Submitted my order at 1.41am last night!

Also just ordered a fresh set of Nukeproof Neutron Evo pedals in black and a pair of Maxxis Minions (3C compound up front and 60a on the back) to replace the stock Schwalbe tyres. I’m planning on fitting the Minions as soon as it arrives and just selling the Schwalbe’s on eBay.

Pedals and tyres will be here by Thursday and the bike should be here late this week or early next week, I’ll be using this thread to document the whole experience as I know a lot of people are sceptical about ordering from abroad.

where are you planning on riding this behemoth

where are you planning on riding this behemoth

First proper outing will be at BikePark Wales on the 24th June, or maybe Aston Hill if the weather is good before then. But I’m planning trips to places like Revolution Bike Park later in the year as well.

Submitted my order at 1.41am last night!

Good work, had drink been consumed?

The only other thing I’d say you might want to change out of the box is perhaps start with a familiar pair of grips. The Ergons are a funny shape.

Good work, had drink been consumed?

The only other thing I’d say you might want to change out of the box is perhaps start with a familiar pair of grips. The Ergons are a funny shape.

Maybe a bit, but not enough to blame the bike purchase on it! haha

I did wonder about the grips, I’ve used ODI Rogue Lock-Ons on my last 2 bikes as I prefer a thicker grip. But having looked up the Ergons I might give them a chance as they score very highly in tests, even though I’m not a fan of ‘shaped’ grips.

I used them for the first ride and found the unusual shape really distracting, so I couldn’t tell what the bike was like.

Using thin Deathgrips now (which are actually quite thick), but grips are a personal thing obvs.

I know a lot of people are sceptical about ordering from abroad.

Wont it be coming from bike-discount.de via DPD?

IMO as good as it gets for online bike shopping.

Out of curiosity what height are you and size did you order?

ergon grips are ace apart from in the rain without gloves on.

Wont it be coming from bike-discount.de via DPD?

IMO as good as it gets for online bike shopping.

It will indeed, it’s not so much the act of buying it that worries people I think, it’s just the possibility of warranty issues etc.

Out of curiosity what height are you and size did you order?

I’m 5’11” and ordered a large, all their size charts and calculators put me roughly in the middle of the large size.

Working day #4 since order (Monday was a bank holiday in Germany) and I’ve just been given the tracking number for my shipment.

No exact ETA yet as the tracking won’t go live until tomorrow, but I expect it will only be a couple of days now it’s in the hands of DHL.

Bike finally arrived today, exactly 2 weeks after the order was placed, so a little longer than their quoted 4-7 days!

Bike looks perfect, it was well packaged so that nothing moved/rattled around, and had plenty of protective foam/cardboard wrap to stop rubbing. Even had one of those little mech guard things in the event the box got squashed.

Already come up against my first issue though as the new RaceFace 32t NW chainring doesn’t fit as it’s 104mm BCD and the SRAM GXP cranks are direct mount, but with a spider that converts to 94mm BCD.

Might as well drop the spider completely and go for a 32t direct mount chainring, but I can’t tell which ones are boost compatible? Plus I really want a blue one…

My god the lawn

And the middle fence panel is a mis-match AND the panels haven’t been stained in the STW-approved finish.
This has really spoiled my night.
Nice bike BTW……

Nice bike. Reminds me how little I’ve used my Radon Slide since buying it a couple of years ago. Probably have to sell it soon 🙁
Lovely bike though. Enjoy!

Haha you guys really know how to take the edge of my excitement… 😆 😆

I haven’t even had chance to ride it down the road yet as I took it all apart before I realised the damn chainring was the wrong hole centres…

Bit old school with 650b… 😉

Nice bike mate, enjoy! 😀

Sprinter am about to order one of these too! By large you mean the 20″? I’m undecided between 18 and 20 for me (also 511) as quite like a longer top tube and shorter stem, how does the 20″ fit?

If you’re near Stroud have got a big pot of fence stain going spare too

that front disc rotor looks HUGE or is just my eyes! NIce bike

I’m also interested in the way these size up.
Anyone else with one care to say what size they and the bike are?

I’m looking to get myself one of these soon, looks lovely.

I’m 6′ 2″ and was looking at ordering the 18″

I’m 6′ 2″ and was looking at ordering the 18″

I’m 5ft 7in on the 18in and it fits perfectly. That’s the main reason I bought it TBH, there wasn’t a 29er with the same dimensions at the time.

I reckon you want to go up a size or two.

Holy seatpost length batman!

Anyone else with one care to say what size they and the bike are?

See above, but how tall are you and what’s your inside leg (getting personal I know)?

So what’s the general fit and finish like? and lets see some finished shots 🙂

Very high-quality frame.

I did a blog on mine last year, which may be of interest…

First ride: Radon Swoop 170

Nice read, many thanks 🙂

Can’t wait to order mine now

It’s not for me but I’ll tell you my inside leg measurement if you want. 😛
Mrsstu is looking for something a bit more suited to uplift focused riding.
5’9″ with a 33ish inside leg*.
*Not 100% sure will have to ask.

