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

scott voltage fr20 got a dead good review on pinkbike recently. cheap to, its last years model but the specs are the same for 2012.

http://www.yt-industries.com/shop/index.php?page=product&info=154

Looks 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

As GlennG has said, our mate has bought one of those canyon frx 8 – due here soon, looks very good for the money.

I can also recommend a giant faith – which i run with totems for freeride messing around (36lbs) and 888s for dh duties (37lbs)

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 !!!!

Carbon Nomad? 😛 😀

The Mega really is a unique bike and IMO the tool for the job you want.

look at the geo stats here in reivew to similar bikes
http://www.basquemtb.com/cove-g-spot-review/

Slackest head angle
longish wheel base
bottom bracket not to high or low
shortish top tube

plus 44mm head tube so can run 160 forks with external cups or up to 180 forks with internal cup

iscg mounts, rear maxle
steep seat angle so climbs well.

I full alpine mode mine with 2,5 minion, avid codes, coil shock is 34.
in trail mode with air shock, 2.35 minions etc about 31.

i have only tried mine with lyrics but going to get some totems and see how it fairs then – should be awesome….

Ps – plus its half the price of some of the other bikes, and Nukeproof customer service is second to none, the replaced the chainstay even though it had not broken….

Ok maybe the use of minidh has confused the issue a bit. I am after a bike that is not a full on dh bike but has single crowns and will stand up to the kicking I suspect will happen when I start to do some of the bigger stuff at herts (maybe in my lifetime?). Yet is more dh than my hustler which I will use on stuff like the peaks. I think the canyon is the most likely candidate at the moment

bwaarp – Member
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

I wish you’d posted this a few years back when I bought my commie MiniDH. Would have saved me from having such a blast on it. I’ve never weighed a bike in my puff, but i’d guess is closer to 40lbs than 34. It’s a bit more work to keep up with bigger bikes in the rough stuff because you have to ride it rather than just hang on – but for me that’s a plus. It’s generally faster in corners and a bit more nimble in the air too, another plus. Not great on singletrack though, but that’s partly due to how the build has evolved. A long seatpost and suitable gearing and you could ride all day no bother.

I know a couple of guys who rip on an SX trail, so I propose it’s not the bike that’s gay.

If I was to change the Commie, a TR250 would be top of my list but they’re bloody expensive and I don’t think any other bike mentioned on this thread would be any better than the mini Supreme. (lighter isn’t better and neither is newer 😉 ).

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 suspect you’re correct, but I’d happily add 5lbs to the bikes before I ditched the posts, uppy downy posts are in my top 4 mtb things ever(after camelbaks, waterproof shorts, and front suspension).

I used to use different tyres for different things, I then decided that I was a) lazy and b) there isn’t a ‘what tyres for…’ question for which High rollers aren’t at least an acceptable answer.