Getting Cozy With the Devinci Troy

I’m not a rider who always has to have the latest ride technology every season. In fact, I tend to get quite attached with my bikes. Up until this season, my main trail bike was a 26” frame with spacing so out-of-date, it was starting to get hard to find parts for it. Which isn’t to say I don’t enjoy riding new bikes, it’s just that it takes a solid season of riding to get a bike built and dialed for my preferences, and once I have it customized to my liking, it’s going to ride better than anything else out there off the showroom floor.

However, the time had come for an upgrade. Over the past few years, I’d ridden a wide array of bikes from short travel 29ers to long travel 27.5, plus, fat, and just about everything in between. While there is no one, do-it-all, perfect bike, it seemed like a mid-travel (140-ish mm) 27.5 was really the sweet spot for my needs and riding preferences. I get up to get down, so while I’m not going to clock any KOM’s climbing with a 140mm frame (nor would I without), a 140 bike seems just trail oriented enough to keep me spinning in the saddle all day. At the same time, anything bigger just felt too sluggish going up, that it wasn’t worth the little bit extra cushion on the way back down – especially in a place like Park City where most of our trails are fast and flowy. So with that in mind, I set out to find my next bike.

Devinci: The Not-so-new Kids on the Block

One such ride that fit the bill was the Devinci Troy. Devinci is a Canadian-born brand who has been building bikes for over 25 years and has quite the following north of the border. While they don’t have the same brand recognition here in the states, their bikes rip. They’ve built their full-suspension mountain bikes around Dave Weagle’s Split Pivot design, and offer a lifetime warranty on all their frames, including carbon. Devinci puts a lot of thought into their build kits and deliver some serious bang for your buck compared to other boutique brands. After Bike Mag’s Devinci Troy review, my interest was piqued, and I set out to find one to ride.

The Troy soaking in that sweet Moab desert sun.

Luckily, our friends over at Park City Bike Demos are a Devinci dealer here in town, and they had a Troy in my size. After a few days aboard, I had a feeling the Troy would be my next bike. Although it’s a bit weighty for a carbon bike, it felt just as fast and capable on the ascent as my current XC trail bike, not to mention that on the way back down it was just as capable as some of the longer travel bike I had ridden. In just about every review, rider’s remark that it descends like a bigger bike, and I certainly agree.

I have a dozen or so rides on the Troy so far, and just got back from a trip down south with the bike, in which we rode both Ahab and Porcupine Rim – two trails that are sure to test a bike’s limits. Let’s just say, I set PR’s on both aboard the Troy. In terms of technical climbing ability, the Troy is a billy goat. This is likely attributed to the Split Pivot design where the back wheel pivots forward and popping the bike up and over ledges seemed almost effortless. Turned around back down the hill, my only complaint is that I’ve yet to get my RockShox Pike dialed in, especially in regards to small bump sensitivity and high-speed trail chatter which is plentiful on a trail like Porcupine. Aside from that, the bike sucked up big hits and drops like a champ and loves to carry speed.

Why a Devinci Troy

So why pick a Troy over another bike, especially these days when just about everything on the market is a capable ascender and descender? For me, it came down to balance and fit. I can’t quite put it into words without coming across super cheesy, but the bike just fits – it truly feels like an extension of the body on the trail. The Troy is super responsive to rider input, and begs for more. The harder you charge, the more the Troy comes to life. Devinci’s Troy has that extra magic not found anywhere in the specs or on paper, but can only be experienced by riding one for yourself.

My maiden voyage aboard the Devinci Troy on SLC’s Blobsled trail. Photos by Photo John

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