STW Gurus,

I’m coming up to my CTW purchase time. I want a new HT that I can do the odd endurance race on but mainly for fun jumps and trail riding.

I ride a Pinnacle Ramin 4 (overseas) and apart from the fork, I can’t fault it, yes it’s a little heavy but you’d expect that.

I’m looking at Possibly the Ramin 5 (2015) model or throwing some more money at the problem and get a Whyte 905.

I could whack some new forks on the Ramin 4 and a new wheel set, but it’s doing fine for now as it is….

Any thoughts?

I bought a Kona Taro – freaking awesome. Best thing with a hard tail is that cleaning it after a days ride takes minutes!

New wheels and forks is a big spend and may be better put towards a new bike. New wheels and forks would probably be around £4-500 if you want to see significant improvement.

However, the 5 is very similar to the 4 so you wouldn’t get much extra in terms of performance if you bought new.

Just keep riding what you are riding – spend the money on going somewhere interesting with the bike instead?

There others to consider if you can buy from other shops. On-one parkwood. Kinesis FF29er and boardman stuff from halfords.

Jonba

The plan was that the Four will stay overseas. The Five would be my UK HT, my son would get my 26″ HT which I’ve recently rebuilt.. The four gets a hammering TBF and the forks could do with an upgrade, but I suppose I could flog it and just transport the replacement whenever I need to go away.

Any opinions from anyone that’s ridden the new Ramin and the 905?

I am also looking for a new HT and am considering the 905 aswell. Currently leaning towards the Bird Zero 1 though. Same price but awesome spec for the money (save a load as it direct purchase), UK built and awesome write ups…

Yes, I’d seen that. Do they do CTW??

Gary_M – Member
I was in a similar position for a new bike I was getting through C2W, I had it down to the Whyte 805 or the Bird zero.3.

Went for the Bird and I’m glad I did as the guys at Bird have been very helpful, they weren’t part of halfords c2w scheme but between them and Halfords it was sorted in a few days.

I would buy the Bird on service alone, but its also a great spec for the money.