A friend currently has an abused orange hitman hardtail and we're going to morzine mid august… he's had an offer of a coiler for £400 from a guy at work. will it hold up to a week of dh and chatel freeride. he isn't known for holding back. obviously the current state of it will make a difference but lets presume its alright and he's getting a bargain… how much abuse can coilers take? better to try and find a big hit or stinky for a little bit more? or ride the hitman till it dies and hire a bike?.

(mr MC posting) bizarre as I am trying to sell my Coiler for ~£400! It is plenty good enough for the alps, Ive taken mine to Morzine the last four years and I keep up with riding buddies on big travel Faiths and Glorys and like getting air. And crashing and breaking my knee. Hey ho.

And its easier to ride on the pedally sections than dedicated DH bikes. I only needed to change the bearings in mine once in its 4 year life, cost me about 30 quid to get quality replacements from Bearing-King.

Stick some decent fat tyres and big discs on and it will be fine. I loved mine and am only getting rid of it as I bought my dream bike, a Nomad, and they are too similar in remit to keep both.

Depends on which year. Older ones only had 5 inches, newer ones six. Quite steep for full on freeride and downhill but good to ride singletrack too. Great for jumping on made tracks. My experience of them was that they are very solidly built and very sweet. Agree with MC re tyres/disc, try a 2.5 tacky minion front, not sure of max size rear, probs 2.5 again, and I regret selling mine!

GR this is a duplicate thread, Ive cut and paste my wisdom into the other one! Mine is/was a 2004 5" travel, fitted with 2.35 minions and it would probably fit 2.5's fine.

Kevin ran his with 2.5 Minions front and rear, loads of room on the rear for a bigger tyre. Dont know about the older ones but our 2005 Coiler Primo has 6" of rear travel. Katie has 2.3 Enduro tyres which look bigger than the Minions but are half the weight. If it wasnt the lure of an SX Trail and the fact that Katie needed a bigger bike then he would still be using it

Tracey

Dito