Looking for some opinions. After a few years (long enough to be out of touch with everything) out of the MTB scene on the dark side, I'm looking at getting a MTB again. I thought i'd pretty much decided on a Sonder Transmitter carbon based on the endless rave reviews, then on-one went and dumped the 45650b Ti in the sale for less than the Sonder.
I used to have a 456 summer season (26inch) before it got nicked, hence the switch to the road, and loved it. But has anyone ridden the 650b version, and would you say the slightly old school design and 2.3 tyres will suffer against the 650b+ Sonder. For reference, I'm an old school type of trail rider, preferring getting out in the hills rather than lapping the bike park.
Cheers
Depends what you mean by 'suffer against'... I own an alloy Transmitter and rode the carbon one for a couple of weeks. I also have a lot of time on a Ragey Ti, though I've not ridden the 4560b Ti. I'd say the plus tyres on the Sonder give you quite lot more traction and cush than conventional tyres, they float over a lot of small to medium stuff that you'd feel more on smaller tyre, but at the expense of precision and, if you run lower pressures, they do tend to get wallowy and can flat quite easily if you've aggressive on rocky stuff. More bludgeon than rapier if you like, but really good fun on a hardtail.
The big tyres also tend to get slightly floaty and wandery in deep, soft mud. And they're more expensive too. I kind of alternate bikes depending on what mood I'm in and where I'm riding.
I'm not sure that's much help. You can test ride a Sonder quite easily, so it might be worth doing that and seeing what you make of the b+ thing. You could also, of course, run something like 2.5s in the Sonder over winter if you wanted to.
Cheers for the help.
I guess by suffer against, I mean lose out on all round traction and rideability out in the hills against a fatter tyred bike. i.e. does the added grip of the plus allow you to ride more vs. the downsides of the added weight. plus also thinking of the way the future of bikes is going.
Effectively I've always ridden hard tails and would like to continue doing so. Plus, I'm after a does everything hardtail that I can ride out in the real world, as opposed to a hooning bike to ride around in circles, although that can be fun too occasionally.
I did look at what size Minion DHFs or Ardents go up to as that's what I ran for most things on the old 456 and 2.8 seems fairly wide anyway. Off to the Lakes at the start of December so will try and pop into Ambleside and arrange a test ride.
I guess the ultimate question is, if you could only have one bike for everything off-road related, would you choose your sonder over your Ragley, and if so why/why not?
I guess by suffer against, I mean lose out on all round traction and rideability out in the hills against a fatter tyred bike. i.e. does the added grip of the plus allow you to ride more vs. the downsides of the added weight. plus also thinking of the way the future of bikes is going.
If plus sized tyres really offered any advantage don't you think pros would be using them?
The whole plus sized thing is a niche driven by magazines and consumers, not performance driven.
Where is this ti 45650b? Can't find it but am interested!
I guess the ultimate question is, if you could only have one bike for everything off-road related, would you choose your sonder over your Ragley, and if so why/why not?
I'd take the Ragley Ti every time. But I'm not you... I like plus tyres in some conditions, but they're fiddly to set up, lack precision and cost too much to replace when kill them. That said, a Carbon Transmitter with a set of plus wheels and some with, say 2.4s fitted as an alternative would work pretty well.
The whole plus sized thing is a niche driven by magazines and consumers, not performance driven.
I guess whether that matters to you is down to whether you're 'performance driven'. A lot of the people I know who ride mountain bikes seem to be enjoyment driven. Anyway...
[quote=BadlyWiredDog ]That said, a Carbon Transmitter with a set of plus wheels and some with, say 2.4s fitted as an alternative would work pretty well.
Yep. Given there's one that will take both sizes and one that won't, why paint yourself into a corner.
+1The whole plus sized thing is a niche driven by magazines and consumers, not performance driven.I guess whether that matters to you is down to whether you're 'performance driven'. A lot of the people I know who ride mountain bikes seem to be enjoyment driven. Anyway...
If plus sized tyres really offered any advantage don't you think pros would be using them?The whole plus sized thing is a niche driven by magazines and consumers, not performance driven.
What's "performance"? If you want to jump and corner as hard as possible at high g-forces, you probably won't like plus tyres.
If you want to go for a regular xc ride (or "trail", whatever - it's all xc), you're as likely as not to find plus tires give you more grip on loose surfaces, roots, ruts, etc, more grip at most lean angles, and less fatigue. That's going to mean a faster, less tiring, better bike ride for a lot of people.
I guess whether that matters to you is down to whether you're 'performance driven'. A lot of the people I know who ride mountain bikes seem to be enjoyment driven. Anyway...
Agree completely with this. I ride bikes because I enjoy it. It's also why I don't race on the road, but prefer going for a long ride with a nice coffee stop!
If you want to go for a regular xc ride (or "trail", whatever - it's all xc), you're as likely as not to find plus tires give you more grip on loose surfaces, roots, ruts, etc, more grip at most lean angles, and less fatigue. That's going to mean a faster, less tiring, better bike ride for a lot of people.
This sums up my usage perfectly! Sounds like the Sonder is definitely worth a demo then and don't get caught up in the tech chat 🙂 Cheers all.
To be honest, after looking at the Sonder last week if I had the money spare a the moment I'd definitely go for that over the 45650b.
It's (to my eyes) a much nicer looking bike and more adaptable than the On-One, which seems a bit dated these days.