Family member is doing n plus1 malarkey and wants a 29er for some long distance events and xc as well as trail riding. Any recommendation and pics of builds? Ideally light ish say under 27lbs. Thoughts from the collective mind welcome.

How light/XC vs how trail-oriented? I’ve been putting together options for a customer who wants something similar and we concluded that KTM have some good deals – their XC race bike, the Scarp, frame and fork packages from 2015 (carbon) or 2016 arriving end of Feb (either carbon or alloy).

More trail-oriented, depending on budget, Salsa, or the new Pyga Stage or Stage MAX.

Or buy one of our ex-demo Pyga OneTen frames, more trail than XC race oriented, as long as he/she is a large. Under 27lbs would require some fairly high-end parts but could be done, I’d have thought.

I have had an eye on the Orbea Occam TR recently, I would say that comes very close to the sort of thing your describing! The base spec carbon bike looks like a great buy considering its a full carbon frame which when I asked a dealer costs £2500 to buy on its own!!

It is a she…and she is a strong climber but terrible descending so bigs wheels and a a good geometry. Weight is a big issue as she will be psychologically thinking this issue too heavy whilst some heft will help descending ie so not pinging around. Pyga looks nice though

https://www.canyon.com/en-gb/mtb/nerve/nerve-al-8-9.html

£2k, 28lbs

the Lux 7.9 is 25lbs, carbon fibre, but £2.5k
https://www.canyon.com/en-gb/mtb/lux/lux-cf-7-9.html

I put a 120mm fork and a dropper on my Trek superfly 100sl. Turned it into a super fast all day trail bike. You could do the same with any carbon x/c full f/s and have a 25lb ish bike.

GF is on a Turner Czar and she is a good climber / not great descender. Bike is about 26LB. But will cost you 4K to get to a complete bike.

My Czar is 24-25LB (depending on tyres) with 1×11 and few slightly posher bits here and there.

Paul’s have the Anthem X 29 at £1500, can’t imagine it’s a prticularly hefty beast.

http://paulscycles.co.uk/m1b0s154p5856/GIANT-ANTHEM-X-29ER-2015

Yeti AsrC, not cheap, but very doable weight wise…

Niner RKT 9 RDO, also not cheap.

Tallboy? 120mm fork?
For a bulldozer of a trail bike the rocky mtn instinct comes in under weight at the right spec. Kind of a do it all trail bike.

Paul’s have the Anthem X 29 at £1500, can’t imagine it’s a prticularly hefty beast.

I think you may be surprised with that build! Top end Anthems are light, that ones gonna be 30lb at least from experience…

Drover’s suggestions are all good, though from experience, don’t bother with the 2015 KTM Scarps. The 2016 bike is lighter, stiffer, slacker in the HA, longer in the TT, shorter in the chainstay and has a more efficient suspension design! It looks like it should be popular on the marathon XC scene for sure.

FWIW, there’s possibly still a few 2015 Whyte M-109s out there. If you found one in her size, snap it up. Awesome bikes for the purpose and a shame Whyte have dropped them, but their focus is (understandably to a point) on their volume sellers which are the trail HT’s and FS bikes.

you can get atalboy carbon frame for 1.5k at the mo. Another grand for the parts and you could have a nice bike for around 2.5k

This. 27lbs exactly 😀

Yes to the whyte .. She had a whyte carbon\ ALU 19 and it was a fab bike
Santa cruxpz is a good call as well.
Forks are DT Swiss 120 sat in the garage.

Just built a tallboy up in an xl.. bought the frame in the classifieds.. Full 1×11 build came in at 2.2k. It’s an Ltc and it’s the cc frame 😀

whyte T-129 ?

The Specialized Epic is pricey but good and it will come in ok on weight. (My 2014 Epic Marathon is 24.5 lbs with pedals, 2 cages and the built-in tools.)

Niner Jet 9, I’ve one I may be selling soon.

If the issue is the downs then I’d avoid out and out xc bikes like the Epic, they can become a bit of a handful and are to as forgiving.

New lower modulus Yeti ASR is £3400, so slightly more affordable. Great bikes, I have an ASRc, just building one for my girlfriends 12/24hr racing and we have another doing the Highland Trail 550 this year as well.

