Korey Pelton's Cycling Blog

Windsor Cliff 4300

Windsor Cliff 4300 Gallery

Ok, folks, this isn’t going to be an exhaustive review, and I’ve only taken this bike on one significant mountain bike ride (a better review would come after, say, 500 miles of riding or something).  But I can give you what I’ve observed so far!

First of all, here are a few important component specifications, which are the components I mention in this review.  I say “important” because they’re really the only ones I care about.  I don’t really care as much about forks, frame details, or headsets.  But, who knows, some day I might.  All kinds of hobbyists become more and more picky (snobbish?) about their hobby as they become more advanced.  :-)

• Crankset – 22/32/42T
• Cassette – 12-34T
• Front derailleur – Shimano Acera
• Rear Derailleur – Shimano Deore
• Brakes – Tektro IO Mechanical Disc
• Shifters – SunRace M30 Trigger shift

My previous mountain bike was a 2007 Motobecane 300HT and there was two things that bothered me about it:

1. It’s lowest chainring was 28 tooth and it’s lowest geared cog was 28 tooth.  Yeah, pretty sucky for climbing.
2. I have taken a liking to winter cycling, sometimes in fairly deep snow.  V-brakes get clogged up with ice and snow after a while, so I wanted to try out disc brakes.

As you can see in the above specs for the Cliff 4300, it’s got some plenty low gearing and it has disc brakes.  I was talking about this bicycle on Facebook, and the famous Alex Wetmore wrote the following reply about the Tektro IO brakes:

They are difficult to impossible to adjust so that the pads don’t rub and so that they function properly. They usually don’t have the all available adjustments to align the caliper and rotor, or don’t make it easy to adjust the pad to rotor clearance.  I’m fine with cheap v-brakes, but cheap discs are not fun.

Cliff 4300 Action Shot!

This statement concerned me, but the next price up on bikesdirect.com for a bike that comes with nice Avid disc brakes was around $550, and my price range was closer to $350.  Besides, my shopping philosophy is to buy something low-cost and if it doesn’t work out, sell it and buy the next higher-priced model.  Not everyone shops this way, but I think it has worked out for me pretty well so far.  I should probably mention that this is my fifth bicycle purchase from bikesdirect.com.  Yeah, I’m nuts.

The Cliff 4500 and 4700 were the same price as the 4300, but their rear cogsets did not go as low as the 4300.  And they all had pretty similar hardware, so I went with the 4300.  The higher models had nicer forks, but as I said above, I really don’t care about forks at this point in my cycling career.  All I need is something to soften the bumps a little, and just about any modern fork can do that for you.

Assembling the Cliff 4300 was pretty easy for the most part, except for 2 issues:

1. The 3-speed left shifter for front derailleur was defective.  It would not shift onto the big chain ring.  I completely disconnected the cable and it still just wouldn’t click into number three.  I emailed Bikes Direct and explained the issue and they sent me a new shifter with cable, no questions asked.  It arrived in 3 days.  Thumbs up for good customer service there!
2. Yes, you guessed it.  I had a tough time getting those disc brakes to stop rubbing.  Groan.  I played with them until they nearly stopped rubbing and then I gave up.  As long as the wheels spun freely with just a hint of rubbing at some points of the rotation, that was good enough for me.

Other than that, assembling this bike was a snap and everything looked good on it.

The Mountain Bike Ride

Chinese Peak

So a few weeks later, my friend Dan wanted to take me on a mountain bike ride up Chinese Peak just east of Pocatello.  Climbing the steep 3-mile trail was pretty nice on this bike.  The uber-low gear made it quite pleasant and I found myself enjoying the climb instead of struggling so much like I did on my old bike.  About half way up, however, I heard my front brake rubbing a lot on the disc.  So I stopped, whipped out my trusty multi-tool, unscrewed the brake-to-frame connector screws a little, yanked the brake over a bit, tightened the screws, and then things were back to normal.  I hope this doesn’t continue to happen or else I might have to buy some better brakes.

Soon we made it to the top and I felt good, and not very fatigued at all.  Dan mentioned that there were some steep parts on the way down the other side, but I was not prepared for what I saw ahead in the trail.  Yeah, I’ve dealt with a lot of steep downhilling; but I usual “deal” with it by walking my bike down the steep parts.  Yup, I’m downhill-a-phobic when it comes to the steep stuff.  Dan, however, merrily flew down the entire trail, steep parts and all, like it wasn’t any concern.  He waited for me down the trail about a half mile while I skidded my feet and bike down a steep section.  I felt like a goon.  Sigh.

The steep parts were near the top of the peak and soon the trail was a bit more friendly.  I started actually having a pretty good time since there were a lot of nifty little jumps in the trail, which were sometimes terrifying if you had your speed up.  Dan was having a great time while I was feeling half nervous and half thrilled; sort of like the feeling you have on a roller coaster, anticipating the sudden descents and twists.  Yeah, I think I need to practice my downhilling.  :-)

We then exited the wilderness via Black Rock Canyon and cycled home on Highway 91.  During the following few days, I was surprised that my quadriceps were pretty dang sore.   Cycling usually doesn’t make me sore any more like it used to, but I guess between the long hill climb and getting used to the new bike, I subjected my legs to some good exercise.  Anyway, stay tuned and I will be posted edits to the bottom of this article as I continue to ride this bike and see what happens with it!  I’ll also take some detailed photos of it soon for your viewing pleasure.

Update, October 15, 2010: A couple of days ago I went out in my front yard and took snapshots of the Windsor Cliff 4300 at every angle I could think of and here is the photo gallery.  Enjoy!  The bike is a little dusty from the above bike ride, but that gives it a more realistic look I think (I was just too lazy to wash the bike).  :-)  Also, in case you’re wondering, at the bottom of the gallery, you’ll see a couple shots of the bit of clothes hanger wire I used to attach the top of the rear fender to the frame.  I think I’ll write an article about that in the near future.

Update, October 18, 2010: On Sunday afternoon, I put 37 miles on this bike, half of those miles on some pretty brutal off-road terrain.  A friend and I cycled up West Fork Mink Creek and down Gibson Jack road.  I put myself and this bike through some steep grades, mud, bounced it over rocks, and did a lot of heavy cranking and braking.  So far so good!  I didn’t have to adjust the brakes during the ride this time and the bike held together fine and performed well.  Needless to say, this bike is a much better climber, and just feels better generally, than my previous mountain bike.  :-)