When I first started mountain biking, a friend pointed out some Turner bikes outside the bike shop at Laggan. He said they were the best you can get.
Since my surname is Turner, I always wanted one.

Have been riding a Salsa Horsethief for a long time. I liked it, but it was a little big and a little bouncy when you pedalled.

Saw this frame here, bought it and then swapped over all the bits from my Salsa.

Although turns out that not that many fit and I ended up spending months putting buying second hand bits that I’d always really wanted. Finally got them all, screwed it all together and twiddled the bits til it stopped making funny noises.

Here’s a list of all the parts I got. Didn’t spend too much (probably ~ £1k in total and still have bits from old bike to sell)

Came in at 13kg/28.6lbs too which I think is pretty decent as nothing on it is particularly lightweight. Most things bought with reliability in mind.

Frame – Turner Sultan with a Fox RP23 shock
Fork – Pike RC
Middleburn RS8 Uno Crank and 30t ring. Superstar plastic pedals
Sunrace 11-42t 10 speed (New)
XTR 10 speed mech
Saint 10 speed shifter (new – ebay open box bargain)
Front Brake – Hope X2 Race Evo Stealth (New – silly price from Alpine Bikes stall at Tweedlove)
Rear Brake – Hope X2 Evo Tech 2 (I think)
Generic Avid rotors.
Wheels are Hope Pro 2 Evo hubs, Stans Crest Rims and Nobby Nic and Hans Dampf tyres set up tubeless. Rear is QR but converted it to the 10mm quasi-bolt through thing you can get
Old Specialized command post dropper
Bontrager carbon bars – 720mm
Hope headset and seatclamp. Shimano bottom brackett of some form

Impressions so far (from a quick spin down the street and round the Skelf track)

It seems very like my old bike! But lighter and a bit smaller.
The return speed on that dropper is savage.
I don’t know what the dials on the fox shock do.
The brakes are great (had Deore on my old bike).

Looking forward to a Glentress trip tomorrow to test it properly!

Gravity defying cat has been walking through the red paint.

The cat can actually get that high.
No red paint. Though it did eat some tumeric-heavy curry, stand in the leftovers and walk over my white bed covers the other day…

Its also always been my dream to own a Turner, when I stop racing I intend to pootle around MTB trails on one.

Very nice, congrats.

Came in at 13kg/28.6lbs

I’d love to know why my carbon everything (frame, rims, bars, cranks, brake levers, mech cage) Hightower that cost me the bloody earth weighed in at 30.0 lbs dead when I picked it up from the shop. Literally every bike on the internet ever seems to be at least significantly lighter! *Goes and cries*

Looks ace. Enjoy.

Loved my DW 5 Spot. Still have a HL 6 Pack in the loft, keeper that one.

I guess there are weird places you pick up the weight. Pedals, cassettes, saddles, tyres etc?

My previous Salsa was 13.9kg – but it had a Deore triple crank and cassette on as well as inner tubes. I don’t think these Turners are meant to be particularly light.

^ That is weird though. While some of the things on this are quite lightweight I mostly went with well-engineered bits – Hope/Stans/Middleburn etc, Stuff that just works and should keep on working. I don’t really do a huge amount of cleaning/maintenance on my bikes other than oiling the chain (difficult when you stay in a flat) so that led my choice of bits. Hopefully the Turner frame will hold up similarly – they seem to have a reputation for being well engineered.

Looks like my old one. Does it have a small dent under the down tube in front of the bb?

Hopefully the Turner frame will hold up similarly – they seem to have a reputation for being well engineered

I’ve got a DW 5 spot.

When the apocalypse arrives, cockroaches, shimano SPDs and Turner frames will be the only thing left!

After 5 years I’m just about to retire mine and split it.

Nothing wrong with it, but my Last Fastforward has utterly ruined it for me.

The dude!
Not for the bike, workstand in the house/bedroom?
Single guy or mtb partner?

Yes it does. I bought it off here, though can’t remember who from?
I got a custom Alpkit framebag for it too

Divorced. So now there are bike workstands instead of sewing machines in there.
Was in a bit of a rush to finish it today though as had an AirBnB guest arriving at 4pm. Cue up mad rushing around cleaning up oil spots and cable tie ends and replacing tools with flowers and mirrors etc

I do wonder about how long I’ll have it. Both it and my Horsethief (a 2013) had more typical geometry than all the bikes from the last couple of years, and I really did like the position on a Genesis Tarn I had a quick shot on. My friend’s Capra feels very bizarre – why is the front wheel all the way out there??

Glad to see some turner love.

I’ve ridden sultans on holiday. Great bike with superb traction. Got a Czar and flux myself and wouldn’t be without them.

Now Turner are exclusivily carbon it does worry me a bit as stuff comes from Asia and seems to take time.

It’s a shame the market forced them away from aluminium.

