Thinking about building a Nuke proof mega up as a trail bike – 150mm Sektors.

What do people think? I like the frame, but worried that it’s more than I need – might be too heavy.

I live in the Surrey – do Surrey Hills, Swinley forest, South Wales, not very skillful or aggressive.

Alternatives I’m considering are the new Ragley 10-4, and Vitus Escarpe. It would be my first full suss, but I’ve ridden Enduros and Coilers quite a bit.

Brant must be doing something right!

Cheers

Alex

Built a mega up a few months back at the light end of the scale at 31lbs as an all rounder. When things got fast steep and rocky it came alive and was superb, really stable and a fun bike. However when it came to natural singletrack it just felt a bit dead.

Fair play Mr Miester. Is it a faff just pedaling along?

Alex

Not such a faff, just likes being riden downwards and hard. Great bike love mine too bits but its not the lightest thing in the world, if you dont ride all that aggressively you proberly wont get as much out of it as you hope. Maybe something slightly shorter travel?

Save your money, go on a skills course and learn how to ride a suitable trail bike, rather than mincing around on some long travel machine that only really makes sense in the alps.

Long travel / heavy bikes are no fun in Surrey; too much inertia on pretty flat trails = no fun. The travel kills all the nice bumps too.

IMHO that is.

Got a mega and would agree with the comments as far as use as a trail bike goes. Fantastic in the alps, which is what I got it for, but took it to CyB on the weekend as a bit of an experiment and it only feels like it really comes alive at speed when it gets steepish and rocky (snap crackle and pop was really good fun but over very quickly.) On long pedally singletrack it was quite hard work and had me wishing I was on a lighter short travel bike. A lighter build with 150 revs and narrower bars would probably be better suited.

It did pedal surprisingly well though and all the techy climbs were no problem.

A lighter build with 150 revs and narrower bars would probably be better suited.

But also totally miss the point of this bike.

Well yes, it would be trying to make it something it isn’t meant to be. I’m leaving mine as it is and booking some uplift!

depends what you intend to ride it off

… and book a day with Jedi too so I can learn to use it properly! (thanks for the reminder)

I have one and Dorking local. I only use for the big jumps here. not a great trail bike and as others have said, best on the steeps where it comes alive.

Best bike for surrey hills is a long travel hardtail. I ride a Kobe which is far more fun on the local stuff.