The brief: a full sus 29er for a double broken wrist big wheel fetish comeback with 3k top budget.

Ok, so I broke both my wrists really badly last year and haven’t been proper mountain biking since. However, I’m being put back together by a top surgeon (big shout out to Rob Farnell) and will be back on the trails proper by May.

My problem is that I have fallen in love with the way of the big wheels but my singular swift is too rigid for my somewhat weakend wrists. I have an Orange Five as well and I love it but its not satisfying my big wheeled fetish.

If i could melt both bikes down and meld them i wpuld have my perfect bike. In reality I will flog them and buy one bike to rule them all -a full bouncing 29er. Trouble is, which one?

A gyro? I thought I had made my mind up, It seems to tick the boxes

But what’s that coming over the hill?

A five29!

Bugger. Maybe that’s perfect.

All I know is I will be very much a wheels-on-the-ground type rider for the foreseeable.

Opinions on the above bikes please? Or have I missed a different contender out there?
Cheers folks

I’ll sell you my Medium framed Gary Fisher Rumble Fish for £3k.

I’ll then use the money to buy an Orange Five 29er.

I can deliver

Patrick Morewoods new Pyga One Ten 29er maybe

120mm front 110mm rear

Review HERE

Well at the more AM side of things (though can be built up more “trail” and many do), loving this:

You’d need to get a 2013 one now though, but you’d still have plenty change from your 3k…

Canyon Nerve Al?
For £2600 you could get the blinged up 9.9SL….. If you were willing to wait a few months!
http://www.canyon.com/_en/mountainbikes/bike.html?b=3037
Only 110mm travel though

There. Saved you a grand.

Transition Covert 29 for an AM bike, or a Bandit 29 for something more trail/CX orientated. I pick up my Covert this weekend!

Just ordered a gyro, get one.

I’d do what Bregante says, because I did do what Bregante says.

Sympathies re wrists, I’ve done both, separately, on bike falls. Careful out there!

Thanks for all the rapid replies there folks, plenty of food for thought

As an aside, here’s what I’m coming back from
[/url] Photo0023 by mattbibbings, on Flickr[/img]

[/url] right1 by mattbibbings, on Flickr[/img]

Jeebus!! Nice one with the recovery! I love my Trance X29er. The top spec one is around your budget and must be very nice.

Matt I didn’t want to see that! – Matt.

When I did my second I bought myself a Blur as a comeback bike, that was 2004 though.

If XL size, theres a nice rumblefish pro for sale on here.

I have just bought a banshee prime, decent frame for he money and you could still kit out for under 3k as you wish. Reviews have been good but its the first batch of frames in the uk this time

OK, let’s break this down.

First, you seem to be set on a 29er without (if I’ve read your post properly) having tested any of the potential candidates. It might be worth thinking a bit more about why you want a 29er as that might help you decide what sort of 29er you want. For example, do you want to go as fast as possible over relatively tame terrain, to go as far as possible on wilderness epics, or ride technical terrain but steamroller it rather than bounce off it?

Second, you might want to think a bit more about what you like and dislike about the Orange single pivot design. I’ve spent a few months doing back to back rides on a Trance and a Five and I still can’t say that one is better than the other, but they are certainly different. The recent CTC review of the Gyro and Whyte T129s also seemed to come down to the differences between the single pivot and the multi bar suspension systems.

ctc-review-orange-gyro-and-whyte-t129s

If you do want a single pivot trail bike then your options are a bit more limited and you may just end up with the same two candidates (Gyro and Five29) that you started with. But at least by then you may have seen a few reviews of the Five29.

Alternatively, since the Five29 seems to be showing as in stock on a few sites, you could just buy one and let us know what it’s like 🙂

If I were after another FS 29er, I’d try the Whyte. Saw one in the flesh and it has to be a loss leader for them at that price. Really good and doing very well in the magazine tests.

By all accounts the Whyte T129S is a good bike, but a bit different to the Gyro and Five29 that the OP mentioned. Not better or worse, but different.

+1 Pyga.
Demo’d one last week (thanks Craig @ R53).
Ordered mine.

Out of interest, what other FS 29ers did you demo and what was it about the Pyge that sold it to you?

roverpig – Member
Out of interest, what other FS 29ers did you demo and what was it about the Pyge that sold it to you?

I demo’d a Whyte M109, T129, Orange Gyro, Cube 29 summin, yeti SB95, Spesh EPIC….. I liked the Whyte’s and the Gyro best

To be fair i didn’t demo the Pyga before i bought it…. 🙁 it was the looks and online reviews that swung me… 1st ride on Monday after building it up over the past few weeks

I’d be all over this.

Commi

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The Transition Bandit 29 is great fun, we have a cheap one for sale up in Edinburgh but can post all over. 2013 frame with 2012 build kit. Could add a Reverb and still keep it under £3000, even leaving a wedge of cash left over as well.

http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1289460/

It’s also pretty and blue

Rose Dr Z

Sorry if someone’s mentioned it but the brand new ibis ripley?

It’s funny, a post like that about a 26er the first question would be ‘what type of riding do you plan to do?’ Especially coming back from a horrific injury yet it took quite a few posts before that was asked about a 29er FS.

