If you’re after a budget hardtail but want it in carbon, Halfords’ new stock of the newest Voodoo Carbon Bizango models goes live today.
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By stwhannah
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Have we passed "peak black paint"? I do hope so.
That pink one looks nice. Decent spec level by the looks of it as well. I've got a Voodoo Bokor which I got a few years ago. Got it before COVID and with a BC discount so think it cost me about £600.
Great frame and I'm still the limiting factor. Having said that the only original parts are the frame, wheels and stem. But it can certainly handle cheapish upgrades (brand-x dropper, Revelation fork, Guide brakes, XT cranks, Deore shifters and mech, and a random carbon bar. Oh and a spoon saddle).
If the pro model with the SID rides as well as it looks, it'll be bargain of the century!
I have to admit, I'm looking at that Pro, then at the Sonder Signal ST I got earlier in the year, and having a slight pang of buyer's regret...
The Pro looks great, spec's OK, and the geo looks pretty good too. But it really does underline the cost points being made on the other thread that we are discussing a £1650 bike from Halfords as a bargain!
But it really does underline the cost points being made on the other thread that we are discussing a £1650 bike from Halfords as a bargain!
On spec alone, it is. If you want to factor in some Halfords-snobbery, that's up to you.
geo looks pretty good too
Geo looks a bit like the current Boardman MHT with a short reach and short stem?
It's like they've copied the trend started with the BMC Twostroke and Cannondale Scalpel HT for slackening XC bikes but keeping the stems a sensible medium for climbing, but then slapped a short stem on it.
The Pro looks great, spec’s OK, and the geo looks pretty good too. But it really does underline the cost points being made on the other thread that we are discussing a £1650 bike from Halfords as a bargain!
No one objects to the existence of carbon bikes, it's the media's coverage of them that grates. Especially when you consider the spending power of UK riders as discussed on the other recent thread. £8k bikes are cool, but they're aimed at a demographic that can afford them which thanks to exchange rates is a lot bigger in the USA where most of them are designed.
Things like this Voodoo at £1650 are, like it or not, the equivalent in terms of spending power to those $3000 Specialized/Trek/Santa Cruz that the media more often features.
Halfords-snobbery
Not being snobby about it, Halfords have had some pretty good bikes in the Voodoo and the Boardman brands over the years. Not that I've ever seen any of them in my local branch.
I really liked that colour right up until you described it as “sugared gammon”.
Other sites are reporting the rear as being pretty tight and limited to about the 2.25 thats fitted on it. So are we going narrower on tyres now ?.
I would like to see the whole geo chart, but I assume the medium will be an 18inch frame which is just too big for me. With dropper posts being longer now there is no reason to have such long seat tubes. Apart from that, it looks great.
It is hard to be sure but tyre clearance does indeed look a bit tight on the chainset view for the pro. Not a problem for me as I am happy with that width of tyre but not great for a lot of people.
Other sites are reporting the rear as being pretty tight and limited to about the 2.25 thats fitted on it. So are we going narrower on tyres now ?.
Bike-Radar say it's gone up from 2.25 to 2.35?
Sugared gammon 😀 looks good. Wonder if it's a catalogue frame, I'd love a plain coloured frame with those numbers.
Sugared gammon 😀 looks good. Wonder if it’s a catalogue frame, I’d love a plain coloured frame with those numbers.
Have a look at the dropped seatstay BXT frame, it's pretty close.
Worryingly cheap though, especially seeing as it seems to be their own in-house mold and not used by anyone else. And the only review I could find the guy snapped the toptube/seatube junction as you'd sort of expect with that design.
I'm tempted, but the sensible voice in my head says wait for an alu BMC twostroke to pop up on ebay and flog the bits.
£8k bikes are cool, but they’re aimed at a demographic that can afford them which thanks to exchange rates is a lot bigger in the USA where most of them are designed.
This, plus wages are a lot, lot higher in the US from my experience. People have much more disposable income so a new $6-8k superbike every year isn't outside the realms of possibility for many.
Goddamit, I am perfectly happy with my Trek Superfly, and yet that looks like it would be an improvement in almost every way, especially as the Superfly is basically now the Gravel fly, a lighter frame and fork would be just perfect 🙄
Apparently I must now avoid Halfords in case of temptations! 😁
IHN, Your Steel bike won't break when a rock pings up and hits the down tube.
The geometry is well out of date now.
Come back when you've got some new frame moulds cheers Halfords.
Personally I’d be happy with a steeper head angle for my uses
Does a slack head angle like that work with an old school 73 seat tube? Can you get over the front enough climbing?
Depends where they've measured it from, looks like the seatube intersects ahead of the BB so it's effectively a cm or two forward, which makes it a degree or two steeper.
The geometry is well out of date now.
Come back when you’ve got some new frame moulds cheers Halfords.
66.5 HA for a 120mm XC Hardtail? Seems reasonable?
The Carbon Pro looks right up my street - looking for a 120mmm xc bike to complement the enduro and 150mm steel hardtail.
