Am looking at getting a new ~170 ish mm travel bike, don't want triple clamps on it.
And will be moving on from my Commie MiniDH.
Any suggestions / recommendations?
Am considering Transition Blindside, SOCOM, Intense Uzzi, Cove STD, SC Bullit. You get the idea.
Cheers
Graham
Mate has just brought a new canyon, can't remember what the model was but it's their freeride model, maybe worth looking at if your after a whole bike, very good value for money.
Was looking at the canyons, would be looking at swapping the forks if I got one though, much prefer marzocchi than the kashima fox's
SX Trail - i had an 07 model with 36's, lovely bike for fr/mini dh, iirc 06 and older models had problems with chainstays snapping - beefed up 07 onwards. If your looking new then specialized are bringing the sx trail in again this year.
http://www.yt-industries.com/shop/index.php?page=product&info=154
Looks nice, cheap too.
http://www.yt-industries.com/shop/index.php?page=product&info=157
This does look interesting, not ever so interested in the hammerschmidt although I guess I could sell it on that other one
http://www.yt-industries.com/shop/index.php?page=product&info=154Looks nice, cheap too.
Good god. €2k for a bike with Lyriks and a Hammerschmidt? That's a phenomenal price.
much prefer marzocchi than the kashima fox's
Dirt had a good writeup on the YT recently, basically said the same thing, that they'd sell the hammerschmidt and put a single ring & chainguide on. I got a Wicked 150 from them recently - very impressed with the ride and build quality.
Kona Entourage?
Transition TR250? Looks awesome, and everyone knows that is the most important thing.
the YT bikes get a great write up in the mags here in germany.
they can offer high specced bikes at bargin basement prices as they only produce one model of each of their bikes.
the canyon torques get very highly praised, too. particularly the Torque 7.0 Trailflow. a friend has one. climbs well, not heavy (for a big bike), jumps well. matey uses his from tours to bike park.
in fact i'm looking at the FRX 7.0 for bike park shenanigans and silly tours. long wait, mind.
tr250 above a blindside for me
Alpine160 take my word...
What are you wanting from the bike? Big, stable, flat out confidence inspiring rock gobbler? Fun, poppy, agile, good to throw around?
What's wrong with the commie?
Really need to know how you ride, what you like, where.
Something like a bottlerocket or scott voltage in short travel/cs mode would be fun bikes for hooning, may or may not be skittish at really high speed downs, it's down to your taste.
Something like the TR250 is pretty much a DH bike and would ride somewhat like one. Would be fun hooning a real mountain, but for UK freeride duties too much.
Kona entourage would be my personal choice for a 170mm freeride fun bike. Super short CS, low bb, made to be ragged and agile.
Patriot.
Mega
Cheers for the suggestions, I'm mainly looking for a lightish long travel bike with dh geo.
AM selling the commie to a mate, nothing wrong with it but I just want a new bike.
Am learning to jump and play at a cool freeride spot and do uplifts pretty frequently with places like caersws and nant gywtherin being about the max at the moment (no glencoe or fort bill on the horizon really), just want something fun and not stupidly heavy.
Patriot, TR250, that Morewood (Kalula?)
Loving the look of the canyon frx 8
Am very tempted by this
Read the dirt review of the SlopeStyle 2, its an awesome bike.
And you can't beat Canyon on the spec.
I think the canyon frx 8 is looking the most likely at the moment, cannot justify or afford spending >£3k on a new bike at the moment and sadly that means anything like a transition is out.
But the canyon has got cane creek db and the rest of the kit for £2.5k its a bit hard to refuse to be honest.
Just need to wait for my money and it will get ordered.
graham.... have a look at the "outlet" section for some good deals
http://www.canyon.com/_uk/outlet/list.html?type=mtb
some good deals there and the bikes are available now.
Had a look at the outlet bit, I kind of want the frx 8.0, and also I have got to wait till feb until I can afford it sadly
I had an SX Trail with a 180mm Rock Shox Totem, dont go near mini-dh bikes and if you do... do not build it anymore than 34lbs, preferably at least 32lb. This is the reason, they have all of the negatives associated with a 200mm downhill bike with sod all of the positives associated with a lighter bike. On top of that a proper race bike is loads more stable in the gnarl. My SX Trail was 37lb and I hated every last minute of riding that bike, it was a nice idea on paper but it was gay on DH runs and gay on singletrack
Get an all-mountain/enduro frame and downhillerize it or buy a full on dh race bike.
Eg get a Nukeproof Mega/SC Nomad. Put some 170mm forks on the front of it with low stack height cane creek angleset and get the headangle down to 65 degrees, put some wide low rise bars on it, some light but strong wheels and some 2.35 grippy tyres of your choice and you will have a ripper of a 30-32lb bike that you can easily pedal on epic rides to find natural/hidden downhill that you can then come back and section on a big bike.
