Bike Build: 2008 Morewood Izimu
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
In today’s current market of bikes, it’s often perceived that a multi-pivot bike is the way of the future. Morewood however works on simple and proven principles of the single pivot. Cole Bangart, 2007 USA National Downhill Champion, rode a Morewood Izimu to the victory circle last year as well.
We thought it would be fitting to do a build / review on one of their fine hand crafted South African bikes. Details inside.
“With a sound knowledge of what he didn’t want from a bike and an idea that it was possible to make a strong, low-maintenance bike without the backing of a multi-million dollar corporation with the last CAD technology, Patrick Morewood sits in front of a blank sheet of paper.”
Sometimes less is more and with this build we’ve got planned for the Morewood, we’ll see how the Morewood single pivot downhill bike can hold its own. In today’s age, the single pivot bike is often overlooked, undervalued, and overshadowed. Handbuilt bikes built out of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, Patrick Morewood, Richard Carter, and Andre Van Aarde have got a stellar system running producing some true labor of love bikes. Introducing our 2008 Lemon Yellow Morewood Izimu.
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For this build / review we’ll be assembling a 2008 Morewood Izimu. With suspension technology increasing daily, the single pivot bike can be not only be more competitive against multi-linkage bikes, but offers simplicity and elegance that not only reduces downtime & maintenance but provides a connected feeling with the bike that is often lost.
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The Morewood Izimu has gone through plenty of tweaks and changes throughout the years and this year it has an updated pivot system (SPI 2 has less parts and an increased cross section to increase stiffness), a 1.5″ headset, adjustability, and increased strength.
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The rear end fits a 150mm x 12mm wheel.
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The bottom bracket shell is 73mm and features a one piece shell with machined ISCG tabs.
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The shock shuttle has three positions to tweak the geometry of the Izimu to fit your style and needs.
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The 1.5″ headset allows for more customization this year as well allowing more geometry tweaks to meet your desires.
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Morewood has got the passion that some companies lack. Their attention to detail and craftsmanship can be seen as an example of what a bike company should be doing. The frame preparation is top notch and is cleanly awaiting parts to be bolted to it. Needless to say, we’re excited to show you guys what we’ve got in store for this one. Feel free to drop any suggestions / recommendations in the comments.
You can contact Morewood USA
- Email:moreusa@morewoodbikes.com
- Phone: 1-888-MTB-MORE
[Morewood Bikes Website] [2008 Morewood Izimu Gallery]
Previous Coverage
February 26th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Love the look of those frames, one of the coolest looking frames out there imo. Love the simplicity!
No idea how it rides though.
February 26th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Morewood Bikes ride awesome! I have a 06 Shova LT and a 08 Shova ST. Both are great bikes. The single pivot design works well and is easy to maintain. If you buy one you will not regret it.
February 26th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
73mm shell with a 150mm wheel? Is thta a typo or just a bad idea for cranks and chainline….
February 26th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Should really be using an 83mm bb with 150mm wheel spacing. Also how do they expect you to run your rear brake under the swingarm and between the frame? Either you will have to re-bleed your brake, or dis-assemble the swingarm to get the cable through. Still a neat looking bike, but not something I would be likely to buy.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Shell width by itself doesn’t determine the chainline but I would agree that a 55mm - 57.5mm chainline (depending on how you measure) lines up better with a 150mm rear end.
The pivot is easy to take off so routing the cable isn’t a big deal. In any case, i’d personally rather have to take off my brake hose and re-bleed the lever in some cases than have crappy routing.
February 26th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Is that yellow a production color? Anyone know how much adjustibilty that 3-way shock shuttle has?
February 26th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Nick - No its not a production color for the Izimu.
Regarding the 3-way shock shuttle it has, I can’t recall the exact numbers off the top of my head but you can email them and they’ll let you know what they are if you really want to know.
I believe the forward most hole gives ~14mm bb, 63.5-64 headangle. Pretty much for the racer boys. The middle holes give a more traditional angles/bb height.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
The forward holes give you just under 14″ BB, 46 inch wheelbase, and around 63.5 head angle. It’s an awesome setup for racing.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
I don’t really see a problem to the cable routing, because MOST of the brakes on the market have the adjustable banjo fitting, so you just have to turn the cable a bit down and there is no problem.
and WOW that color is really nice. Too bad it’s not a prodoction color.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Could you post up a weight of just the frame without shock?
