Kinesis Sync has landed!

So… Changed the stem for an 80mm with 10 degree negative rise, and put my Reverb on… WOW! What a difference!

Bar height is finally about where I want it, and I’d forgotten just how much I miss a Reverb until I ride a bike without one. Done a lap of Verderers at the FoD on it this morning, followed by most of the Enduro XC loop (with added tech DH sections thrown in) and loved every moment of it. I’ve ridden some good bikes in the past, and a number of decent 29ers now, this is definitely the best one so far!

Mboy great to hear your thoughts! It’s my 1st Ti bike and i’ve not heard of the ‘flat back tyre’ feel before but that’s exactly what i felt on my first few rides! Also agree on the power transfer when you put your foot down it goes! Coming from a heavy full susser i’m loving being able to stand up and pedal and have just put my reverb on as was desperately missing it in the Surrey hills. Hoping to do forest of dean on it next month which will be it’s first trail center outing. Can’t wait!

What date you heading up to the FoD? I’m relatively local and know lots of trails off the beaten tracks (Verderers and Freeminers are ok for a quick blast but quickly get boring), happy to show you around.

Just weighed mine (geek alert!), with a patina of dirt from Sundays ride was quite impressed it weighs bang on 12kg all in! That’s with heavy tyres, UST rims and a Reverb. Can easily see swapping lighter wheels and tyres in, and ditching my Reverb, would get it under 11kg which is respectable for the odd XC event.

Yeah mine came in at 22.9lbs, sensible build with nobby nics although have since put reverb on but will put the Thompson masterpiece back on for long xc summer rides/races. My friend and i are hoping for 22nd of March for FOD and would be great to get shown some of the natural stuff maybe after a lap of Verderers to warm up?

Can’t manage Saturdays as I’m busy in the shop, but I’m definitely free Sunday 23rd at the moment.

Shame, we have got to do Sat this time..

Yeah mine came in at 22.9lbs

How?

Carbon bars, Thompson masterpiece, Sids, xo1, wheels are nothing fancy oh and it’s a small 650b not the 29er..

Yeah mine came in at 22.9lbs

How?

My Medium sized 29er version is 26lb with some much heavier kit on it… Reverb post, UST rims, Maxxis tyres, 2×10 groupset. I’m not surprised Myti’s has dipped under 23lb with the build on it!

Shame, we have got to do Sat this time..

What sort of time you planning on riding? I can see if I could manage half a day maybe (and go in either late or early depending).

Driving up from South coast so not totally sure on arrival time but hope to be there by 11am.

Actually been getting out and putting some miles in on the Sync recently… Here’s a couple of pics for proof!

Me with the bike, up the top of Snowdon on Friday…

The Bike at the top of one of the nice DH sections on the new Carfall trail at Cwmcarn…

What can I say, the more I ride this bike, the more I love it! It’s had a good pasting so far to be fair, to the tune that I already need to give the rear wheel some TLC as it’s a bit out of true (the bike descends so well that sometimes I have to remind myself there is no rear suspension!). The only things I’m not 100% happy with are that the Kinesis R750 flat bars could really do with having 9 or 10 degrees of sweep rather than the 6.5 they do, and I keep finding the legendary inbetween the centre knobs and the side knobs “land of uncertainty” on the front Maxxis HR2 tyre, it doesn’t half grip when you lean it right over but I’m finding too many front end washouts when I’m not quite committed enough.

Looks great!

Pleased to hear you are enjoying it.

PS. Apologies if you got a spam email from me Mark but my yahoo account got hacked.

Cheers, and yeah did wonder about those rogue emails! Hope you got it under control now…

Myti, enjoy FoD this Saturday, sadly definitely not going to be able to join you, you will enjoy it though. Hopefully it will give you a taste for some of the quality riding there, and if you fancy popping up for more at any time in the future, let me know, we can organise it in advance and I’ll show you some real quality stuff.

The Kinesis website says the headset is fully integrated on this frame but I see everyone in running a bottom cup on their builds, can you run it without the lower cup for a lower front end?

Cheers mboy can’t wait for tomorrow and will definitely be back at some point. Nice to see the pics too.

After much umming and arring my large frame arrives on Tuesday. It’ll be replacing a Solaris, which I love, but as the Solaris replaced a Soda, and there is no persuading Cy to do a ti 29er, there was something inevitable about this once I’d sat on it at the bike show.

Still can’t quite decide whether to go 2×10 or make the switch to 1×11. I’ll probably take the plunge. Everything else will be coming straight off the Solaris, so 120 Revs and Stans/240s wheels, reverb and 750mm flat bars.

I’m going to miss my Solaris a lot, but this is the only thing I would have considered swapping it for. Can’t wait.

😀

Thinking about getting myself one of these but am unsure about the geometry. Does anyone know if the geometry provided on the website is for a 100mm fork or a 120? Failing that could one of you kind souls let me know how there’s measures up? 🙂

@floyd – pretty sure it’ll be 120, maybe just tweet Dom @Kinesis_UK or call upgrade

thanks for that, will give them a call.

The only thing that I have reservations about on the frame is the integrated headset, always seemed like a bad idea to me, I don’t see any advantage, just disadvantages. However no one else has has said anything about it so I guess I’m a bit out of touch? What do you think, not an issue?

