BH Zenith 29er

Fifteen hundred bucks can buy you a fair bit of fun. That’s a big bar tab from few post ride beers and schnitzels for you and your mates, or maybe a couple of years’ worth of marathon race entry fees. That’s all well and good I hear you say, but what if you don’t have a bike to ride in order to earn that cold beer and crunchy chicken goodness, and you’re not inclined to run 100km with a numberplate zip-tied to your handlebar moustache? Hmm. BH Bikes reckon they’ve got a pretty good solution for you.For 750 two-dollar coins you could walk out of your local BH dealer with one of these things, the Zenith 29er with Shimano SLX components. She’s a bendy looking beast, that’s for sure. The kinked seat tube guarantees that you won’t get a fence lodged in your nether regions; you’ll love it or hate it. Assuming that you love it, what is this bike all about?

This is ‘first proper bike’ territory, so many of us have owned this sort of bike. It’s an alloy hardtail with a bundle of sensible Shimano parts and no fancy carbon in sight. It’s where the twinkle in the eye collides with a significant cash investment before the ensuing lifelong, full-blown MTB addiction. Bikes like this need to be durable to withstand overzealous and under-skilled manoeuvres, versatile to accommodate all kinds of riding for those with one bike, and they need to work. It’s also handy if the frame and core components are worthy of the inevitable ‘upgrade-itis’ that will occur around them.

BH is a Spanish brand that’s probably best known for their road bikes – at least within the Aussie and US markets – however they also offer an extensive range covering everything from mountain bikes to triathlon and city bikes too. In 2012 JetBlack Products formed a business partnership with BH to distribute within Australia. The distribution model isn’t typically a point of note in a bike test, but it’s worth mentioning, as the direct company connection brings BH closer than it would be with the typical big-brand and independent distributor model. It’s like having the parent brand as the local agent. This is becoming a popular model in Australia, and in theory it helps to keep bike prices sharp while also putting any customer issues directly into the eyes of the brand itself. It aids product development and reduces the likelihood of any customer issues falling into the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ basket for a brand that’s sitting safely in their office on the other side of the world. Anyone that has experienced this knows what I’m talking about, and it’s not fun.

Global Design

BH also uses their international partnerships to help them optimise their bike designs. They are not shy to reveal their allies in the mountain bike game, and you can’t blame them when you realise the calibre of hired help that they bring in. Their range of Lynx dual suspension bikes have been designed in conjunction with Dave Weagle (that’s Mr DW-Link and founder of the eThirteen component brand) to make sure that their suspension performance is top notch. They have also made use of the vast experience of Chris Cocalis (founder of Titus Cycles and Pivot Cycles) when designing and engineering their road and mountain bikes. As Spanish as BH may be, their mountain bike range has a heavy-hitting American pedigree.

The Cocalis influence is easy to spot on the Zenith frame. As a consultant to Shimano, Cocalis helped to develop the press-fit bottom bracket and direct mount front derailleur standards, and both feature on the Zenith frame. The direct mount derailleur allows BH to use the heavily kinked seat tube that forms the most distinctive feature of the frame. The press-fit bottom bracket allows for a wider bottom bracket shell, and in turn the ability to weld larger tubes over a broader area at this highly stressed junction.

Entry-level yet Upmarket

As far as entry level frames go, the Zenith is a very impressive machine. BH quotes the frame as weighting 1,380g in a small size. Our large sized test frame hit the scales at 1,742g. While that’s a long way off of the expectation set by BH (even if the larger size is generously accounted for), it’s still a very good frame weight figure for a $1,500 bike. There are plenty of carbon hardtail frames that come in around the 1,500g mark, so this alloy 29er isn’t far off that sort of figure.

The overall execution of the frame again belies the modest asking price. The welds at the head tube have been smoothed out and the matte finish two-tone paint is stealth but looks fast at the same time. Whilst common enough these days, tapered head tubes don’t always appear on bikes at this price level. BH comes to the party here as well—between the tapered steerer, press-fit bottom bracket and the direct mount front derailleur, the Zenith has most of the modern ‘standards’ covered. Moving back from the head tube, you’ll notice a long and low top tube; this gives the Zenith a racy appearance and keeps it out of the way on the trail too.

The back of the Zenith is where the engineering action is really happening; it’s a veritable New Year’s Eve party of hydroforming and forging. To start with, the chainstays are angled and vaguely oval in their profile—they are quite unlike anything that I’ve seen before. Whilst they could easily go unnoticed by the casual observer, a great effort has gone into simply shaping these two tubes. The seat stays are more of a traditional round tube, but they take an hourglass path from the dropout to the seat tube, and only meet at the seat tube itself. The stays are slightly flattened at some points; most likely in an effort to reduce sideways flex whilst encouraging vertical flex.

And how about the junction between the chainstays and seat stays—wowza! The dropouts are chunky and curved with the disc mount integrated directly into the left-side—from a few steps back you’d swear that this must be a carbon frame due to their shape. Of course it’s all-alloy but the profile of the drop-outs is formed through forging. This makes them very strong and really adds to the clean appearance of this bike. It’s also worth mentioning that the direct-mount for the brake calliper is very well executed, allowing easy access to the mounting bolts—something that often presents a problem on bikes that mount the calliper inside the rear triangle.

Finally, we can’t avoid discussion of that tube. Yes, the curved seat tube. The kink creates more clearance for the tyre before kicking back to get the seat tube behind the bottom bracket, ensuring that the rider still winds up in the correct seated position. This design avoids having the raked-back and artificially slack seat angle that we are seeing more of on 29-inch bikes these days. With the BH execution, adjusting your saddle height has less effect on the overall fit of the bike. It makes sure that long-legged riders won’t wind up with their saddle placed too far back, as is often the case with 29ers that run an artificially slack seat angles.

