Anyone own one? What are they like?

Legendary

I’ve got an ASR5 Alu and think it’s fantastic.

+1 to all of that.

What forks are people running on them?

I’ve got some 2011(?) Revs with 20mm axle at 140mm travel.

love my ASR5a, real fun to ride, not a magic carpet that’ll let you storm over everything but a lively progressive rear end. got 140mm revs on mine, maybe kind of preferred it at 130, but would prefer something stiffer like slants or pikes.

As above- got the alu version and love it! running fox talas 100-140- i think the sweetspot is 120 but use 140 when i point it downhill. Best bike ive owned… 😀

Excellent climber, fast around corners, fast downwards but you have to “drive” it, grippy. Not ideal to learn to jump on. It’s a bit flexy at the back which is not a bad thing but might take a bit of getting used to.

Does everything well, does nothing brilliantly.I was pretty underwelmed after lusting after a Yeti for decades.
Sold it after a year.

Love my aluminium one, if I’d had the money I’d have got a C. Running DTSwiss XMM120 on mine, spot on for me.

@jobro very true.. Asr5c is jack of all trades but master of none.. But then again is all i ever need and prefer that character of the bike actually.

Does everything well, does nothing brilliantly.

User error.

Does everything well, does nothing brilliantly.

User error.

Possibly. But then you can’t possibly know one way or another, so why be such a ****.
He asked for thoughts on the ASR5c and at least I’ve owned one and ridden one in a variety of situations including the Alps and Spain. I was surprised not to like it more to be honest.

I have one and totally love it. Agree with all the praise above. Running DT Swiss XMM 120 with 15mm bolt through and swapped the rear to the 12×145 chip set which made a noticeable difference to rear tracking and stiffness.

There are bargains to had out there too.

Here’s mine…

Got one & love it. Feels like it has more travel & benefits from pushing it hard. Not a bike to steamroller through stuff. It had a mystery creak that took ages to track down. It turned out to be the rear ‘chip’ dropouts; I uses some blue loctite on the screws & it’s been fine since.

Mine’s built with Slx groupset running1x10, revelation black box teams at 130mm travel, Mavic 819/hope tubeless wheels & a reverb. It weighs bang on 27lb with my saint flat pedals fitted.

I’ve got some 120mm rebas, seems like they’d be okay as a start then

I’ve a friend who owns an ASR5C, he built it up in 2012 at great cost, youd be lucky if it’s done 100 miles since (he just doesnt get the time any more)he’s now thinking about selling it.

I’m interested mostly in a frame or frame+forks as I have a donor bike sitting here

jobro – Member
Does everything well, does nothing brilliantly.

User error.

Possibly. But then you can’t possibly know one way or another, so why be such a ****.
He asked for thoughts on the ASR5c and at least I’ve owned one and ridden one in a variety of situations including the Alps and Spain. I was surprised not to like it more to be honest.

Because I have one, and you’d be in a very small minority of not liking it and a even smaller minority possibly of one of bordering on suggesting it’s an average bike. Equally, how do you know you had it set up right, had the right size etc. Obviously it didn’t suit you, but no need for you to get angry about it.

Mine’s built with Slx groupset running1x10, revelation black box teams at 130mm travel, Mavic 819/hope tubeless wheels & a reverb. It weighs bang on 27lb with my saint flat pedals fitted.

This puzzles me. I recently weighed mine on proper scales at 26.5lb vs the same bike (ano). Both bikes were mediums with XT 2 x 10 Fox Float 120 FIT with the following differences on the other bike:

His A/c mtb wheels, mine hope pro2 evo on crests
His sky lev dropper, mine Thompson elite
the paint
His SLR saddle mine charge spoon

His was 100g lighter. I really don’t get where mine weighs so much. He’ll be here surely to wind me up about it.

In other news; this thread isn’t helping me. Yesterday I made a decision to swap it out for a Whyte 109CS. I’ve realised that other than wheel size, an ncrease of 1lb in weight and a decrease of 20mm travel I’d be £3k worse off and perhaps moving slightly away from a Swiss Army knife like ability. Damn these ASR5s, they are too good!

Yesterday I made a decision

Really? 😉

Ha ha. Or not. The whyte has everything I’m looking for. But ostensibley is £3000 for a pair of 29″ wheels and a steeper ha as the only potential advantage….

You need to get testing Stan. I was convinced the Whyte (M109s) was going to be the one for me but it didn’t quite feel right, probably sizing issues but I wasn’t 100% comfortable, whereas the spearfish just felt like I’d always ridden it.

Oh, and in answer to the OP – asr5’s are great bikes. I’ve had an alu one for 4 years, ridden it in races, the alps, messing around – all good. It does need to be pushed as has been mentioned, but this just encourages you to ride faster and smile more.

Any more… ?

I built one up earlier this year as there were some cheapish carbon frames on CRC. It replaced a zesty.

The first time I took it out I wasn’t sure if I preferred it to the zesty, but for most of the riding I do I think it’s better, feels a bit more “zippy”. Definitely looks better!