[Closed] show me your PYGAs.... please

Really????!! 😀

Okay!

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RS Rev's 140's
Crests with Hope 2 Fr / DT 350 R
Schwalbe NN's & HD's
XT brakes 180Fr / 160R
SLX triple
X9 3 x 10
ICE dropper
685mm riser Monkeylights
80mm Thomson stem
Gobi XM

I love it! But I would say that. My first new bike for 13 years and a 50th pressie to myself.

Build cost circa £3,500. Worth every single penny to me.

sweet! how does it ride in the real world? i only had an hour or so up at swinley

Have some 140mm too 🙂

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Due for release quite soon I think.

How does it ride?

In brief, I felt at home right from the off. On my second time out, riding with my good friend with whom I've been riding with for over 20years, he commented that I looked like I had been riding the bike for years. The forks required very little messing about with to get them feeling right and the rear Monarch RT even less time. I use the part open threshold on smooth climbs because it's there, although when I forget and leave it open, there is very very little pedal induced movement. I have yet to consume all the available rear travel, it feels bottomless TBH. The ride I would describe as surefooted, agile and it picks up speed very well and maintains it too. It's a quick bike.

Climbing wise it feels as capable, if not more so, than the SC Superlight it replaced. Going along and down I'm looking for opportunities to play and get 'air'. Though please note, not the phat variety - it's all relative and I generally like to keep my wheels on the ground, but with the seat dropped, the bike takes on a great playful persona and I have confidence in the bike. For another comparison of sorts, I used to ride a SC Bullit 10 or so years ago while I was in BC and the Pyga feels way more secure and 'hoppy' than I remember the Bullit being.

In a similar vein, it tracks and changes direction with surprisingly little input, which I'm genuinely delighted about - one of the attributes of my Superlight that I loved was it's responsiveness (probably why I didn't gel with the Bullit so much) and that with deft movements the bike changed direction - sometimes too quickly, or the front would wash out. The Pyga has that same quality of subtlety and response but without the wash out affect. I would term it as capable in an extremely competent way, which in turn, for some might make it predictable. In this way, it suits me beautifully.

It's coped with XC and French Alps riding and stayed in one piece. The shock and pivot torques needed tweaking after the first 100miles, since then, they've been perfect. The frame is helitaped at the usual cable rub points and the downtube. It's a bike that is ridden, so there are now some paint chips. I don't care, I'll be keeping the bike.

There is not massive mud room clearance when running bigger tyres, the 2.35 HD's fit with some clearance, but it clogs up in sticky mud. For me, that's not an issue as I'm fortunate to have a Hummer HT as my 'winter' bike, but with some 2.1's I reckon it would deal with most mud types!

All in all, it's a bike that gives me what I was looking for. From reading about the 29 OneTen, it too sounds as though it possesses the same attributes. Alex may well be along to give you a better first hand experience of that.

Ive been chatting recently with Charliemort on exactly the same question as yourself and it kinda boils down to whether you prefer the orange or the green!! 😉

great review, thanks!
as most of my riding is in the wilds of hampshire with very little chance of getting even miniscule air (also i would love to have the skills to go large but i am getting too broken to survive the consiquences of getting things wrong) i think the 29er version may be better... but i really enjoyed the 110. aghhh too many choices, ok only 2 on this brand but then there is the sc, turner, scott, canyon etc etc etc

I'm in Hampshire too. Ride out of QE/Harting or Alton/Chawton area. Drop me a PM if you'd like a closer look and a go 🙂

My time is very limited at the mo, Mrs Slack is and has been away caring for her mum, so I'm chief cook and bottle washer with all attendant single-parent type fun, so depends on how anxious you are to procure...

It's a medium frame btw. I'm 5'8" and it fits me like a glove.

Ooo that'd be great Thankyou... I'm also currently time limited as im a postie!! Plus I also do the majority of care for minivader in the afternoons and evenings plus cooking et al so you have my sympathies, but anytime you have a spare hour or so give me a shout and I can meet you at qep or alton... Im on ss chameleon ATM so I dont go anywhere fast!

More than happy to.

Inbetween Xmas/New Year has the best potential for both of us by the sounds of things. Although I'm hoping to join up with Bikebouy and hopefully a few others' if the ride around Fareham/ish happens on the 15th, Mrs Slack returns on the 14th, so I may well want to spend time at home. Link to that thread here:

[url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/hampshire-riding/page/3 ]singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/hampshire-riding/page/3[/url]

I haven't been riding for the last couple of month's, so I'm definitely not fast ATM! 🙂

After xmas for me definitely. I'll be a gibbering wreck by the end of next week! I will try and remember to give you a shout in the week after xmas and try ro organise something. would be good to see some trails around Alton cos its only 20min away. Im just too lazy to get lost round there finding stuff. At least round Basingstoke I know where the pubs are in relation to where I ride!

