# Polygon Siskiu D7. Not the bike I wanted but the one I got.



## DeoreDX (Jul 28, 2007)

I was shopping for a short travel 27.5" bike earlier this year with a pedestrian budget of around $3k. I stopped at every bike shop in a hundred miles. I talked to shop owners. I looked through classified and marketplaces and craigslists. Anything in stock was either for short riders or were 140-150mm travel more downhill focused bikes or they had no idea when they would get anything in. I was searching for a bike that is being phased out of the markeplace at a time when no one could keep a bike in stock. The idea of waiting a year for a new bike was not appealing.

I had looked at the Polygon D7 from Bikes Online several times which I could get in 27.5 in a size Medium. I'm not opposed to mail ordering a bike but I much prefer to shop local. The D7 price was certainly cheap but spec wasn't quite where I wanted it. I'm not a fan of the Recon and the bike's Geometry just seemed not quite there. It had an absurdly low bottom bracket (326mm) was really my main #1 concern. I don't need super slack HTA but a 67 degree HTA on paper is a bit steep for today's bikes. So I passed on it an looked for something else. For 2 months I looked. One day I looked at Bikes Online and saw that the D7 in 27.5 Medium was in stock. Tired of looking I placed my order. 3 weeks later the D7 arrived.

$1699 shipped to my door. With a $3k budget I had some extra money to change some things I didn't like and bring it more up to my specs. I did a maiden ride from the factory. Ride was good. Pedal strikes were common with the absurdly low BB. First thing I wanted to do was raise BB and get more pedal clearance with new cranks and raising the front end. 165mm XT cranks I pulled off another bike. 51t big cog with a 32t chainring on a 27.5 bike was was too low gearing for me as I never used the 51t. Wolftooth 34t chainring is a perfect fit. Even with 165mm cranks the 150mm dropper was a hair too long for me. Again stealing parts off another bike in the fleet I throw on a 125mm PNW Loam dropper with Crank Bros lever.










Raising the front end would slacked the HTA to 66 and raise the BB about 5mm. It would slacken the STA to around 74.5. I had an old '16 Fox 36 Performance laying around. I knew I could adjust in 10mm increments all the way down to 110mm. At 160mm the '16 36 was a harsh fork and I always hated it. By just adjusting the travel with the transfer port rod you can make a larger negative chamber at the expense of reduced travel. At 130mm with the much larger negative chamber the fork feels amazing in comparison to the old 160mm travel. What was originally just a temporary fork to test different fork lengths has become semi permanent. If I find a good deal on a 130-140mm 34 The 36 will be gone but really just for the weight and not the performance. But with those changes the bike's geometry felt pretty good and all my pedal strikes went away. 720mm narrow bar, WTB Volt, and 40mm higher rise on the bars made the cockpit just right.










Up next are the brakes. 180/160mm rotors and MT200's just didn't have the grab I wanted. I tried just a rotor change at first with a 203 on the front and moving the 180 to the back. Acceptable now but not what I'm used too. Worldwide Cyclery had Magura MT Thirtys for $90 a wheel. Finally some braking nirvana.










Swapped out the Deore shifter for an XT 11 speed shifter. I always preferred the feel of the XT shifter with the instant release and double upshifts.










Last and certainly not least was new rubber. I had zero complains about the 2.25" Nobby Nics that came on the bike. They worked well for the terrain I ride. I wanted a higher volume tires so I picked up some 2.6" Forekasters front and rear. I'm not 100% sold on the new tire combo. The 2.6" Forekaster feels a bit slow on the back but I'll ride it a while.










I've been super happy with the bike now that I've built it up. It has a very stiff (zero flex) and solid feel to it. The D7 is a great efficient pedaling platform doesn't feel "bobby" and I've not noticed any pedal kickback as a result. The short travel makes the bike super responsive to rider input so it pumps and jumps amazingly well. It's been a great ride and works amazingly well on the variety of trails I've ridden it on. It isn't a build that will be fastest down the mountain or fastest up it. It's a fun nimble build with little flex so reacts quickly to rider inputs. Big wheels and big travel on modern trail bikes defeature many trails and make them honestly a little boring. 120/130 with the 27.5/2.6 for me seems to be a good compromise of enough travel to make it comfortable and keep traction but not so much you can float over every obstacle and turn a medium difficulty rocky/rooty trail into an easy green trail.


