Ican P8 Season One Review

[Janz99]

Its been a full season of riding on my newly built P8. I've seen a lot of interest on this forum regarding Ican bikes, mainly the P8 and P9.  I figured I would outline my build and give my thoughts on this bike since the off season is beginning here.

Build break down:
-Ican P8, large
-Ican carbon 27.5 wheels, 34mm ID, DH layup
-Schwalbe 2.8 Nobby Nic up front and Rocket Ron out back
-Manitou Mattoc Comp, 140mm fork
-Manitou Mcleod 200x57 rear shock (ends up being approximately 135mm of travel)
-Shimano XT brakes
-Shimano XT derailleur
-Brand X Ascend 150mm dropper post
-Chromag saddle

I rode just over 600km this summer on everything from XC trails, bike parks, single tracks in the mountains and everything in between. The bike rode very well and aside from a couple big jump lines in the mountains, I feel like this bike handled everything I threw at it. 

As I'm sure everyone has already read on here, the bottom bracket on this bike is low.  With my current setup its 12.75" to the center of the BB un-sagged.  It took me 2-3 good rides before I was used to how low the BB was. Many pedal strikes later I finally got the hang of it and learned to time my pedaling.  Over extremely chunky climbs I also learned to ratchet up sections where i knew the pedals would hit. After this learning curve it was smooth sailing.  The bike rips and handles well in the turns.

This was my first time riding plus size tires. Although I enjoyed them and they had tons of grip, I think the P8 with a set of 29" wheels and 2.35" tires just might be the hot ticket.  With 140f/135r travel I never felt like this bike was limited.  It pedaled great on the xc trails and handled the mountains just as good.  There were a couple large jump lines we did at Kicking Horse Resort that I felt I could have used more travel, but I attribute that to my sloppy riding style and not the bike itself. 

All in all, I feel this frame is worth every penny.  For someone looking to get into a FS bike for the first time, or just looking to add a mid travel bike to there line up, this is a great option. 

Here are a few pictures from this season:





















 

[Janz99]

Well those pictures ended up huge lol.

[carbonazza]

Well those pictures ended up huge lol.

You can edit your post, and just add width=800 in the img tag like:
[ img width=800 ]https://i.imgur.com/47jpfL6.jpg\[ img ]

** I added spaces between the ] [ to avoid the img tag to actually show the picture

[Janz99]

Thanks carbonazza!  Worked like a champ.

[carbonazza]

Great !
Did you try to compare your bike and the Trek ?
Do they share the same geometry ?

[Janz99]

The Trek is my brothers fuel 9.8 and i've ridden it many times yes.  The geometry is close but not exactly the same. I prefer the ride and handeling of the P8 over his Trek, but the difference is marginal.  I suspect if I spent time on it and tweaked the bike to my particular weight and riding style it would feel very similar to the P8. There is more gains to be had in getting better as a rider then the bike itself at this point in my opinion.

[carbonazza]

...There is more gains to be had in getting better as a rider then the bike itself at this point in my opinion.

Totally agree ! 

[emu26]

Thanks Janz.

A question for you if I may on your saddle alignment. It looks to be nose up in the first pic and fairly level in the second picture, did you level it off a bit or is it just the angle the photo was taken from?  If you didn't level it and it is actually nose up, is there enough adjustment left in your dropper post to level the saddle?

[Janz99]

Good eye emu26.  The short answer is yes, I leveled the seat some, and yes there is tons of adjustment in the dropper to angle it down more. 

The long answer is that ever since I started riding, I've always preferred the nose of the seat up slightly.  When its level I feel like i''m sliding off the seat.  Now that i'm starting to ride some more technical terrain and have hit the boys more times then I care to share, I've been slowly angling the seat down to try and get used to it.

[emu26]

Did you ride BMX or road bikes first?  I started with road bikes, actually never ridden bmx, so have always preferred a level saddle.

Thanks for the reply, I'm feeling more and more confident about pulling the trigger on V2 of this frame, just have to find the money first.

[Janz99]

I started out with BMX's in my younger years, though I was never all that good at it. 

[Bos]

Great post. Thanks for sharing.

If you dont mind I'd like to share my experience with my P8.
I got my P8 last year March, and I've only recently got it dialled.. But almost a year down the line I am very glad I took the plunge(my first chiner frame)

I first rode the bike as a slightly more heavy duty 29'' XC bike with a 2012 Revelation fork set to 120, and a RP23 Rear shock(firm tune) and lightweight wheels.
The ride was quite harsh (previously rode an Alu bike) but probably also due to the firm rear. However the geometry was a lot more confidence inspiring and I quickly started dining up my rear rim. In the trail mode the bike was still plenty fast enough to ride up hills fast.


I currently have a Fox Float DPS EVOL (200x58mm), with low compression tune, which is mega plush and ground hugging. It matches my Formula 35 fork set to 140mm perfectly, as you'll go far to find a smoother and supple fork. I'm running 2.35's on 30mm ID rims and I'm now very happy. Not sure of the overall weight but probably around 13kg. Its my do it all bike at the moment although I dont do much long distance stuff currently.

With the 140mm fork the HA' sits bang on 67DEG
Seat angle is way slack, and I've had to slide my saddle forward all the way. Thats probably my only real issue with this bike. Climbing is only done in the middle setting on my rearshock) In full open the extra sag going up hill makes the bars even higher and the front hard to control going up steep pitches.
My Water bottle rivets has also came loose, and I'll eventually replace them. After a shuttle day at a local bike park where I cased many - many jumps and landed pretty harshly on a road gap (I did 7 runs) the rear got a creak which had me wondering, but I figured It was time for a grease since I've given the pivots no TLC since I built it, and Its now silent.

So all in all I couldn't be happier. I got a Light and capable frame with geometry that is up to date enough for me, and I paid less than what a new Fork would have cost me.

[Bos]

Here's a photo