Need a bit of advice.

I’m a big fan of hub gears and have alfines on 2 hardtails. Now looking to build up a 120mmish full suspension bike for fun use really, and would like to use an alfine.

I know its possible with normal dropouts messing around with tensioners etc, but the cowan ds/bass both have sliding dropouts/bb pivot making life easier. My hardtails are already fairly heavy with steel frames, alfines and sektors so Im not “too” bothered about weight.

If I use a propedal shock how do you think these frames would work for xc/trail use, I dont mean uber-lightweight xc racing, just woods/trails etc aswell as the hills.

Or am I kidding myself and these frames are going to be heavy, bobbing and useless uphill?

Anyone used a cowan ds/bass for anything similar? Thanks

I use a commencal absolut sx which has a bb pivot with an alfine

I’m still middle of the pack of those I ride with

My legs & lungs limit more than the bike does

I had a bass last year, was a blast for a few hours xc single track, don’t think I would have enjoyed all day xc on it though.

Thanks, russjp – what was it that made it not so good for a full days xc – weight, or just the geo/position, did it suffer from alot of pedal bob?

I looked at the absolut, bit out of my budget at the moment, but another frame of the list if one comes up cheap.

Don’t bother mate. I owned one and rode it for the purpose you intend to (plus a bit of local woods DH type stuff). They pedal really bad, although the max pro-pedal setting on the shock helped. My biggest hatred of it was the stupidly steep H/A and the odd feel to the geo. It just wanted to turn in under you (short’ish front end?) and chuck you off.

I sold it and bought something more suitable for all round use (spesh’ stumpy iirc).

I’d look around for something more ‘all round’ although that could be tricky with a concentric B/B pivot. I did own a Solid Flair and Blade which was much nicer. Definitely more burly though.

Cheers

Cove and Banshee both made bikes with the type of pivot you describe. Or the DMR bolt?>

While I love mine I have just fixed a long running chain tension issue (it has standard dropouts fitted & I’m too tight to buy new horizontal ones) with an old rear mech.

In which case I might as well use any frame

I did manage to run my alfine fairly successfully on my Giant Trance

Oh and if you want a list of bb pivot frames…

24 Bicycles Flextoy
Blackmarket Killswitch
Commencal Absolut SX
Cove G Spot
Dartmoor Shine
Descendence Lovemachine
DMR Bolt
Doberman Le Pink
Edge Blade
Edge DH 1
Fire Eye Match
Kona A
Kona Bass
Kona Cowan
Lenz Milkmoney
Macmahone Kingdom
NS Soda Slope
Oneghost Wakazashi
Solid Flair
Specialized P.Slope
Tank Hone
Tank T-Works

I don’t know what the banshee one was

Thanks for the posts.

Seems most of the bikes with the bb pivot are similar slopestyle geometry, so probably suffer with the same head angle/geo. Dosn’t help that im 6ft2 as it means even the large slopestyle frames are on the smaller size

It dosn’t have to be bb pivot, just makes life a bit easier with the alfine, but no point in building up a bike thats no good just to use the alfine.

I’ll have a look at the others on that list and see if anything looks better.

Thanks

As said above, head angle was silly steep and also too short to be comfortable all day. Was fun for an hour Singletrack ride to local jump spot then an hour back.

Yeah, most of them are jump / slopestyle frames & some of them aren’t made any more

The milkmoney is a 29er trail bike so good for taller people but I don’t think they have a UK importer

I’ve got an A so similar but lighter, presently setup singlespeed. Its great fun for hooning around the woods on, and I’ve taken it on some big moorland bashing rides too. Running Maverick SC32 forks to get a little more travel, but I certainly don’t find it too steep.

I’m going to put my Rohloff on it this year to see how it copes with the added weight.

Massive advantage is you can run them with a belt-drive if you’re so inclined (like I have)…

DSC_0283 by ir_bandito, on Flickr

Nice bike, the “a” seems to the be the only one with more xc geometry – the rest are all more jump/slopestyle. Unfortunately they dont seem to be easy to find used, otherwise I’d snap one up.

For what its worth, it does bob a bit, after all its a full sus singlespeed, but the RP23 does help. With a hub gear, you’re less likely to be cranking it, so not going to bob too much.

There was a Cowan DS for sale on here a while ago, and CRC have (had) a few in their sale.