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## Mountainfrog (Mar 7, 2006)

I like it, I like it a lot.


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## N_C (May 7, 2021)

Great write up!! I was also looking at this bike but the low bb was a turn off for me. 


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## dompedro3 (Jan 26, 2004)

you have a lot of nice parts lying around. Also, I like the turtle and the bike.


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## DeoreDX (Jul 28, 2007)

Canfield 155mm cranks came this weekend. Once I get a chainring I'll put them on. If anything the black cranks will match a lot better. I might be able to use the old 150mm dropper with the shorter cranks. Not sure I feel like going through the headache of trading out the dropper post though.


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## DeoreDX (Jul 28, 2007)

Not the right offset chainring but I wanted to test fit them. 155mm length only 50g more than my XT cranks. Black cranks will look a lot better and of course that's the most important thing right?


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## neeko b (May 12, 2016)

Nice report and upgrades.... I was thinking of pre-ordering one of these for my son. He's lightweight but I wonder if the low BB height will be a problem - good idea to change out the cranks. Will stay tuned to see how that goes.


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## DeoreDX (Jul 28, 2007)

neeko b said:


> Nice report and upgrades.... I was thinking of pre-ordering one of these for my son. He's lightweight but I wonder if the low BB height will be a problem - good idea to change out the cranks. Will stay tuned to see how that goes.


Polygon has categorized this as a "Down Country" bike and for those types of trails it is very capable and worked great for it's intended purpose. On modern machine built blue and green trails the D7 bone stock works extremely well even with the low bottom bracket. Usually those types of trails pedals strikes aren't really much of an issue. At 170lbs the Recon has never felt supportive enough for me on big hits but it works well for my lighter weight son or if you ride trails where taking big hits isn't a priority. Polygon found a great balance of Anti squat and active suspension which makes it really easy to sit and pedal and let the suspension do the work to keep traction without feeling like the suspension is robbing you of energy. My biggest gripe is the fact they put a non-boost front wheel on a bike with a boost rear which makes for a miss matched set of wheels. I'm lucky I have an old non-boost Fox 36 to use. I'm sure they did it to hit a price point as the non-boost version of the Recon is cheaper by $30 at retail. The miss matched wheels to me limits the upgrade path of the bike. I'm not sure I would want to buy a really nice wheel set that are miss-matched, and I also wouldn't want to buy a new fork that wasn't boost spacing. Good wheels is usually my favorite upgrade for a bike but I feel limited in my options without spending almost as much on wheels and a new fork as the bike itself cost.


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## socalrider77 (Sep 1, 2012)

How do you like the mt30s? 


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## DeoreDX (Jul 28, 2007)

socalrider77 said:


> How do you like the mt30s?


I like them. The carbotecture levers don't have a very premium feel but I have no complaints with the performance. Lever feel is very solid similar to a Shimano brake. It doesn't have the aggressive initial bite like my Deore brakes but they have a more ultimate stopping power. Easy to bleed. Very good option for pure performance on a value bike.


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## Nosaj-29er (Aug 1, 2009)

Nice review! How long did it take to get shipping notification? I ordered mine last week and no tracking yet. After 15+ years of SS/Rigid I'm going from one extreme to another.


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## DeoreDX (Jul 28, 2007)

Nosaj-29er said:


> Nice review! How long did it take to get shipping notification? I ordered mine last week and no tracking yet. After 15+ years of SS/Rigid I'm going from one extreme to another.


Mine was on stock and I never got a ship notification. Took them 14 days to ship though. Sign up for the FedEx ap and you will get a notification when someone sends a package to your address. That was the only way I got notified.


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## Nosaj-29er (Aug 1, 2009)

DeoreDX said:


> Mine was on stock and I never got a ship notification. Took them 14 days to ship though. Sign up for the FedEx ap and you will get a notification when someone sends a package to your address. That was the only way I got notified.


Nice I sign up for notifications and just a couple of hours later get the alert they finally shipped it! Thanks for the tip!


