OK, while I wait to see what Orange do with the Gyro this year, let’s see what else should be on my list. The requirements are:

29er
Full Suss
Head Angle ~ 68 degrees
Chain stays < 440mm
Bright colour (e.g. orange green, yellow, but absolutely no grey)
All up weight (with pedals) for size large < 30 lb

Just for clarification on the colour, black and white are just shades of grey!

Any suggestions?

Banshee Prime?

Pyga.

Sure as hell isn’t grey

I went with a gyro (in black AND white 🙂 )

If I were you, id be looking at the Kona process 111. The cheaper model is a nice green colour. 435mm chainstays on a med, 68 HA, and fun as hell.

Stumpy Evo?

Camber Evo?

I was impressed with my time on the Stumpy. It’s still the main contender for a FS trail 29er. I’ve booked a second demo for the end of the month to see if I can get the ride, feel and setup more dialled.

EDIT: Chainstays ae just that slightly bit longer than you want

For you I suspect the spec Camber evo will be all the bike you ever need and I would imagine it will go uphill a lot better than the Gyro, albeit that being said from my slightly unrelated experience of a Five versus a stumpy evo. Or that Pyga would be good. Or a tallboy with a 120mm fork.

Oh and I would suggest you demo a Jones with a podgy front given all your previous forum posts describing your riding. You may hate it but humour me and give it a go, doesn’t do any harm does it….

Aside the colour, Whyte T129 matches spec requested…FS 29er, 431mm stays, 68deg

Thanks folks,

I should have said that I’d prefer a frame only, although buying a full bike and selling the bits I don’t need isn’t out of the question. I’d just need to consider the cost and the hassle.

If the Whyte wasn’t grey I’d probably have one already as it does tick all the other boxes. If it turns out that I can only get the geometry I want in a boring colour then I might have to bite the bullet, but I’m not at that stage yet.

Kona looks good, but I like my granny ring. I guess with 1×11 it might work though.

Banshee Prime seems to be more of a hard hitting all mountain bike than XC/Trail.

The PYGA certainly makes the list. Expensive though. Even more than the supposedly over priced Orange frames.

I’ve never really felt the love for Specialized bikes, although there is a 20 year old rigid, steel rockhopper in the shed that’s still doing its job, so it’s hard to fault them.

3rd for PYGA

The ‘Dry Line’ Ride by Alex Leigh, on Flickr

1600kms on mine now. No issues, great fun.

Kona Process 111 or Banshee Phantom (Prime is too heavy duty!)

How about the Split Pivot Salsa Horsetheif, it would be very high on my list, although the frame only option available here is grey 🙁

I am waiting to hear about the new Banshee Phantom, it sounds like it could be a lovely bike!

I can confirm that the Camber 29er is an ace all rounder. I was initially put off by the 70 degree ha but as with many bikes the actual ride goes beyond the numbers. I even used mine on the downhill runs at chatel last summer and it was fine!

Mate has the Pyga 29 and rates it highly. Also got to try the 27.5 Pyga on weekend and I liked it. Now that one is even brighter colour.

Kona Satori? Not brightly coloured but ticks the other boxes.

think the “even brighter colour” Pyga is the newer 650b one with more travel? also gains the iscg fitting that I say the original 650b/29er ones should have had (imho), esp. when it has a pressfit bb.

very nice bikes, though.

a pyga 29/130 would be on my list, if it existed.

I tried the 650B one (not the Roscoe) and I didn’t rate it as much. Although that could just be it had different forks/bars/tyres etc. I really don’t notice the 110 on the back as a limiting factor. Run it 130mm/110mm and it’s not fazed by big rocky descents. Not as much as the rider is anyway!