As title,
Time to upgrade my trusty 2008 Cube Stereo (for sale in the classifieds by the way) for something a bit newer and as it happens I’ve just come into a £2500 Evans voucher… for, ahem… cycling to work (which I do anyway) and of course will be using the new bike for too… 😉

The Stereo has been a great bike although I had to fit a shorter stem and higher rise bar to get really comfy on it. I’m no lightweight at nearly 14 stone and did find, at times, I could have made use of a bit more travel had I had it.

Riding is mainly 7 stanes black/red stuff but would like to be able to do a little more downhill orientated stuff now and again and I reckon the Stereo may have spat the dummy at that. I’m also planning two trips to the alps in the next 12 months.

I very nearly bought a cube Fritzz but held off for the b4w scheme to come up again which it did as the savings are so good.

I tend to keep my bikes for a good 3-4 years so needs to be the right bike for me to progress on too.

Not been to the shop yet, going tomorrow but at a glance I really like the look, spec and reviews of the Lapierre Spicy 516

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/lapierre/spicy-516-2012-mountain-bike-ec031536

Then also spotted this amazingly specced 2011 BMC Traifox 01 XO for £2300 (RRP nearly 4k!!!, as is the 2012 one) which looks like an excellent buy and they can have it to my local store in 4 days. In the meantime I can try this years model as they have in stock.

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bmc/trailfox-tf01-2011-mountain-bike-ec024705

Anyway, just wondering what peoples experiences of the two above are and any other recommendations for a 150-160mm travel trail bike for around £3.2k that Evans stock?

Thanks!

re the BMC IIRC you have to pay full retail if you are using C2W. Could be wrong though.

None in my experience evans are useless. Get a canyon 2500 will get u a great bike

If from evans the obvious one would be the Norco Sight 2

None in my experience evans are useless. Get a canyon 2500 will get u a great bike

The bike needs to come from Evans.

I will be going in, taking a look at all they have, test of a few then hopefully buying/ordering the one I want. That’s is all I require of Evans so they can be as hopeless as they like but their prices are good and they have a good range so it don’t really matter too much to me.

Norco Sight 2 SE.

a word of warning reference Evans and test rides. Unless they have it in stock, you will need to pay £50 for each bike you want. this is only refunded if you pay a bike. If you want three bikes they will charge you £150 and you get one x £50 refunded. I was looking at two models from Ghost which are not their usual unit shifters so they would have to order them in, Evans’ attitude towards test rides is shocking, the sales staff really dont seem to care if they sell you completely the wrong size, they just want to sell you whats in stock.

Evans vary greatly, my local one is excellent. Although a test ride would only be round the car park

Interesting policy that Pablo lol

Mondraker Dune could be worth considering. I got one after a Fritzz and it was a vast improvement.

Spesh Enduro? Trek Slash? Remedy if you want 32mm forks rather than 36mm? Carbon Remedy even maybe.

At that price point I would get the Ibis Special Blend…. £2300 for the whole bike, a HD frame is £2100…. in The BIke Chain in Edinburgh this afternoon… stonking deal…

If you want three bikes they will charge you £150 and you get one x £50 refunded.

For the record this is not correct. The £50 deposit is fully refundable, regardless of purchasing or not.

That’s good to hear then, thanks.

Faz083, they did the same when we were looking at new stuff.
£50 a bike and only refundable IF we bought the bike.
That was the Manchester branch.
We ended up going elsewhere due to their total lack of ability to even get the bikes in.

So much to choose from on their website,

Whyte 146S
Mondraker Foxy R
Trek Remedy
Norco Sight 2
Santa Cruz Butcher or Heckler
Spesh Stumpy
Lapierre Zesty

Have fun and don’t get too hung up on the spec, it’s more important to have a bike you enjoy.

Fifty pounds is refundable whether you buy bike or not. Go and try a few bikes and ignore the usual Evans rants, some of us are good guys and know what we’re talking about.
Norco or BMC both lovely bikes, I envy your choice.

Cheers akira, I’ve only had good experiences with Evans and their staff myself before to be fair.

Bucko thanks mate thats quite a list so I’ll print off and go have a look 🙂

Thanks again all.

Right been to try a few bikes today.

