Duster as “hardcore hardtail”

I remember back when Dirt did their hardtail feature that the Charge Duster was not fetured whereas the Soul, Inbred and others were. My question is can the Duster be run/used in a similar way to the Inbred/Soul ie thrased and chcucked around the woods for a couple of hours and built up in the same way or is it more a full XC bike?

Anybody got any experiences/pics to share?

Thanks,
Richard.

The Duster was featured.

Duster’s Geometry is a little more classic XC than either the Soul or the Inbred (well a 456 at least) I think, certainly even 100mm forks look tall on it, 80mm would probably be safer for decent handling.

Build and tubing wise though, looks up to some abuse at least. Looks sturdy enough. I liked the look of them, except for me I’m firmly in the “5 inch at least” fork travel category I’m afraid!

I thought it was the Blender that was featured.

just looked at the mag and it’s the blender that is featured.

Bloke who owns Charge says duster for XC and blender for bombing!

whatever that is

a “hardcore hardtail” what would that be then?

a “hardcore hardtail” what would that be then?

456 IMO

Reckon a duster would do though (if I could afford one)

I liked the look of them, except for me I’m firmly in the “5 inch at least” fork travel category I’m afraid!

I asked Charge bikes if the Duster was okay with 5″ forks, and this is the answer I got from Jim @ Charge Bikes – January 2008:

You can run up to a 125mm fork without a problem. The throat gusset gives it the extra strength to enable it however it is designed around a 100mm fork and that’s the length which the frame handles at its best. Running your pikes at 120mm would be absoloutly fine and certainly wouldn’t hurt when the trail points down the hill.

Run my Duster with 110mm Ronins, great down hill but wouldn’t want any longer on steep technical climbs as the front end gets a bit light. Everything else seems heavy duty enough for what you are talking about. Took it to Snowdon and came down the Llanberis path and kept up with my mates on FS bikes no problem.

You can run up to a 125mm fork without a problem. The throat gusset gives it the extra strength to enable it however it is designed around a 100mm fork and that’s the length which the frame handles at its best. Running your pikes at 120mm would be absoloutly fine and certainly wouldn’t hurt when the trail points down the hill.

Fair enough!

Just they look/seem/feel a bit slack, even with a 100mm fork on, for my tastes. Something that the Cotic Soul, the 456 and my Genesis Altitude are not!

I have a charge duster, using it for XC stuff and done quantocks and peak district fine. I run Revelations and seems fine. Pics of bikes can be found on the Charge bikes website, heres mine, now running Formula The One Brakes.
http://chargebikes.typepad.com/photos/your_bikes/img_1258-1.html