Is that just cos they all do a very similar job or cos there still isn’t the same experience across the board of them yet?

Coming back from such a nasty injury I personally wouldn’t be spending cash on something new. You may well not get back into it at the same level and to the same riding style. I’d be keeping the 5 to see how it goes, if your confidence has gone a familiar bike may well be the best thing you could have. Once you’re back into the swing start demoing 29ers and see what you like to ride. How much of this new bike itch is from browsing mags/online while injured too???

Good luck with the recovery too, must have been horrible. Hopefully it’ll have stopped snowing by May for you too!!

a Bandit 29 for something more trail/CX orientated

Things have moved on! 120mm full susser for cyclocross? 😆

A friend has just demo’d pretty much all the main contenders when it comes to 29er full sus bikes and ended up with the specialized camber expert. Its 3.5k, but they do a slightly lower spec at 2.5k and I think its really impressive, especially as Im not a spec fan. Worth a look at.

Is that just cos they all do a very similar job or cos there still isn’t the same experience across the board of them yet?

I don’t think they are all the same, but it’s interesting that Frankers tested a range and liked both the Whyte M109 and Orange Gyro. I’d have thought they were pretty different bikes.

I tried a t129 yesterday. Liked it a lot. I’m not sure but I think I would prefer 140mm up front though. Either that or the fork was not set up nicely, although I did try to adjust it.

But a very capable bike.

Shame there are going to be none left by the time I buy!

Hi, I’d agree with what steve mtb said. I broke my left wrist last may (operation + 3 pins) & it’s definitely changed how I ride. I spent the first few weeks after I could ride again just doing some gentle rides on my cx bike (fitness soon goes when you don’t do anything for months). When I got back to riding my main bike (140mm FS) I certainly thought a lot more about what I was doing on the bike & how I was riding, just in case.
I’d stay as you are, get some fitness back, build up your riding gradually over summer & evaluate it maybe in Autumn.
Good luck with the recovery. I know how much breaking one hurt, never mind two !

http://www.ibiscycles.com/bikes/ripley_29/
though i must say the colour choices are terrible
being an ibis sl black owner my views are a little one sided

Ibis slightly over budget no?

Holy smoke.. big respect for getting back on the bike after those breaks! ouch!!!

prob not in the price bracket but always liked the look of the niners 🙂

I tried a few 29 fs recently and found fox ctd forks not to be especially plush. Bought a SH bike with RS revs, which feel much better – the RT3 is dead easy to use too.
I tested cube ams and stereo and briefly, a whyte 129. The whyte was the least nice. The best was the tall boy I took a chance on second hand – very happy so far.

If you do want a single pivot trail bike then your options are a bit more limited and you may just end up with the same two candidates (Gyro and Five29) that you started with. But at least by then you may have seen a few reviews of the Five29.

If you like single pivot what about SC Superlight 29? Not got bolt-through rear but a lot cheaper. I demo’d one and was impressed (although I’m coming from a largely rigid/ss background).

Thanks for all the ideas here folks. Much appreciated. I was taking time to gussy up my Five ready for sale two days ago and had pretty much the train of thought put by Stevemtb and shinsplints.

I do enjoy my Five (even if it is ain’t no wagon wheeler). But I just won’t get the use out of my Swift anymore,its just too rigid.

So my plan now is to flog the Swift and use the cash to pimp my five (1×10, better brakes and a reverb) and keep her going for a while. Familiar bike makes sense in so many ways. Then take stock at the 6 month mark.

Thanks for the words of support regarding the injury. It was always always going to be a long road ( getting ready for op number 6) but it’ll all come good. I’m thrashing myself on my road bike working on the fitness so when I’m back on the trails it won’t be my legs or lungs that hold me back!

@Floki I’m really glad you liked it. It’s on the way now.

@Frankers have you ridden it yet? I assume you loved it.

@mattbibbings if you change your mind get in touch with us at http://www.r53sport.com and we can have a chat.

Cheers.

Hi Matt, I remember reading about your accident last year. It stuck in my mind because I’d only just done something remarkably similar. I thought my injuries were bad but yours were worse. I was back on my bike, albeit slowly, last September. I too have vowed to keep my wheels firmly on the ground and thought I’d might never ride my rigid singlespeed again.

I only rode my full-sus for about 6 months and then gave the rigid a go. I’ve hardly touched the FS since. Riding it has been surprisingly pain lite. In fact the Jones bars are definitely more comfy than using the FS with normal bars. I think it’s the angle my wrist assumes.

I’d definitely support what Stevemtb and shinsplints said and see how it goes before rushing out and buying something new.

Wow, that’s some nasty brakes. You might want to consider a plush Stumpy.

r53sport – Member

@Floki I’m really glad you liked it. It’s on the way now.

@Frankers have you ridden it yet? I assume you loved it.

@mattbibbings if you change your mind get in touch with us at http://www.r53sport.com and we can have a chat.

Yes 1st ride on Monday over at Cannock but the conditions were pants with lots of snow and ice, back end felt great but forks felt a bit naff so need a bit of tuning… looking forward to this weekend for a proper ride