As it looks deffo i'm going to be there for the summer next year think i better get something suitable to ride !Don't bother recommending other brands as these are the 2 i have a choice of .So do i go for a Zesty so that it will be ok for back over here .Or more travel with the Spicy /will i be overbiked when i return ?Or Commencal Meta 5.5 or Meta 6 ?So which of the 4 ?What a dilemma !Or am i going to trash whatever i get anyway and not be able to bring it back ?

The strongest, I'd say.

BTW my riding is mostly XC and non extreme gravity stuff in the bike park .People who have been on forum rides with me may suggest something with stabilisers !!!!

isn't commencal the new crack'n'fail?

i'd go for something as burly as possible. it's the last place i'd want to be riding a bike that i'd worry about breaking.

you may not be a gravity slave yet but a season in whistler will soon sort that out

Assuming you are talking about the usual bike park trails, those are not great choices tbh. Sure, a skilled rider could hit most of the stuff in the bike park on a spicy or a meta 6 but to really enjoy it the average rider is probably best off on something the wrong side of 35 lbs with about 180mm of travel or more and a 66 degree HA or slacker. Most of the locals ride full on dh/fr rigs.

On an "all mountain" type bike you will be holding back a, and limited to what you can do.In fact I'd say there are whole trails you will have to completely avoid. Unless of course you are a riding god. Personally I hate "enduro" style bikes. I just wanted to add that.

Depends what type of riding you're going to be doing over there. It's not all gnarly freeride and gap jumps. Cove's 'XC' bikes are a bit slacker than a European version which suggests that Canadian XC is a bit more Gravity assisted. Strickly speaking a 5 or 6-inch bike will both cope out there. I've ran my Hustler for the last two years in the Alps without feeling underbiked.

Lapierre seem the hot one at the moment and the Spicy is burlier than the Zesty so may be more resilient.

My call, a Spicy.

Why are you limited to these two?

Would say Spicy, lovely bike and decent spec on most models, ridden a variety of Lapierre/Commencals and just prefer the Lapierres.
Why only the choice of those two brands if I may ask as you know people will recommend everything but and slag off your choices.

Spicy and the most expensive one you can afford…oh and bike insurance aswell for when you snap it in half

Given the commencal's poor quality construction I'd be intrested to see how many frames they went through on the world cup this year??

Unless you plan to ride uphill for hours on end I'd go for longer travel and a more burley build.

id recomend sumthing more canadian for whistler? if it brakes itll be cheaper to fix? infact…buy one out their?

got a mate over there who has just bought an almost new (couple of days as a demo) Norco A-Line for £1300 with full saint kit. i'm not saying go and buy a full on bike like this, just that i wouldn't buy over here and take with me, rather take my money there and get a lot more value from your cash.

got a mate over there who has just bought an almost new (couple of days as a demo) Norco A-Line for £1300 with full saint kit. i'm not saying go and buy a full on bike like this, just that i wouldn't buy over here and take with me, rather take my money there and get a lot more value from your cash

Aah but if he's just bought it then it is probably as much to do with it being "closed season" for bike atm in them parts. Not saying it's not still worth doing but you won't be able to count on such discounts in the summer

Bregante
Not saying it's not still worth doing but you won't be able to count on such discounts in the summer

Yes he will. At peak season it's the mountain bike capital of the universe, there are many many bargains to be had.

I ride Spicy's and froggy's and love them

BUT

In Canada you will not be able to buy a spare part for your Spicy as they do not sell them there (patent on the horst link) so bear that in mind

Guess I'll see you out there towards the end of July

I'd take the Spicy myself. I test rode one and it was really nice. You could use it in the bike park too.

Nasher i thought that but not true apparently .Kept the choice to those 2 brands as they are the ones i can get through company i'm working for .Might trawl the net for local bike shops (to whistler ) and see what else is about .Maybe something like a Hustler ?

id recomend sumthing more canadian for whistler? if it brakes itll be cheaper to fix? infact…buy one out their?

What he says. Plus you'll have a bike design for the place…

If you can get hold of Lapierres, then get the Froggy 516, they climb well, a bit more burly and you will thank the the van 36 and the DHX 4.

You could just rent (or buy with a view to selling on again) a big bike out there for days in the park.

cheers mike you staying with t2r again ?
wish i hadn't asked now more confused than ever !
burly is no good if i want to ride Quantocks etc when i get back .Thought i'd explained that !

Yup: Staying with T2R again, but only for a week this time, and spending another week down in Van visiting a mate.

When I demoed the Spicy I took it out for a 6 hour ride and it coped very well. The only reason I didn't buy one was that the model I wanted only came in orange and I didn't think I could have lived with an orange bike. Glad I bought my Banshee though (if you can get over this way, have a look at the Banshee Pyre).

May be worth getting touch with Peter and seeing what they are doing next year because he was talking of contacting Lapierre and using them instead of Commencal.

burly is no good if i want to ride Quantocks etc when i get back .Thought i'd explained that !

Surely trying to get a bike that will do for both the Quantocks and Whistler is a bit too much of a compromise?

The words 'stick', 'the', 'want', 'moon', 'a', and 'on' spring to mind.

May be worth getting touch with Peter and seeing what they are doing next year because he was talking of contacting Lapierre and using them instead of Commencal.
yeah thats the reason for the choice !
think i'll rent something burly over there if i get brave /foolish enough to want to chuck myself off stuff !

When you say over there for the summer – do you just mean a week trip or like months? If a week I'd def just rent something big over there and get a Zesty for back here.

sorry to hijack the thread, but old fart – how is whistler with ticket 2 ride?
seriously thinking of booking for next year

I'd just hire a Stinky for the downhill stuff at Whistler, and a Dawg for the xc.

In fact, I did. And they were just fine for my "average" riding level (including A-line).

I got overtaken by a guy on a Commencal Furious last year and it looked perfect for the majority of the bike park. Far more ability to pedal it or chuck it around than the Norco I hired (not that I'm good enough to push either bike to even 50% of their capacity).

You'll struggle to get spares for the Lucky Pierre in BC & the Commencal will probably crack.
If you're going to be there for the whole summer, there is no way that you'll be riding only XC for long. The bike park is just too much fun. Whistler XC is nothing like UK riding either… I rode an SX Trail for everything the first year I was there – you want something slack & tough.
I've been in BC for 4 years now & now that I'm used to the trails, I can get away with a Spesh Enduro for 'XC' riding. I have a Demo for everything else though.
Forget the idea of a bike for both home & Whistler. Pick something suitable up when you get there & sell it before you go home.
Try here for deals at Vancouver area bike shops.

Another vote for buying a Banshee, I love my mk1 Pyre and the frame only cost me £500 brand new shipped from Canada, but I think the Rune would be more suitable than the newest Pyre which is more XC orientated.

I have the Rune and can vouch for it: I used it in the Bike Park and for "xc" last year in Whistler and it handled everything great, including double blacks. Just changed the tyres.

Why do Ticket2Ride insist on dealing with bike companies that no-one else in Canada gives a shit about? I've not known a Commencal stay in one piece in Whistler yet, and as for Lappiere…..who? Sure they make decent bikes apparently but I've yet to see one in BC so you'd have to hope that T2R are going to get a whole load of parts for them. The only people at T2R who didn't have problems with their bikes in 2007 were the ones who brought their own from the UK! If you are out there for a while, just buy something really boring and obvious, and something that the Whistler shops (Evolution, Summit, Bike and Bean etc…) will be able to sort out quickly.

Shirley there are alot of French Canadians who buy LuckyPierre and Commenthal, like, because they are French ?