Both 27.5, will use a 160mm. Used for Hamsterley, Inners, glentress, Laggan and such like. Also yearly trips to the alps. What’s the best option or am I looking at 6 & 2 3s? Any pics of yours would be appreciated.

Cheers

Im very biased but I would get the spitfire its an awesome alround trail shredder , its my only bike I use it for everything from long xc rides ,bike park, trail,non extreme downhill and even a bit of commuting. It just laps everything up .I built mine a year and a half ago now and ive had no issues what so ever it really just is a superb bike..

heres some pictures to wet your appitite, mines 26″ but its ment to be great as 650b too

Cheers theraggyone, that’s just the sort of feedback I was looking for. Ideally want to use it like you said and in the near future for enduro (cringe) racing. The 140/160mm mix could be ideal.

Any others?

As it happens, I was riding alongside both of those exact bikes at the weekend. They belong to mates.

They both get on very well with them, the Spitty owner coming from a Rune and that was his first time riding the Spitfire. He said that the Spitfire had a little more noticable feedback through the pedals when it got rough compared to his previous 160mm Rune. I guess that makes sense, but that it climbed very well, and was still excellent on the rough downs of Eastridge.

I preferred the Banshee myself as I kinda want one(I currently have a 2012 Mega)

The other mate on the newer Mega gets on very well with it seemingly. Can’t ever keep with him on the climbs but that’s probably more to do with fitness etc than bike.

Both great bikes though and I reckon you’d not do wrong on either.
Personally though, my worry was that the 140mm Spitfire may feel a little out of its depth on some of the rough Alpine DH tracks. My 2012 Mega already gets a bit bogged down abroad and on uplift days at some of the classic UK dh tracks.

Everything is a compromise though and the Spitfire is a fantastic frame. Mega is too though…
Glad I could help… 😉

a bike like mine…… ^^ wot theraggyone said about the banshee only 100% 650b

kona process 153, did a dh race yesterday, done loads of enduros, including ews tweedlove and lots of xc miles, alps etc

And the evening crowd?

Couldn’t say it have any experience of the Mega, but I am another 650b Spitfire owner and can’t say enough good things about it. I’ve only had it a couple of months but do Glentress, Inners, general Tweed Valley & Borders stuff and Wolftrax & Scottish Open enduro without any complaints at all. I don’t go in for a lot of huge jumps / drops or full on extreme downhill (some of the Inners golf course stuff is tricky enough for me) but I’m quite sure that the bike can handle an awful lot more than I can!! I came from a 120 travel Ghost AMR and was fairly shocked to find that I can do xc type riding just as easily, if not more so, on the Spitfire (with ccdb & 160 Pikes) as well. Quite happily spent four hours on the cliff paths around St Abbs on Saturday morning in fact, but then also signed up for Kinlochleven enduro 🙂 An over used phrase I know but to me it really is a do it all bike.

Hopefully here’s a picture from Saturdays outing. If possible could someone sort the pic so it shows without having to follow the link, I’m useless at such things!!

As requested above…

The saddle is stretching to have a peep over the wall

Another 650b Spitty owner here and as had already been said it’s a do-it-all bike. I was down at GT on Sunday for the first time in over a year and I had a great time. Getting lots of air on the jumps at the top of Spooky and railing berms better than my old Meta 55 did. It’s a good climber too with basically zero pedal bob with the CCDBA.

Will post a pic later as can’t do it from my phone

Thanks Kayak.

I would think the Mega AM was more matched to the Banshee Rune? Both being 160mm travel.
I have a Rune and I can its certainly a tough beast! I have both 26″ and 650b dropouts/wheels for it. Using the 26″ wheels for DH races, meaning I dont have to buy new DH tyres which is good 🙂
It has easily adjustable angles, steep, normal and slack giving it even more versatility.
To give you an idea, I rode PORC DH race last weekend (with Kimbers above), doing what I would call huge gap jumps (well, out of my comfort zone for racing anyway!), cased a few early on and the bike gobbled them up’ish!

This weekend I’m racing Enduro on it, slap the 650b wheels in, steepen up the angles, a little less pressure in the shock and hopefully I’ll have a good weekend!

Loving it 8)

living up to your name there – nice work!

I would add the Pyga Pascoe to your list

You only have to look at the recent review of PYGA to want one.

Please do get in contact if you would like to demo one.