DH bike options, plans, thoughts ?

I put a lot of thought into buying a second hand DH bike earlier this year for jnr’s first downhiller.

Weighing up the high likelihood of the frame being damaged, combined with the lack of price depreciation in the French DH market (everything at a reasonable price was visibly knackered in the photos) and the warrantee question, we ended up buying a brand new Sender mullet* underdog in S.

*Due to her weight, she has no qualms with the braking qualities of Sram codes!

It really doesn’t matter what we think

Well it kinda does as you fellas may know things.
Recently we learned not to buy Giants. Today I learned Commencal v4s crack lots.
It could be that frame xyz is good for lighter riders and frame abc suits heavy riders, or Def suits mullet but not 29.
I learned V10s are heavy, because SC over engineer them with extra carbon compared to some others.

So yeah, you guys often have snippets of knowledge on here.

As previously, the only mid season swap would be the purple frame going and the Large coming in. There is no full bike being bought mid season. But it doesn’t hurt to get more knowledge even this early on.

Today I learned Commencal v4s crack lots.

Considering how many there are out in the wild, I’m not all that surprised although I’ll admit that I only know of one actual case in our neck of the woods. Fwiw, more or less every third bike at the races we go to are v4s.

Considering how many there are out in the wild, I’m not all that surprised

Yeah I get you And of course they’re hammered hard. But it’s not like they seem to be impact breaks, it’s BB area and seat join areas which seem to go most. I don’t mind buying used bikes and taking a chance, but whilst I think the Commencal is an awesome thing, I can’t risk it when we get the wallet out. Unless we went new with warranty.

Its a few years since I’ve been at an SDA or BDS, but Fort Bill really was the only big bike track, and a bike that works well there really would have been a disadvantage at somewhere tighter,in the trees like Inners or Ae. Fort Bill also isn’t pedally like southern tracks where a lighter setup helps.
I’d keep your options open rather than buying the perfect bike now for the one round that’s already happened. He will need a bigger bike sooner or later, so maybe one of each size of GT at the moment, or have mullet/headset/chainstay length options available for the next bike.

Most quick riders size down on bikes compared to the rest of us.

If you build a relationship with a bricks & mortar shop, do some PR with them, local paper, etc, then you should be asking for a cost price bike, potentially that you don’t have to pay for 6 months so you can use it for a season, sell it then pay for it at basically no cost to you. That’s what dealer teams always used to get from manufacturers. Unfortunately in these days of buying everything cheaper online its a harder relationship to build.

Excellent thoughts @ceept especially on sizing. The GT is big for a medium and he’s happy with it, as am I. So like I say, there’s not a massive hurry here.

We do have a relationship that could work in that context, but without throwing names about, he doesn’t like the bike lol. I know, silly, but hey, it’s how kids brains work.
I can guide, mould and influence but like all humans, irrational dislike of something isn’t that uncommon.

whilst I think the Commencal is an awesome thing, I can’t risk it when we get the wallet out. Unless we went new with warranty.

Totally understandable and yes, the BB/seat tube weld is where our friend’s one went too (on a huuuge huck to flat)

Its a few years since I’ve been at an SDA or BDS, but Fort Bill really was the only big bike track, and a bike that works well there really would have been a disadvantage at somewhere tighter,in the trees like Inners or Ae.

Not sure I’d agree with that. Other than the occasional local hero run at Inners it’s always full DH bikes winning every event

He wanted a Santa Cuz V10, just buy him one of those. It’ll save having to swap bikes around until he gets one anyway.

He wanted a Santa Cuz V10, just buy him one of those. It’ll save having to swap bikes around until he gets one anyway.

No.

In all seriousness, there must be some early 8” travel generation (v4?) barely ridden vanity projects floating around the various classified sections for no money once their ageing, scared, unfit stwer owners have realised they aren’t the pinner they were 20 years ago? Might scratch an itch for him?

Eg https://m.pinkbike.com/buysell/3586023/

If he hates it, punt it on.

Sadly in ‘used’ contexts there’s very very little.

We’re hopefully going to test a Scott Gambler this week for a bit of a play, it’s a 2022 and in a Large. The price, spec and condition are good, so it’s deffo an option. Added benefits are that it’s the same shock sizes as the Fury, so his favourite Fox X2 will go straight in. Minor downside is the rear wheel is superboost so spare wheel won’t fit.

Option 2 currently is https://www.balfesbikes.co.uk/bikes/mountain-bikes/specialized-demo-expert-full-suspension-mountain-bike-2023-in-dark-navyharvest-gold__48954
Specialized Demo Expert. Doesn’t get released until end of Aug, but as we’re not in a hurry for it i’m not too worried. His spare wheels being 148*12 will go straight on as well. So will the shock as again it’s 225*75. I do need to look into what warranty Specialized have for their DH bikes as some companies are quite restrictive with DH bikes.

Option 3 is currently a Fury frame in a Large… There’s a couple of options on Pinkbike, both are viable, but i think in truth the boy quite fancies something ‘different’ to the Fury as he’s been there and done that.

Options 4/5/6/7 don’t exist at the moment. We were offered a Commencal Supreme V4 (cash their way) but their frames cracking puts me off one of those.

@tomhoward buying an older bike to re-punt-on really doesn’t work. There’s DH bikes that have been on Pinkbike for fairly decent money for 4-5-6 months, no bites.. DH bikes are a tough sell, especially older DH bikes, they struggle to get shifted on. We’re then potentially ending up with 3 DH bikes ‘waiting’ to sell.

Still think the Saracen I posted before has good pedigree and is very good value for money, allows you to keep the bits you/your bit have already but with a newer frame in correct size.