I spent all this year riding an enduro with 180mm coil forks on it for everything except my commute. I dont see whats wrong with being overbiked if you are having fun

But i am having more fun on less travel.

The “you can’t have too much bike” brigade neglect to acknowledge that what we have in this country to ride is generally more fun on a trail bike, the right bike for the job.

The most fun bike is the best bike for the job in my experience.

It’d probably be helpful at this point if the OP could comment on the likelihood of him hitting big gap jumps and drops.

If he wants a Transition maybe he should consider the Smuggler anyway?

Very low likelihood of getting airborne.

I like fast flowing trails but want something very comfortable. I ride a steel 29 inch hardtail (Cielo), which is very comfortable, but fancy something even more so.

If I want beating up, I’ll take the Cielo, but as I get older I want something with a more forgiving ride. Some realy useful comments thanks.

I have the transition smuggler with a distinctly unenduro 115 mm rear travel and it’s great for 99% of my riding, mostly tweed Valley and a week in the alps each year. Really progressive and surprisingly bottomless rear end, no wallowing, you do notice travel running out when it gets fast and very rough but I don’t encounter that very often where I ride.

I’d ride both the patrol and scout if you’re set on the wheel size, for me the slack head angle on the patrol would put me off a bit based on a ride on another bike with that angle.

I have a patrol, it’s awesome. Use it for everything. I was going to get a scout but due to availability in early 2015, went for the patrol.

I don’t regret it and is awesome downhill and pretty good going up. It’s a good “do it all” bike.

Check out the pinkbike q and a with transition, they mention the patrol having a stronger frame than the scout. I think the tubes are slightly thicker.

No such thing as overbiked, buy what makes you happy and be a happy bunny.

I got a Patrol. Looked at the Scout too, it’s probably the bike better suited to a lot of my riding and if I only had one bike, would have been the one I got. There is little between them in weight and climbing.

However, I also have a hardtail that I still like to ride a lot and for me, I prefer having bikes further apart as I feel I push my ability more on each.
Also found a lot of confidence on this year’s Alpine holiday from the slackness and length of the Patrol, don’t know how it would have compared to a Scout, but a lot better than the Heckler I had previously.
The Patrol is also massively rapid on my familiar local trails compared to anything else I’ve ridden and I just love the outright speed.

Nobeerinthefridge – Member
No such thing as overbiked, buy what makes you happy and be a happy bunny.
POSTED 1 DAY AGO # REPORT-POST

This.

Also, being local to the Surrey hills, I’d say a 160mm will be fine, it will allow you to get more out of the steeper trails. TBH, depending on your level, you could probably get down most of the trails on a hardtail. But as you’ll obviously get down most trails quicker on a 160mm bike, why wouldn’t you have one. Surprisingly a lot of the 160mm bikes pedal uphill just fine so really are becoming do it all bikes and therefore don’t carry as much of a penalty uphill as you might think.

Scout = super trail bike
Patrol = super enduro bike

If you read the comments on that vimeo video posted before I asked a question about them both when I was trying to decide. Went with the Scout as it was perfect for 95% of my riding. Although I have put 150 on the front.

I am planing on getting a patrol for racing with.

Of course, get a demo of both of you can.

I’d get the big bike. Overbiked whatever, the patrol pedals well, you’ll have trail modes on the suspension and it’s poppy fun.

I’d say a 160mm will be fine, it will allow you to get more out of the steeper trails.

please correct me if I am wrong, I’m no expert around Surrey Hills but the steeper trails I’ve ridden weren’t any rougher than the other trails so I don’t see how the extra travel is going to help?

There are plenty shorter travel bikes with adequate geometry to allow confidence when descending steep trails.

Worth having a read here on the scout vs patrol debate

http://forums.mtbr.com/transition-bikes/scout-patrol-big-decision-whos-riden-both-955115.html

please correct me if I am wrong, I’m no expert around Surrey Hills but the steeper trails I’ve ridden weren’t any rougher than the other trails so I don’t see how the extra travel is going to help?

As I posted before my Covert is much faster down rougher trails than my BFe. I chose the BFe as I like the trails to feel more challenging (with the bike skipping around) and I don’t do anything more than the small jumps now. The original poster was aksing about a bike for SH and for Alps, todays enduro style 160mm travel bikes are perfect for that imho.

@gota I can dig out dozens of videos of people riding stuff which the vast majority on here would say is best ridden on a decent travel full suss. Yes of course with perfect technique you can ride a decent gap on a hardtail and with poor technique you can smash face first on a 160mm full suss.

I’d get the big bike. Overbiked whatever, the patrol pedals well, you’ll have trail modes on the suspension and it’s poppy fun.

Dan – just one trail at somewhere like the Golfie has more descent (and certainly more steep/technical/’features’) than pretty much the whole of the Surrey Hills.

Modern Enduro bikes are awesome nowadays.
If you get one and find it “steam rollers” the easy stuff then just ride it much faster through those parts to get your thrills. Loads of people ride 29ers and they don’t complain about it smoothing out all the trails (itms their main selling point). We ride 160 travel bikes here and they just make you want to push yourself harder and faster.
And nowadays they pedal up hill really well and are pretty damn light as well.

Also I had a spin on a Transition Patrol a while ago and it was much better up and downhill than the Covert and not much heavier than a Bandit.

Tom KP.

They’re so similar it just depends on how you prefer to ride the bike. My mates and I mostly ride in the SE, with away trips to Wales, the Alps etc. Most of us are on big slack 6″ bikes. Some are hitting the big jumps and drops, some aren’t.

Personally I’d rather have slacker geometry but a bit less travel, which is why I’m on a Banshee Spitfire (160F/140R and 65.5 deg HA). If you ride lighter then you may prefer a nippier bike, if you’re stronger you may prefer a more stable bike.

I suggest, buy the bigger bike – it’ll be Very Different to your hardtail. If you get the shorter-travel one, there’s more of an overlap there and a compromise when you take your bike to the Alps.

@jairaj – I would say you don’t buy/ride a 140+ travel bike in the SH as its particularly rough although such a bike does make some rooty trails and particularly corners faster which if they have a jump/drop after them you want to hit is important (@cheifgroove can post up his video of the cost of not exiting a rooty corner into a drop fast enough 😉 )

Here are some lads having fun in the SH, all these trails I ride on my BFe but I don’t hit any of these bigger jumps / drops. Depends on what your ambitions and skills are, I cant see many on STW suggesting a HT is the right bke for this sport of fun for most of us.

@Gota not trying to be unreasonable, its the season of goodwill but for many people a 140-160 fs is the right choice for a trip to fhe sh and you can ride it xc if you choose,

[video]http://youtu.be/sTQ2rIJF-Ns[/video]

Loads of people ride 29ers and they don’t complain about it smoothing out all the trails (itms their main selling point).

I take it you’ve never ridden a 29er, they don’t really have any kind of smoothing effect on anything bigger than roots and stones etc, there is no magic taking place, just a larger circumference rolling over the ground. It’s not like magic suspension, 29er hardtail still transmits every root and bump to my tender botty,just keeps momentum over roots, holes etc a bit better than Diddy wheels

I’d have the Patrol if I was racing ‘nduro to the max, the Scout if I wasn’t.

The Patrol if I was after a good time, the Scout if I was after good times.

Where did this preconceived idea come from where fun is proportional to travel?

(someone whose riding is predominantly about fun but predominately rides “shorter travel”)