Hello,

It’s the exciting moment when the wife has given permission for a new bike 🙂  There are caveats but we’ll leave that for another day.

The riding around here is a mix of open moorland, Landrover tracks and trail centres. Typical use would be ride to work, then come the pretty way home via the SUW and then Innerleithen. Sometimes it will be geared, sometimes ss (I like to use vertical dropouts and a tensioner on my sses, I don’t get on with slidy dropouts or EBBs etc) It’s other duty will be as my spare bike in 24hr races. The former use suggests something fun, the later that it needs to be fast and fairly comfy.

So, I’ve seen a couple I like the look of, the Kona Raijin and the Van Nicholas Zion (I really fancy a Seven but that is a LOT of money)
Anyone got either of these bikes and if so would you recomend them? Reliabilty/build quality being the major concern.

The other issue is that this would be my first forray into the world of 29ers. I’ve ridden a few and hated most, but absolutely loved the SC Tallboy and Singular Swift, and getting parts (forks, tyres etc) for 26″ is getting harder and harder so I guess I’ll have to bite the bullet. So I really don’t want to buy without a test ride but I’d be looking for used ones on the classifieds or ebay, ideally frame-only to build myself. Is it a bit cheeky to book a test ride at a dealer knowing that if I like the bike I’d buy one elsewhere? Having a test ride on a frame-only purchase from the other end of the country is unlikely and the chances of bumping into someone with one and asking for a spin are slim, neither are common.

Also open to sugegstions for other 3.5Lb-ish titanium XC frames. Things like Titus are getting too heavy, and I keep hearing stories about Planet X on here, things like Moots are getting too pricey, looking for used frames under £1k, ideally quite a bit under.

That turned into a longer post than I was expecting.

Thanks guys and girls

Yes, I know I’ve made a spilling mistake in the title but it won’t let me correct it 🙂

Oh, no it has. Now it’s the second post which looks silly.

I am just going to pm you with a good option if that’s ok as I’ve something really nice indeed that wants/needs using.

If the something is a nice ti hardtail frame and you can sit on it until after I next get paid please feel free

.

If it’s one of these please don’t!

Wow indeed, that it is not! 😉 you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Tris 👍

I’ve got a Raijin , had it 5 years now , being Ti it doesn’t look like it . If you weren’t the other end of the country you could have a go on it . I sometimes think of changing to something slacker with more travel but it’s sufficiently different to my Process makes me stick with it . Great all day riding bike more between trail and race if that makes sense ?

Have you considered custom made from China? There are a couple of outfits who do it. I very nearly ordered a Raijin but in the end it didn’t quite fit what I wanted, so I’m in the process of ordering from Waltly.

Its been very easy so far and the price is quite a lot lower than you’d pay for an off the shelf frame from a UK co.

Bit of a leap of faith but there are plenty of resources online on the subject, and most reports seem pretty positive!

Have a look at Travers bikes.

Michael a great guy to deal with.

custom geometry if needed for a little extra.

Thanks,

Max

tdog, YGM.

I had looked at Travers, I know a couple of people who have them and they really rate them (and win World champs on them…). Trouble is that although I’m looking for titanium exotica I’m doing it on a budget and there aren’t many Travers in the classifieds or the fleabay and I can’t afford a new one.If there’s a second hand Rudy kicking about anywhere let me know.

No, acsevens, I hadn’t thought about a Chinese one. Please start a thread on here when yours turns up and let us know what you think of it.

Cheers Oldfart, good to know you like yours. Some things on the google about Lynskey quality-control issues so some good stories will put my mind at rest if I go down that route, depends on tdog’s response.

I’ve had several middle to top end titanium bikes (including a Raijin) and whilst they’re nice I think that top end steel is the way to go for me now. In the price range you’re talking of you can get an amazing steel hardtail. Have a look at some of the guys that exhibit at the UK handmade bike show. Donhou build some superb bikes if you want custom and some Chromag frames are built by Chris DeKerf but do tend to be a bit more gnar.

Or you could stop low balling me and just go buy that £600 new Lynskey 😂

I had a 29er Van Nicholas Tuareg before…besides being a nice bike to look at with all the details it has, it wasn’t very good at all, mainly down to it’s geometry…good for going quick on a Singletrack I suppose, but not fun and certainly not great when things start to get twitchy and interesting in comparison to the new one.

i now have a Kingdom Vendetta X2 and I couldn’t be more impressed with the bike! It climbs really well, picks up speed very fast and it is awesome descending, much faster and safe. You can also get awesome deals on the X2 model…and you can’t get better customer service than with Kingdom. I honestly think this is the best HT out there. Any further questions, just ask.