Other than this, not much in the 120mm category wets my appetite- Pipedream Sirius aside - good to see...
The geometry is well out of date now.
It really isn't. It isn't a gnarpoon, it's an XC bike, and for that the geometry is spot on, and in fact quite modern, although I think TINAS might be right about the stem length.
Seat angle way too slack.
Head angle a bit too steep.
Reaches too short.
Seat tubes too long.
Well out of date.
Well out of date
Even if it is, what's your point?
If 'out of date' geometry means cheap, lightweight, good parts, and probably still better handling than my 6 year old Superfly (which is a joy to ride anyway) then win-win!
I don't even believe geometry really goes out of date. Riding fads might change but any given geometry will be compromised at some point.
Head angle a bit too steep.
Name an XC bike that's slacker?
It's pretty much* a silhouette of the most extreme XC bike currently out there?
CANNONDALE.COM *it has 10mm more travel, and the seat angle is degree slacker on paper but it doesn't say if that's actual or effective and 1deg is ~1cm on the saddle rails so within the adjustment range anyway unless you're already slammed forwards.
Out of stalkerish curiosity I wondered what you rode to compare it to and the only reference that popped up was you asking how to shorten frame reach? https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/tips-to-reduce-frame-reach/
The effective seat angle is 74.7°, iirc. Doesn't sound very odd fashioned to me.
I guess by most extreme XC bike you mean the Scalpel HT Hi-Mod? I've got the cheaper (ok, it's all relative) model with a 100mm Lefty fork and it's geometry is spectacularly good. It's an absolute missile on singletrack. If you can get similar performance for £1650 with the Bizango that is fantastic value.
Does make the stem length look even odder though. Like the person designing the frame wanted something along the lines of the Scalpel, then the marketing department chose the stem. It's an easy fix but an odd choice?
I suspect they'll be selling a lot of them via C2W just by virtue of it being the lightest mountain bike they sell.
They designed it as a trail bike, the Bizango was always a trail bike.
Great if it works for you as an XC bike instead, fill your boots, but the geo is out of date for a trail bike.
They designed it as a trail bike, the Bizango was always a trail bike.
Lolz. So prior to this iteration, with a steeper HA and a slacker SA, it was a trail bike? With a 120mm fork? What it has always been is a bike for people who just want a mountain bike. It's never been trendy, it's never been racy, it's never been gnarr. It's been a decent all rounder at a good price, even though that price is at the top end of what 'normal people' think a bicycle should cost. It's pretty much always been the lightest mountain bike in Halfords too, which again doesn't really scream 'trail bike' at me.
Remind me,how many angels were dancing on the head of that pin ?
Yeah, but
If ‘out of date’ geometry means cheap, lightweight, good parts
But geometry is free. They could have had it all for the same price. Not the end of the world and I’m not convinced the geometry is all that bad but…so close
It’s never been trendy, it’s never been racy, it’s never been gnarr.
That's what I'm saying. You were describing a trail bike, then saying it's not one.
Sheesh.
But geometry is free. They could have had it all for the same price.
Aye fair point, although I guess I was sort of thinking it was cheap because they'd just copied an old catalogue frame or used an open mould or something, rather than paying extra for designers to actually try and come up with something bang up-to-date (probably displaying my complete ignorance of how designing a new bike actually works...).
It is an utterly pointless discussion, but in the spirit of the cartoon I posted earlier...
From this very organ:
A trail bike is almost defined by what it is not, as opposed to what it is. It’s not a weight-focused cross-country bike. It’s not a stopwatch-checking enduro bike. It could be argued that a trail bike is no longer ‘allowed’ to be a hardtail. A trail bike has got to consciously have no wilful restrictions about what sort of riding it gets up to. A trail bike has got to have suspension at the back and a healthy amount of travel up front. We’d say we’re now at the point in the evolution of mountain biking that the minimum amount of fork travel that can be truly classed as un-compromised is 140mm (maybe a very good 130mm fork).
From this very organ
Do you agree with that?
Seems ok geometry for an all round hardtail. That seat angle is actually comfy for longer pedals where something steep for winch and plummet is less comfy.
66.5 degree head angle is fine for all round riding. Yes it’s not the slackest for steep tech or bike parks - but that’s not what this bike is mainly for.
The only thing I would have thought would be better is a slightly longer reach per size. I’m normally a medium and 432mm is quite short - but then my Vitus Sentier was similar from 2018. Could size up to large for better reach - but not sure then if the seat tube will be massively long.
Chainstays are short for a 29er (or indeed 27.5) but I guess that’ll keep it snappy and fun.
Either way that Pro carbon bizango sounds ideal as a do it all hardtail. Reckon you could race xc on it, bimble on bridleways on it, ride flow trail centres etc. steep tech would be harder but still do-able.
Anyone ordered one? I wonder if the geo chart is accurate?