Hi chaps,

Wondering who’s gone from a 5-spot to a Sultan and what your opinions are between the two. I know Scienceofficer has, interested to hear his thoughts…

Cheers

Ricks

It’s all on the forum you lazy bugger!

;o)

Lol. I’ve been stalking your profile for details, there doesn’t seem to be many other reports mind.

Any update to how you’re getting on? Last post I can find you were adjusting to the slower steering and more input needed….

Ive been after a 5-spot for a while, but there are no larges out there, unless I pay full rrp. And the sultans are proper cheap again.

I built my missus a medium sultan a few months ago, which she loves, but obviously too small for me to get a good idea.

I’m pretty much there now. I brought the saddle forwards about 10mm and I’m finding the little extra body English required is becoming second nature.

People bang on about 29ers being different, but in truth, there’s more difference between a trail bike and a DH bike IMO.

If you like to fly a lot, I would imagine that it’s not as agile in the air, but it is very stable and composed for the limited trail air I get.

I like the way it rolls better, I like the way it carries speed better, I like the way it grips better under power and in turns and I like the way it’s more composed in technical situations.

To date, I’ve not had the opportunity to test it in proper tech, but I don’t really doubt that I will be the limiting factor.

It doesn’t accelerate quite as well as the 5spot, and its not as ‘hop and pop’, so for spikey riders that like to sprint sections, they won’t like it, but for me as a trail hacker that tries to ride everything I encounter, its just about right.

Yep I did. The Sultan is a far better climbing and long distance machine at the expense of being a little less good on the downs. However, I think this was in part due to limited 29er forks as my Spot had a Lyrik, which pisses over any 29er fork I have tried to date.

At the price they are on CRC at the moment I wouldn’t hesitate (and get one of the super cheap Revelation RCT3s while you are at it 😉

I have the 140mm RCT3 revs. On my 5spot I had 150mm blackbox revs on the 5spot. The RCT3 is a better fork and the Sultan is easily on a par with the descending prowess of the 5spot IMO.

Hmmm…. interesting indeed. I suppose a Fox 34 29er would be the next best thing to a Lyrik, but still probably not as stiff.

I’m using 150mm Revs at the moment on the Mojo, so I’d have thought it would be similar to what I’m used to.

My concern is it feeling like a big bike to throw around, the Mojo can be flicked around, the back-end kicked out quite easily. Does the Sultan feel like a big, long bike?

No, it doesn’t feel big or long to me at least, but thats more of a correct sizing issue IMO. I’m still trying to find evidence of these fabled long chain stays too. It seems to turn in plenty well enough on the tight stuff.

It’s so superbly planted though, that you might not like it, especially if you like a flickable 26er. Gotta be a test ride to find out.

Damn, might need to take the missus’ out for a good ride. Bloody snow!

Ive been after a 5-spot for a while, but there are no larges out there, unless I pay full rrp.

Hi chaps, sorry to cut across the conversation. Rickon, I’ve got a 2010 5.Spot that – due to an imminent conversation with the taxman – I’m looking to offload. It’s an XL, but the 5.Spots measure up quite small and it’s ok for anyone 5’10” up in my opinion.

It has been listed for sale on here and I’ve had some enquiries but no firm offers as yet, so feel free to give me a shout of you want to find out more.

Cheers for the offer funk, but its a little too big for what I like. 600mm is my ideal ett, 610 absolute Max.

Cheers for the offer though, good luck with the sale.

Hi rickon, you’re not looking for any kind of bike swap are you?
I have a large 2011 spot in raw but not quite finished. Will be in a couple of weeks.

Wrecker, just sent you an email…

I’ve recently done exactly this. Finished the Sultan build last Monday, kid number 3 arrived Tuesday so haven’t had a chance to get out on it yet. Little jaundiced bubs currently asleep on my lap. Mates tell me the trails are in a shocking state after the snow thaw and bike is in dining room all shiny and bling so the waiting isn’t too bad…..

What were your reasons for the change to the Sultan Dave? What kind of riding do you do?

Oh well, wont be buying a Sultan. From the time I added it to my basket, to getting the card out someone else bought the frame 🙁

There’s another 2012 large in stock, but for some reason CRC have it at £500 more expensive than the mediums, smalls and XL!

Really annoyed now.

