well. I’ve tried a couple of suspension setups so far. Initially running quite a lot of low speed compression and low speed rebound (specifically LSC 12 clicks HSC 1.5 turns LSR 12 clicks HSR 1.5 turns). I found that this tracked very well in terms of jabbing and kicking at anything in the path of the rear of the bike, reacting really quickly to every single change in terrain and fighting to maintain traction at all times. Running less LSC, I wasn’t getting quite the response I wanted, and based on rider feedback I believe this would be a better initial base setup for a racer on a world cup level track (specifically tested at LSC 1.5 clicks HSC 1.5 turns LSR 2.5 clicks HSR 1.5 turns). I admit that I didn’t spend much time playing around with the Double Barrel as I’ve been having too much fun on the bike, and I’m also taking good advice from a previous Double Barrel owner who recommended that once it feels fine, don’t mess with it. My interim compromise settings ended up at compression pretty much wide open with just enough rebound to keep tracking really well (specifically LSC 1.5 clicks HSC 1.5 turns LSR 8 clicks HSR 1.5 turns).

With these settings I was able to keep traction even when coming fast into two big clusters of baby head rocks, deliberately cutting across them at 45 degrees. The back end kicked and jabbed and fought with the rocks but retained traction even though I was deliberately trying to push it too far. On square edge or dragon head rocks, I found that the back end skips around and works hard to find whatever traction it can, feeling “busy” but once I stopped worrying about what was happening at the back of the bike, it gave me a more relaxed feel and all that traction action started to feel normal. At one point I got a bit too rowdy on a fast rough line and thought I was going in a different direction to the bike into the rhubarb. Instead, the back end just snapped back into line and I carried on without much fuss. It all feels very natural and confidence inspiring. Similarly, when coming into an s-shaped high speed section where I’d normally have to slow down, the bike just gripped the ground with a fair degree of ferocity, and I was able to corner much faster through the section, demonstrating the excellent cornering ability and flat out traction of the Makulu.

Initially I felt that the bike rode quite heavy, which was odd given the build weight was under 38lbs, but this was put to sleep after a few days on the bike. The “heavy” feel was actually caused by the bike being grounded, tracking the terrain so well. Once I started to play around with unweighting and manualling over roots and rocks I very quickly found a whole new dimension to the bike. I was easily able to move over substantial objects without losing speed. That’s a new edge to my riding that will help me ride at a faster smoother more effortless pace. I had heard that the Makulu doesn’t pop very well, so maybe the 2011 revision with more progressive suspension has fixed that, since I found no problem with the bike responding well to my unweighting and popping up over things. Also worth mentioning is that the remarkable dual combination of being able to track the terrain so well yet able to manual and air over small to medium obstacles which is a big strength of the Makulu. We installed a Cane Creek 40 headset – which held up well to the rigours of DH riding and only came ever so slightly loose after dropping 60,000 feet of vert. Incidentally, nothing else came loose after that significant amount of riding, and the shock bolts and everything else stayed rock solid. The front end felt extremely light, smooth, and responsive, not at all like a DH plow bike and initially it was quite easy to overcompensate on the steering input at anything around moderate speed. At slower speed the 64 degree head angle did reveal itself with tight twisty treed sections where the speed drops significantly, but that’s a fair compromise for the extra high-speed stability a slack head angle provides. There was some moderately noticeable back end hang up on larger square edge terrain such as larger square rocks at low speeds, but this doesn’t bother me as that is a very small minority of the terrain that I ride and the majority of my riding is fast steep flowy singletrack or gravity fed bike park riding. I learned to “help” the Makulu over square edges at slower speed and after a while it just became a natural act to maintain speed. It’s worth mentioning that this hang up didn’t manifest itself at high speeds.

Initially, I was phased by the cornering on loose, flat or off camber corners. Thinking it was due to a combination of the (new to me) longer front end and slacker geometry which typically reduces cornering capability in longer slacker DH bikes, I was experiencing some front end wash out. I needn’t have worried - I just pushed down through the axle into the corner from the bars, also moving a bit more of my weight to the front. This technique worked really well and allowed me to corner much more confidently. This reinforces another point - rider position has to be aggressive on this bike to get the most of it. You can’t sit back and relax otherwise you’ll get a surprise. Similarly with smaller drops and stepdowns, I had mixed success unless I remembered to balance the rear with an “ass back” riding position to properly balance the bike. One mental note to myself is to always ride aggressively. Though I do like fast flowy jump lines, I’m not much of a freerider, but since the bike is so natural and well-balanced front to rear, I’ve found myself hitting new features just for the fun of it. On jump lines the Makulu is well balanced and plants itself on landings effortlessly and without any fuss, and the more progressive suspension design seems to help when compressing and boosting jumps to create enough pop to make hitting jumps fun.

Unlike a lot of low slung DH bikes, I found the BB height to be excellent in terms of helping me to avoid clipping rocks and roots, and this is another distraction removed from the rider, allowing them to focus on nothing but going faster. We measured the BB height at 14.5” static, which is impressive given how long and low the frame is. Actual ride height will be quite a lot lower as the suspension runs up to 40% sag, so it’s an impressive feature of the Makulu that I’m barely clipping stuff.

The bike rides very quietly, with little distraction to the rider. I was getting noise from the coil rubbing the plastic protective sleeve on the Double Barrel, but that was resolved by removing the sleeve. There was no chain slap, however we did put Velcro tape on the stays.

