This bike ticks a lot of boxes (slack HA, 1 x, short back end) in terms of what I want out of a hardtail whilst not being a hopped up XC bike like a lot of 29ers.

I’ve not seen a lot in the wild or heard a great deal about them, anyone own one / got a pal that does or any other experience of them?

I’d be interested to hear!

Cheers all.

No but I’ve seen the frames for £399 & I’m tempted

£399? That be on the Sprockets site? Only in small 🙁

Was riding with the Sprockets guys the other week and someone was on a demo one, looked superb and was getting rave reviews on the ride – worth giving Dave or Chris a call.

I’ve got one. Fire away!

I should add – I’m not a very sophisticated rider so my feedback may be a tad simple. I do love it though…

I have one and, unsurprisingly, I love it. It’s the most fun bike I’ve ever ridden; not for the faint hearted as it’s very stiff, which makes it very responsive when stamping down on the pedals. It’s the first 29er I’ve owned and the only one I’ve felt truly confident and comfortable riding. It’s just begging to be ragged hard, chewing up any terrain I’ve thrown at it from the rocks and switchbacks of Sierra Nevada, attempting to get air at BPW or the fast, flowy single tracks of my local trails in Bristol. The short back end takes a while to get used to, meaning you have to rebalance your weight a bit to stop the front wheel from wandering at speed in the corners. Once you’re used to that though it grips like glue in the corners, has all the benefits of a big wheel when maintaining speed and smoothing out stutter type bumps but with the fun and nimbleness of a smaller wheeled bike.

My only real gripe is that it’s a press fit BB rather than a threaded one but that’s hardly a deal-breaker. It’s quite burly for a hardtail, certainly not the lightest but it more than makes up for that in the fun department, which is exactly what this bike is about.

I ride a small
X-Fusion Slide forks
Superstar Sentinel rims on Tesla Evo hubs (142x12mm rear)
XT, SLX mix groupset
Reverb
60mm stem
720mm bars

Hi – Andy from Zealous here.

Any questions you have on the bike, feel free to ask away either here, on our facebook page, or via email. We have got demo bikes, that are available through our dealers, and several (such as Sprockets) have a demo bike on site.

Just on egb81’s comment on the PF BB – it’s actually an essential part of the design – need the wider weld area to get the stays short – i.e. no room for the stays to taper back together. But PF BB’s are getting way better than they have been in the past – we have had good results from Shimano, Nukeproof and Hope in terms of longevity.

cheers

Andy@Zealous

I thought that was the case with the bb. It’s not a major issue, just a bit more of a faff to fit is all. Takes nothing away from an awesome bike though.

I have recently built one up with 130 revs, really impressed so far it flicks in and out of switchbacks like no other 29er I’ve ridden or owned .

Stevie, you’ve raved like that about every bike you’ve ever had, I’ll give it 6 months!.

I love mine. Got a medium frame with dt swiss xmm120 fork, 45mm stem, 740 bars and its a really great bike. Reminds me a lot of my old SC chameleon but with bigger wheels. Not sure if I’d want to ride it regularly on long days out as its so stiff, but for anything else its a hell of a lot of fun. If you contact zealous they should be able to sort you out with a demo, it’s well worth it!

So true Greg, had the fatty a year now and still love it though.

Thanks all. I’m not shy of giving a hardtail a hard time and know what is involved in making it work (IE riding it rather than relaxing, at all!!) I took my NS Surge to Whistler Bike Park a few years ago and got on just fine on everything there (Did have a season the year before to get my eye in!). I don’t really do all dayers that often so stiffness doesn’t bother me and if I do I’ll just have to get on with it.

The PF bb is a MASSIVE turn off but then these days you’re never ever ever going to be able to get away with swapping all the parts over from one frame to another, and hey, I can understand why you’ve done it. Still, harumph that’ll be the existing king bb sitting about doing nothing…

Andy, I’ll drop you an email…

Oh btw, Andy, can you let me know a weight on the biggest size that you do?

Cheers!