Esker Smokey Ti Review: Hardcore Hardtail – Spencer Harding | The Radavist | A group of individuals who share a love of cycling and the outdoors.

When Esker Cycles released their new Smokey hardtail, initially in titanium then shortly after in steel, they proclaimed it a hardtail with “big travel for big days.” With a 160mm travel fork and aggressive geometry, is the Smokey a wildfire or does the spark not catch? Find out in Spencer’s review below…

Before we get into all the numbers and geometry hubbub, let’s talk about mugs. If you are a mug aficionado like myself, you may have found yourself frustrated at the lack of proper four-finger mugs (the kind you can put all four fingers through the handle and properly hold). Not two or three fingers, with your pinky or index finger awkwardly straining above or below the handle – I’m talking about a proper four-finger mug.

I relayed this gripe to ceramicist and bike nerd Casey over at Campandgoslow and some months later a package arrived. Inside was the most colossal mug I’d ever seen. Casey had made me a four-finger mug, but Casey’s fingers are about twice as thick as mine, so I can nearly get my whole hand through the handle. If the Esker Smokey’s lengthy headtube were a mug, it would be a four-finger mug.

When the Esker Smokey was announced, there was only one number that stuck out to me in the geometry chart: head tube length. The angles were aggressive but not uncommon in our modern era of progressive hardtails as we ride the coattails of what Chromag has been doing for years.

When I saw a 170 mm headtube on the S4/XL Smokey, I was hyped. Almost every XL mtb I have ridden has been pushing the geometry numbers, with steeper seat tube angles and slacker headtube angles, but maintaining the 120 mm / 130 mm headtube length of older bikes. I was yearning for a proper stack height on a bike and boy oh boy, does the Smokey deliver. All XL bikes should be more like the Smokey.

Smokey Bear

Interestingly, Smokey Bear is the longest-running public service announcement campaign in United States history, with its message an ever-adapting call to prevent (human-caused) fires. We all should know by now that some fire is good, and it seems that Smokey’s message has adapted to be more clear on unplanned, human-caused fires, which is great. If you haven’t read about native fire ecology, look that shit up. We don’t need to continue Gifford Pinchot’s religious zealot quest against all fires so we can harvest trees for timber (paging Robert Evans at Behind the Bastards). I’m glad to see Esker making a departure from Ed Abbey references these days. Maybe we’ll get one named after my personal favorite Forest Service mascot, Woodsy. “Give a hoot, don’t pollute!”

Esker Smokey Ti Quick Hits

160 mm fork travel
Seamless, butted, and cold-shaped 3/2.5 titanium frame
Base Build with a few upgrades (offered as frame and SS build)
~$5300 as reviewed
Colors: Raw Titanium, as it should be
Complete bike weight (S4/XL) 30 lbs without pedals

Geometry Done Right

I spoke highly of the Transition TransAm early this year and the Smokey finds itself within half a degree of the TransAm on the key angles like seat tube and head tube. The Smokey’s main departure from the TransAm is in the stack and head tube length. With the properly sized head tube, I was able to ride with the stem slammed and still have the bars level with the saddle. I usually fit at the lower end of the recommended height for XL bikes, but regularly still need ~30 mm of spacers to get my bars to my preferred height. I barely fit on the XL Smokey and I love it. If you are a tall drink of water and want a properly-sized aggressive hardtail, the Smokey is enormous.

I want to reiterate that as we see dramatically steepening seat tubes, we are seeing seemingly long reach numbers. Remember that reach is measured from the BB, so as the seat tube steepens we see a reduction in the actual size of the cockpit of a bike. Seeing reach numbers over 500 mm for XL should not come as a surprise. I don’t think we’ve yet hit the edge of this measurement’s limit as we have with headtube angles.

With a 77º seat tube angle and 64.5º head tube angle, we are looking at very aggressive geometry for a hardtail. It’s worth noting that we are seeing seat tube angles steepening ever toward 80º, but that is mostly on full suspension bikes where the suspension will slacken the seat tube as the rider’s weight sags the suspension. This slackening does not happen on a hardtail. That 77º will stay constant as the lowest value for the seat tube angle, with that angle increasing as the front suspension is compressed.

I previously wrote about the TransAm setting a new standard for what we will see in hardtail geometry, and the Esker likewise nails the geometry. The Smokey’s numbers feel like the upper ceiling of progressive geometry for a hardtail can or should have. If you want to push head tube angles a bit more, the Chromag Doctahawk exists.