Firstly the BMC, horrible riding position, felt perched on not in the bike and too far forward … not a nice experience at all.

Secondly the Spicy 516, really nice bike, about the same weight as my current CUBE Stereo, nice Formula brakes which I’m familiar with on my CUBE and love. Love that it’s got a bash guard and chainguide and comes with a KS i950r dropper which are all things I wanted to fit to the CUBE. wish it had a talas fork for the ups though and the wheelset’s a bit naff.

Then tried the Norco Sight… really really really lovely bike to ride, so plush and comfortable yet I can tell it will be very quick up as well as down, very crisp XT groupset, very good XT brakes and all in all felt lovely although much like my current CUBE stereo and I’m not sure if it’s that much of a step up to warrant £2500!

The guy in Evans didn’t think much of the Spicy really, reckoned it was too much for UK riding, no need for 36 forks, overkill, not great up… poor wheelset, heavier than the Norco.

My dilemma is that I kinda had myself convinced I wanted something with a bit more travel then the CUBE’s 140 as there’s been occasions I felt I could have used a bit more. I’d really like to start doing a bit more downhill stuff that I’ve been put off by on the 140 CUBE. I sometimes feel I’m going as fast as I can on the CUBE and that a bigger tougher bike will allow me to progress my riding in the more “hardcore” direction I’ve wanted to go for a while.

I do have a nice set of wheels, Hope ProII, on EX 5.1D rims on my CUBE that can be converted easily to fit the Spicy too which might just sway it.

Better to have too much bike and not need it all of the time though than feel you could do with a bigger bike but not have it right?? Wrong?

ARGHHH lol

Canyon strive9.0 u won’t regret it. Now compare the speks

Fifty pounds is refundable whether you buy bike or not.

+1

When I tried a few bikes they only took £50 and refunded it when you turn up to try the bike. I asked the guy and he said it was because they had a lot of people come in and ask to try bikes then never come back so the £50 just makes sure they actually turn up to look at the bike.

Do you need 160mm for red/black runs? My Pitch has 150mm and is overkill for that kind of stuff, I still use it as the alternative is a rigid SS 29er, but that’s probably faster round a whole lap, if a lot less comfortable! Zesty or similar 130-140mm would be more than enough for tail centers.

You considered mondraker foxy? 140mm travel but pretty slack angles so would be nice and quick downhill.

I bought a Spicy 516 from Evans in Crawley back in February. As for Evans themselves, they were fine, very helpful, got the bike into stock for me pretty quickly on payment of the £50 deposit thing. I knew I wanted a 160mm Spicy having hired one in Italy a couple of years ago.
I have a couple of relatively minor issues with the bike which I will be requiring their help to resolve, so we shall see how they perform, but indications so far are good. So I would recommend that branch of Evans so far.
As for the bike, I love it, as I knew I would. If it’s your only bike then it may well be ‘too much’ for Southern England, I have a couple of hardtails and use those mostly for bashing round my local Chiltern trails. However for anywhere other than that then it’s great. It’s inspired me to ride ‘bigger’ than I would have contemplated before and it’s been used at Aston Hill, Afan, Coedy, Brechfa, Forest of Dean and it’s been fab. It climbs very well despite it’s weight, it doesn’t feel heavy once you’re on board.
Maybe it’s a ‘lot’ of travel, but I just knew that I would regret getting anything less after my experiences in Italy. I knew that I would always wonder ‘what if’ if I’d bought say a 120 or a 140, and then ridden it at Coedy, say. I didn’t want a compromise ‘one bike suits all’ type of thing.
Maybe I just have the luxury of not needing to have only one bike, maybe I’m just a crap rider, but each to their own. It’s the just the most fun riding down those trails, friends on shorter travel bikes have trouble staying with me on the descents as well as the climbs.
It does seem to me that it’s fasionable to knock 160 travel bikes. If it’s fun, doesn’t kill you on the climbs (or anywhere else) then why wouldn’t you ? After all, what’s the difference between that and a 140 ? 2 centimetres ? what’s the big deal ?
Those 36 forks are also very stiff as well as being relatively long. I read a review of the Zesty once, that everyone will tell you to buy instead, and they reckoned it needer a stiffer fork. Tick.

