I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a full suss for a while now, as a hard-tail is an absoluten bone-shaker across roots etc. Don’t get me wrong I absolutely love the ride the BFe gives me. I was out on it again today at swinley and it has me grinning like the proverbial cheshire cat. I so don’t want to regret selling it and end up with just a full suss if you know what i mean.

Gotta take my hat off to Cotic..they’ve helped me have a good day riding once again.

Any of the STW massif had a BFe and found the perfect replacement?

Probably a rocket, I’ve got a titus el guapo and did have a bfe as my hard tail, problem was I often chose the bfe as it was better climbing, easier to clean and not a lot slower down anything! So I sold the bfe now ride the el guapo more as it is more fun/comfortable and replaced the bfe with a handjob, better suited to local jaunts but less likely to cope in the peaks.

Transition Bandit is a fun bike, more fun than my beloved Rocky Ridge even, and it’s taken 7 years to find a bike that is!

After I killed my BFe I was pondering the same thing as you; I could do with the same thing, but with a bit of give at the back as a safety-net (for the next time I ****-up )

Along the way I ruled out the Trans Double (can’t renember why, maybe suspension design?), and decided on either a Spesh SX (not so easy to find) or a Banshee Rampant. Ended up with the Rampant (silly name!) and, while a grand was a serious amount for me to spend on a frame it was the only one that ticked all of the boxes for me.

There are plenty of short travel fun bikes out there, but most, like Blackmarket Killswitch or Kona Bass have concentric BBs which (apparently) don’t pedal so well – something I needed as I was after a do-all type bike.

Mine’s set up for fun times and while it can be a bit of PITA to climb on (it is a bit tiny) works as a good all-rounder. Have done the Dyfi Enduro & blue/red Stiniog very happily on it as well as medium sized jumps/drops. Wouldn’t fancy black DH runs on it as I’d get out of control pretty fast at the kind of speed I want to be descending at.

Good review here by a chappie who frequents STW (and goes a bit bigger than me 🙂 ): http://bb.nsmb.com/showthread.php?p=2584817

Bandit +1

Isn’t the rocket basically a BFe with rear suspension? Sure I read that either the rocket was inspired by the suggestion of a full suss BFe or that it was actually a BFe front end with the rear suspension added. Bit this is the case then a full suss BFe equivalent is a Rocket.

After I killed my BFe

what???????

I thought they are built like brick $hit houses

Go big or go home! Or; fail to go big and go to hospital

Holy crap, how did you do that?

And fire the op’s question I agree with some of the others, a bandit would be perfect.

😀

Rob, that looks like a typical 29er now 😀

When I was considering a hardtail build following a Rocket purchase I spoke to the guy at Cotic about whether a BFE would be the right frame for me. He said he wouldn’t advise it as it was really close to the Rocket in design etc etc and maybe a Soul or Solaris would be a better choice to offer a different riding experience. This advice suggests a Rocket could be what you want but obviously there are a million other great bikes out there.