Ok will do ta.

Dear god just read my post…..bloody phones and their predictive text…

Still you got the idea

Yeah, used to it with a mate and an iPhone 😀

This android is no better…..

I must talk to Gary about the 650b……..

Gotta a, yup Ikon on rear

Ha, that’s me with predictive text! That should have read Gotama!

Damn saving for a wedding, I want a 29er hardtail for poncing about the woods on.

Does your fiancé want you to be happy, or married?

I do most things on my Peregrine, but maybe that’s not what this thread is about … 😉

Here’s a pic of the back end for clearance with the Ikon:
Untitled by Stiggy2011, on Flickr]null

no that’s a pic of your fancy little Curtis seatstay brace

Fun for your money – Scandal 29er!

Have only had experience of a few 29ers, a Giant XTC, a Carve and i’ve finally got my V2 Scandal built.

It’s intended use is local woods, Dartmoor long XC, the odd trail centre when visiting mates and some endurance races that I only really enter to test myself on with no hopes of podiumering.

I’ve only been riding it for a week and a half, I certainly didn’t go to town on the build, 100mm Reba maxle, 1 x 9 XT and some de-badged Giant P-XC2 wheels, with Racing Ralph Tyres.

But, I friken love it! So far it’s ridden local woods a handful of times and Cardinham. But I’m really happy with it. It’s soooo much more capable technically and on steep switchbacks in my local woods than I had expected. I am off the brakes on stuff I’m usually braking into, so that’s gotta be good.

Riding it over to and around Lustleigh on Thursday night, so that will be a good test for it!

Ooooooo …. Another Curtis 29er. Gary’s building my XC9 now (a replica of Candodavid’s beautiful machine but with 44mm headtube, 30.9mm seat tube & Paragon-style sliders). Belated 50th from me to me, and new bike to ride after nearly a year off with a duff knee.

Great process getting a custom frame, and you won’t find anyone nicerer to deal with than Gary.

I’m going for the raw clear powdercoated finish. I might spend quite a bit of time just looking at it!

Brought a Scott elite 29er alloy frame off eBay. Some reba 100mm forks and new superstar /crest wheels. Xt and xtr 1 x 10 build. Maxis aspen tyres. 22lb with pedals, and reverb seatpost. The only hard tail I now will ride, and its probably quicker than my f/s bikes

Yelli’s rule, the rest follow…

Massive met parachute failure……….

Just joined the 29er club a couple of weeks back with a Yeti Big Top and after a weekend in Wales I can safely say it pretty darn awesome! So it gets my vote.

Shand?
looks a bit XC but its custom so have it your own way

This one’s not actually custom. It’s a pre-production sample of our new production 853 29er that we’ll be officially launching in the next week or so (£850 btw). Handbuilt to order so an amount of tweakage may still be possible. More pics here :

shonky facebook gallery

but yes it is a little bit XC!

^^ good work Shand, may you sell a boatload. And make a short/slack fun bike too please, with a little steel zing.

boatload = all you can make

really like that Shand, like the xc style.

Can dfeinatly see you on a Cielo Ricks 😉

Matt, I seriously doubt you’ll find a frame that’ll take a dropper and is built for fun that still has much in the way of zing. Someone please prove me wrong.

Depends on how burly it’s built shirley? If speccing a custom and you’re honest with the builder then he could build the geometry you want with tubing that suits your riding. I guess more mainstream manufacturer frames….so the Buzzards, Yellis etc have to be able to cope with the upper end of the spectrum for skillz and they can’t take a chance with a frame folding doing what it has been designed to do. If you’re going to use it for surrey hills type trails and you’re going to avoid the big jumps then the rest is just trail riding. It’s fun having a ‘flickable’ frame but it definitely doesn’t need to be built up to take massive abuse.

I would however be interested to hear the thoughts of those that genuinely know something about bike building and tubing spec though.

Apparently Curtis have never had a fillet brazed 853 frame fail.

Damn, won’t let me edit. Anyway, Yelli being ridden at what i would view as the upper end of the skill set (second set of pics halfway down the page) and probably miles away from what 90% of the people on here that own a similar frame would do, including me.

Linky

@gotama, cheez fair points both. Gotama’s logic holds water to me, the off-the-shelf builders have to overbuild to a degree I would think, especially if they are subject to CEN. (Are hand-builders exempted from CEN?)

I’m maybe 82kg in kit and not a hucker, that’s a different use case to a 110kg guy leaping off stuff in the Peaks, but the Buzzard et al has to accommodate him as well as me.

I’d also accept a limit of 120mm up front and maybe no front mech if that helped.

you see him – that’s not me that’s not!

mattjg, excellent early 90’s comedy reference!

Is this Redlands? I fancy a go at that!

was it that long ago? wow

no, here: http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php/227484-Grape-Koolaid-A-Canfield-Yelli-Screamy-Review-(With-Stoke!)

somewhere in north americee, can’t you see the bear shit?

Or….

Or…

nope none of them are me in Redlands. That’s a ridiculous proposition, my Yelli’s black!

My version of a VERY tweaked Cotic Solaris.

I’ve always hankered after some swinging dropouts. In the goodness of time I’ll have a custom 931 frame made but in the mean time….had some lovely Stainless Paragon swinging dropouts fitted by my local bike builder bencooper.

I’m a big fans of the classic Cotic geometry so kept the same chainstay length & BB drop, removed all the existing cable guides and had some dedicated ones fitted. Despite the ‘heavier’ dropouts the whole rig is just over 0.25lb lighter. Running it for a few weeks before I take it for a nice new coat of paint.

“Holds breath and awaits Cotic fan club backlash….”

Tweaked Cotic Solaris by Rosscopeco, on Flickr

Tweaked Cotic Solaris by Rosscopeco, on Flickr

I think that Purple Yelli shown in the photos is the one that weeksy bought and then sold.

rosscopeco, why didnt you just get a simple?

@ Gotama – good points re zing. I was thinking of production frames

This?:

https://www.facebook.com/ZealousBikeCo

rosscopeco, why didnt you just get a simple?

Good question! I bought the Solaris with the intention of selling it one day when I had enough pennies for a custom frame but I got impatient! The longer term plan would be to internally route all or most of the cables so this frame is basically the test bed for all this fettling.

This?: https://www.facebook.com/ZealousBikeCo

Good luck to them, always nice to see people following what i presume is their dream…….but no, that is not for me. Plus i personally think that the stays on the current breed (buzzard, yelli, honzo) are short enough without having to adopt that hideous box section split.

Some lovely kit posted on here. 🙂

This SIR.9 has been my do-it-all bike for a year or more now. Has been through several guises, 100mm F29’s, rigid steel Niner forks, Dropper-Posts, various width tyres, wide flats, low-risers, 50mm stem / 70mm stem etc. For what I like, the build below is about as perfect a bike as I think I’ve ever ridden:
80mm Rebas, 2.4″ (now 2.35″) Racing Ralphs, 33/18 SS on one of Tazzy’s wobble rings with a WI freewheel. Has been SS all the time, but I have a 1×10 kit to go on if needed. The ride is just lovely.
Again this summer, I have built a 26″ FS thinking might be better for Cannock’s Monkey trail etc, but every time I get back on this it just feels so right.

IMAG1000 by pten2106, on Flickr