Thanks
February 27th, 2008 at 11:02 am
The frame weight info will be posted once we get the build article up.
February 28th, 2008 at 3:13 am
can wait to see the final product.
Is this going to take 6 months like the blindside, and hows the progress on the socom build going?
February 28th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Tom,
I feel your pain trust me! Its not as easy as it may look sometimes to put together with trying to do something unique for you guys.
Realistically, the Blindside was ~1-2 months off and holiday time didn’t make that any easier of getting the last few parts.
We’re not putting together build kits that you can buy off the shelf and you’ve gotten a glimpse from the Blindside build.
Deadlines sometimes get extended but i can assure you it is because we’re waiting on a custom part or something to that effect and not just randomly “oh we’ll make them suffer”!
We’re trying to bring something unique and that’s not always easy. Its nice and easy to demand deadlines be met but realistically with the resources we have available to bring this to you guys its not as easy as you might think. If you’re offering to help with resources we’d be more than interested and that will increase the likelihood of meeting dates 100%, or we could just not give any date at all and let you wonder
Feel free to show me anyone else remotely trying to do the same or try it for yourself and you’ll quickly see its not quite as easy as you’d think.
This isn’t our exclusive 9-5 job and none of you are paying subscribers. You’re essentially reaping the benefits of my hobby and goals to bring more content to the web. There are very limited ads and we feel its one of the most clean sites out there in terms of that not to mention the caliber of conent.
The Socom build will be out in early March, again due to circumstances out of our control and the Morewood is set for an April debut.
Rest assured, we’re doing all we can to make sure the content we provide you guys isn’t your standard issue press release type review, stock bike builds, etc. If that’s what you’re looking for… SickLines isn’t the right place for you.
February 29th, 2008 at 4:15 am
Just checking, because i foolishly allowed myself to get distracted from my end of year exams waiting to see the blindside, i had to see the final build to put my mind at ease. It was well worth the wait in the end and im happy to wait again.
I guess i just got impatient and frustrated, but i can wait to see what exotic goodies you put on this bad boy:D
As for the quality of this site, nothing compares to it. Your reviews are top notch and the lack of advertisements is remarkable.
February 29th, 2008 at 10:36 am
I feel your pain Tom, just thought it was worth mentioning. This one is going to be an eye turner for sure.
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:49 pm
great post as usual Mr Nixon! good job on the images too, its usually quite difficult to do colours justice, but you really have posted some top notch pics. i, as usual, look forward to seeing what you have in store for this build!
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Cable routing was designed to be hidden.
routing the cable under the swingarm is the simplest possible way to rout the cable.. the pivot pops out super easy and anyone could do it… takes me 1 minute…
March 7th, 2008 at 6:36 am
The frame’s weight is pretty low. As I understood it should set around 4.6/4.7 kg (10.1/10.3 lb) including the DHX5 shock with the standard steel spring; so, few grams more than its direct competitor, Orange 224.
March 16th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
I love the look, but i was wondering what it is made out of… aluminum or steal?
March 17th, 2008 at 12:19 am
Aluminum.
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:04 am
What size is it?
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:22 am
Large
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:12 am
Wow, i just ordered the 2008 Version (white). With the Sram Vivid 5.1, the frame will not be fully built for about 2 more weeks, taking my time with this build.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Why not build a bike with parts that are availble to the public? That way if we like what we see then we can get it!
June 25th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
All (typically 100%) of the parts we use on all our builds typically are available to the public.
Sometimes we get parts slightly before they’re available to the public but by the time we usually post it, all the parts are available to the public. We don’t want you to build a replica of our bike. We want to inspire you to build your own bike by taking cues from our build and not to mimic our build 100%.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
any progress on the build yet?
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Yea the bike has been done, it’ll be up on the site in time
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:34 pm
cool! i look forward to seeing it! any timeframe you can give me?…
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:48 am
This month sometime is the plan to get it out. Just keep checking back, it won’t disappoint any day you do stop by