I would still like a sultan to complete the fleet. DW-link is awesome and longevity is great. I’m looking at 10000miles now on my czar.

Replaced my large Sultan with an XL Sultan. Really love riding it. Not ridden it for a while as it needed a few bits fixing, but rode it last week at Kirroughtree. Still brings a smile 😀

[url=https://flic.kr/p/VgkpmS]DSC_1214[/url] by Andy Wrigley, on Flickr

Literally every bike on the internet ever seems to be at least significantly lighter! *Goes and cries*

The price of honesty…

Mine is 32 lbs on the bathroom scales…

Great bike, I hope you enjoy it, I bought a medium after getting impatient and it was a great bike but too small for me, the thing for me was how versatile it was and the user serviceability.

Lovely build mate!

I did similar with a second hand Jeffsy frame.
Some parts were new/ new take offs, others second-hand. Much from these good forums!

A lot of fun building up a bike from scratch. More so when your building from new and used parts… Now sure why though!

Best damn bike I’ve ever ridden. I snapped the frame on mine earlier this year. I’d had it from new in 2009 so it had a good run with my lardcore riding style. I hope you find it rides as well as I found mine did.
There’s a new geo Sultan in the pipeline and there are rumours that it might not actually be carbon.

I am a Sultan owner too

Tips,

bodge yourself a grease gun with the curved injector

Use finish line ceramic grease

Buy the replacement kit for the wearing parts asap, not because they wear quickly, just because they are never in stock when you need them

Put a proper bolt in the bolt through

Yeah, the greasing thing is on my list. I have a standard grease gun that I used for my motorbike so will need to investigate how I can squirt this

The frames have a lifetime warranty, right?

I’d love to know why my carbon everything (frame, rims, bars, cranks, brake levers, mech cage) Hightower that cost me the bloody earth weighed in at 30.0 lbs dead when I picked it up from the shop. Literally every bike on the internet ever seems to be at least significantly lighter! *Goes and cries*

You need to buy some Optimistic scales, most people seem to have a pair on here 😆

The frames have a lifetime warranty, right?

Nope – 2 years.

You need to buy some Optimistic scales, most people seem to have a pair on here

Partially this, partially “weighed without pedals and partially sensible choices.

Lock on grips?
Saddle choice?
Dropper?
Tyres choice, tubeless?
Bottle cages, garmin mounts, mud guards, etc?

There’s often a lot of weight added to bikes that you don’t think of, and a lot of weight can be saved by actually going with cheaper but lighter options. Thats not to say a dropper or garmin aren’t useful additions, and grips and saddles are a matter of preference, but for a headline weight, there’s a lot that can be done.

Think the weight of mine is pretty accurate. A few relatively light bits on there. ESI grips on Haven bars, m970 cranks, Arch on pro2 hubs, xc8 pedals, e4 brakes. Heavy frame though. Still i dont see a need to swap for anything lighter. It works for me as it is.

Looks good.

My favourite all time bike was a Turner Flux 26″ version, over a decade ago now.
Wish I never sold it.

Denis99 – Member
Looks good.

My favourite all time bike was a Turner Flux 26″ version, over a decade ago now.
Wish I never sold it.

My fave bike too

My fave bike too

I’m just dismantling mine and putting it all on a 650B flux !

The 650b version doesn’t look much different apart from the change to the top-tube, which I don’t like as much. Both large with 44mm headtubes.

At least I still have it if I want to build it up again.

Got a 2009 medium dw-link flux frame in the rafters of the garage as well.

Toying with a beefy sultan build as my bike park safety bike…

Waiting on my new flux next week

So, I finally got round to riding this! I’ve not been very good at doing mountain biking this year 🙁

Took it for a spin round the blue route at Glentress to ease me and it back in.

Overall – I like it!
I’ts not hugely different from my Salsa Horsethief.
It pedals a little better – without the bob and goes up hill well. It gets knocked off line a little more… though maybe it is because it has lighter wheels.

A couple of times it felt a little too upright, at the seatpost – like I was tipping forward a little. Think I might try some offset bushings for a cheap way to play around with that.

Other bits:
1×10 wide range vs 3×10. I like the single front ring. Less double shifting/thinking about when to move rings or cassette up/down.
The chain never fell off either and that is just a N/W ring at the front, no clutch mech.

Hope brakes – really nice. Powerful (one finger) and didn’t make any weird noises or feel spongy.

Specialized Command Post. A 3 position thing (up, 3/4s, down) – cable actuated with a hydraulic spring inside. Really nice actually – does all I need and prefer the lever to the push button reverb one.

Other thoughts: easier to manual. Didn’t get off the ground at all when I normally do. Maybe the bike, maybe I was just going slow cos I was rusty.

Nice, I do like turners wish I hadn’t sold my old 5 spot