Good hardcore play bike that can still ride up a hill, Been looking at these.

Orange Blood
Specialized sx
Giant X reign
Commencal 6

SX is hard work up hills.

Reign X Flies up a hill by comparison. Bought one a couple of weeks ago, have ridden it a few times already, been very impressed by its allround abilities. Certainly it pedals a lot better than a 6.7″ travel frame has any right to, it descends as well as plenty of DH bikes too.

Click this link for more about my Reign X

Considered an SX Trail, but they’re known to be a bit of a pig up the hills as the back end is quite short (so they can tend to wheelie up the hills), and the 4 bar suspension can tend to bob quite a bit. By comparison my mates who had a go on my Reign X were very impressed with its lack of pedal bob climbing.

Not ridden an Orange Blood, does look very nice, but personally I’d want more rear end travel to match the front, and it’s very expensive for what it is.

Not ridden a Commencal Meta 6, if the Meta 5 is anything to go by it’ll be a very good bike, but have heard they’re a bit overweight when compared to some of the competition.

You don’t say where you’re going to be riding primarily, and is it going to get dragged out for long XC rides as well, or just going messing about but still with the ability to ride back to the top?

I have ’05 SX trail fitted with Lyrics. No problems up hill in Glentress & Wales & long steep climbs. Did an 80km XC ride on it in Leogang this year too…no problem. Lots of fund Downhill at Fort William! Main thing is what fork you fit(i.e how long). I did once have a Zocchi 66 up front which made it a pig on the climbs as it was too “laid back” that was in its “freeride only incarnation”.

With RS Lyrics up front climbing is ace and it goes up really techy steep slopes aswell as down! I have never noticed any suspension bob on whatsoever though. The rear end is superb.(TF Tuned progessive Coil shock).

Only downside is weight , but im happy knowing it is strong enough!!

my 04 sx was a pig uphill and awesome fun DH. it snapped.
my 07 sx was fine uphill if you weren’t in a hurry. I cleaned climbs on that that I haven’t on any other bike. limited seatpost was a pain but new ones have solved that. pretty good DH but a bit long and struggled when it got tight and steep.
my 06 commencal supreme Fr was awesome playbike and DH bike but too short to sensibly climb and stupid short seattube meant you couldnt run a decent height saddle.

now on a 5 which isn’t as good DH as any of them but pretty good fun. beats them all everywhere else including flowy singletrack, they were all just too heavy to keep moving.

Another vote for the ReignX. Never tried out any of the others tho.
Had a commencal supreme which was also a great bike and may be worth a look if it’s a more DH focused play bike you’re looking. Prefer the ReignX tho as i find it a bit more versitile.

Felt Redemption

I have the model one down from this. At £1200 it is a bargain!

Very very very good fun down hill! you’ll be able to fast than you thought you would be able to, and hit stuff that usually you wouldn’t bother doing.

Uphill it has never held me back at all. In Fact i have cleared stuff on this which i have never been able to do before i had this. In terms of servicing and stuff, i have just taken mine to bike shop for first service. Commented that the shock/suspension/pivots etc… were all in great condition, and i have had mine about 1 year 2 months, it had had a very hard life also!

Proven bomb proof design – mega fun to ride, can be pedalled up with a middle weight build and a scoper post. Definitely fulfils the hardcore and the play requirements, a fraction of the price of the Orange.

Vid of the bottlerocket from transition.

I’d take the meta 6 off that list, it’s a beefed up meta 5 with an inch of extra travel designed specifically for the mega.

I’ve not ridden a blood but I’ve owned a commencal supreme 6, ridden many sx trails and a giant reign. I look at bikes heavily biased towards dh efficeny comparing them to my proper dh bike. The reign is by far the best of your bunch, blinding downhill but by far the best pedalling ‘freeride’ bike I’ve used.

However personally if the riding is biased towards dh I’d buy a single pivot as I find them easier to ride on dh tracks. The linkage bikes make sense on a general ‘trail’ bike as it makes them so much better to pedal.

Still waiting to ride a blood, but have ridden the other 3. If you want a do it all trail centre bike buy the Reign, if you like to find and make your own trails buy the SX and if going downhill fast with big jumps buy the Commencal. My money would be on the Blood Fr it’s exactly what I’ve been waiting for, shame it’s so much money.

dropoff –

If you want a do it all trail centre bike buy the Reign, if you like to find and make your own trails buy the SX and if going downhill fast with big jumps buy the Commencal.

That’s some pretty random and strange advice right there, considering the commie has practically xc angles and finishing kit. It’s steeper by a few degrees than the reign or the sx.

Either the reign or the sx trail will be overkill for most uk trail centres and I have no idea why an sx trail would suit a trail builder…… 😕

Gnargnar. Ride them and see 🙂

I’ve ridden them all to some extent or other. For me it would be a toss up betwen the bottlerocket, reign and sx. My heart would say bottlerocket – it seems the most fun, you dont notice the lesser travel, it feels bottomless . Head would say the reign, sx trail would be halfway between the two.

Cheers for the replies, I’m edging towards the Reign at the moment.