I’ve been meaning to get a new hardtail for a while now, and the loss of my Nicolai earlier in the week finally prompted me to move on a Ragley Big Wig that was available. It’s a complete bike, built for someone slightly shorter than me, so it’ll need some tweaking to fit properly, but I had a quick blast on it before work this morning and I think I’m going to get on really well with it.
It feels really chuckable, and the 140mm Fox 34 Floats don’t overwhelm it at all, and I can’t believe I’m saying this but the 750mm Kinesis Strut bars actually felt narrow 🙄 ……compared to the 780mm bars on my Nicolai, but I like how the steering felt so I won’t be changing them, and I think I’ll probably swap the 40mm stem for a 50mm, and move the seat back a touch to give me a wee bit more room. The 1×9 drivetrain felt ok, but I missed out two steep climbs this morning so it will be interesting to see how I get on next time out, as I’m used to lower gearing on my 1×10 29er Nicolai which is also fitted with a Hope T-Rex.

My Nicolai was thankfully recovered by the police yesterday, but I think the Big Wig will be seeing plenty of action this summer.

It’s nice to have a hardtail again 🙂

Looks really nice, that. Any idea on frame and full bike weight? I was looking at building one frame up for longer xcx rides and trail centres

No weights yet, but I’ve copied the spreadsheet I made for my old Blue Pig, so I now just need to find all the manufacturers weights for the Big Wig parts.

Just plugged some numbers in and I get just under 27lbs, but it’s probably closer to 28, maybe a bit more.

Full spec is

18” Ragley Big WIg
Fox 34 Float 140mm
Mavic 719 / Hope Pro2 Evo wheels (tubeless)
2.4” Conti Mountain King 2 black chili tyres
XTR crank arms / 30t RF narrow wide ring
9sp Saint short cage mech, XT shifter
9sp XT cassette
Formula The Ones
Reverb
45mm Control Tech stem
750mm Kinesis Strut carbon bars
ODI Yeti lock-ons