Mine went the same way, cracked the c/s weld halfway through an uplift day at Cwm Carn. It was one of the first batch of silver ones, and had already survived a week in the Alps and several other gravity fed days out. Just got it back after a relatively quick warranty turnaround from JE James.
I went for a long/large as I’m 5’10/11 and wanted something stable and hooligan. Which it is. Geo is almost identical to a medium Orange Alpine, maybe 1/2 a degree slacker on the same tyres and fork. I had to loctite all the bolts, and I’m not massively impressed with the shock: it clunks into the first part of its travel and I want more damping, although the pro pedal on/off thingy is useful.
It climbs better than my old Norco which it replaced, but the rear doesn’t track as nicely as something with a coil sprung horst link Oddly however, it seems to grip better on the off camber stuff, maybe due to that bolt through.
Bargain for the money really.