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## neeko b (May 12, 2016)

We ended up getting the bike for my son (his first FS after many years on the hardtail). He is really enjoying it. How are those 155mm cranks? Being that he is 5' on a small bike, I think we will also do that.


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## Nosaj-29er (Aug 1, 2009)

I've had my D7 over a month now. I'm almost 6ft and ordered a large, I should have done a medium. Going from a medium Redline Flight rigid SS that was a touch on the small side I knew the fit would be wildly different. At first it was a love hate feeling, I loved how the bike smoothed out the trails and kept the tires on the trail. But I hated leaning the bike over, the longer reach made the dropper a requirement, but the seat was too high at full extension, I kept hitting my knees on the top tube and pedal strikes were getting ridiculous. 

But now I have dialed in the fit perfectly by swapping a few parts and modding the frame. After lots and lots of measuring, I put on a 35mm stem, got 150mm cranks with a 28T chainring and cut my seat tube down by about 26mm. Now I absolutely love the fit and the bike is way more maneuverable. The short cranks and smaller chainring erase the leverage loss and pedal strikes are gone. Now the seat is good at full extension and the cockpit feel is perfect. A medium still would have been a better choice but I still would have needed shorter crank arms and then I would be raising the seat post. Next I will be swapping over my XT brakes and trying out tubeless.

Overall I am really happy with the bike. The component choice is pretty much perfect for the price. The shocks are all I will ever need and have just enough adjustability but are not too complicated. The only thing I don't like is the water bottle situation. It just plain stupid they didn't make it fit a full bottle and there should be mounts under the top tube as well. I just hate wearing hydration packs even though the osprey I have is nice and light. I guess I'll try their fanny pack.


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## looks easy from here (Apr 16, 2019)

@DeoreDX and @Nosaj-29er, how long was your steerer tube when it arrived? DeoreDX, it looks like you have about a 10mm spacer now. Did you cut it down at all, or was that the length from the factory?


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## DeoreDX (Jul 28, 2007)

looks easy from here said:


> @DeoreDX and @Nosaj-29er, how long was your steerer tube when it arrived? DeoreDX, it looks like you have about a 10mm spacer now. Did you cut it down at all, or was that the length from the factory?


My size m 27.5 steerer tube is around 7" ~175mm long.


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## NWA_Tre (Sep 30, 2021)

I’m not a weight weenie, but am I correct that stock these bikes are fairly heavy?


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## DeoreDX (Jul 28, 2007)

NWA_Tre said:


> I’m not a weight weenie, but am I correct that stock these bikes are fairly heavy?


Mine was 33.5lbs stock. My friend has a T7 and it was around 36lbs. The wheels (2.5kg) and tires (Vee tire co Snap Flow 1.2kg each) of the T7 are ridiculously heavy.


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## NWA_Tre (Sep 30, 2021)

DeoreDX said:


> Mine was 33.5lbs stock. My friend has a T7 and it was around 36lbs. The wheels (2.5kg) and tires (Vee tire co Snap Flow 1.2kg each) of the T7 are ridiculously heavy.


IDK much about full sus bikes, but 33.5 doesn't sound bad! I think my cheap HT weighs more currently!


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## Nosaj-29er (Aug 1, 2009)

Just past the 1-year mark and 400+ miles on the bike. I did become dissatisfied with the geometry of the frame. I got my XT brakes swapped in, Absolute oval chainring and added a Fox 36 fork at 150mm of travel recently. That has slackened out the HT to 65 degrees raised the BB and increased the wheelbase a tad. Surprisingly I had to increase the rear shock pressure by 20psi with the new fork, as I was suddenly bottoming out on the first ride. The bike feels much better on the trails now but after a recent ride on an Orbea Rise I would like a little more frame reach. Having done all of this I should have just bought a T7/8 since I'm around $2400 into the bike now. But I've learned a lot and will ride the heck out of it until it breaks, or I sell it.


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## lucha (1 mo ago)

Dang great built!! I saw a guy put a DNM coil shock on one of these 190x51 looks to fit perfectly too. Increase the rear to 135mm. Being a 27.5 you get the benefits of that extra travel. He made a video. You could see in the video how planted the bike is on chuck and drops. I'm thinking of getting one with the proper fox coil spring.


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