We are seeing geometry inflation slowing down after the Grim Donuts and the like haven’t caught on. I feel like the industry is finding the rational limits of geometry numbers in our current paradigm of cycling. I loved the geometry of the Esker Smokey and found it playful enough to enjoy on less aggressive trails while likewise staying very composed on techy and steep trails.

Smokeying Up and Down The Trail

If there ever was a hardtail to ride on Mt. Lemmon in Tucson, this is it. I took the Smokey on my usual Bug Springs ride and unsurprisingly, it ripped. I found the steeper sections and rock gardens to be noticeably smoother than on my Ibis Ripley AF. The progressive geo and longer travel fork soaked up the chunk. I’ll go ahead and brand the Smokey The Mt. Lemmon Hardtail ™.

For a bike with such a long wheelbase and slack AF headtube angle, one could expect the Smokey to feel like a boat rowing upstream while climbing. Modern hardtails with steeper seat tube angles work in conjunction with the slack head tube angles to keep the rider’s weight centered over the bike.

I’m sure the slight weight reduction of titanium tubing helped with the lightfooted feeling while climbing. That steep seat tube angle did have more leverage on my undercarriage which started to wear on my sit bones during longer (25+ mile) mountain rides.

This is probably opening a whole can of worms we don’t have time for here, but while at Sincere Cycles one day, we sized the Smokey up against a 64 cm Rivendell. The massive wheelbase (~1300 mm) was almost the same, with the Smokey being a hair longer. The Rivendell got most of its long wheelbase from rear center, as opposed to the massive front center of the Smokey.

Two very long wheelbases, biased in how they achieve that measurement, nonetheless creating a stable ride for each of the bike’s intended terrain. We are seeing more size-specific rear centers on a few bikes as the bike industry may be reaching the upper limit of how long front center can be. Go ahead, make the comment section a battleground between retro grouch Rivendell nerds vs DH hardtail enjoyers.

Esker Smokey Ti Frame Details

The first thing anyone will notice about the Smokey Ti is… well, it’s titanium. We seem to be having the “Summer of Titanium” here at the Radavist – this is the second Ti hardtail to pass through my stable in the past few months, with many others on the team also reviewing Ti bikes. With a bike made for such burly riding as the Smokey, I could not discern any kind of Ti magic feeling, but I could feel the frame weighing 2.5 pounds less than its steel counterpart!

The frame features an updated UDH version of Esker’s portage dropout. If you want a longer rear center or to run the bike single speed, the adjustable dropouts are there for you.

Dun-dun-nuh-nah! *trumpets blaring* the Smokey has external routing (except the dropper post)! Beautifully executed, simple, serviceable external routing. Hell yeah.

The Smokey also has mounts galore. The downtube has 3-pack mounts inside the main triangle and on the underside of the tube. The seat tube has water bottle mount that did not affect the stock dropper post’s insertion. The top tube has another bottle or accessory mount on its underside. The triangle is huge – I fit two 1 L bottles in, with room to spare. You could get a huge custom framebag; go nuts.

The frame’s top tube and downtube both ovalize as they travel from the head tube to the bottom bracket and seat tube respectfully. This adds stiffness to the frame and highlights Esker’s attention to detail with their design and tube selection.

Obviously, the frame comes unpainted with a sandblasted finish. How is anyone going to know you’re riding Ti if you cover it up with paint? I’m all for raw bikes, especially if they won’t corrode.

Build Spec

Fork: RockShox Lyrik (160 mm)
Wheelset: Industry Nine 1/1 Alloy
Drivetrain: SRAM GX Transmission
Brakes: SRAM Code Silver Stealth Hydraulic
Handlebars: PNW Loam Handlebars (carbon)
Stem: Industry Nine A35
Headset: Wolf Tooth Precision ZS headset
Tires: Maxxis Forekaster/ Minion DHF tires 29 x 2.60″
Grips: PNW Loam Lock-On
Seatpost: Wolf Tooth Resolve dropper post with Esker-branded lever
Seatpost collar: Wolf Tooth
Saddle: SDG BA3 (Esker-branded)

Esker doesn’t have low-end builds for their bikes; all of their bikes are customizable, with a spread of quality parts. The Smokey Ti starts at $4500 ($4200 for SS) and goes up from there, depending on where you want to put a bit of extra money into your build.

