Dustin Kuykendall busts a huge air at Lawton's Mini track. DK picked the BBR over the Sano because of its ability to handle big air punishment.
While the BBR's rear suspension was clearly the better of the two, the Sano Bombshell inverted fork was a favorite of our test group. The only complaint on the Bombshell was that it might've been a little too plush. Even when cranked down all the way, the Bombshell still felt softer than the BBR SP-5 fork kit, but overall it was smoother.
"When landing on big jumps you could hear and feel the springs creak on the BBR," said Kuykendall. "But on the Bombshell forks it was just fat city. I would've liked to stiffen it up a little more and ultimately, the BBR fork was stiffer and better for huge jumping, but the Bombshell was Barry White smooth."
The ample room on the BBR is further bolstered by the BBR Handlebar kit, which comes complete with high-rise bars, throttle assembly, front brake lever, 8-inch riser, and a CNC-machined billet aluminum top clamp. The bars provided a high platform for the hands, which was extremely helpful in the handling department.
The Sano MX Bar Kit is also well designed and provides a high, stable platform for the hands. The Sano kit comes complete with bars, System throttle, CNC-machined clamp, Tag grips, extended brake cable, and brake lever. However, the Sano bike boasted one thing that the BBR didn't, and that was a disc brake that comes as part of the Bombshell Fork Kit.
Most of us expected the disc to be one of the highlights, but instead we found that the front disc wasn't significantly better than the stock XR50 drum brake.
"The front disc is definitely cool looking, but the braking power and feel is worse than the drum brakes on the BBR," said racing specialist Don Becklin. "There is too much free play in the lever, which can't be adjusted out, so it takes an extra bit of time before the brake is engaged. The brake grab is decent but certainly not great. Plus, with the kind of bar banging that minis encourage, the disc can get hung up in other bike's forks and footpegs."
We wanted to give Sano big points for the disc brake, but ultimately found it to be the equal of the stock drum brake. If it didn't come with the sick-ass Bombshell fork we could probably do without it.
After picking nits for the better part of a fall afternoon in Southern Oregon, we forced our test team to make a decision on which bike was superior. Like any good test team, the MCUSA mini crew espoused ambiguous praise for both machines before I finally dropped the hammer and told them to give me a one word answer, Sano or BBR.
Despite losing out to the BBR chassis/suspension package, the Sano Bombshell fork is arguably the sickest in the Mini industry.
When the smoke cleared, it was the BBR machine that emerged as the winner in our mini shootout. Ultimately, it did everything darn near perfectly. It felt like BBR not only had great designs, but put it through rigorous testing to insure maximum performance, and that showed on the track.
"The BBR is a clear winner, but you have to be ready to rob a bank or be single to have this bad dad in your garage," said Kuykendall. "It has awesome all around feel to it"
MCUSA's resident dirt guru, Brian Chamberlain, echoed Dustin's sentiments and ultimately chose the BBR because of the suspension.
"Hands down, the BBR is the winner for me," said BC. "The BBR aluminum frame and swimgarm are a work of art, and although the front end isn't quite as trick as the Sano, it will still turn heads in the mini pits. I don't think you can really go wrong with either set of components; they're both really good. But at the moment BBR has a little bit of an edge in functionality."
