…and tell me how much fun you have on them… 🙂

I love mine but it’s not as good as the Yeti ASR5 I used to own. 😉

self propelled howitzer?

wwaswas – Member
I love mine but it’s not as good as the Yeti ASR5 I used to own.

👿

FWIW I’m thinking T129 Works and using my HT for pure racing duties, but want to find out people’s day to day trail opinion of the M109.

I’ll test both anyway.

As you know, I test rode one for a weekend. It was a very capable bike – really ate up the ground and still had a fun feel on the twisties. However, for me there was something not quite right – maybe due to the sizing or the angles but I never felt completely comfortable on it. It was a xl but I would still have needed to put a setback post and longer stem on if I was to buy it. Probably just my own dimension issues and you may find it perfect WHEN YOU TEST RIDE IT. In contrast I felt at home straight away on the Spearfish I demoed even though it was a size too small. You’re not going to buy a Spearfish though, are you.

You’re not going to buy a Spearfish though, are you.

No. I want a T129 Works or M109 cs. The bike needs to be “fun” before “race” which err’s toward the t129, but I want to know how much fun the m109 is or isn’t as that’s more racey. But I don’t want to plump for the ‘109 if it’s going to be a bore/tiresome in Surrey/Wales/Peaks etc.

not a 109 – rather a T129, had it for about 6months (frame was 2nd hand) and its been great.

The m109 is ‘endurance’ race, not head down race so is slacker than a pure racer. I was having a lot of fun on the Spearfish before the wet root jumped out and laid itself in my path, and again, that’s more modern endurance geo. You’ve just got to test them, and ideally in the locations you want to ride them. I’m going to give the Spearfish a go at Afan once I’m healed to see how it rides there before selling the Yeti, otherwise I won’t be able to tell if it can cover the ‘funness’ at rockier/steeper locations.
BTW, the most fun I’ve had on a bike recently was when we rode Surrey, and I had to use my old rapidly rebuilt Soda with forks I hated and tyres with bugger-all grip. Really wasn’t looking forward to riding it but had an absolute blast. Just shows that fun isn’t always dependent on the bike.

By random co-incidence I was just musing over T-129’s and googled them, one of your threads form 7 months ago asking pretty much the same question poped up!

It’s comforting to know someone’s as indeciseve as me.

Anyone know how the Codeine stacks up against the T-129?, there’s only half a degre in the head angle, but a lb and a half in weight seperating them. Quite fancy a new bike next year, but don’t want another “winch and plumet” bike, the winching got boring and the plumeting got too easy.

It’s comforting to know someone’s as indeciseve as me.

Is it? 😉

…ideally in the locations you want to ride them.

Luckily I have a Whyte dealer on the edge of my local forest singletrack. I’m hoping to arrange a morning on one, and the afternoon on the other.

Is it?

Not sure

I had a whyte t-129s and now have a codeine. For me the codeine is hands down a better bike. Ok it’s a bit heavier but it climbs fine and is miles more fun on everything else. Also has no flex in the rear stays which the whyte had lots of. Also didn’t like the fact I had to get the rear wheel dished off centre to get enough tyre clearance as the chainstays weren’t symmetrical! My t-129 also had loads of component failures and the seatstay snapped. Maybe mine was just a Friday bike though.

Oh yeah, that reminds me, the m109 had pretty poor mud clearance at the back which was something else that put me off. It got clogged up at the first sign of Chilterns mud with an Ikon 2.2 on.

Mud clearance not a problem!

I’ve had an M109 for almost a year and a half, using it for general trail riding and XC racing. I bought it after testing a T129S and an Orange Gyro and prefer it to both of them as a general purpose bike. Only real downside is weight – not compared to the T129 or Gyro, but to carbon equivalents. I can understand why the aluminium version has been dropped for 2015. Apart from that, though, it’s ace.