Whatever bike you like + LOTS OF TYRE. I sold the dh bike and spent some of the takings on a second set of cheaper, stronger rock-smashing wheels and put dh tyres on them, totally worth it, partly for the grip and partly for not being upset when I inevitably smack them off a boulder.
I did have a blast on my dh bike but tbf all those venues are built to not really need it, it was just a lot of fun absolutely smashing into everything like a dropped hammer. But it did affect the trails I rode a lot, and some of my favourite trails didn't really work on it. (I don't do the big jumps, I'm sure a dh bike is better for ugly landings and cases and such, someone else would probably get more benefit). Like, imo Root Maneuvres is the absolute best overall trail at bpw but it just didn't click on the dh bike and the slog up from the bottom meant I didn't do it again. I have never enjoyed that trail less and it was frustrating.
TBH the first time we went to BPW and FOD I was on my Ragley Ti 26er hardtail and that was completely brilliant too, I reckon I had more fun overall on that than on the dh bike. I'd happily take my Titus #endurohardtail and just put a dh rear tyre in it, it's just my full suss would make more sense especially for full speed battering through rim dinger and such. Course, it depends on the rider too, the feeling of unstoppableness and bravery boosting from a good dh bike is something separate from actual performance, it's a great feeling especially if speed is your only thing.
The thing is the trails at modern uplift venues are so varied, even my Rocketmax felt like a lot of bike if I went and did terry's belly or in the super flicky bits at the bottom of Dirt Farm, but it still handles the blacks really well, up to the point where I can't do it and it makes no difference what the bike is. Modern long travel pedallable bikes are incredible tbh, half the reason I sold my dh bike was my Rocketmax was for my purposes almost as good at the big stuff and just miles better at the small stuff.
PS standard plug for Dirt Farm, slap between FOD and BPW and absolutely brilliant despite its smallness. Plus TrAcToR uPlIfT!
PS standard plug for Dirt Farm
Relax, you've already sold it to me. I have a 5 day voucher to use by the end of the year. Trailer uplift probably healthier than a festering minibus
Whatever bike you like +
This is a rubbish answer when my original question was 'what bike will I like?' 🤣
I can safely say after the last 6 hours on the Gen6 Fuel, it's bloody superb at BPW.
I may not be, but it is.
Not quite 'recommending what you've got' but close, If you can live with the looks and the weight, The Gen2 Privateer 141/161 looks a steal at £2.5k. My gen1 has been mint at various trips to BPW/Stiniog ect
I'm trying to come up with the same answer. I'm definitely dithering between a S150 and an S170. Feel like I might as well just go big really, i.e. the 170.
Dirt Farm is really good but you need body armour for the uplift. You think they'd splash out on some pipe lagging or something for the cage, sorry, trailer.
“I'm definitely dithering between a S150 and an S170. Feel like I might as well just go big really, i.e. the 170.”
Are they the same frame with different fork and shock lengths? Or different rear triangles?
There are so many bikes with decent geometry these days, I'd focus on what chainstay length and reach you prefer - and see what fits the bill.
My Bird Aeris 9 (probably too heavy for your needs) swaps between mullet and 29 quickly with a flip chip, which is a brilliant feature that I use quite a lot - especially at bike parks. So maybe that's worth prioritising in your case.
A few of these suggestions seem to be creeping well into the enduro bike end of things. My mate has the forbidden and its pretty heavy.
My choice for that would be a LLS trail bike. My Cotic Jeht is very at home at those type of places.
Cotic RocketMax can be had with 150, 155 or 160 rear travel and 160 or 170 up front. Full 29er or Mullet. I haven't ridden mine that much since I got it, only a few rides local, Grenoside and Stainburn, but I think it climbs better than any other FS I've had and its great going down. Pretty light as well. Mines a C2 so pretty small and compact frame/water bottle interface aside, I can't fault it.
A Cotic would be nice but I’m not keen on the geometry in the smaller sizes, mostly the chainstay length that probably works great if you are taller
Pinkbike's last field test covered a few likely contenders in the butch trail bike/all-mountain bike category you've outlined. Testing included bike park stuff.
