I’m looking at building a hardcore singletrack & trail center weapon with a slight bias to blasting the downs and G-out on the switchbacks.. would an Evil Faction with 140 – 150 mm forks, drop-outs wound in, dropper-post and 2.35 Ardents or Barons fit the bill or is it possibly to slack?? Has anyone done similar?

would I be better served with a Cotic Bfe or similar ie. Ragley, Stanton etc.m ( At least they’d be British )

Any thoughts

Bump..

It’d be shite, any hardtail with 150mm forks for the type of riding you describe would be shite.

One man’s shite is another (wo)man’s nirvana 😆 . I’ve been looking to downsize to just the one bike, selling my BMX and giving the Blood a rest over the winter, swapping the frame for a hardtail using the same build, and have spent the last month or so searching for the perfect set-up. Funnily enough the Faction was on my list but could only find stock of XL frames.

I’ve bought and sold several tiny hardtail frames in the process and I’m pretty happy with my final build (for the moment 😉 ) – sure I’ve lost money but I’d prefer to look at it as having paid for a short-term test-ride/loan.

My proviso was that my Blood parts had to be transferred over, and in this respect u-turn has been a godsend. The Sanchez rides great at 110 but I need the extra skill compensation that 140 up front provides for steps and the like.

FWIW I’ve ridden an XS BFe some time ago and found it not slack enough (felt I was being pitched over the front on drops even with the forks at 160mm). 456 Summer Season was pretty damn perfect but sold that one when full-squish called again. Last month I built up a 456 Evo – lovely little bike, long and low, but didn’t quite hit the spot so was swapped for a DMR Transition – nice short back end but pretty heavy frame and felt like a BMX on stilts. Next up was a Cove Foreplay – always wanted one and geometry-wise was pretty much what I was looking for but the alu ride was pretty harsh so that got replaced with my current ride – a 2012 Cove Sanchez. Never been particularly bothered by weight but the new Sanchez frame is a good bit lighter than the original and feels pretty compliant (which may not be difficult following on from the Foreplay 😆 ). Oh and they’re down to 239.99 on CRC at the mo’ with an extra 10% off too 😛

I’d say go for it and if you can fit u-turn forks then all the better. At the end of the day you can read all the reviews you like and ask other folks opinions but there’s no substitute for ‘suck it and see’ 😉 . Enjoy!

Suck it and see is Probs the best way to do it but I unfortunately don’t have bucket loads of cash to spare being a father of 5. I currently ride a Savage Raptor jump frame which I picked up new for £30 from my lbs. This was to tie me over until I could decide on a final build. I ran it with Manitou circus Expert 100mm forks which were soon changed to some coiled Zocchi 55s wound down to approx 145mm. Coming from a full bounce I’m after a bit of squish hence looking for a steel frame. To be honest an XL sized Faction ( I’m 5’10 ) with short stem should be ok on the ups due to cockpit room.

I tried a Faction (and a Cove Sanchez that preceded it) with Lyriks set at 130mm (same a2c as a 140mm Rockshox) for a wee while during the summer.

The Sanchez felt poo (bb too high).

The faction felt great as its numbers are very low to start with. The increase in a2c gave the bike a really slack head angle but the bb wasnt too high (about 12.5 or thereabouts). It did need to be run rock hard of course which (other than keeping a nice geometry) meant there was little point in having such a long travel fork on there in the first place.

For me the faction worked best set to 100mm with a high riser bar.

I am now selling both the Faction and Sanchez now if your interested 🙂

Also, i’m 5′ 10″ and a long faction felt great.

I unfortunately don’t have bucket loads of cash to spare being a father of 5.

Me neither . . . but I do have a very active ebay account 😉 . Just wait until they’re all in Uni . . .

BB ht on the newer Sanchez is 12.5 with Lyriks at 110 and a tad over 13″ with the forks at 140mm with 2.35 Swampthings.

Make sure you post pics whatever you go for 😛

Also look at the NS Surge (if they’re still about). Great ride but terrible sliding dropouts made one speed impossible.