[Closed] New bike day - Vitus Escarpe 2021

That looks really tidy. Enjoy.

Heck of a drop on the dropper, you'll be able to get down some extreme steeps with the saddle that far out of the way

Mmmmm, sparkles.

Very nice! 👌

Ooh that's lovely!

One of the cleanest fs designs around I reckon. Love the sparkly paint too. Ace.👍

My mate had the older gen escarpe and loved the way it rode. I thought it was a fugly, but the sir looks well tidy!

It is even wrapped! Looks trick. Enjoy it, they ride fast!

Very nice. I fancied one of these but i guess if you've got one they're already sold out.

Bit of ramble...

So the origins of this bike go back to building up an on-one big dog last year. Until then, I’d only ever had one MTB on the go and that was my 2016 Orbea Occam AM - 140mm each end, full carbon, something like 29lb. I loved that bike and it took me to Morzine, Wales, Scotland and even some Bikepacking duties thanks to the shock position. It was a really versatile bike.

But I fancied a hardtail to complement it and wanted to have a go at building a bike from frame only. The big dog was announced and with the promo at only £150 for the frame, that sealed the deal. Once I’d got it built and rode it for a while, a few things became apparent. I preferred 29er wheels, the low BB made cornering really fun and made you feel more ‘in the bike’ on descents, and the geometry was just better. 65 head angle vs 67 and steeper seat angle made it in many ways a better climber and descender, despite the relative lack of travel and rear suspension. The Occam was done for really as there was just more I liked about the the big dog and too much overlap between the bikes, so I started looking at options.

I was basically after the same geo as the big dog, but full suss and something a bit burlier to move it into a different bracket and get away from that overlap. But I still wanted it to be decent to pedal. I sold the Occam last November and started the search, which of course has been hampered by the supply issues. But the Vitus was announced and when I saw the new design, compared the geometry and looked at the spec/price, I felt this was the bike that ticked all the boxes and luckily managed to pick up one of the limited ones available.

Sitting on it and pedalling, it feels exactly like the big dog. There’s a few mm difference in some of the geo measurements but it’s as close as you could expect to get, which was a relief buying direct. It’s heavier though at around 32lb. With the steep seat angle it climbs well and I didn’t notice much pedal bob, but you can feel the weight. Some of that will be in the tyres too. Assegai and Dissector is too draggy for the current conditions so will move the Dissector to the front and put an Aggressor on the rear.

On the descents, I think it will be a beast. I only managed a few tame-ish runs in the local woods so not a proper test, but everything suggests it will be very capable.

So, as a complement to the big dog, I reckon it’s absolutely spot on and look forward to getting it out on some trails that will be more suited to it. If I didn’t have the big dog though, my first impressions are that I don’t think I’d have it as my only bike. It’s marketed as a do it all trail bike, but at 32lb with Fox 36s etc, my feeling is that it would be a bit too much bike for anything more ‘XC’. I’d probably go for something like a Transition Spur, Ibis Ripley, YT Izzo I think. Well, that’s my first impressions anyway but of course will need more time on it. Perhaps the tyres will make a difference to that view.

Hope that’s of interest to anyone considering one.

surprised to see it doesn't have a burlier rear shock to match the 36's, but despite that nit-picking, that looks bloody lovely.

Vitus has always been a brand i didnt think i would own (for no logical reason), but the latest bikes look bang on!

Very nice. I fancied one of these but i guess if you’ve got one they’re already sold out.

On Instrgram a few days ago Vitus posted to say they are imminently expecting a stock drop on their most popular road and mtb models. Set up a stock alert.

Looks great. I saw that post from Vitus and was poised as I'm after a Vitus Rapide FS but looks like they aren't going to be coming until later in the year.

https://vitusbikes.com/pages/2021-vitus-bikes-stock-availability

On Instrgram a few days ago Vitus posted to say they are imminently expecting a stock drop on their most popular road and mtb models. Set up a stock alert.

I miss everything like that these days. I've sacked off everything except STW! I'm in no hurry and I've got a few bikes on the shortlist. Spectral, Hugene, Jeffsy etc.

The Vitus above though looks much better than it does in the official pictures. I thought it was plain gloss black.

Vitus has always been a brand i didnt think i would own (for no logical reason), but the latest bikes look bang on!

Same here but it's easy to see why when you look at the old bikes. The whole new range is very desirable.

Very interested to hear how the OP gets on with it. What size did you go for?

Just on tyres the dissector is overall better than the aggressor in my experience. It has much better drive going forwards and also braking and is less ‘drifty’ in corners. I’m not actually convinced the aggressor does anything better than the dissector 🤷‍♂️

Running the 2.4wt dissector on the rear of my full suss trail bike (also about 32lbs) and it’s been ace so far. Replaced a 2.3dhr2 - although I do have a slaughter 2.6” which I’ve not tried yet that I may bang on there when things (hopefully) have properly dried up.

Just on tyres the dissector is overall better than the aggressor in my experience. It has much better drive going forwards and also braking and is less ‘drifty’ in corners. I’m not actually convinced the aggressor does anything better than the dissector 🤷‍♂️

Same. I had a 2.5 dual exo Aggressor on my Ripmo which I've now replaced with a 2.4 Exo+ 3c dissector and it doesn't feel any slower on the climbs but is heaps better in corners and braking.

Mmmmm sparkly paint. That looks lovely.

Nice. I do like the look of those.

And the paint looks like my Barry White Inbred, so obviously gets a thumbs up!

Lovely looking bike, I think I'd prefer a DPX2 or even an X2 but I'm picking nits.

Very interested to hear how the OP gets on with it. What size did you go for?

It’s a medium. I’m 5’9” and a reach of 450mm ish just feels right.

My old Occam was actually a Large, but was shorter.

When I was buying that, I demoed a Bird Aeris and they suggested an ML which unfortunately felt too long at 470mm. It just understeered and I couldn’t unweight it without a lot of heft. 450mm I think is the sweet spot for me.