29er AM Titanium Hardtailness

Hey Chris, would love a shot of this on the Munroes behind me, will drop you a line.

The CS’s are too long

Sanny – Chonzie in summer evening is ace, especially when hunting down ‘missing’ DofE groups 🙂

bonesetter – Member

The CS’s are too long

I bet you couldn’t tell the difference in a blind test. 😉

^ Ha ha

I can tell the difference on the 16.3″ Wolfhound 😆

And the 16.9″ Stickle…

To the 17.3″ Niner’s 😥

Course you can. 🙄

Do you notice it while pushing down Welsh descents or just when you’re bimbling round our local tame trails? 😉

I don’t go down Wales – takes too long…

Round the Col-de-Clent it’s very noticeable 😀

Bumped into a chap over Clent testing a carbon 29er XTR on test from Collins… he threw a leg over the ‘hound (I exchanged leg throws on his)… put him straight off the Giant. Very nimble was his comment

I don’t go down Wales – takes too long

Not the way you drive it doesn’t. 😆

Though i could have sworn you came for a ride/walk/mince round the elan valley once. 😉

Hell thats a sexy piece of kit .. if its not ruined by all these beforehand and it has some free time i would be happy to take it to Les Gets/Morzine Chatel for a week in july full alpine write up and im sure it would turn a few heads out there and create a bit of interest !!!!

Please Stu, forum banter aside, give us a shout you’re going next and it’ll gee me into going, as i would love to

Will do mate.

Matt

Slightly ot. The route off Chonzie via Carn Chois looks good. Is it? Also, have you ridden the the trails in the forest north of Comrie going into Glen Lednock? The Deils cauldron looks like it could be fun.

Cheers

Sanny (posting on Gingers log in)

Is the design set in stone at this point?

The CS length is a deal breaker for me. 20mm shorter would be so much better…?

In my opinion they have ruined what is essentially a nice looking 29er with a horrible swoopy down tube. Really hate curvy down tubes, especially on hardtails…but then I am just a fussy arty type!
Why are they used on hardtails? I can see on some full sus designs for shock placement and to allow you to fit a bottle cage in but why on a hardtail?
To me it just seems to be creating a longer tube and an uglier bike.

To me it just seems to be creating a longer tube

maybe they’re trying to create a longer top-tube….

To me it just seems to be creating a longer tube

maybe they’re trying to create a longer top-tube….

eh? Why would a swoopy down tube create a longer top-tube? I meant that the tube is longer than it needs to be as it’s not taking a direct line between two points.

sorry mis-read.

Anyhow, I’m guessing that if it were straight, you’d have a weird joint between down-tube, seat-tube abd BB shell. this way it comes off the front of the BB shell.

I maybe missing something here, but a weird join? A join like any other normal bike frame? Sorry I think I am missing something.

Could see it could make cutting tube faces easier as you would only need cut it to meet the BB tube, but suuuuuuuuuuuccccchhhhhhhh an ugly way to make a down tube/frame.

I don’t mean to poo poo the bike; other wise I think it looks pretty nice and do realise that I might just be on my own with this one.

sometimes the swoopiness is to give clearance for a fork crown at the top.

I don’t mind the swoopiness at the top so much, it’s down by the BB, to me it just doesn’t make sense to make a tube which should be straight curved, surely it’s not as strong? But more than willing to be corrected on that one.
I can see the reason for fork crown clearance although haven’t found that a problem for years, since dials have become neater. And can see the reason for a curved top tube clearance. But why at the BB?
It make it the bikes look like a cheapo bike that are trying to look like a full sus.

I’ll ask Chris…

The DT/HT/ST junction looks a heck of alot stronger with that design

Personally, I like the swoop

dt bends: you may find it is about construction ease…and clearance. if you have a muckle downtube, where it intersects the bb shell and seat tube (st bent as it is, coming in here nearer vertical) would potentially be a complex compound miter with a dt that will wrap a fair way around the bb shell and seat tube. if its bent to approach the bb shell at nearer horizontal, you get less chance of a difficult join. at the head tube end, you’re probably looking at fork knob clearance. even with a gusset and fair bit of head tube extension, due to the relatively steep angle a dt makes on a hard tail 29er/long travel fork, you will find the fork crown gets mighty close to the dt sometimes. and again, it may help the miter…

just a thought.

im all for 29er ti am hardtails :-)~

First reviews from the Kingdom folks themselves up online…

Trails – http://www.kingdombike.com/TheKingdom/?p=1458

Mountains – http://www.kingdombike.com/TheKingdom/?p=1466

Interesting.

Something wrong with the snake like downtube … hmmm …

@drjon .You’re only for Am29ers because you have the nicest one…..ever (jealousy mode off).

Interesting…
I’m 5’10”.

So what’s our conclusions on The Brigante and long travel 29ers?

You could say Jim’s a better rider than me, which he undoubtedly is and therefore could control the bike. But I think the answer to our different experiences on The Brigante lies more in the size of the rider and how comfortable that rider feels on a long travel 29er.

For example I’m 5’10” and I’ve been riding XC 29ers for almost a year now and I’ve never felt like the bike is too big. But when you add 140mm of travel and then take that bike on terrain that demands quick handling, the bike simply becomes too much to control for a shorter rider. If however, you’re a bigger rider (over 6?) then it’s not a problem you get a win win, all the benefits of a 29er and it handles like a normal bike.

Taken from the Mountains link above.

Kingdom

This would retail for a much nicer price of £899. But at the moment we’re taking a little time out to think over how sensible a carbon 29er 140mm long travel hardtail actually is…

Makes a lot of sense. You can get around a lot of the problems associated with cramming big wheels into a compact package. I’ve got absolutely nothing against getting cheap composite parts made out in the East as the quality is very good and it does let more people benefit from the technology but it would be interesting to see if some of the new cutting edge methods could be used here to reduce UK build costs.

Few people on here who may be able to point you in the right directions including myself.

I think it looks awful, can’t anyone design a bike without those ugly bent tubes anymore?

I think it looks good. 29er HT with full face helmet

The Brigante ti will be on tour in the UK next month, I have a list of names from this thread and I’ll contact you this week with email confirmations of times and places…

This week we signed off on the first pre-production proto of our new Brigante carbon…

We’re going to try and retail this little gem for approx £899 maybe cheaper if we can, also with a 5 year warranty.

It’s based roughly on The Brigante titanium but with a 68 degree head angle with a 120mm fork, it will take a 140mm fork but after my 29er 140mm acid trip on The Brigante I’m glad we toned down this down a bit.

More about it hear

I hope you like it.

Chris

What a mess.

All over my keyboard!!!!!!

Nice. 8)

OOOOOOOOO very nice.
Can I be the first to abuse that one?

Rider weight limit Chris?

oh my, that is very lovely. Loving the spec too – and ISCG05 mounts on a carbon frame 😀 (just been chatting about that).

I would happily sell my C456 and Scandal 29er to buy one of those. £899 and 5yr warranty too. Would really like to pay you guys a visit and take a look.

Ding dong!

Oh that’s VERY pretty is that 🙂

Chris will you just be doing frames or whole bike builds?

Cheers

http://www.kingdombike.com/TheKingdom/?p=1537

It will be mine!!!! (for a week anyway)

I have the brigante. Lots of smiles this morning.

😀

You’ll have to wait for my full review though….

only comment is: Maxxis ardent tyres + muddy/moulchy trails = slidey!