"I'd focus on what chainstay length and reach you prefer - and see what fits the bill."
I've got sliding dropouts on my hardtail that I use for singlespeed chain tensioning but I recently swapped to a new chain and rear sprocket and have gone from close to max chainstay length to minimum chainstay length (440mm down to 425mm). At first I wasn't sure if I noticed what I assumed would be an obvious change but as the ride progressed I could feel the extra "flicky" responsiveness - but after a couple of hours I started noticing that I found it harder to keep the bike pointing in the right direction and was missing the extra stability and front wheel grip of the longer chainstay. (I was quite tired because I was trying a bigger gear and after another few rides I've concluded I'm not strong enough to push it!)
That bike is 470mm reach (at sag - hardtail) and clearly about 435mm chainstay length suits me better than 425, and I've got long legs for my height which I think suit longer chainstays (because longer legs push your hips back further when you hinge). However I think you can run much shorter chainstays for your height on a hardtail because the front wheel always has more grip with the fork helping out and the rear wheel skipping about unsuspended.
I don't think there's an ideal chainstay length for a given rider height/leg length or bike reach but I do think different riders suit different lengths and it's a big contributor to how a bike feels.
Pinkbike's last field test covered a few likely contenders
Oh yes, I’ve watched all the videos and even listened to the podcast. But I think the most telling part of the test was in the ‘ranked by science’ half serious testing. Matt Beer ran each bike down a section of trail and guessed which was fastest. Matt is a good rider and I trust that he gave an honest opinion but the stopwatch gave a very different story, a big reminder of how subjective any review is
Does it matter which bike is the fastest? You said you wanted a fun bike not a race bike.
The Geometron is such a great bike and so far ahead of its time that if I were you I’d test ride as many bikes as possible to figure out how you can improve on it.
I’d probably go and test the new version so you can see how you like it as a 29 or mullet, and try all the Mutator settings to figure how what you really like in chainstay length, reach, BB height, head angle etc. Or do the same with something else with lots of adjustments, like a Stumpy or a Privateer etc.
Does it matter which bike is the fastest?
No, that is a good point. But down the same trail taking the same line I’m thinking the bike that gets down faster is probably the one giving the most confidence, not the one that felt fast but wasn’t?
Mmmm not in my lads recent experience. He rode the Atherton A220, S200 and Session down race track. The most fun apparently was the S200 but was 3s slower than the A200 and 4s slower than the Session.
The Geometron is such a great bike and so far ahead of its time
I think this may be my problem.
Horst link works for me but I'm open to other systems.
I personally find horst links quite dull. They're good at ploughing through stuff but they don't really encourage you to pop about and have fun, ime.
Mmmm not in my lads recent experience
That is a different world to the one I ride in 😀
Mmmm not in my lads recent experience
That is a different world to the one I ride in 😀
Me too, but it was showing that fastest isn't always funnest. I get why it can be though of course. Some bikes IMO encourage you to be comfortable, but that's subjective and impossible to quantify. Some bikes i've jumped on and thought EWWWWW even though they should tick all the boxes.
P.S if you're near FoD i'll have both our ML Fuels every Thurs for the next 5 weeks in the evening. I'll even uplift you to the top 😀
I have ridden my Whyte T-130, Cotic Soul & Cotic Rocket at both BPW & FOD - all the bikes have been fun. Unless you end up buying an XC race bike I don't think you can go far wrong.
“I personally find horst links quite dull. They're good at ploughing through stuff but they don't really encourage you to pop about and have fun, ime.”
It totally depends on the exact pivot points - a lot of Horst links used to be quite linear with low anti-squat and low anti-rise. Nowadays loads of them are progressive with high anti-squat and some have fairly high anti-rise too.
Yep, Horst links can be fun! The old Lapierres (I had a Zesty and Froggy) were very poppy and engaging.
Current Bird is indeed very progressive with decent anti-squat, but more neutral in ride feel. Very good at it's job of being a predictable burly enduro bike, but not "absolute most fun".
Transition Sentinel does everything well for me, plus it’s a looker.