With hardtails, I always tell people they are paying mostly for the suspension fork. The Rockshox Lyrik alone accounts for nearly a quarter of the overall price of the bike. This was my first time on a 160 mm travel fork and my first time on RockShox Lyrik. For whatever reason, 150 mm of travel has been a line in the sand that I haven’t stepped over in mountain biking.

After some consideration, I came around to the idea of a long-travel hardtail allowing me to use ~130 mm of travel more consistently instead of maxing out shorter-travel forks. I did find the bottom of the travel a few times – praise the new Buttercups for making that experience just fine. Having access to a longer range of travel on a hardtail was a gratifying experience. The Lyrik easily passes my test of being worthy of rebuilding over the lifetime of the bike. Avoid throwaway steel-stanchioned forks if you can – that is my two cents.

The upgraded Industry Nine 1/1 wheelset took a total beating during this review, with multiple rim shots front and rear as I tried to keep with the Smokey. The spokes started to creak against each other about halfway through my time with the bike. A quick trip to the truing stand found that all the spokes needed to be tightened. With that, the squeaking went almost entirely away. Even when the tension on the spokes was low, the wheel remained true, albeit noisy.

My first ride on the Smokey saw me putting a hole in the Maxxis Forekaster even with Exo casing – not a fault of the tire, but more of my newly-found ability to really rage on a hardtail. If you are a truly rowdy rider, you may consider a Double Down casing once you go through the initial stock tire.

Everything else worked flawlessly and faded into the speed-streaked background of my rides on the Smokey. The Wolf Tooth Components Resolve dropper post had an incredibly solid thwack when dropped and returned, which was satisfying and comforting. The PNW Components cockpit was comfortable with clean lines and a comfortable amount of rise from their carbon Loam bar. SDG saddles are quickly becoming something I’m excited to spend time on when they come stock on review bikes.

The SRAM GX Transmission drivetrain worked flawlessly even after I crashed the derailleur harder than I can remember ever smashing one. The derailleur barely flinched. Say what you will about UDH, wireless shifting, and Transmission, but it sure does seem to work really well. Don’t take my word for it, just ask Travis…

Stoking the Wildfire (Natural Cause)

The Smokey was a total home run for me while riding it. I kept pushing it toward gnarly and gnarlier features and it gobbled them up eagerly. I think the geometry is on the upper edge of what can remain balanced and rideable and I will sing the praise of how well it rode. The frame detailing was well thought out and the sizing for an XL was finally on point.

There is no getting around the fact that titanium is expensive, and thus the Smokey Ti is expensive. The parts spec is premium on top of that. If 2.5 pounds of frame weight is worth saving $1500, then the Smokey is also available in a steel frame. For roughly the same price as the stock Ti Smokey, you could upgrade a steel Smokey to carbon wheels if that would be your preference over a Ti frame. Both have their merits, so put your money where you would like.

I hope to see the impressive stack height of the Smokey and the proper proportions of the S4/XL bike extended to the rest of Esker’s lineup. The Japhy and Hayduke have both felt a bit small to me in the past, but that was before Esker offered a XXL. The 688 mm stack height will be my new benchmark for proper bike sizing. Maybe that’s a hot take, but I’ll risk the burn.

Who Is The Smokey For?

The Smokey is a rowdy bike that wants to be ridden rowdily, hands down. If you are finding your ~130 mm hardtail constantly maxed out and you want to ride burlier trails, the Smokey may be for you. If you are aesthetically, morally, or spiritually opposed to full-suspension bikes, but you want to ride the gnar, the Smokey may be for you. Do you have $1500 extra dollars in your budget for your next hardtail? The Smokey Ti may be for you.

I found the Smokey to be a more capable bike than my personal “short travel” Ibis Ripley AF (130/120) in all but hucking to flat. The Smokey will scale considerably with your skill up or down the mountain. The bleeding edge of progressive hardtail geometry limits me from recommending this bike as someone’s first mountain bike. The Smokey Ti has been the closest I’ve come to considering a replacement for my personal mountain bike – and with a hardtail at that.

Pros

Progressive geometry maintains a balance between the steep seat tube angle and a slack headtube angle
Handles steep and rocky descents with composure
Titanium is pretty damn cool and light
Portage dropout for optional single speed
Premium part spec
Proper sizing for S4/XL