Hi,

My 29er (grand canyon AL 5.9) was broken by a friend and I’m now looking for a replacement. I’m having problem to decide between Ragley Big Wig or the Parkwood. I was not too fond of the canyon, it was a bit to hard to twist around when it came to trail riding but great on gravel however.

I mainly ride semi-technical trails, not to hard hitting. When it points downwards I use my on-one 456 with 150mm fork. I’m planning to use the bike for the occasional XC race that aren’t too technical so good pedal efficency would be great. I’ll do a 1×10 setup and a 100 mm fork (will probably be upgraded next year to a 120mm).

Big Wig pros:
– Great looking
– Steel

Big wig cons:
– Weight
– Longish chainstays (perhaps good for XC?)

Parkwood is the reverse in pros/cons I think. Price difference is not that big so no issue. Frame has to be under 300 EUR however…

Anyone has tried both or is able to point me in a direction?

On-One Lurcher for £278 will do the 100mm/XC thing and be lighter than either of those.

I’d agree with the above, both you’re choices seem a little too close to your 456 in riding style. If it is between them however i’d say Parkwood as i’ve heard the Big Wig is quite weighty and I can’t see it as much of a race bike.

just got my new parkwood out of it’s box it was delivered in 5 week ago.
1st impressions were, ‘this feels bloody light’.
looks very nice in the flesh too.
not ridden it yet tho.

I considered that both parkwood and big wig is quite close to the 456 but I still want to be more towards the trail than XC side (do perhaps 3-4 races / year and with very low ambition).

The lurcher is not really my cup of tea when it comes to the looks :). I would love to get my hands on a scandal 29er however but they are not sold in EU any longer.

I’ve had a go on a mate’s Parkwood and was very impressed. Felt light, but handled really well. So a good mix of what you’re after possibly. XC light but trail geometry. I rode a 29er inbred straight after and it felt very different, much slower handling and obviously heavier. I think the Parkwood looks good too

I haven’t really looked much at the Parkwood but I do really like my Big Wig. I have mine built up with 140mm Fox 34 forks, 1×10, Reverb, Easton Haven wheels, Hans Dampf tyres, 750mm bars, 45mm stem and Formula The One brakes….so pretty burly, but loads of fun on anything techy. It doesn’t have the shortest stays for a 29er h/tail, but that doesn’t seem to hinder it in tighter twisty sections of trail, and overall I prefer it to my previous Blue Pig. Not sure if I would use it for XC racing though, but if it’s just 3 or 4 times a year I could probably live with the weight, as even the small frame weighs in at 6lbs. My build is somewhere around 27-28lbs. The Parkwood frame is 1.5lbs lighter so a better starting point I guess.

wijkd, I may be selling my 29er scandal frame (16″)
if any good email in my profile.

Thanks for the offer mr Mountain, 16″ would unfortunately be too small.

My brain wants the Parkwood but the heart says Big Wig. Big Wig is quite a lot heavier but I don’t really think I’ll notice that too much. Or?

Well I was in the same situation as you and in the end I went for a big wig . Just come back from exmoor and with 120mm forks it was fantastic , rocks were bouncing of it and it didn’t phase the wig 🙂 mine weighs 26.7lbs with slx , XT and hope hoops . Round my local woods its a right blast ! Even better than my whyte m109 full Suss . It’s comfy too since its steel . Hope this helps

Dartmoor Primal 29?

Thanks for all the info. I’m leaning towards the Ragley at the moment.

Slackman99 – > I’m not able to find any online stores that sells it, do you know where it is sold? It looks like a middleground between the parkwood and big wig. A bit heavy for AL no? Anyhow, I’ll investigate it a bit further.

Anyone riding a big wig with a straight steerer fork? I have to use one as an interim solution until I can scrape together money for a tapered 120mm fork. Are there convertes available that I can somehow use to cater for the straight steerer in a tapered tube?

Found the dartmoor here: http://slam69.co.uk/dartmoor-primal-29-29×22-2014-7452-p.asp
A very tempting price indeed but I think the parkwood would be kind of the same but to a bit lighter?

Fitting a straight steerer won’t be a problem. Hope and Gusset do a good range of mix and match headsets, for example.

http://www.gussetbikes.com/products-information.php?id=HDGUBE34

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/no/en/hope-pick-n-mix-headsets-bottom-cup/rp-prod70727

I’ve got the big wig with a straight steerer 100mm Reba – used the Nukeproof head set with external cups to keep the geometry right – 44IESS.
Seems to all work well. Don’t get the chance to do anything particularly exciting on it, but it’s certainly a lot more stable and capable downhill than the Inbred 29er it replaced.

I’m planning to fit a tapered fork next year, I could not understand if I then would need to change headset as well? Meaning, I can fit a headset for a tapered fork but with some kind of converter, remove the converter next year and simply put in the tapered fork?

As above slam69 do them. Geometry wise they are more trail than xc. Bit heavy for al, but then you’re considering the big wig which is over 6lbs so figured weight wasnt an issue

Saying that I ride a trek stache which is both light and trail oriented (but not avalible frame only)