That’s a bit of a bugger – might be worth an email in the morning to ask if they’ll put the last raw large on at the sale price – they can only say no. If it’s any consolation I emailed them a few weeks ago and asked about any sales or discounts coming up, pretty much got told to do one and subsequently paid £400 more than the sale price – not all that impressed with CRC at the moment. Naive, yes, but when I think of the money I’ve spent with them over the years….

Anyway, to answer your question Rick I changed because I’m 6’4″ and even my XL Spot looked a bit ridiculous under me. I also live at the foot of the South Downs, got to Surrey Hills twice last year, get to Welsh trail centres once a year and usually a Cwmcarn uplift day (7 Stanes this year though!). I’m a quick-ish trail rider, can’t manual or wheelie and get a couple of feet of air under the wheels but not great in the air, can get down hills reasonably quick as long as it’s not ridiculously technical. Test rode a Scott Spark 29er, didn’t care for the bike but loved the extra grip and the way it rolled over stuff. So 95% of my riding is on the not too challenging stuff round here and with the aforementioned 3rd kid can’t see that changing so it just seemed to make sense. Plus I got to put another bike together which is half the fun. From my very brief test ride it feels like a 5 Spot that just fits me really, really well. Here it is all clean and stuff;

Rickon, that’s a right bugger.

I was lucky just before Xmas to get the last ano black 2011 sultan for 999. It was touch and go!

Dave. That looks utterly sorted. Everything is in proportion.

Dave, what length stem have you got fitted there? Agree about it looking like a “proper” bike.

90mm 10 degree rise. Thinking of going shorter and zero rise but will ride it a bit first. One thing I did notice when perusing the geometry tables on Turner’s website is that the Sultans have more rake and trail than the equivalent size Spots which sits you a bit more upright, email to Turner confirmed this.

How are you getting on with the Spot Derek?

Update:

Last weekend I picked up a car from Wales and took the opportunity to do a quick once around the July trail with my friend on his new ibis mojo SLR.

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been to afan, and the trails have eroded very nicely and have way more interest than I remember.

Anyway, climbing was a business-like affair with the odd light front end on the steepest of steep bits. Despite my fitness being behind that of my chum, I managed to keep pace far better than I had any right to.

Descending wise, both my pal and I are on the faster than average side and there’s very little between us, however, on pretty much every descent, particularly the longer ones I was getting to the bottom quite a bit faster. He kept arriving at the bottom of the descents with a slightly shocked face sputtering ‘I can’t keep up!’.

Perhaps I was having a good day, but I’m more inclined to think its the bike. It’s more stable, seemingly as agile, and has better grip in part due to the bigger wheels and in part, I think, to the fact that its a little more flexible than the 5 spot and has some lateral flex that translates into extra grip. I carries speed wonderfully too.

I also feel more at home on it than the 5 spot, so I suspect it fits me better generally.

Now I’ve given it a proper good thrashing I’m 100% sure I made the right decision. I honestly can’t see a downside for my style of trail riding.

Where’s the ‘like’ button on this forum?

What wheels are you running on yours S.O.? Just had mine weighed, 32lbs dead. Was hoping it would be more like 30.5, oh well. Revelations felt good at Afan then I’m guessing?

I got a pair of sun ringle black flag pros from crc when they were doing them cheap a few months back. Running a Hans Dampf on the front and a racing Ralph on the rear.

YMMV, but compared to you big big boys I’m only 6ft and 14st, so they’re about the right balance of light weight and stiffness, come with a notubes licensed bead socket rim and are eyeleted to boot, so I should get a bit more durability and stiffness from them than a stans rim.

Mine is 29.6 without any kind of dropper post, but its only a large.

Re: forks- to be honest, the best thing I can say is that I didn’t notice them. Everything just gelled together to give the ride – the bike just disappeared under me while I extracted as much sweet flow as possible!

Just a darn tootin’ – I’m under 14 stone and 6’4″ – lanky streak of p1ss is my official title!

anyone know if there will ever be a ‘small’ sultan?
i had a med 5 spot and it was too long even with short stem
would love a sultan…

What length forks are people using 120 or 140mm ?

anyone know if there will ever be a ‘small’ sultan?
i had a med 5 spot and it was too long even with short stem
would love a sultan…

I doubt it, with toe overlap and other things… The medium is pretty short as it is. Worth an email to Turner, you might be better off with the Burner.

Anyway, if you’re that small, doesn’t a 26er looks like a 29er with you on it ? 😉