The Makulu pedals very efficiently, something that has not changed from the old model. It operates at around 100% anti-squat, with 19 ° kickback and 93% of brake squat according to Antonio Osuna is his Linkage Design blog. There are lots of graphs and technical data here: http://linkagedesign.blogspot.com/2011/06/morewood-makulu-2011.html Overall it’s a very efficient machine that doesn’t require much rider input to maintain speed, allowing the rider to use their strength and energy to actually go faster. It’s a cliché to say the bike pedals like an 8” hardtail, so I’ll simply say that my riding experience and the data indicate it’s a very efficient machine and I found it easy to lay down power quickly and effectively when needed or when pedaling flat sections between trails. Even when ridden on old school undulating natural freeride trails, not something I ride much of, it never seemed to suck energy out of me and performed really well despite its 8” travel and slack DH geometry.

With the low centre of gravity, it corners like crazy, a simple lean in and drop of the shoulders or elbow provides an instant reaction that is extremely responsive, effortless, and confidence inspiring. The Makulu simply loves high-speed berms, making the most of the low centre of gravity. Throw it into a series of s-shaped berms and the feeling is pure speed, traction, and fun. I found the acceleration to be very impressive, especially through rougher techy rocky rooty lines. The Makulu seems to actually accelerate through rough terrain, with no fear of getting slowed down, in fact for less aggressive riders this could be disconcerting at first and could get cautious defensive riders into trouble. Braking on a section such as a rough or rooty decline causes a minor bit of flapping and destabilization, so it’s much better to get your entry speed right and just let her fly, getting the best out of the massive shock. I'd advise anyone moving to a Makulu or similar DH race frame with serious intent of progressing from a bike that isn’t a flat out DH race bike, or from something more freeride orientated, to spend plenty of time getting a feel for just how much faster this type of bike can make you. The sense of accelerating through terrain that by rights, should be slowing you down takes a little getting used to at first but is an exhilarating feature of the Makulu and another way of effortlessly maintaining speed. Since getting on the Makulu my speed has definitely increased. What it’s revealed to me is a new requirement for an extra level of faster reaction in rapid response to new situations I wouldn’t have got into before, and that’s a great challenge to have for someone who just wants to get faster and smoother, and it’s the Makulu, not me as a rider, that is getting me into that new zone. It might be another cliché to say that like all DH race bikes the Makulu comes alive at speed, and rides better faster, but frankly it does, and to experience this is exhilarating. Rough rocky rooty lines are simply gobbled up and destroyed by the Makulu, but not in a “big plow bike” style - it seems to float effortlessly over the terrain without any loss of speed.

Quality and Durability

The build quality of the Makulu is excellent, and the translucent red is a very subtle colour. The frame comes with a seatpost clamp that is another well designed and solidly engineered feature, nothing blingy but it works really well in a functional, understated manner with excellent clamping ability. The subtle graphics under clearcoat look really nice and the pivots, linkage and mudguard all have excellent design and production quality. As mentioned everything bolts together very solidly and stiff in nature. Following a buddy into a rough section, he dislodged a 12” boulder, which I managed to brutally wedge into the bottom of the downtube. Expecting a big dent at very least, all the downtube suffered was a small gouge, testament to the strength of the bike. This isn’t a tin-can boutique disposable race frame. That huge downtube made of 6082 T6 aluminum is built like a steel girder able to absorb some serious high-speed abuse. The rear fender was tested in near-swamp like early spring conditions, and it functions very well and keeps the majority of mud, loam, and crud out of the linkage and shock. Bottom bracket and head tube were properly faced, as expected. The cables run down the top of the downtube making for a nice clean look. I added protective 3M tape in a few obvious rub areas, and I’ve noticed that my feet rub the chainstays more than I’ve experienced before.

Summary

In terms of what I was looking for, my expectations were matched 100% to everything Makulu owners said about ride feel and performance and I think all the comments taken from my significant amount of research stands up to scrutiny. All of the comments or reviews can be found online or via the vast all-knowing powers of the Google. Nobody seemed to exaggerate and all the comments from Makulu riders were spot on. Feedback emphasizing traction, speed, and acceleration were all spot on.

I think the main reason for the really good vibe and feel about the bike is that it's just a hell of a lot of fun on the Makulu and I'm stoked every time I get a ride on her. It definitely fits my riding preference for natural rugged steep rocky and rooty singletrack with an emphasis on gravity, flow, and speed. Overall I'm convinced the bike has added at least 10% to my overall speed almost immediately, just through the nature of the bike and it's design and geometry, and I can already feel the tangible progression in my riding. After just a few weeks, I'm hitting things harder, smoother, picking more challenging lines, boosting and popping over rough terrain without losing speed, and hitting new features that I never bothered with before.

Makulu Highlights

PROs
• Perfect for race and aggressive downhill applications
• Lives in the stable of long low slack downhill bikes
• MSRP of $3199 is ballpark and competitive for a high end race bike with Double Barrel shock, axle, rear fender, and seatpost clamp (Fox and Elka options are available)
• No significant suspension dysfunction or weird feedback such as brake jack or squat
• Excels and thrives at high speed in rough terrain
• Requires an aggressive riding position
• Very efficient machine
• Very stiff frame with excellent traction
• Build quality is excellent
• Subtle understated design

CONS
• Double Barrel can be difficult to tune requiring patience, time and effort
• Odd choice of 160mm rear brake mount
• Price, if on a budget
• Not really an everyday DH/FR crossover do-it-all bike (thus, buyer beware)
• Colour options are limited to red or white in North America
• Relatively rare (could be in the PRO category)
• Some hangups on square edge hits at low speed

Credit: "Rich Deakin, Morewood Makulu Rider, Rider/Ambassador for Sovereign Cycle, West Kelowna, BC, Canada"