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I'm getting a new hardtail frame, a Clockwork Evo. I was originally aiming for a 29er but the Evo ticked all the other boxes and there may still be something to say for smaller wheels at times. 🙂
So now I need to get some bits for it. It's been a while since I've had to shop around for a lot of bike bits. Since the last time I suspect that a bunch of must-check online retailers have come and gone. Who's good these days?
Depends what you're after IMHO. Just got drivetrain bits from CRC (1 x 11 SLX) from CRC for £200, much cheaper than elsewhere. I normally look at CRC, Merlin, Evans, JE James, One One (but rarely these days), Ribble, Wiggle, SuperStar for some smaller bits
Depends on budget and exact part e.g. On One do some decent bars and stems but wouldn't look at them for forks for example (other than their rigid options).
BC discount makes CRC cheapest on most things I've been after, although Evans price match and Merlin have quite good offers a lot of the time.
Did the era of the cheap German online bike shops end when the Pound tanked against the Euro last June then?
^^^^ not for those of us in the euro zone 😉
Basically what superstu said.
superstu - Member
Depends what you're after IMHO.
Eh, 130mm travel forks, probably a SRAM GXish drivetrain. A long dropper so almost certainly a Reverb as few others can do 170mm drop without costing the earth. I generally like SRAM brakes and this will be an XC/trail sort of bike so I was thinking of trying one of the various Level options available.
If I aim towards "nice" forks then it currently looks like Pikes will be hard to beat on price. If I go cheaper then Yaris are also pretty heavily discounted but add on a bit of weight considering my XC/trail target. But I'm not particularly wed on either right now, that's just what seems to be most competitive given my limited research so far.
See the PSA on Pikes at CRC.
Use BC discount = £360
Lots of people are raving about the new X-Fusion forks if you're open to not-RockShox...
https://nsmb.com/articles/x-fusion-trace-hlr/
chakaping - Member
See the PSA on Pikes at CRC.Use BC discount = £360
My quick searches don't find any PSAs about Pikes at CRC and checking on CRC I can't find any Pikes that would be quite so cheap with a 10% BC discount. What am I missing?
rossburton - Member
Lots of people are raving about the new X-Fusion forks if you're open to not-RockShox...
WMB/BikeRadar seem to like the Roughcut/HLR damper X-Fusion forks a lot but some other places are a little less convinced. If it were a battle of SRP vs SRP X-Fusion would win hands down but when Pikes are being discounted far more heavily than their competitors it's all a bit less clear-cut.
Interesting, though they would need their travel dropped a little bit. Are there any differences between the 2015 and current models?