There is a downside to this seat tube however. By bringing the lower portion of the seat tube forward, it’s not possible to fit a bottle to the seat tube without it interfering with the traditional down tube-mounted bottle. Only one bottle cage can be attached to the Zenith. This mightn’t pose an issue for trail riders but serious MTB marathon racers will want the option of two bottles on a light XC hardtail and I found this deficiency very hard to reconcile. Sure, a $1,499 hardtail isn’t aimed at top-level marathon racing, but the Zenith is a very capable bike and there’s nothing to stop an up and coming rider using it as their go-to marathon bike—they’ll just need to do so with a hydration pack rather than having the option of running two bottles.

Rockin’ Ride

The Zeinth rolls over the trail with an ease that will seem unimaginable to those thinking back more than two years to their first decent mountain bike. Despite the efforts invested into the actual fabrication of the frame, the geometry isn’t excessively radical and the ride is very smooth for an alloy frame. The 70-degree head angle is pretty much in the middle ground for a modern 29er; it wards off that ‘over the front wheel’ sensation that earlier generation 72-degree head angle 29ers often suffered. Their seat tube contortion efforts have paid off with comparatively tight 435mm chainstays (although the small size is a bit longer at 440mm). This is 5-10mm shorter than most other alloy 29er hardtails and helps to keep the total wheelbase length in check.

On the trail these figures produce a bike that’s confident in twisting singletrack and manageable without being daring on the descents. The top tube on our large test bike was 620mm long and the seat tube is a compact 480mm. You sit up high in the saddle with a long top tube stretched out in front of you. The head tube on the Zenith is a touch taller than many competitors but removing a few headset spacers and sticking with the standard flat handlebar creates an ideal all-day riding position.

The first ride on the Zenith required a seatpost swap as the supplied 350mm post was a touch short for me. After a few hours it was also clear to me that the supplied stem was too long. Our test bike came with a 110mm long stem. It has modern graphics but the length is from mountain biking in the early 2000s. The long stem had the effect of slowing the Zenith’s steering, and it felt awkward as a result. I swapped to an 80mm stem and the Zenith transformed into the bike that I’d hoped it would be. Long top tube, short stem, wide bar—bring it on!

In this guise the Zenith zips through turns and happily pops the front wheel over logs. The long top tube and big wheels still keep the rider in the middle of the bike, which eased me into an ideal marathon riding position. I really felt that the Zenith wanted me to sit down, man-up, and keep pedalling until I ran out of trail. With an extra water bottle and a higher-end parts spec, there would be nothing to stop the Zenith from having a red-hot go at some seriously long and fast marathon races.

There are two variants of the Zenith available in Australia; the Shimano SLX version as tested and a SRAM X.0 mix for $500 extra. The SLX spec is a little misleading as the only SLX parts are the derailleurs. The rest of the transmission is handled by Deore-level parts and the brakes are Promax Decipher hydraulics. The Promax brakes stayed absolutely consistent and drag free but the lever feel is very wooden and lags behind the tactile experience that Shimano brakes provide.

The RockShox XC 32 fork was a pleasant surprise for this spoilt bike-snob. An adjustable air spring with a rebound knob that actually worked meant that the fork could be tuned to offer smooth performance, although I did notice myself getting sore fingers on longer rides. Control over the bigger hits definitely exceeds the fork’s small bump compliance, but it always felt smooth in its action. The crown mounted lock-out made some brief commuting a much more bearable option. Fork stiffness was decent for such an entry level bike too.

Total bike weight was 12.6kg without pedals, which is commendable for a bike at this price. The fork itself comes in at over 2,000g and would be an obvious place to splash a tax return upgrade and the basic wheelset would also be a prime target if you want to get a little more ‘serious’.

So how does the Zenith fare on the first proper bike scale? With a simple alloy hardtail you’d expect the durability to be good while the drivetrain, brakes and 32 spoke wheels all proved reliable enough for proper MTB use. The versatility is reasonable too; the 29er wheels and lockout equipped fork means the Zentih can comfortably clock up some commuting miles if need be, and once off-road it’s abilities span from the weekend trail ride through to the challenge of a first marathon event. The function is defiantly there, in fact it makes me smile to think that a bike that rides this well can be put into the hands of newer riders for an attainable price. Finally, is it a keeper? The frame is a great piece of work and will definitely enable newer riders to grow their skills without outgrowing the ability of the frame. It’s upgrade worthy so long as you don’t need more than one water bottle and you like some crazy shaped tubes.

Thumbs Up

Excellent ride quality for the price-point

Frame finish, features and weight

Tuneable fork

Thumbs Down

Wooden feeling brakes

Only fits one water bottle

Polarising seat tube appearance

Specifications

Frame: Hydroformed 7005 Alloy

Fork: RockShox XC32 100mm travel

Headset: Titan Alloy Integrated 1 1/8 - 1 1/2

Handlebars: Titan Alloy flat 680mm

Stem: Titan Alloy 110mm

Shifters: Shimano Deore

Front Derailleur: Shimano Deore

Rear Derailleur: Shimano SLX

Cassette: Shimano HG62, 11/36 10-speed

Chain: KMC X10

Cranks: Shimano Deore 24/32/42

Bottom Bracket: Shimano Press-Fit

Pedals: N/A

Brakes: Promax Decipher

Rims: Alex Alloy

Spokes: Black Stainless

Hubs: Shimano

Tyres: Continental X-King 2.2

Saddle: Prologo Kapa Evo

Seatpost: Titan Alloy

Weight: 12.6kg without pedals (Large frame 1,742g)

Available Sizes: S, M, L (tested) and XL

Price: $1,499

Distributor: JetBlack Products (02) 4560 1200 / www.jetblackproducts.com