Up the hills last night, my mate finally admitted his beloved FF29 was just not the right tool for chucking himself down the rowdier parts of the trail.

He has a very specific list:

– Has to be new, He doesn’t want buy a bike ‘that has been owned by someone like him before’.
– Has to be under £500, so frame only.
– Has to be a non-boost 29er so he can swap the bits from his other bikes.
– Has to be 68 deg head angle or slacker to handle the drops etc. without too much terror.

So far I’ve come up with the Dartmoor Primal and the Zealous Division but both are quite long in the tooth now. I know I’m missing loads but my brain isn’t working this morning.

Ideally I’d suggest a Sherpa or Solaris (I have a Sherpa) but they’re out of budget.

Check if your mate can get a boost adaptor for his wheels – if he can this would widen the scope considerably. I think you can get them for DT hubs (or hubs with DT internals, such as Specialised), Hope, Industry Nine and White Industries. Not sure of any others… Specialized and Hope make proprietary ones, of you can get them from Wolftooth. https://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/products/boostinator

You’ll need to re-dish the rear wheel, but it’s a 10 minute job on a decent jig.

As for frames, there’s a good-looking NS on Chainreaction at the moment for cheap: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ns-bikes-eccentric-djambo-evo-frame-2017/rp-prod152978

Yeah, they’re hope wheels and hubs, so that is a good call. Thanks.

Not sure if its boosted: https://www.orangebikes.co.uk/bikes/p7-29-frame/2018 £50 over budget gets you a 66.5′ head angle.

Dartmoor Primal

Good for the biking community that a company cranks out the frames for such a good price. And the Hornet has real good reputation as fun downhill bike.

Owned the Primal 27.5 for a very short time. I had some spare 27.5 rims with 25 mm inner size and planned to use 2.4 inch tires on it.
The Dartmoor spec still quotes

Max. tire size: 27.5×2.4″

.

But big, big trouble – the frame was way too narrow.
Finally got the information that “you better buy a 2.3 inch tire – 2.4 inch won’t fit!”…
Hahah
Quickly sold the bike again.

Don’t like to say that Dartmoor is a bad pick or so. But this Primal 27.5 thing I didn’t like. And they still have the wrong spec in their home page.

You are interested in an Dartmoor 29 inch frame.
Might be o.k. / different there!

Nukeproof Scout 290.2018 ones are boost but you might find a 2017 142 one.

Nukeproof Scout 290

Good pick.

He got the Nukeproof in the end.

Thanks all!

Cool, Scout is really bloody stiff, it’s kind of a 29er Mmmbop. But if you can deal with that it’s ace.