So a little bit of context, I had a Titus El Guapo 26 I replaced it with a Transition Scout 1 year ago. While the scout is very playful and agile it has never been confident inspiring to me. I think most of this is to do with the 125mm travel and the ludicrously short chainstays 425mm compared to 440 on the El Guapo.

I’ve got a 29er hardtail and that has always impressed me how big wheels handle the rough stuff and was thinking of getting 29er full suspension. I had my eye on the Nukeproof Mega 290. Last week I managed to test ride one at Glentress for the day I took it on the some Red stuff and the EWS stages I felt very much at home on it, very confident inspiring.

When I got home last weekend I tried to buy a frame but they had sold out. I could get the pro model for £3200 which was the one I tested but it comes with wheels which I’m certain are too flimsy for the peaks riding I do and it also comes with guide brakes which I didn’t get on with, so it feels like I would be wasting money on it.

Today I noticed that Evans had the BMC Trailfox TF01 2016 in the sale for £3650 with a dream spec. So I’ve ordered it into my local store to give it a spin.

My main questions are does it feel stable enough at speed as the chainstays are 435mm compared to 450mm on the mega 290, 440+ on the old 29er remedy and 440 on my old 26 inch el-guapo.

After that I’m guess I’m just after general impressions and thoughts.

Any opinions on the ex1501 wheelset?

E1501 wheels are DT 240 hubs and EX471 rims, you’ll struggle to find a bad word said about either.

Two lads I know bought Trailfoxes, both delighted

Also – longer chainstays’wheelbase should mean more stability at speed, not less

Thanks for that. On the chain stay I know they are longer and thefore more stable than the scout but they are much shorter than the chsinstay found on the mega 290.

Sorry, totally misread your original post.

I’d look at wheelbase rathern than just chainstay length for stability.

I have the metal Trailfox, which I put all my own stuff on- pikes, carbon rims, a ccdb, all that jazz. It’s a thug, tbh- big, solid, and by normal 29er terms, slack and long (the big bike thing has caught on now but when it first came out it was one of the longest mainstream bikes you could buy). I really liked it, stuck an angleset in it which hurt the climbing a bit but paid off for the harder descents (it’s a very balanced bike as standard despite being basically in beast mode all the time). Very intuitive handling, looks great too.

But, now I ride a Remedy. Reason being, the rear suspension. It’s not bad on the trailfox but it’s got a shitload of antisquat and I just don’t like that much. It’s a bike you should be pedalling through rough stuff after all. Now it could be that it works– I might have been faster, who knows. But it felt weird and distracting to me. The Trek’s numbers aren’t as good (right off the bat I had to get a bigger frame to get the same wheelbase I wanted) but the rear suspension is godly.

So, hmm. I think this is a matter of taste and I just didn’t like the flavour, it’s a totally legit way to build a bike and it’s race proven and all that. I was perfectly happy with it and if I’d not found a Remedy at a good price I’d still be riding it, no bother.

(I did 2 test rides on the Mega, it’s very good too but I did have my doubts about the spec. That said, I replaced every part bar the frame on both the BMC and Trek so…)

if I’d not found a Remedy at a good price

You could send us a couple more quid if you think you got it too cheap. 😉

Owned a TF03 for almost 2 years now.No issues what so ever. But I can never advise on bike choice as i have tried nothing else (this size and travel).

Thanks I know what you mean about anti squat the Transitions are the same… It makes them climb great but weird over rocky descents I wonder if that in part why trek decided to come up with those reaktiv shocks. I guess the Cane Creeks can be setup quite well for the bike?

Yeah, I had a CCDB CS Air in mine and that helped get it running more to my taste. (it came with a Float but I see they’ve moved to Inlines now which should be able to do much the same).

TBH other folks could easily ride my trek and think it’s too inefficient, especially in wide open mode where it’s a little bit of a jelly. It’s a thing that people like to talk about as better/worse but that’s like declaring one amount of bar rise to be best…

Had a go on it today was in a city so no proper trails to give it a go on. First thoughts were that considering the spec it is not as light as I expected. Couple of my mates have built new carbon bikes recently (carbon patrol and carbon nomad) and they felt lighter. Given that this is full carbon front and rear triangle, full XX1 drivetrain, XTR Brake, ex1501 wheelset, carbon bar I expected to pick it up and think wow. But definitely not, I guess they must have built it like a tank, wonder how much those aluminium models must weigh…..

While riding the bike it gave me the impression that it would take some suspension setup to get it working right, not compliant at all though I admit I didn’t have time to work on setup and not used a DB Inline before. Where as my Transition Scout was a case of set sag, stick quite a lot of rebound dampening on, stick some bottomless rings in job done.

Every time I read Northwind’s review of the bmc I wonder if it’s my next bike as it sounds idea.

Ok now I need some opinions on suspension tune. I went with the base tune and holy shit I think it was made for Aaron Gwin. …

So far I decided to remove all of the HSC halved the amount of LSC and added a turn of HSR. If anyone has suggestion’s please let me know.

Just trying to get a supple feel out of it.