Mojo hd owner here, so obvious bias, but i dont think you could go too wrong with one. The frame is bullet proof, angles are great, but if you want it slacker or longer then fit an angleset to take the head angle down to ~65degrees/extend the wheelbase by 15mm or so.

Will take 180mm fork if you want . Can be built light but still long travel, tough.

Mine has been crashed ,dropped,generaly battered ,but is showing no issues.

Ibought my frame brand new for £1800, some shops will haggle if you make them an offer.

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Avalanche-Racing-Fork-Replacement-Cartridge-Kit-2012.html

Gonna put one of these beasties in my U-turn lyrik Lyrik and then mod it to 135-170mm instead of 125-160.

I’ve got a set of the vengence 160s and they are huge! Got them for 200quid because the kid wanted some kashmir fox.

Rocky that’s looking like the plan. There a chap selling some 2011 or 2009 coils in altringham for <300 gonna ring loco and make a decision then. Can always stuff the extra bits in the lyriks later.

Mini-boxers are spot on, it’s exactly what i want. The spare part thing doesn’t bother me but can’t seem to find many unhappy people who run lyriks – i may have to change my opinion.

For sure, get the second hand Lyriks if they havn’t been abused to hard. Then if they are u-turns fettle with the spacer mod http://forums.mtbr.com/shocks-suspension/can-you-make-160mm-lyrik-170mm-611758.html and drop in a avy damper at a later date when you have the money…. if you want to mess around with things like mid stroke damping etc.

They really would be beasts then….but the stock fork is great as well.

Aslo, sometimes you can pick up OEM Lyrik R’s brand new for 350ish.

Covert FTW. Was out mine tonight, such a capable bike, happy on the ups, awesome on the downs..

Ooooh, what’s this mod then? Sounds like a good answer!

While I’m here, Angleset vs off-set bushes, any thoughts? Off-set is easier to remove and adjustable, but issues with wear? What do most people go for?

Angleset. Offset bushings are shit, rotate and wear….then again there have been issues with anglesets.

Also, I don’t think Canecreek do a 44mm 1.5 tapered angleset. There is another company that say they do, the owner posted on here. I’ll try and dig up the post.

I gave a link to the mod, it’s a little spacer in the assembly the allows the spring to compress more – as the U-turn springs are capable of compressing beyond 160mm of travel. I’ll contact Loco at somepoint as to regards to whether he can machine me the spacers.

My goal is to get my Mega to 31/32lb with a CCDB on the back and a 170mm u-turn Lyrik at the front with an Avy Cart. I’m going to round the upgrade off with a pair of 35mm wide syntace wheels and to lose some weight a 42 10 speed rear cassette from Italy for ghetto single chain ring XXI – it’ll be great. A lightish poppy mini-dh bike that is fully coil damped with buttery smooth old school marzocchi style travel.

Yeah, thanks, I’ve just seen the link now, will investigate further. Keep me in the loop re Loco please, I imagine it’s more of a goer if there’s more demand and I would definitely want one or two spacers. I know a few people that would also be interested.

Works Components do suitable angle-adjusting headsets, disadvantage is you need to decide what angle you want, whereas with the offsets you can experiment a bit more. At £40 a set it might be worth using them to find out what angle headset you want perhaps. Offsets drop the BB too, which might be useful on some frames or a disadvantage on others. I don’t know what people are running though. Offsets on my GT Fury seem to trash DU bushes quite quickly, but the offsets themselves (titanium) haven’t been damaged.

Had so many problems with offset bushings in my old mans nomad, rotation, the tolerance was way out etc.

Do they not just rotate by default into the slackest orientation?

Does anyone do an ISCG05 front mech mount and does anyone know how this would pedal?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2012-Transition-TR250-Mountain-Bike-Frame-Fox-Shock-Medium-Brand-New-Stock-/271111953325?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item3f1f881bad

🙂

No, one of them rotated downwards (wtf) into a position that made it half a degree slacker instead of fully slack. We measured it, it definately was not the slackest position.

The TR250….is a beast. You could…theoretically…. build it to a decent weight with air shocks front and rear when setup in 160mm mode. But I seem to remember the wheelbase is then actually shorter than a Mega…which kind of defeats the point.

I did think about going down that route! Stunning looking bike though.

Rocky – the offer of demoing me covert still stands – not out any evenings this week as i’ve been out in the day. Fwiw my covert has come out lighter the the remedy 9 it replaced despite nearly all of the parts being swapped over and rides a lot better, if you know what i mean.

I know a lad who’s stuck a reverb on his 250 – 66s & a CCDB – manages fine up hill. Don’t see him going down

Don’t tell me stuff like that FFS! That TR250 makes NO sense surely?? I’ll have to keep telling myself I DO need a granny ring and not one of these mega-mega range rear cassettes instead. It’s too heavy, definitely too heavy. FFS!

Will give you a shout if I fancy a go out on the Covert, to be honest I was looking at them because I wasn’t expecting a refund and they’re the best 160 frames the shop sells. I’ll probably be out with the club a week on Tuesday if you fancy popping out?

Let me put it this way, unless you’re an uber strong rugby player type then it’ll be a bastard. I prefer exploring and my Totem’d 36lb SX Trail used to really piss me off. The 2.5 dual ply’s didn’t help though.

