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Having recently broken my trusty Rocklobster B52 frame I am after another 'do it all' and take a lot abuse hardtail that can be run single speed. Considering that I am 6ft 2 and weigh close to 14st the frame needs to be tough and as I have just brought a house it needs to be cheap.
Considering all of the above I am seriously considering a DMR Trailstar. Is their any reason why I shouldnt? And do they run single speed ok?
I'm about 17 stone and my older LT version has held up to my "rough" jumping style (lots of casing when I was learning) and drops to flat.
Use it for a bit of everything - XC, downhill, street and jumping. Works great but may be a bit short for some. Personally I like a shorter/more "direct" feeling cockpit. I think it's a really good bike, very confidence inspiring and most importantly, fun to ride.
My versions probably not the best for SS but there are sliding dropout versions, and also the new ones come with "swopouts" so you can change the dropout style to suit you (vertical, horizontal, 10mm or 14mm).
edit - didn't see your height, the 16" version will be too small for you I think, but 18" might be ok? I have 29" inside leg and on the 16" version there's loads of post out.
Wont be big enough for you for xc stuff. Apart from that they ride really nicely. i have managed to break two of them though. Think the new warrenty is 3 years though.
i think the ETT is the same as my (mk1) sidekick
way too short for any serious riding but brilliant fun. (sidekick frame is for sale...)
Looking at the geometry compared to frames such as an Orange P7 I can not see why it wouldnt be suitable for XC/trail riding.
Does anyone use a trailstar for general all day riding?
I brought one of the £99 ones off of eBay, well actually it was £85 best offer 😉
I use it as my play bike and run it singlespeed but have used it for longer rides over Swinley, I'm 6ft (15st) and its just a tad too small for longer xc rides but great for short blasts.
Are you on about the new trailstar? I think they do an 18inch model now which might be slightly longer than the 16, but not by much.
The 16 is far too small for xc, if your 6foot2.
Look at some side on pictures, there really quite short
Yeah the new 18 inch ones. They have a very similar ETT length to the 19 inch Orange P7 (I think they are only 5mm shorter).
The 18inch one might not be too bad. I just built up an 18inch DMR switchback for a mate, and I'd guess the geometry is probably the same. I'd say you could ride xc ok on it, although it is still pretty short.
A mate had Junior Ts on a trailstar for a bit. The head tube remained intact!
To show how short they are, here's a side on of my 16":
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I'll probably replace the stem with something a bit longer (70mm maybe) now I've got a bmx for jumping. Long stem + jumping = no.
As I said it works for me as I'm only about 5'9" with a 29" inside leg.