Don’t worry, she might get the wrong idea if you tell her a man on the internet wants to know her inside leg.

I reckon she’d be firmly in the range for the 18in. The reach is nice and long anyway and I cope with the seat tube height with my stumpy legs (30in inside leg).

I can offer a go on mine if anyone’s in NW England.

After much Googling last night I found that what I needed was a BOOST specific (3mm offset to maintain the 52mm chainline) SRAM DM chainring.

Apparently the only place in the UK that I can get coloured BOOST specific SRAM DM chainrings is Superstar Components, so for the very reasonable price of £29.99 delivered it should be arriving tomorrow. Narrow/wide too of course. (especially when the SRAM ones are about £70 and the 104mm BCD RaceFace one which I originally bought was £34.99 despite the lack of a built-in mounting spider!

Sprinter am about to order one of these too! By large you mean the 20″? I’m undecided between 18 and 20 for me (also 511) as quite like a longer top tube and shorter stem, how does the 20″ fit?

Just for reference for those that are asking, by ‘large’ I mean the 20″ frame and I’m 5’11”. Every size guide they have says I’m in that size bracket. Although if you want to make the bike a bit more ‘chuckable’ I could have gone a size down.

So what’s the general fit and finish like? and let’s see some finished shots

Overall very good, well constructed frame and the cable routing is very tidy. Even comes with helitape pre-fitted on the downtube and a good quality stick on chainstay protector! (although I may get one of those neoprene ones anyway)

The ONLY very small criticism I have so far (having not actually ridden it yet), is that where the colour switches from blue to grey, they have basically sprayed the whole bike blue, and then masked it and sprayed the grey on the lower half over the top of the blue.

Which means where they have removed the masking there is now an ‘edge’ on the grey paint where it finishes, so I worry that over time that might be a point it could chip/flake easily from. Would have been nice if it had a clear coat over the whole thing to ‘flatten’ the joins, although that would have ruined the lovely matt finish on the grey section.

Finished shots will be coming tomorrow once the new chainring arrives and I can reassemble the drivetrain.

I swapped the tyres for the Minions I already ordered and converted to tubeless while I was at it. Also removed the e13 chain guide/bashring while the cranks were off.

nice one, look forward to seeing the finished build.

The reach is nice and long anyway

I’m not so sure.
She tried my longest Geometron which was a tad too long then my mates longer which she really liked.
The reach on the 18″ Radon is only 460 compared to 502 on the longer she tried.

By almost any other comparison it’s long.

Maybe she needs a Geometron instead?

Our garage isn’t long enough to fit two Geometrons in. 😮

Decided to take this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon off work to tinker with the bike as it’s too hot to work as we have no aircon at work (who’s idea was that!?). Plus I want to go out riding with the lads tomorrow after work so I need to get all the jobs done before then!

List of jobs completed today:
• New pedals fitted
• Removed factory tyres and fitted the Minions
• Fitted tubeless valves and threw in some Stan’s while I was at it (rims were already taped up and tubeless ready)
• Swapped dropper control onto the left side of the bar
• Fitted my K-Edge Garmin stem cap mount thing
• Stripped down cranks (took spider off) ready to fit direct mount chainring tomorrow

Jobs to complete tomorrow:
• Fit chainring
• Re-assemble drivetrain
• Add a couple of links and re-fit chain
• Helitape frame and fit new enduro guards
• Put flip chip into DH/Enduro-yo! descend mode
• Ride bike!!!!

Pictures to follow tomorrow, but in the meantime here’s my new pedals…

Bike brother !

I received mine 3 weeks ago, but I got really unlucky: the vivid air was leaking quite badly.

Radon / Bike discount handled that well, they just sent me back the fixed shock, I can’t wait to really try the bike…

For the record, I’m about 6ft. and I chose the Large / 20″, which is perfect.

So it all came together at last yesterday, new chainring arrived and went on super easy, flipped my flip chip ready for BPW on Saturday and then helitaped various bits of the frame and fitted the enduro guards.

I’m really pleased with the look of the bike with the blue DM chainring and more minimalist MRP 1x chainguide which I stole off m Stumpjumper before I sold it, such a tidy looking setup! Took it out for a 10 miler last night (on the hottest June day since 1976, who thought that was a good idea!?).

Feels so much more comfortable than the Stumpy, steering feels more planted too and I like the added turning resistance created by the slacker head angle.

The only thing I did notice was that the 42t rear ring didn’t seem to spin as freely as I expected uphill compared to the 36t on my Stumpjumper, it was still easier, but not as much as I expected. Then it suddenly twigged that the cranks on the Swoop are 5mm shorter. Would it really make that much of a difference losing 5mm of crank length to the feel of the gearing?

Anyway, enough waffle, here’s some photos!

Overall shot:

Drivetrain closeup:

Drivetrain closeup:

K-Edge Garmin stem mount thing:

Mmm yeah nice bicycle, I had a spreadsheet shootout between this and a Airdrop Edit. The Edit won and I’m waiting for it to arrive but the Swoop still holds a great deal of sway over me that I don’t think will go until I get on my new bike. Had it on the scales yet?