Hi
I have an Ibis Ripley which I think is fantastic.
It’s 28lb with a Pike, Reverb and big tyres so a lump lighter would be possible.
Not cheap though
Cheers
Steve

I’ve got a m109. It’s 28lb though, but I built it cheapish. I’m sure it can get to 27lb fairly easily. Might be selling the frame soon too, so let me know if any good. Medium.

Only way you’ll get a 29er FS to 27lbs is by running lightweight tyres and wheels plus other choice bits.

Didn’t the stock answer for this sort of question used to be an Anthem? Seems they have gone out of fashion a bit.

Only way you’ll get a 29er FS to 27lbs is by running lightweight tyres and wheels plus other choice bits.

Bit misleading. Yeti ASRc and Canyon Lux well under 24lbs.

Didn’t the stock answer for this sort of question used to be an Anthem? Seems they have gone out of fashion a bit

Giant have almost given up with 29ers, so whats left (for the Anthem) is a mid range alloy model with a frame that hasnt been updated for a few years(~28+lbs).

Yup Fudge: – used Salsa Spearfish (simple, light, single pivot version).

Mine’s bright orange too ….and No, it’s NOT for sale!! 😀

PS. you can get RP23s in 165mm eye-eye so you can have pro-pedal too but the stanadard RS Monarch is pretty decent.

If the issue is the downs then I’d avoid out and out xc bikes

Probably true. I guess it depends which way you’re leaning – weight or descending comfort.

All the xc-type bikes mentioned here are extraordinarily capable descenders and will be lighter than the trail-oriented choices. You could always pop on a short stem and a dropper post.

All the xc-type bikes mentioned here are extraordinarily capable descenders and will be lighter than the trail-oriented choices. You could always pop on a short stem and a dropper post.

Thats the problem I’d guess, I know how capable my XC bike is but to get the best out of it requires a lot more comitment. It’s a balancing act. A droper would make a big difference but your still on steep HA’s and not much room for error

The new trek top fuel’s are getting good reviews

We’ve just had the pricing through for 2016 Pygas including the Stage and Stage Max. Will be going up on the website shortly. It’s lower than expected which is always nice!

My OH and I have owned a Salsa Spearfish and Spesh Camber (& I currently have Evo version of the latter). My OH currently has a Santa Cruz Superlight. We’re around the same height, so borrow each other’s bikes now & then – in our experience, the Spearfish was the best climber on smoother terrain, but the Camber felt easier climbing on rough trails. The Superlight is built up with quite a chunky build, so it’s extra 3lbs of weight goes against it on climbs. For descents, I’d say the Superlight (with 120mm fork) and Camber are more confidence inspiring, but the Cambers suspension is much better for braking grip and just grip in general. The camber was an absolute flyer around trail centres and at normal trail riding speeds it was great on unsighted natural trails. I only felt like it ran out of suspension whilst flying down a couple of rough rocky descents in the Peak District (but my OH never experienced this!), and in fairness the Camber Evo fitted with a 120mm Pike feels a bit overwhelmed on the same trails when travelling at speed.

FWIR, our Camber Carbon Expert model came in at 27lbs with dropper for a SRAM X9/XT 2×10 type build and 1750ish gram wheelset. I think Bikescene might have some carbon frames in their sale(?) that might be worth a gander.

We sold the carbon Camber as my OH doesn’t like the super active Specialized FSR suspension on the climbs, as she doesn’t like faffing with Propedal. She bought a 2nd hand Superlight and had the shock Push tuned, and she is really pleased with it – although to me, it feels a bit more like a ride around/hop over obstacles bike than bikes like the Camber or Salsa Horsethief. Having said that, for a very nimble bike, the Superlight does have a reasonably confident descending feel, and around trail centres it’s a ripper.

HTH

Thanks helpful especially the superlight cheers

just built up a large titus rockk
Star for my friend and in the process of building a medium for myself as frames where on a deal at onone, still undecided if im going to run 120mm on the front of mine or stick with 100mm.

My medium work in progress waiting for a headset

My friends finished large one