Took advantage of the CRC sales and got my Daughter an XC bike for club coaching and some races next season.
Delivered within a few days of ordering, so happy with that.
It's the Vitus Rapide 29 HT - the cheaper 10 speed Deore & Recons not the VR with SIDs & 11 speed.
Added a dropper and all good to go 👍
I do have an 11 speed XT groupset and SLX brakes to slap on just waiting for a new brake hose.
Really impressed with how light and nimble it feels - she's feeling a lot faster on it than her FS trail bike.
Really impressed for less than £600 delivered compared to the likes of Trek, Scott & Specialized at similar prices.
That looks light and fast... What does it weigh?
That moss though...
It looks nice, is there much difference between these and a lot of the hardtails I'm seeing around the £500-600 mark regards the geometry and aimed usage. I see this is a bit lighter too with slightly shorter fork travel which makes sense for more xc use. I know some of the hardtails I've seen like the ragley people are building up on here you can see a difference in the geometry. I am keen to try a 29er having been on 26 over the years. I did try a 27.5 briefly but the geometry on the one I tried had a steep front head tube and I didn't like how high it was, wanted something slightly lower.
@matt_outandabout thanks, not weighed it yet - scales need new batteries, plus it has Raceface cranks which are heavier than the Shimano ones lol
Claimed weight is 12.4kg tubeless (minus pedals & a dropper) - doesn't 'feel' that far off tbh.
@jwildcard Build quality wise the Vitus frame looks and feels nice. Kit is fairly comparable to some of the bigger brands but frame has boost bolt through rear end where most of the other are QR, also 1*10 where as some of the others were 2*9. Also comes with decent spec tyres - folding & exo casing so lighter than others.
Depends what you want to use it for - this is for training rides with the club and xc races. The Ragley's are more aggressive trail / Enduro in comparison.
I wasn't a fan of 29'ers until I got my current emduro bike - my previous experience has been about 10 years ago when it was steep head angles & short frames with bad foot/tyre overlap.
You can get a decent trail / agro HT for £600-£700 on CRC at the moment - Vitus Sentier VR (Marzocchi Bomber forks), Ragley Marley & Nukeproof Scout Race 275 or 290 all cracking bikes for the cash.
Tempted by the Scout or Sentier myself lol
I just picked up a Scout with 10 SPD Deore, only one ride in but it shifts nicely. Only thing I miss is multiple shifts back up the cassette.
Happy NBD.
That first pic made my head hurt, took me a while to work out what cable went where, proper spaghetti junction 😀, don't even know where to start trying to improve that routing or even if you can.
@noeffsgiven I'll sort it out when I swap the brakes & groupset - that's how it came from CRC.
Dropper will reroute to other side but didn't want to mess with the brakes straight off.
Sounds like it's a very nice set up and with the better components you have it will be even nicer. I see the one for £849 has even better forks but it's all extra money.
I have seen some mega low prices on the slightly lower spec versions but as you mention they don't have the bolt thru rear axle which I would rather have along with slightly nicer forks but it's balancing the price up. The Nukeproof scout definitely looks very nice and I know the Ragleys are decent rigs too. I am hoping the droppers come down in price, I saw there was the rsp version going for about £30 a couple of months ago but they all sold out I think in the 31.6 size. Not the best version but sounded good value. The brand x one is reduced I think isn't it with a 100mm drop. Not sure whether I would need more than 100mm, am 6 foot and will be riding a large frame?