Still on the hunt for a new bike for the boy, since HUP have discontinued the Enduro frame I’m not sure what to go for.
He’s 10, races a lot of XC and is reasonably good, wants to start doing more enduro racing and spends a lot of time at the local jump spot, and will ride a reasonable level of off piste stuff, we did Laggan Brown last week.
I want one bike to do everything since he’s still young and growing fast. Happy to do frame only and build up, or full bike and replace forks and wheels, which always seem pretty crappy on mid range hardtails IMO.
Reasonably long & slack for gnar (most “modern XC” frames seem to be 67 HA which I think is too steep).
Reasonably light and climb well for XC racing/not too much for smaller rider (2kg or thereabouts frame weight would be ideal).
Not overly expensive (£400 frame only or £1,500 absolute max full bike).
I appreciate I’m wanting moon on a stick somewhat but they do exist. I reckon a 2nd hand Transition Vanquish or HUP Enduro frame would be ideal, but hard to get hold of. Kinesis FF29 look very interesting but a bit pricy (he’s too tall for the ones on offer from Merlin right now).