Recommend me a 29er XC/Race/Trail bike.

I’m in a position this week to chuck a load of cash at a bike (Should I choose), the thoughts are leaning towards a light(ish) trail bike… with XC tendancies which I may or may not use to finish in the back half of a Gorrick race or two.

The obvious answer is of course a Solaris… but they’re a pile of change…

There’s a shop soiled Inbred that would tick many of the boxes..
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301333246217?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Or we start then getting into Pauls Cycles sort of Cube Race, Giant XTC29 composite etc all coming in at a grand.

I’m of course not forgetting the Parkwood, but they’re not coming in stock in large till Feb, so a no go really. Unless someone tells me they size up quite large and I could get away with a M at 6’0

Due to the availability of the Pauls Cycles sale stock, I’m setting the max budget at £1000 unless someone is VERY persuasive as to why I should spend more. There will hopefully be a few all day Epics on it next year, a couple of XC races and a couple of 50-100 mile endurance type events.

I’ve currently got the Meta AM29 as the BPW bike, so it doesn’t need to be the most amazing on the rough stuff, but I’d like it a little soft at times.

I don’t think for example dropping from an 11kg to a 10kg bike, would make any difference to my results so don’t focus too much on the weight.

Lurcher?

Ooooh I really really dislike them aesthetically… they just look like bulbous horrifc things.

Lurcher +1 😉

weeksy – Member 

The obvious answer is of course a Solaris… but they’re a pile of change…

On the xc race / endurance thing, I’m not sure it is that obvious given the response I got here 😉

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/anyone-used-their-solaris-for-xc-racing-or-endurance-marathon-races

On a more positive note, Cotic now do 0% finance!

Stop stop stop… I’m not buying one !

I don’t like the looks…. at all.

No love for that Inbred ?

N.M. I don’t want to or need to 0% it currently, I’m selling a motorbike for £3500 this weekend, so it’s not the money aspect that’s holding me back on the Solaris… I just don’t know if it’s worth £500 more than the Giant, £700 more than the CUBE or £800 more than the Inbred.

Even the used Solaris’ are doing or at least wanting, ridiculous money

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271633924740?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The Lurcher is on their site at 13kg !

Agreed. Lurcher looks bluuugh 😕

What about a German bike. Some Radons might fit the bill

http://www.bike-discount.de/de/kaufen/radon-zr-race-29-7.0-237701/wg_id-117

I just tried a Cube Reaction Race 29er this weekend.
Bloody horrible thing, I’d avoid them if I were you.

Weeksy that Solaris was on the other week with a BTN price of around £1400 too iirc.

I’m a bit taken by mine so can waffle on about it way too much 😆

notmyrealname – Member

I just tried a Cube Reaction Race 29er this weekend.
Bloody horrible thing, I’d avoid them if I were you.

Elaborate ?

In the age old style of recommending what you ride, I’d say a Kinesis FF29 would tick a lot of the boxes you mention. It’s light and stiff enough to race XC and endurance, certainly makes a great trail bike. (Yes, you could find a lighter 29r HT, but would you want to ride the West Highland Way or do a multi-day bikepacking trip on it?)

It’s super-capable on techy stuff (read that as good geometry), great fun on fast trails and very agile, easy to bunny-hop, manual, endo. I’ve had one for nearly a year now, and love it.

I like the FF29 to look at, slightly over my desired budget though at £1500 and very rarely come up used. Certainly one of the ‘maybe’ list though.

I’d go secondhand, something mainstream but well sorted like a Trek Superfly hardtail?

A Stache with a light 120mm fork would also be good, though more on the trail side.

My Inbred is excellent, would always recommend them to someone looking for a 29er steel frame.

I’ve just picked up a Cube Reaction GTC Pro 29er for just over a grand. Not tried it offroad yet but the spec is good for the money. I’ve got it for longer/XC/easier terrain type rides, and I fancied trying carbon. It’s obviously not really built for big gnar stuff but it’ll be interesting to see how far I can chuck it.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/sunn-modular-s1-29er-hardtail-bike-2013/rp-prod121787

This was ticking many boxes, the 15mm front makes it easy to swap for my Hope Pro2 evos’, the Formula brakes mean I have pads the same as my Commencal, so only 1 set of spares needed. 120mm Revs are good, the weight isn’t terrible and should lose .8kg from the hope swap anyway…

But I don’t know much about them.

