Greetings All, I recently mailed Mike Sanderson (product Manager and mastermind behind the Sentry bike), but alas see that Mike has left Calibre to join Planet X (best of luck Mike).
I would like to buy a Calibre Sentry Pro, but there are none in stock. Does anyone have any info about whether Calibre will continue with this excellent bike, and if so when new bikes will be available?
Any help would be much appreciated as the gooutdoors website gives zero info from what I can tell,
If no new bikes are coming in, what do people suggest that has similar geo (long and slack/ has 150/170mm) around the 2,000 GBP mark?
Skid Mark
Interesting. I've been looking at these as well. The standard Sentry is still for sale in XL and can be picked up for £1530 with the additional discount code. Which is an outrageously good deal. I've decided it's too much bike for what I'm looking for though.
My theory (fwiw) is that they've been struggling to sell these. For the reason that the kind of people who are going to shell out for a race ready Enduro bike, for the most part wouldn't be seen dead on a Calibre. They'd rather get a Santa Cruz or somesuch secondhand. The Bossnut worked so well because it was aimed at entry level riders. Maybe matey has realised he's taken it as far as he can and hence the move to Planet-X, who've never really cracked the FS marketplace..
Still, if I wanted an Enduro rig I'd pick up the standard Sentry for £1500. Even just for parts!
Edit
thanfully I have no such hang ups with being seen on a Calibre, especially with the spec it has. Will check back and look at the standard Sentry. Maybe that is the way to go, Saves me a few quid. If you come to Chamonix Funkrodent, let me buy you a nice cold fizzy Euro larger!
The standard one has decent enough brakes, and it has a Yari which is the same stuff chassis as a Lyrik. For £250 you could drop in a charger 2.1 rc2 damper and a 2019 debonair air spring (assuming the Yari hasn’t got that airspring already) and have a top end Lyrik straight off. If you wanted you could sell the standard shock and get either a coil or a better piggyback air shock. You’d still be cheaper than the pro and have the same ride. Just a slightly lower spec drivetrain. Both bikes have WTB wheels although they might be a better spec on the Pro I guess.
Joe, I like your thinking. Bloody hell, that could work. To be clear, if I drop in a charger 2.1 rc2 damper and a 2019 debonair air spring I then have the same as a Lyrik? Its the front fork which was leading me to the "Pro" version. My hardtail has NX which has never put a foot wrong, so happy with that, and am sure the RE Guide brakes would do me just fine. OOOOO er, I'm getting all excited again as I thought I'd missed the boat as I can't see them making more "Pro" speced Sentry's (hope I'm wrong)
I think the only other difference is the lyrik has a different crown but all the important things would be the same as a lyrik.
Changing the damper and spring is dead easy. Some people think the Yari chassis is heavier, but I think the weight difference is due to the Yari being an open bath damper with loads of oil floating around.
You can get the cheaper Charger 2.1 damper without the high speed compression damping control for about £150. If you’re a fairly average weight I’d argue that the high speed compression control is probably not sort the additional money.
JP
You could always sell the yari new and buy a lyrik?
Much cheaper to change the damper.
JP
Back on topic, I was at my local Go Outdoors (Milton Keynes) today and they had two on the shop floor. Didn’t check sizes though. Can have a look tomorrow on my way home if you’re curious?
Also, the Yaris have the DebonAir spring.
Only other difference apart from the damper is the lyrik has lower friction SKF wiper seals.
Basically you’ve got a Lyrik yes with the change of damper and assuming the 2019 airspring is already in the Yari. If it doesn’t have the airspring it’s easy to change and I bough the last one for under £40 from J-Tech tuning.
Technically the seals are a little bit cheaper specced - but again they’re cheap and easy to change (but I wouldn’t bother at the outset - maybe just change them when needed). Mine has upgraded seals but I did that at the same time as the damper / airspring after using the fork for a year as a Yari.
I’m pretty sure it’s a much cheaper route to upgrade the Yari internally then try and go through the faff of trying to sell the whole fork and pick up a Lyrik separately.
Bit over budget but probably better spec and very likely lighter...
https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/radon-swoop-al-8.0-913838
I have the 2019 model, it's awesome and makes a lot of £5k bikes look pointless.
Cranks on the base level Sentry are not through axle - they're on an old style BB with the cranks bolting on to that, so you might want to budget a set of better/lighter cranks and BB too.
Cranks on the base level Sentry are not through axle – they’re on an old style BB with the cranks bolting on to that, so you might want to budget a set of better/lighter cranks and BB too.
I hadn’t noticed that. I’d just ride it as is and keep the money saved in my bank account and see how it goes. Not much else for that money that would even get close.
Edit - the Radon is nice but I’ve seen a few people post on here about how bad it is to get warranty support from them. Go Outdoors went out their way to sort the issues the original Bossnut had didn’t they?
Also, if you can get the Sentry for £1530 as mentioned above - spend £250 on the damper and just ride it you have loads in reserve. Still £750 cheaper than the radon that could be kept for when you damage a wheel / decide you want blingier cranks / want to try different tyres etc etc
The Radon is solidly mid-range rather than budget components. You'd be surprised how much it would cost to upgrade most of a bike's components just one increment to get it to. You might manage the dampers and a chainset.
And the frame itself is lighter than average for alu, while the Calibre is on the lardy side IIRC.
I know mat of this forum has repeatedly posted about his lad's issues, and it sounded less than ideal, but IIRC he did get things sorted in the end. My experience on a previous Radon for warranty was positive.
Anyway, just another option for the OP. Best bang-for-buck enduro bike out there IMO but others may disagree.
The Sentry is a ridiculous bargain at that price and I love mine, although it isn’t the pro. The BB is crap and mine died after three months, GoOutdoors replaced it under warranty within a few days though. Although I then swapped it out and put a new threaded BB and crank on, which knocked about 300g off the weight. Everything else seems spot on!
I think I picked up an NX dub crank and BB for £80 off eBay a year or so ago. Taken off a new build bike to put on Hope instead. Seems familiar - I’ve also got 2 sets of Code R’s and some Guide R’s for not huge money - also because replaced by Hope on a new build bike.