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I like mine 🙂 I'll do a proper review when I've fetched it out of the bike bag and brushed off the Spanish dust! I've ridden the 650B as well like ^^ Slack Alice's up there. I prefer the 29er but that's a) because it's the one I have and b) I didn't let the kit much on the demo 650b and c) It felt weird after riding 29ers for the last six months. It was still a lovely bike tho.

Interesting to be riding with three mates on 26inch FS bikes this week. There is definitely a difference (+ and -) with the 29er I'll try and explain when I've got more time.

Bottom line is tho, both are great fun bikes for riding anywhere. Mine has about 1500kms on it now and I expect it'll have a lot more before i get something else. And I'm a serial bike buyer.

The more I see of these, the more I like them...

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They mix nicely with most trail types even with me on board. Shall do a write up of that trip when I get a min. But apart from the steepest, tightest switchbacks, can't say I really wanted smaller wheels. Flat pedals would have been nice a few times but that's not a 29er thing!

Hi Alex, looks nice riding, where was it?
Neil

Southern Spain - round Orgiva. http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexleigh/sets/72157638420383936/ loads in there. Been there a few years ago, but don't remember it being quite so good. Defo be going back next year.

Quick review for you DV. If you search this forum, you'll see I've posted thoughts before and I'll not bore you by repeating them, other than to update my assertion that 'it's a bike that's great at almost everything but not brilliant at one'.

My point there was as a compromise for trail riding, it hits the spot in terms of weight/geom/suspension action etc. It's not the lightest bike but it's quick uphill and rewarding on difficult off-road climbs. It's absolutely a hoot in singletrack whipping between the trees - you just need to ride a bit different to a 26, definitely more 'carve-y' and less changing direction in the corners. Amazing what the bigger contact patch means for grip if you're brave. Downhill even with 110mm of travel, I have the same view as SA, very rarely bottom out the shock but still feels bottomless.

What I noticed in Spain on longer, very rocky descents is how stable it is compared to the 26ers I was with. And it's not a long bike for a 29er. But once up to speed, it definitely was easier to hold a line or even make one 🙂 than my mates FS.

We also rode a trail with 46 switchbacks. 29er was definitely a bit more cumbersome but didn't stop me getting round most of them. And it does roll well at slow speeds if you just need a bit of oomph to get over a rock as you're coming out of a tight turn. Where it does feel 'big' is when it's Steep AND Tight. R53 (importers) convinced me to buy a large (I'm 5ft11 but with short legs) which was the right decision but there's definitely quite a lot of noticeable bike when you really would like something a bit more compact.

Other than that, it's hard to find fault. Jenn @ STW reckons the shock can't hold the bike in corners (and I felt that a bit this week) but I'm not good enough to worry about it. A quick look at the bearing at 1400k showed they were all absolutely fine. Rear two were a bit dry but no play and still smooth.

Mine has a 140mm fork on it which this week on very steep/loose climbs made it a bit of a handful. I've already decided to try 130mm and will probably get J-Tech to lower a x-fusion Trace for me. Having had the 26inch Slant, I'd like that fork to replace the perfectly adequate RCT3 Rev that's on there. Just because i can 😉

Now it has 203/180 rotors, dropper, SLX, decent tyres (2.35/2.25) and with a slightly heavier fork, it'll probably be 30lbs. Doesn't feel like that tho It's also VERY stiff which means when you do put some power down there's no squirm and it'll rattle through rock gardens with nary a twitch. It'll even fly off things if you are feeling brave. I don't do big jumps but I've done everything and more i did on my Cotic Rocket and it's been fine. The rocket would be better in the really techy stuff but that's not where 99% of my riding is.

The 650B felt like going back to a 26inch bike to me. Loved it on the last descent on the Verderers trail. Really would have preferred my 29er everywhere else. Didn't like the fork much tho or the tyres, or the narrow bars. I'd love a crack at the Roscoe (140mm coming in Jan) as it'd be an ace alps bike I reckon but again probably too much bike for me most of the time.

In summary, both the 650b and 29 are well sorted bikes. They do encourage you to hunt out every little rock and drop and they definitely can get you into a lot of trouble and most of the time out of it. I'm nowhere near the limit of the frame potential but - and this is the most important thing for me - it's still brilliant fun. The Rocket was a fantastic bike but as it was getting into its stride, I was getting scared!

Hope that helps. Email in profile if you want any more info. At this rate we'll have enough bikes for a PYGA meet up 🙂

Couple more.. first shows 29ers climb better than 26ers.. possibly. Second is they work quite well being thorn off a handy wall.

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