Price is of course also excellent.

Superfly is a good shout. Slacker head angle than a Giant XTC and still very rapid when you want it to be

My previous 29er was a Spesh Carve which I really liked but a little more XC than the Cotic. My son has my old one now.

Something like this:
http://www.certini.co.uk/2014-Specialized-Crave-Pro-p11506.html

The Cube was a really strange handling bike, seemed to have a really steep head angle so you felt like you were going over the bars but bizarrely it had a turning circle that the titanic would be proud of!
The OEM Schwalbe tyres were dire as well, no grip on anything that was even slightly damp.

Lurcher doesn’t look anywhere near as bad in real life. I put off getting one because of that for ages. Tried lots of other stuff in the meantime but eventually built one up from a frame. It’s awesome. Spearfish is gathering dust in the garage while the Lurcher gathers mud…..

How about a kinesis frame? I had an Xc pro2, and it was a really nice XC bike. I’m not sure if the new 29er frame has the same lightness/carbon bits though..

Edit: just checked the website, unfortunatly Kinesis are more into 120mm travel trail bikes now, rather than the XC weapons they where making a few years ago.

I’m selling a motorbike for £3500 this weekend,

Blow the lot on a Black Sin[/url] 😈

Good shout on the Kinesis up there though, FF29 meant to be a nice compromise between race and trail, especially in green!

The Cube was a really strange handling bike, seemed to have a really steep head angle so you felt like you were going over the bars

I’ve known that before with Cubes yes.

My lurcher weighs a shade under 23lb its rigid and has decent wheels but full groupset is deore and finishing kit isnt light so i could easily lose more weight but mine was built with cost/longevity as a priority rather than purely weight. And i think they look great 😉

Blow the lot on a Black Sin

If I drop about 3 stone and lose about 20 years of my age, it may be worth while, for a fatish oldish duffer like me, it’s mostly wasted on me.

Personally I’d spend the extras on this @ £1500 from Pauls:

Well it looks like I’ve sold the Road bike this morning, so the Meta AM29 will stay. Which means the Giant above would be massive overkill and too close to the Commencal.

So it’s now completely an XC/Trailsy 29er HT.

I must admit, the Sunn above is winning based upon spec/price currently unless you guys are going to put me off it ?

I,m thinking of selling my Scandal 19.5 if you’re interested in s/h? Had my shoulder replaced in May so I think I need to stop riding sadly. I’m only in Thatcham and I know you’re local if you fancy popping round for a look?

Rob.

The Solaris is the bike you want so it’s worth the extra 😉

There is a used one for sale on here for £900 I recall (might have been a Soul though, large 26er for sale in Brighton for £850)

Just get a solaris. You know you want to.

robbieh – Member

I,m thinking of selling my Scandal 19.5 if you’re interested in s/h? Had my shoulder replaced in May so I think I need to stop riding sadly. I’m only in Thatcham and I know you’re local if you fancy popping round for a look?

I’ve got nothing against S/H matey of course. throw me a mail etc with specs and pics if you want and i’ll certainly have a look. I don’t know a lot about them.

How about a Whyte 729[/url] for £1500? Reckon it’d be a nicer bike than the Sun, certainly nicer aesthetically 😉 Banjo’s down in Newbury does them too and could probably sort you out with a decent test ride.

I’ve got a large FF29 frame that I keep meaning to list for sale if you’re interested

How about a Whyte 729 for £1500? Reckon it’d be a nicer bike than the Sun

Double the price nicer though ? that’s the question…

I don’t mind spending more than budget.. but if it doesn’t really give me anything in return, I’m not sure there’s much point.

Have you got any geometry for that Sunn?

Looks quite nice, spec is v good for the money – but obviously it’s a bit of a gamble hence the price.

If it’s tickling your fancy then go for it. You could always swap the frame later if needed.

Id probably take a punt on the sunn. Worse case sell the frame on and transplant all the bits across to another frame (lurcher 🙂

Can only see what you can mate. But the Geo ‘looks’ fairly relaxed which should theoretically suit me really.

Looking on the WWW I rekon Sunn have gone into Liquidation, so very little about on the bikes. However, does come with generic 1 year warranty from CRC which is fine with me.

And don’t forget the cardinal rule of bike bargain hunting – click “buy” before you post the link on STW.

😉