like the idea of an all mountain full suss and really like the 2012 Transition Covert but a friend pointed out that an ASR5 with 140mm forks would be just as capable and far lighter any thoughts or do you have any of these bikes to give an opinion, cheers.

really want to make a rude response, but i don’t know you or your family, so instead I shall say “ask mike’s mum.”

Anyway, I’d sugget getting a ride on both bikes, as I found that sometimes travel and weight are less important than how the bike feels?

meehaja a rude response would not have offended I’m in Northern Ireland, you need a dark sense of humour to survive here!!! Any how no-one here to get a test ride from so would be buying blind so to speak.

Frame angles, strength of frame, forks and components, etc aside probably not.

But by the time you’ve got the angles and strength sorted the weight difference is probably negligible anyway – other things being equal.

Most stuff (not everything) that I can ride on my 160mm bike, I can ride on my rigid bike – just slower. Sometimes one is more fun, sometimes the other.

Covert is 160/150mm no?

Having ridden neither (but similar bikes) I don’t know that that is true.
The Covert I would think will be more capable on the downs
Though if you stick a travel adjustable 140mm fork on the ASR5 (one with a setting in between 100 and 140mm) then I guess you’ll notice the difference more when the lighter more agile asr has the advantage? Though it’ll very much depend what terrain you ride, how you ride it, what you ride now etc etc ..

a friend pointed out that an ASR5 with 140mm forks would be just as capable

Capable of climbing yes, not going downhill though.

Cheers we have super downhills here in Ireland but you need to get up to them, think I would sacrifice a weight penalty of a couple of pounds on the covert to really thrash the downhills.

Girth or length?

Definitely length!

I ride a covert for how it gives me confidence going downhill, it goes up pretty well but thats not why I like it so much.
The Yeti, I really wanted one for Transvesubienne as it will handle well down hill, and its light and climbs well in fact handles brilliantly, but it cant match the covert for downhill.

Possible to build covert sub 30 lb?

Test rode both the Covert and ASR-5 (with 140 forks) recently on my way to a new bike. I can be pretty clear with my opinion as I thought it was cut and dried.

The ASR-5 is a brilliant all day all round up / down mashine that just makes you go and go. Very quick and superb climbing. My only thought was it didn’t offer quite the confidence inspiring ride down technical descents that I was looking for. I’m sure in better hands it’s amazing but I’m not that good.

The Covert was quite the reverse. Climbs confidently but without flair, gets you to the top with wind in your lungs and ready for the down. And this is where it excels, you can ride the descents with such confidense it’s awesome. I was leaning the Covert into corners like on a snow board (crap analogy but you get the idea). Very good.

For what it’s worth I bought an Orange Five, had it custom built to a pretty high spec and to me it sits perfectly between the two and captures the bits of both I liked. Shows how important test rides are, or not if you get my drift… Both are such good bikes I can’t see anyone being anything other than blown away. Until of course you start over analysing like I did and become obsessed….

I entirely agree with what ask1974 has just written, except I came to the opposite conclusion. I recently decided that I wanted a bike to make the uphills easier and the downhills more exciting. That sounds like a funny idea but hear me out.

1) Uphills can sometimes be fun in a perverse “sense of achievement” way, but my love is definitely riding downhill. However, I can spend half an hour grinding up a big hill for a 5-6 minute descent. 30 minutes of bad for 6 minutes of good – not a brilliant quid pro quo equation. By getting a bike that climbs quicker and descends slower, I can redress that balance. Also if it gets me up those climbs I can’t quite ride cleanly, I usually get a pretty good buzz from that.

2) Riding is more fun when you’re on the edge of traction / travel / grip. Yes, you could ride XC on a 160mm travel freeride / mini-DH bike but unless you’re riding DH tracks, you don’t need that much bike and a big bike for XC will have a tendency to ‘flatten’ the downhills. Less travel = riding on the edge a bit more = more fun.

The Yeti ASR-5 is a weird one because although it’s shorter travel than a lot of bikes, it’s also really slack (at least with 140mm of travel up front) so it’s a lot of fun. I test-rode one and loved it, it really encourages you to go fast, but then forces you to ride it well to get you out of trouble – it’s certainly not one for blindly smashing the gnar*. Dirt Mag liked it, they called it something “the Downhiller’s XC bike of choice” and it’s in the Dirt 100 this year. As ask1974 says, it’s not “confidence inspiring” in the least bit, but that’s sort of the point – It makes you ride it properly. Anyway, I bought one. Haven’t had a chance to ride it properly yet, can’t wait though.

If you read reviews of the Yeti, most people echo my sentiments. It may not be the bike for everyone, but it’s got to be worth a test ride, right?

*No, I don’t know what the gnar is, either.

P.S. For perspective, I currently ride a 2008 Commencal Meta 5.5.

Superficial great bit of analysis but gee mate you just knocked me right back to the start of my quandry.

Disregard the inches thing. That’s the last thing to focus on. Geometry, componentry and set up are much more important. With the right build, geo and set up you could build a 140mm bike that would descend better than a sub par 160mm bike, and vice versa.

When you are looking at complete builds, or even speccing a build it’s worth remembering that your bike is a system. For example, 160mm travel will normally be married to a stiffer stronger, but heavier frame to cope with the rigors it will typically be subjected to. Additionally, you might want strong wheels to survive the deep waters you might get into, you may well want bigger stoppers to slow you down in all that gnar….a stiff frame will show up a flexy fork, a stiff fork will show up a flexy wheelset ….it’s all part of the system.

So whilst on paper, 20mm might not seem like much, and I suppose it’s not, but what it implies can be a lot. If you get me.

FWIW in my opinion, if you have money to burn (and I mean 3.5k – 6k) you can build a seriously light, adjustable 160mm bike that will give you the best of both worlds (or the best acceptable compromise) but a covert would not be my starting point. They are a relatively heavy beast and I have ridden one. A cheaper lower end build will result in a much heavier, less versatile 160mm bike.

imo the spesh enduro (ideally the carbon version) is a vastly superior bike to the covert. And perhaps unsurprisingly I feel the stumpjumper is a better bike than the yeti.

Funny you say that I currently ride a stumpy fsr expert with 150 mm revs and light finishing kit and a double and bash, have to admit I can really trash it downhill but wonder if it is restricting a little on the sketchy stuff.

I entirely agree with what ask1974 has just written, except I came to the opposite conclusion. I recently decided that I wanted a bike to make the uphills easier and the downhills more exciting. That sounds like a funny idea but hear me out.

That actually makes a lot of sense, in a perverse kind of way.

titus el guapo