Based in the Midlands. Regular at Cannock, but have family in Sheffield so ride the peaks a fair bit.

I also pop down to see other family who dont live far from Oxford / Banbury.

My Covert has been in storage for a couple of weeks as I am currently between sheds/workshops. This thread has served as good motivation to get out in the rain and crack on with the ground work tonight so I can get it back home to daddy sooner. The hardtail is ok but….

mindmap3 – Im based between Oxford and Banbury, if you want a test ride let me know.

Cheers.

Great bike, I have a medium 2012 and I’m 5’10” with short legs …

Felt really at home on test ride and the bike has been very good all round, up down and along. Really handles well. I have mine as my “big” / Alps bike with a BFe for everyday riding, that beng said the Covert could easily be my only bike.

Bike is sat unused in garage at the moment due to an injury, pity you are not close to Surrey Hils or you’d be welcome to take a spin.

Pic from same trail as @alfabus, Covert was very happy on Trail Addiction Destination-X holiday which does involve a bit uphill each day. Covert has been round the Peaks too ( Alps training cough cough) although I usually take the Cotic it being her spiritual home.

Mindmap3, You can demo a Covert at Plushhill Cycles – Church Stretton and take it for a spin over Long Mynd. While your there pop down the road to Marsh Brook to Blazing Bikes and demo a Banshee Rune

I took the Rune out the other week and now waiting for my bust collar bone to heal up to take the Covert out.

Poon price, thanks for that. What did you make of the Rune? They certainly look nice and Dirt seemed to quite like it.

Trimix, I’ll no doubt be your way soon so will give you a buzz if that’s ok? I could also have a look at you other frame (I’ll respond to your email tomorrow if that’s ok).

Sure, no problem. The frame is in the loft and can stay there till you’ve made up your mind. Anytime your around we can hook up for a ride.

mindmap3,

Loved the Rune, felt great flat-out down hill, climbed well and awesome on the tighter stuff (minton batch decent). The Rune I demo’d had the Fox rear shock, i’d probably go with the CCDB. Quirky but I like the option to change the dropouts to allow 26″ and 650b.

Didn’t like getting back on my Zesty the next day.

Will definitely test them both. The more I look st the Banshee the more I like it although part of me wonders if it is a bit too burly, with those very slack angles its definitely going to be a blast going downhill. My other concern is that the back end looks very busy and a bit of a mud / dirt magnet. But on the other handm if I go up a size it looks better than the Transition (sad I know, but it matters because its a fair amount of cash to drop on a frame).

The good news is that the boss didn’t seem too bothered when I mentioned it to her…I think she would rather I did it now before kids are a serious proposition.

It’s a choice between these two I think. Just need to get over to Shrewsbury for back to back tests.

I think I’d for for the silver one in either…think it’s safest with my poo brown fox forks. Most of the other bits are black aside from the saddle, bars and chain device which are white.

Rune is a shade heavier – 8.5lbs with CCDB Air versus 7.68 for the Coveret with RP23 – that’s over half a pound, even allowing for the shock.

Covert at £1250 seems like fantastic value compared to quite a few other similar frames. Shame the carbon one is right up there price wise.

rsonally, I ride a large covert at 5ft11. I rode a medium and found it too short to be honest.

They are excellent bikes in my opinion, I’ve ridden a lot of full Sus bikes, and really love this frame.

The weight of the Rune is more or less the same as my SX, so it’d be another porky bike although people do seem to say that they ride lighter than they are. Pink Bike certainly liked it, much more than the Covert.

Both are bigger than my SX in the seat tube, the Rune has the same length top tube whereas the Covert is ever so slightly shorter. Either on in large would be the longest MTB that I’ve had (my old Chameleon in large was 23.5 which felt pretty good). A 24 inch top tube does seem quite long and I hated the large Enduo that was the same shape as my SX because it felt like a barge.

2012 covert here. Love it!
I’m 6ft & a medium is perfect. If I had to replace it the only bike I could think of getting in its place is a 2013 covert.
Its In black with the kashima build. Loco just converted the talas to floats apart from that I can’t think of any upgrades I want, or maybe lighter wheels but not really necessary.
Demod an ibis mojo too which climbed better but I preferred the covert over all.

Iridebikes – have you got any pics of yours? The only large one I’ve seen was the NSMB review.

@therag used to rely on talas a lot until the covert – loco – floats and a loco’d rear shock HG as transformed the bike!

Mindmap3 – worth.demo’ing a yeti asr5 or sb66 as they can be had for around 1500 just as a comparison. A good friend of mine demo’d 5 or may be 6 different frames before taking plunge. Good luck

http://pbckt.com/pf.O5h5P1

@banks, yeah cant see the need for it.
Had the shock tunned same time. Only 1 ride so far since sus service & conversion but seems great

Poon – thanks for those links. I got a demo of the Rune booked for the 25th, it’ll be interesting to see how it rides.

Need to sort a demo of a Covert out.

I’m officially 5 11 1/2, so just inside the upper reaches of a medium in both.

Is your current bike really that heavy at 32lbs? What weight to do you expect its replacement to be?

I guess it’s not the heaviest thing in the world. My SX frame is around 9lbs so fairly hefty. The Covert will drop a reasonable amount off it whereas the Rune will be more or less the same depending on what size I get.

My man motivation really is that I can afford to do it at the moment and the SX us looking and feeling a bit tired now. The DHX had started playing up and the only shock that comes in the right size now is the CCDB which is worth more than the frame is.