Equally the following would all do a similar job with varying focus either towards more poppy or more plush:
Bird Aeris AM
Trek Fuel Ex Gen 6
Santa Cruz Hightower / Bronson
Ibis Ripmo (albeit the alloy one is a little ugly)
Atherton A150 (the alloy version is pretty heavy - but if it was just dedicated uplift bike then S170)
The new gen Privateers are cheap right now but both heavy and ugly imo.
The new gen Privateers are cheap right now but both heavy and ugly imo.
Privateer are local to me. I know people who work there, I love the specs they come up with and I can cope with ugly (some say I have no choice 😀 ) but **** me their weight is out of all proportion on the gen 2 models, I think gen 2 was a backward step from the originals.
YOu could do worse than a cheap Gen1, i may know of a 141 size P2 that could be aquired cheaply.
My Privateer 141 was a surprisingly good bike. I had the Ohlins edition and the suspension was mint which helped.
I'm much happier now on a mullet for the riding you describe. It just tips over more easily and is much more fun for ducking and diving.
And yes, it did survive a fall from an uplift trailer where it flew off the road into the bushes. It absolutely battered both Hope brake levers but if I'd left the standard Maguras on they would have snapped clean off so I was counting my blessings that day.
Decision made, Edit MX ordered. Pics next week hopefully
I don’t think you can go wrong with an Edit Mx - should be a great bike for your purpose
Came here to say Edit...too late it seems!!
Decision made, Edit MX ordered. Pics next week hopefully
I love a man who makes big decisions. Good work.
Airdrop should have me on commission. This is the 4th sale I've 'consulted' on.
Post pics asap.
Here's a recent snap of mine to get you pumped. I've been taking a lot of pictures during its 12 month refurb. Frame is still mint.
I could have been tempted by green but the current ‘hearing aid beige’ didn’t grab me so I went raw. Very nice it looks too,
See you Thurs, 5.30 main FoD car park
See you Thurs, 5.30 main FoD car park
Can't do Thursday evening but I'm at 417 tomorrow. Hope Airdrop put it together ok....
I wish I was local to FoD, I really enjoyed my brief look around there. Could do with a local guide next time.
I wish I was local to FoD, I really enjoyed my brief look around there. Could do with a local guide next time.
12 months from now i'll be living a 2 minute walk from FoD 😀
The bike is brilliant, gold star to anyone who suggested it. Had an excellent day in blistering sunshine and the bike is now coated in dust.
Only issues were
1. the rear brake, SRAM Maven, is horribly inconsistent. May work fine, may pull to the bar and need a pump. Hopefully just needs a 'piston massage' or maybe a bleed. At least it wasn't the front
2. I managed to pinch the rear tyre right on the bead. Not sure a sticky worm is going to sort that. Bollocks.
3. Went to pump up the deflating tyre to get to the shop for a tube and snapped the top off the fancy Reserve valve body. Double bollocks.
4. Found a non crash related crack right through the chin bar of my Proframe. Don't know how I did that.
Also I should really have spent more time on set up of controls and suspension before going but whatever, I can do more tweaking at the weekend.
12 months from now i'll be living a 2 minute walk from FoD
Less by bike 😀 I'm jealous. So much good riding and if you ever think you're tired of it Wales is just over there
We've done the piston massage 3-4 times now, I generally do it with a new set of pads.
Every 2-4 months I have to connect a syringe on the bleeding edge, take 1 bubble out, pressure it up again and it's golden.
We've never had any issues on the trails. Just the in garage quirks of the Mavens.
Went to pump up the deflating tyre to get to the shop for a tube and snapped the top off the fancy Reserve valve body. Double bollocks.
I have a spare if you want it? Recently warrantied a rim and reserve sent a full pack, can pop it in an envelope and post it tomorrow.
I wish I was local to FoD, I really enjoyed my brief look around there. Could do with a local guide next time.
It’s a tough gig, but we struggle on with it.
@relapsed_mandalorian that would be great thanks, I would much rather buy one than a pair. I will attempt a message
Nope, message fail. @relapsed_mandalorian maybe you could email me how much and where to pay. Email is adrian(at)monkeybutt.co.uk