Look for a long, slack 160mm frame like the Mega (for me the Nomad would definitely need an angleset) that is reasonably light eg 6.5-7.5lbs.
DH "light" bikes are for Canucks who have a lot of money and like hucking off big drops on chair assisted swoopy whistler trails.
32lbs is the weight of my XC bike... (SC Nickel without anything heavy on it). My Nomad weighs the wrong side of 35lb even with air shock on it instead of the Ti coil....
Getting a Nomad to sub 32lbs is very tricky without spening lots of £££ or having bendy bits on it...
Well,, either you weigh 200lbs, do BIG hucks or ride like a tool.
Heres my build list
Nukeproof Mega - Medium
Rock Shox Lyrik u-turn
Stans Flow Wheels
FSA 250 steapost
Random Selle Italia 200g seat
Syntace Vector Carbon 740mm
SLX groupset
Formula K18 brakes
Conti 2.2 Rubber Queens UST
Thompson 1.5 50mm stem
Avg weight on three different scales - 32.4 lb
Your Nomad weighs almost as much as my 180mm travel SX trail did with burly as **** wheels on it and 2.5 Highrollers. My mates 200mm Scalp weighs 37lb. Such a heavy build defeats the point of having a enduro bike, might as well get a DH bike if your lugging 35lb round with I'm assuming massively wide high rollers or minions.
If I spent $$$ on my Mega it would be down to 29lb. I didn't....I bought used and components that were on sale and still managed to get a reasonable weight. Having said that I built the wheels myself so I know they were built well and they get lovingly looked after so I might not trash wheels on a regular basis like some.
If you can afford to run two bikes why not just run a hardtail and a full DH bike if the Nomads running that kind of weight.
i'm more impressed you own 3 set of scales and actaully weighed them on all 3 
Comes with studying science subjects and having other anal retentive riding buddies
My Nomad is 35lb ish with the following:
Nomad - large
SLX cranks
Blackspire chain thing
Stans flows on hope pro 2 evos
Nuke proof warhead bars and stem
SRAM X9 shifters, rear mech, 980 cassette
XT front mech
Gusset slim jim pedals
Lyrik u-turns
WTB Saddle (bog standard one)
Reverb post
RS Monarch
Hope Tech M4s 203 at the front and 180 at the back
High rollers 2.35s single ply
My nickel (32lb on the nose) has:
Stans flows
Nickel frame (medium)
SLX cranks, front mech, and shifters
XT rear mech
Reverb
High rollers 2.35
980 cassette
Nuke proof warhead bars and stem
Gusset slim jim pedals
Fox RP23
Fox Float 140s
I've only weighed them on a single pair of scales... but it seems consistent when i've weighed items of known weight. Either I have a single pair of pessimistic scales, or you've got three optimistic sets...
Can't say I found the Nomad was particularly hard to pedal round - the Nickel is nice and light in my view! Different perspectives I guess!
If you fancy a used bullit my frame will probably be for sale soon at a good price really fun bike to ride, I'd probably keep it if I regularly rode anywhere that needs 7" travel. Weighs about 37lb with boxxers
It's the Reverb post, Hope Tech M4s and 2.35 high rollers that are adding the weight.... I won't add a Reverb until I've dropped enough weight to make up for it. It'll add 3/4 of a pound to the bike. It's like getting fat....once you've put a bit of weight on then you suddenly start putting on more...more easily and it's all downhill from there! 
I find I prefer faster rolling tyres than the High Rollers on anything but full on DH courses. When I'm on those, I will just swap my tyres out...but High Rollers are not my everyday ride. That is where most of the weight is saved I reckon. If the trails aren't steep enough or fast enough that I'm riding on edge of the of my grip on Rubber Queens then I won't swap to bigger tyres. I find they dig into soft terrain and give me as much grip as I need on "mini-dh" courses/trails.
I really find that anything that weighs more than what I've got now spoils my fun on long rides to find natural trails and that's why I think this whole idea of "mini-dh" bikes are a bit of a gimmick in the UK. If you have to lug it around you might as well get a DH sled.
As you say though, it's all opinion and personal preference.
I own a 31lb Nomad, and it's full coil.
Best bike I've owned for everything
M frame
Fox Rc4 titanium spring
Fox 36 Van Rc2 forks
Rental bars
Thomson stem
Xt cranks
Gamut chain device
Formula The One brakes
XTR mech's and shifters
Dt Swiss hubs / mavic 819 rims
Amazing bike !!!!
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