Part of me is even wondering if I’d be better looking at something like be Spitfire. Hmmmm.

(kids are on the horizon so I doubt I’ll be buying new bike bits once that’s a reality).

lol That doesnt change

It probably won’t, but getting a £1,500 frame past the boss won’t happen.

I thought I was going to have to break out the ‘its not even an expensive frame’ argument (which it’s not when you look at how many fames are now £2k plus).

Now got a demo of a medium Covert booked for the same day so I can compare it to a Rune and see which I like best.

Odd request I know, but has anyone got any pics of a Covert in large? The only pics I’ve found are from an NSMB test and they’re all at funny angles and make the bike look wrong. I know a bike needs to ride well, but I want one that I like the look of too!

The more I think about, the more I’m leant towards a large, but will need a test ride to confirm.

Maybe if you’re going towards a large size it might be worth demo’ing the 29er version too? Might be a bit more in proportion.

mindmap3,

Make sure you post back after riding both bikes. Like I said i’m waiting to take to Covert out and would love to hear a comparison from riding them both on same day.

http://www.nsmb.com/3645-transition-covert-review/

I believe the bike in the review (linked) is a large. I didn’t read the review so cannot be sure but it certainly looks bigger than my medium. Nice colour than green too,

That’s the older Covert though, the 150 version

Prezet – I won’t be going down the big wheel route because I want to keep my wheels and forks.

Poon – will definitely post up my thoughts. I’m looking forward to testing them both. It may well be my most thought about and informed frame purchase!

Thanks Jef. That Covert in large looks huge compared to the medium jobbies.

My yellow covert carbon in the pic on page 1 of this tread is a Large

Cople more pics:

Simon your carbon one looks lovely and and a lot less ungainly than the green one. I guess part of that is down to the carbon tubes being chunkier, so there isn’t a huge front triangle filled by a tiny air shock.

Hmmmm. Hopefully it’ll all be decided next week when I ride then both!

Indeed the green one (possibly 2010?) looks like a horse compared to the yellow carbon above. There is a lot of seat tube above the cross bar on the new carbon one which does make it a neater looking bike.

Definitely. I know I shouldn’t be so concerned about looks, but I intend to keep this frame for a fait while, especially as its the most I’ve ever spent on a frame. Not only does it need to ride well, I want it to look nice.

Some large bikes pull it off but others just look like gates. The large Rune is a better looking bike than the green Covert. Pink Bike didn’t seem to like the Covert much but loved the Rune. The UK press seem to like the Covert a lot though.

PinkBike’s Covert review was more focused onthe full build, they specifically had problems withthe front end being too high/light – Transition had specced a 50mm rise bar – that doesn’t suit the bike, IMO. Some people like a high front end for DH, but low rise works on 160 forks for a reason

How a bike feels is a lot to do with things like bars, stem, tyres – even tyre pressures and grips etc.

Never mind personal preferance for set up and suspension tweaks. I tend to take bike reviews as mostly fiction.

How does it handle on the technical stuff? Like tight switchbacks and so on?

Drooling over a Covert in yellow, but it will be years before I can afford one.

it handles nadgery stuff very well as its not too slack and having a short stem and wide(ish) bar keeps it nimble. but with the new shocks i think it will be better as probably not sitting as low in its travel so less likely to get pedal strikes etc. and a bit more sprightly

I’m building a black one so can wait to find out how the BOS shock works with it.

The covert front end is a bit light on steep climbs and does want to pop up with the downstroke of the pedal on the steepest climbs, but its not a problem to keep it under control. I’ve got used to this now and find it useful to get over obstacles on technical climbs. I can get over stuff on this bike that would have me off and walking on other bikes I’ve had, it certainly doesn’t affect the bikes DH ability though and you can really lean off the back of it. The bike is super manoeuvrable on tight switchbacks and technical terrain (and mine is the 29er which according to the anti-29er brigade shouldn’t be able to do manoeuvrability). The more I ride it the more I love it. Nothing seems to phase it. It flatters the rider.

My mates looking at the Rhune and he’s going to organise a test ride soon, so I’d be interested to compare.

I’m still really torn. One minute I’m buying a Rune, then it’s a Covert because it’s a bit lighter and not quite as slack, then it’s back to the Rune and so on. The Covert looks like the more complete design with regards to cable routing – it can look pretty messy on the Rune. I’ll ride them and make a quickish decision or I’ll think about it too long.

Someone else has said buy a Rocket, which admittedly I do like but I’m trying to keep it down to two or it’ll cost me a fortune in demo bike fees.

wobbliscott – Member

I must admit i’m a bit confused as to the benefits of the Carbon Covert. According to the Transition website the frame weight is identical to its Alloy equivalent.

Not sure which websit you’re looking at, but I see the Carbon listed at 6.9 lbs / 3.15 kg (Medium Frame With Rear Shock) and the alloy at 7.68 lbs / 3.49 kg (Medium Frame With Rear Shock)

It’s half a pound heavier than a Mojo HD, and more compared to a Nomad. Bit disappointing, considering the massive price difference between the alloy and the carbon that there isn’t more weight saving between the two. Maybe it’s a sign that they’ve erred on the side of strength for their first carbon bike.

mindmap3,

Once you’ve been up and down the Long Mynd a couple of times you’ll get a good idea. I didn’t find Rune heavy whilst.