I can keep up with 90 percent of hardtail riders when I’m out on my Mega, sporting a 2.35 Single-Ply super tacky High Roller up front and a 60A High Roller at the back.

I could never EVER do that with my SX – it was murderous – even with a freaking granny. Plus when you do ride such a rig everyone expects you to be a hardcore Josh Bender type….instead if your not doing 20 foot drops then you’ll feel like a freeride walt.

However the silly 40 tooth cassettes make a lot of sense to me – nice way to drop nearly a lb of the weight and enjoy the jumps more!

I used to hack a Bullit with 888s on all over the place, that pedalled like shit but I coped ok. TR250 would be a little heavier but should pedal a bit better I’d think. Maybe the Bullit was steep enough to reign the travel back in. One thing though, loads of travel meant loads of grip on technical climbs!

Don’t worry I won’t be going for the 250, it’s not far of double the frame weight, would have worse gearing and would only be marginally better on the downs, just not worth the trade offs.

That Tr250 does look nice, half tempted to buy it and some Boxxers. Then through all my compnents onto it when going to the Alps.

Hmmmmmmmmm…..temptation. Thanks a lot Paul, my bank account might be considerably worse off tommorow.

Bwaarp – don’t look at the bottle rockets then. Can take anything from 160 to 200 I believe.

BottleRockets rule. Fact
Did 2 Whistler trips on them.
So much fun on jumpy trails

Someone up there said that cane creek dont do an angleset for 1.5 inch tapered steerers.

This is not true, they do one, and I have it installed on my Mojo HD (ZS44/28.6 | EC49/40)

Go for the Mojo HD.

Call me biased but here is what I would buy.

Nicolai Helius AM

Here is my three year old one built up for DH fun.

In a more XC/Enduro/AM mode

Bwaarp… there is a package from Avalanche Racing about to be delivered to my house

Care you guess whats in it?

Based on what you’ve said I’d recommend a Meta SX

Bwaarp… there is a package from Avalanche Racing about to be delivered to my house

Git! 😀 Let me know what it’s like!

Someone up there said that cane creek dont do an angleset for 1.5 inch tapered steerers.

That was in regard to tapered steerers in straight 44mm headtubes – you have a 44/49mm headtube.

You can fit tapereds and straight 1.5’s into a Mega’s 44mm headtube – you just can’t use a cane creek angleset with them.

What do we know about the Cannondale Claymore and Jekyll, have found both at billy bargain price so could buy a complete bike rather than the frame. Both look intersting, just looking for reviews and some geometry info….

Bumpity, bump! Does anyone have experience of either the Cannondale Claymore or the Jekyll? Both are available half price and about the price of building up a Mega. Both could be decent options, but difficult to get any objective opinions on them. I guess they haven’t sold well over here because they are expensive at RRP, but google isn’t throwing up much either.

I think you’re right Paul, those are pretty rare beasts here and reviews are scarce on the net. I doubt they are bad bikes though as Cannondale have good heritage in Enduro/AM with the animal Mark Weir racing for them. See also Jerome Clementz

Looks pretty good dousn’t it 8)

Are the shocks reliable on those?

I wouldn’t count on it. Get something with a standard shock – higher parts availability etc.

I’ve never had an issue with any shock and the reviews don’t seem to mention any shock issues. I’m sure Cannondale would look after me anyway, so I’m not going to rule it out on those grounds. Leaning towards the Jekyll, Lyriks done to 170mm and slack it out by a degree or so at the headset. Dropper post. Should be pretty versatile, which I like.

Anyone want to buy some 150mm 32s with a 1.5″ steerer? Thought not!

Propain Tyee so i know whether to buy one next winter…

paulrockliffe-any info on where the Jekylls are going 1/2 price?

They’re on Paul’s Cycles, they have some pretty good deals on Cannondales and Giants at the moment. I’ve pulled the pin on the Jekyll, so should be able to report if it’s any good shortly….

The seals will go one day. I guess you can always replace the shock though.

The geo isn’t so cut out for DH as the mega either (68 degree head angle etc) – but I guess at that price it’s a decent buy.

ive got a brand new nomad for sale,£1400 with Fox ctd or dhx5.0 air.

Not for me thanks, not a fan of the Nomad and already spent up. Bought most of the bits needed to sort the Jekyll out – stronger wheels, Lyriks, wider bars, bashguard, Saint brakes. Just need a dropper and an angleset and it’ll be sorted.

Good luck finding an angleset for the Jekyll.It uses an integrated headset 😕 I’d speak to works components.
Weir rides an xl (despite being 6′)just to get a long enough tt and 180mm 36’s to try and slacken the head angle.
Does’nt seem to bother Clementz too much though 😀
Make sure you get the shock serviced very regularly…..words of advice direct from mojo.

Not for me thanks, not a fan of the Nomad and already spent up. Bought most of the bits needed to sort the Jekyll out – stronger wheels, Lyriks, wider bars, bashguard, Saint brakes. Just need a dropper and an angleset and it’ll be sorted.

Man, you might as well have just bought the right frame in the first place. A Mega with an air shock and coil shock, with coiled lyriks would have been a much smaller headache. Then you can still ride when the air shock invariably blows a seal and has to go in for a service. You can even service Monarchs yourself but I doubt you could with that complicated shock! It would have had the right geometry out the box and the frame is lighter!