I’m looking at replacing my Santa Cruz Blur LT so looking at something similar in terms of travel, usage etc so bike has to be pretty good all rounder. Will be buying frame only and so far seem to be narrowing down to the Evil Uprising and Santa Cruz Bronson, will try and get a demo of each one, but not easy as I will probably need a small size frame.
Bronson is probably the safer bet as its a more mainstream brand, however the Uprising frame is quite a bit cheaper and seems to have glowing reviews from the people who tried it, there are just not very many reviews.
Anyone ridden an Evil Uprising and can compare it to other bikes ridden, would be interesting to hear some reviews.

Good news is that stock of the Evil seems to have landed. If you’re lucky you may also be able to get the Float X (both have been difficult to get for the last few months).

I still can’t quite get my head around the company though and whether they are easy to deal with regarding replacement parts in the future, etc. It almost seems like being a bike manufacturer is their secondary business (after design).

They’ve handled the stock issue (and the promise of extra tyre clearance) very poorly so far from a marketing point of view.

This video is still one of the greatest though:

[video]http://vimeo.com/61450977[/video]

In that video right at the start it looks like that dudes knees are hitting the handlebars while he’s pedaling seated.

I know some of you guys like to run small frames for the ‘chuckability’ but FFS!

+1 devash, both seem to have short reach, which is a bit dated these days

Alexsimon, you state some of my concerns, buying the Evil frame does seem a bit more a risk in terms of long term issues, warranty. I also think in terms of looks its not the nicest looking frame mainly due to the shock linkage, but if it rides as well as they say it does then its 700 cheaper than a Bronson and can use my existing wheels so cheaper all round.

I know some of you guys like to run small frames for the ‘chuckability’ but FFS!

It doesn’t look short to me in the rest of the vid.
Maybe you should email him and let him know. He might be really grateful…

Skippy
I guess other bikes which might be similarish are the banshee/knolly/capra – they are all cheaper than Santa Cruz but only the capra is as light (and not available frame-only).

I almost bought one but went for a Banshee Spitfire in the end. The Spitty won it for me due to the CCDB, it’s not a plastic bike and both are pretty similar in weight and the rear tyre clearance is tight on the Uprising, I think people have issues with some 2.35 tyres in the rear.

There is a pretty good user review on mtbr of the Uprising which is what pretty much sold it to me in the first place in case your interested in checking it out.