Dyfi virgin so no idea how technical the course is, do I take my Soul or my 5Spot. The soul’s quicker up hills but I’m guessing there’s plenty of fun downs where the 5Spot will be more grin inducing 😕

5Spot will probably be more fun down but there is a lot of climbing, although for the most part it is fireroads there are a few technical climbs. The descents are for the most part just pretty steep, very rocky and fairly straight! Can’t really offer advice on which of the 2 to take, I’ll be on my BFe though.

Hmm choice is erring to the Soul at the moment then

no, no, no. you are all missing the point.

You need a new bike, which is part way between the two. Whenever a decision between two bikes is tricky, it immediately opens up a potential bike ownership category.

In your case, what you need is a short travel full suss. Happy shopping!

HTH

Dave

I did my first few dyfi enduros on a Heckler, then switched to hardtail with 130mm forks and didn’t really miss the full bounce.
I’ll be riding a different hardtail, but with 150mm forks this year.

You’ll be amazed by the variety of bikes there. I think Hybrids and unicycles are banned now, but they’ve certainly been ridden in the past.

any bike is good. as chvck says, most of the climbs are fire-road with a few step techy singletrack bits. All the descents are steep, slatey, off-camber, rocky, fast frikkin’ good fun 🙂

Hmm sounds like a solaris would be ideal then, do you think :lol:Stu at the Dalesbike centre would lend me his 😆

I’m also dithering between HT and FS.

I did the winter warmup event there and didn’t find it rocky so much as muddy. Is this weekend’s event on completely different terrain???

Neither.

You want one of these. 😆

2012_0504fatgnar0008 by singlespeedstu, on Flickr

I did my first couple on a Whyte 46. Did my last one on my Soul. As nice as the soul is, there were certainly points where I wished for the Whyte’s travel, even with its iffy geometry.

But then I’m not a very good rider 😉

Cotic, you’ll be quicker up. 5spot, you’ll have more fun down, and more leeway when someone does something daft in front of you and you need to head off-piste.

That said, if it’s quagmire, you might want the soul’s clearance – the Whyte turned into a very heavy, very tall hardtail partway through one visit.

I’d go for the lighter bike as you’ll be ahead of the masses and mud and have the descents to yourself. The limiting factor isn’t travel as the descents are loose (slate slag) rather than rocky, so tyre choice makes more difference than travel. Light HT with big front tyre for grip would be my choice.

Full bounce will be less hard on the joints and more fun on the downs, but a well setup hardtail would be just as good I reckon. I’m taking the FS over the hardtail as I don’t have the fitness to be quick this year, so I’m there for the downs 🙂

Chvck is either on his Bfe or his Bfe

Which ever is more fun to descend on. The descents are what people go for (apart from a few badly wired ones maybe).
I like the challenge of descending on the HT and that is what I’m taking this time. Previously I’ve taken the FS and that was fun for outright point and plough speed.

And as I’m going to be pushing up the hills regardless, the HT is lighter too.

Hardtail it is then!!