I was a bit weary of integrated headsets on it bikes after all the trouble Litespeed had a few years ago, but my LBS assured me that as long as it was installed properly it would be fine. I guess the big advantage is that it keeps the stack hight low.

With regards to geometry, I think I worked out that it’s about half a degree steeper than a Solaris fork for fork (although my maths isn’t great). It certainly feels smaller (which I guess it is – I had an XL Solaris) and tighter, but just as confidence inspiring. Oh, and a LOT faster up and down.

Minor Thread resurrection…

bol, where’s the pics??? How you finding it 3 months on?

Here’s a pic of mine in the sun earlier, still covered in mud from a nice technical 40km in the FoD yesterday…

Still loving this bike more than any other HT I’ve owned! Not changed the spec much at all since I got it, just tyres and a Handlebar change. Been looking at new forks though, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the 26/39 chainset is very slightly overgeared for me for most of my riding, so looking at replacing with a 24/36 soon.

What forks are you thinking of?

Ended up staying with the Rev’s at 120mm. Entertained a few ideas, but decided that for now at least, it wasn’t worth it.

Have just fitted new wheels, new cranks, a 30T Works Components ring and a 40T Hope T-Rex and gone 1×10 though. Literally just finished, will post pics tomorrow…

DSC03356 by South Downs MTB Skills[/url], on Flickr

Sync in the sun

bol, where’s the pics??? How you finding it 3 months on?

Still haven’t taken any proper pics, but loving the bike. Rode it at Dusk till Dawn last week, and it was great. I know it’s been said before, but if ever there was a bike that prefers to be ridden quickly. I took it to Llandegla a while back and it was amazing. Pure adrenaline – had me smiling all the way and riding so much faster than I had on anything else.

One thing that was doing my head in was the incessant creaking of the press fit bottom bracket. It’s been cured since swapping to a Hope one. The graphics are a little more fragile than I’d have liked, but that’s my only criticism of the frame. I’m trying to resist some wide carbon rims at the moment, which I think is the only reasonable upgrade.

Must try and get some pics done this weekend.

Must try and get some pics done this weekend.

No excuses not to mate! I’ll have yet more of mine tomorrow for the thread…

Agree on the decals side of things, they’re not the hardiest. But that’s an exceptionally minor criticism of an otherwise superb frame!

What Cranks and BB are/were you running that creaked all the time? I’ve stuck with SRAM PF30 BB so far and a proper 30mm SRAM crank and haven’t had any creaking issues as yet touch wood.

I was using xx1 cranks with a sram bb. I was forever tightening it, but by the end of a ride it would creak with every pedal stroke. No such problems now though thankfully.

I’d like to say I’m a better rider than photographer, but sadly that isn’t the case.

Are they ^ 100 or 120mm forks? They look quite short.

They’re Revs at 120.

bol, looks like ours are very similar builds… Yours slightly blingier than mine to be fair… Ironically just take a set of DT240’s off mine too! What rims you running?

Here’s a few new photos of mine…

Oh, and it’s now 11.4kg, or literally a gnats chuff over 25lb (including cage and guard etc.) which isn’t bad I don’t think. A light pair of tyres would have it sub 24lb so probably light enough for a few XC races. Might get the Reverb fixed at some point too for more hardcore trail duties.

Mines a bit blingy as a way of me comforting myself that it’s now my only mtb. I’ve got a crest on the front and an arch ex on the back. I’m a bit of a heifer for a rear crest on a hardtail.

Clink you were right, they were a bit short. I’ve just taken the air out and set them up again and they’re now back where they should be at 120. Given that I don’t measure them usually, I wonder how long they’ve been at 110. They were working fine.

Clink you were right, they were a bit short.

😀

Glad to be of service!

I really want one of these. Do any of you lucky owners ever get to Swinley? Id love to have a go 🙄 😆

No but I often ride in the Surrey Hills…..

I have spoken to Upgrade and AW Cycles in Caversham. Hopefully if everything works out they will have a medium Sync that I can borrow for the weekend to throw around my local trails.

Had a call from AW Cycles. I will be picking up the Sync tomorrow and keeping for the weekend.

Its been a busy week and a half for the post man but I am now in possession of the following:
– Sync Frame – Size Medium – Praxxis GXP Bottom Bracket Fitted.
– FSA Headset.
– X01 Drive train (with X1 shifter)
– 380mm / 125 drop Reverb (thanks to Paddy at Upgrade for the advice)
– Rockshox SID Forks
– Thomson Carbon Bars and 80mm Stem
– SRAM Guide RS Brakes (180mm front/160mm Rear Rotor)
– Hope Enduro Hoops with Blue Hubs
– Specialized Butcher / Purgatory Tyres
– DMR Vault Pedals
– ODI Ruffian Grips and Hope Seat Clamp (both in Blue)
– Fizik Gobi Saddle (off my old HT)
– Miscellaneous other bits and pieces.

I have a friend who is a Cytech qualified Mechanic who had kindly offered to talk me through the build so we just need to find a date in January and I will get it all built up.

I will post pics of the build and post when I can.

Cant wait