Looking to get on of these in the coming weeks. Will be frame only so will transfer all the bits of my trance across.

Mainly Trail Riding but with some fairly steep stuff in between.

Heads saying Scout as i know it will be enough, but will it handle the big mountain/gravity enduro stuff? Or is the scout a better bet.

All advice welcome.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/transition-patrol-thoughts-please

The Scout is surpringly capable. It’ll handle the Alps fine for a week. If you are mostly trail riding the the Patrol will be too much bike for the sake of the odd big DH. He Scout feels like more than its 125mm would suggest.

Difficult to get either until the 2016 ones come out.

For what’s is worth, I started a Bandit or Covert threads 3 years ago with the same dilemma.

I demo’d both and bought the Covert, which was a fantastic bike, very capable and huge amounts of fun. However, it was overkill for the majority of trail riding that I do. It was like riding a magic carpet round my local woods and only really felt super sweet when travelling at the limits of my ability regards speed and terrain.
I recently sold it and have bought a Scout. It always feels like I am on the right bike, not too much inefficiency to be dragging around and never out of its depth either.

I can hit anything on the Scout that I could on the Covert, although feeling a little sketchier (which I like) and its a lot more efficient, super poppy and lighter.

I know the Patrol is another level above the Covert and have heard / read that it is also an efficient climber but I have never ridden one.

I spent many an hour on this and decided on the Scout.

Sure theres the odd time when I think 30mm of more travel would be nice (enduro races) but for 98% of my riding the scout is brilliant.

Have a look on here for a thread I started on the same subject..

http://forums.mtbr.com/transition-bikes/

I think you’d be blown away by how capable a bike the Scout is. If it’s one bike to do everything, for most riders, that would be the one.

The Patrol really comes into its own as an Enduro (sorry!) ride, or for Alps trips, or the gnarlier trail centres – but it’s too much bike for most of us, for our everyday riding. Great to have both, if you can afford/justify it and ride them each often enough! I’d not go for the Patrol as your one bike, unless your riding is significantly steeper/techier/faster than the average.

Both are very limited in availability (basically most shops, and the UK distributor, have none) until the new 2016 range comes in (limited quantities landing in September, then more in December). Both the Patrol and Scout are there in the 2016 range in new colours. The Scout has a couple of small tweaks.

We did get notification today that there is one large limeade Scout frame with cosmetic imperfections available, at 20% off.

any ideas as to what the 2016 colours will be? need to start planning my next bike build and this will affect my options, rather pathetically!

I’ve contacted every shop that has received an XL scout and there are none left.

2016 should come in florescent green and a black colour.

Just to play devils advocate and offer an alternative opinion I went for the covert over the bandit after much deliberation. I haven’t regretted it. I feel no downside to the additional burleyness (not after chasing the clock, I just ride for fun) and find myself riding tougher terrain that I might not have fancied on the bandit. Just having the knowledge of a burlier bike under me gives me a bit more confidence to tackle the tougher stuff.

Ultimately both great bikes so no wrong choice. No reason not to let the heart overrule the head.

Well if you don’t want to wait to get a 2016 model let me know I now have a pretty comprehensive list of what is available in the UK.

We have plenty of medium Scouts and Patrols (both colours on the Patrol, black only on the Scouts), and one large Smuggler.
Ex demo medium Scout being sold next month and ex demo medium Smuggler being sold September. Boom.

I love my Smuggler 😀

Pedals Bike Care

Medium Scout full bike in offcamber with 15% off 01258 458677 🙂

I have the Patrol in large and safety orange, amazing distinctive bike and the only bike I have – so is my do everything. Up hill is ok but down hill is where it comes alive. The BB is really quite low and some people have complained about pedal strikes, doesn’t bother me though, it’s a mountain bike.

Getting replacement parts is a problem. I had my monarch stolen and it took about 6 weeks to get the shock bolts. Windwave sent the wrong ones to the store twice so I had to order directly from transition in the end, which the price ($14 per bolt!!), delivery and import duty was astronomical.

@thebadabing
What height are you? I’m trying to decide between a medium of a large patrol with a 35 or 40mm stem, but due to nowhere seeming to have both sizes sitting I haven’t been able to do a comparison yet.
Hoping Noah’s ark (which is probably the closest transition dealer to me) will have both sizes in September.

More on topic for the OP, was speaking to a guy a week a go who had a scout as his other/main bike and he said he loved it.

I’m just over 5’11 and large is perfect. The guide on the transition website is pretty good.

There was a Q and A session with the transition guys on pink bike forum a couple of months ago, interesting read.

The guide on the transition website is pretty good

I’m looking to get a suppressor but sit bang in the middle of the small/medium. closest shop is pedals in burger which makes it a pain to get to for me.

Smaller if you ride twisty tight stuff, larger if you fly down big long trails. You’ve got some crossover with stem size etc so go on reach more than seatpost but obviously work out the dropper length to make sure you don’t get caught short.

don’t know what reach suits me thats the thing ha ha ha ha. I think a medium given the reach of my current bike is a bit shorter than the small and I think I need more but need to check it out properly

Just seen a large patrol for sale here
http://www.rustyscycles.co.uk/m13b78s1p1229/TRANSITION-PATROL-2015

Well not sure how long i’ll be keeping my Scout now i’ve seen the new carbon patrol.

Until I save up enough I suppose.

It does look good eh! Even lured me away from 29″ wheels… for now. Can’t wait to see if my #enduro times improve 😀