For info, the two issues with the bike that I referred to are 1. The LaPierre dropper seatpost. It’s a complete pile of utter pants. It’s never worked properly, goes down of it’s own accord, up of it’s own accord and the bar-mounted lever broke. I got utterly sick of fiddling with it and having it spoil rides for me. Cheap, nasty rubbish. I gave up and put a Reverb on which so far as been faultless. To be fair to LaPierre, it was a prototype and it is now a known issue for them. I will be using Evans to return the old post to LaPierre who have said they will replace it with a different new one (maybe the KS ?) which I will then eBay. Perhaps they now fit the KS as standard after having so many issues with them.
2. It has a carbon fibre ‘sharkfin’ thing mounted under the chainstay to protect the rear mech. I broke this pretty easily, but probably my cack-handedness rather than any fault of the bike. Evans have spoken to LaPierre who can supply me with a replacement for £25. It’s a bit tarty but I might go with as I quite liked it.
No problems with the wheelset to report so far.
Hope that helps, cheers.
‘Trousers

I thought that carbon wing on the Spicy was a load of old rubbish – but mine has a load of gashes and marks on it now, and I’ve never had a broken mech. There might be something to it, you know.

The guy in Evans didn’t think much of the Spicy really, reckoned it was too much for UK riding, no need for 36 forks, overkill, not great up… poor wheelset, heavier than the Norco.

Depends where you normally ride maybe? Personally I reckon if you can only have one bike, and you are going to want to be able to use it for uplift/DH/the Alps etc – it makes sense to get one that can do it all. Nothing stopping you riding it along canal towpaths too if you feel like it. I mostly ride in the Lakes though and go up to Scotland quite a bit.

@thewrongtrousers – you broke the carbon shark fin? Blimey. I must not be trying hard enough – like honourablegeorge have scratched mine but can’t imagine what you’d need to do to break one. Good effort! And rear mech is in 100% tip top shape so I agree, maybe the fin does do something…

Guy’s thanks for the replies.

Yeah sod it im going to go for the Spicy, at the end of the day I could just see myself at the top of something a bit hairy thinking I wish i’d gone for the 160mm Spicy!!

I think it will push me to try bigger, rougher stuff faster and that’s exactly what I want.

I do ride pretty hard and I’ll really benefit from the bashring and chainguide as there are things my current bike really needed, also the dropper post is now a KS i950r and again i’ve felt I could really do with one lately, all things I would have to have added to the Norco…

Living a hour away I mostly ride Glentress to be honest as it’s so handy but I would like to try Innerleithen DH and even fort William but the big kicker for me is a trip to Morzine at the beginning of September and again next June and I really think i’ll see the benefit there too.

And if it’s not as good at going up as my current bike then so be it, it’s not like my fat ass couldnt do with the extra excersise lol!

Good article in last month’s dirt – Spicy/Zesty comparison – they concluded you might as well have the Spicy. The frames are the same anyhow, and I can only agree.

So it’s done, deposit paid and collect at 5pm.
Just in time as it’s the second last one Evans have!

I think it will push me to try bigger, rougher stuff faster and that’s exactly what I want.

That’s exactly what it did for me, no regrets at all.
Well done on the purchase front, hope you enjoy it.

Re the sharkfin thing, I hate to admit it but I don’t think I broke it riding ! I have a suspiscion that it was cracked when I got the bike, like one of the screws had been done up too tight. Worth a check when you pick the bike up.
Cheers

Oh yeah, and it seems to have come down in price now. Bollards !!

I’m thinking of ordering one the last of this years or maybe waiting for a 2013. Got a two year old zesty now and love it.

I’m thinking of ordering one the last of this years or maybe waiting for a 2013. Got a two year old zesty now and love it.

Why you thinking of doing that, out of interest ? As a bigger brother to the Zesty or as a replacement ?
What travel Zesty do you have ?
Am thinking I might replace my hardtail in a year or two, with a short travel full susser, Zesty is kind of my list.
But I’m happy to wait to see where the 29er debate goes in the meantime.

I’ve got a 514 140mm. Brilliant bike, I havnt decided if it will replace or join the zesty. Just got back from morzine on it and it can cope with anything I can throw at it. I think the bigger fork may have been a bit kinder on the arms. I intend doing a few more uplifts now so it’s between a spicy, nukeproof, covert or intense.