Short travel full suss thoughts

Yes, yes, I know, try them out, I will do when I can walk and ride again but in the meantime humour me, I am bored of couch surfing!

Does anyone here ride a Transition Scout or SC 5010 or even the Whyte T-130?

After any user reviews as thinking of selling my YT wicked (160mm front and back) and my hardtail frame (150mm) and building something more rideable for all day epics but can handle the odd inners uplift day or week in the alps if I ever return. I find the YT awesome for uplift days but it’s a bit much for a 6 hour epic, and the Hornet is amazing for uplift days, xc riding and everything inbetween but I get a sore back from using a hardtail all day long and I know I will need suspension now I have killed my knee.

I think the bikes above will fit right inbetween what I have, with the fun and playfulness of the hornet (and most of the parts) but the forgiveness of the rear suspension. Help!

Mostly I know I have too much time on my hands whilst I am out injured! 😉

I’d add the Kona Hei Hei DL Trail to the list fitting your requirements. 2016 is Alloy and they are just bringing out a carbon version.

Scout with a pike 150 at the front

I recommend having a look at the devinci troy. I was running a Rune and for much of the time it felt like I wasn’t using it to it’s potential. Also the slackness made the steering a wee bit ponderous on tight bits.

The troy is sharper and you actually feel like you’re going faster as the suspension isn’t overly smoothing out the trail.

SB5c is getting a lot of rave reviews at the minute (no, I don’t own one!)
Cheaper, the Trance is a good bike (now, I do have one of these) £1000 for a frame with a Fox EVOL shock and good back up.

10 months on a Scout, I ride mostly white and dark peaks stuff with the odd trail centre as well. Thinking of replacing or complimenting with long travel 29er.

Good points
Very stiff frame
Very good suspension linkage (unless you like to pedal down rocky descents)
Extremely nimble and playful (Find it very easy to change line and take inside lines)

Negative points
Very short chainstay means it less stable at speed
Very low BB takes time to get used to
125mm at the rear can only go so far

Segment?

Hadn’t thought about 29ers, being a short-er person I assume they will be too big, need to get trying I think. The yeti, orange and devinci are too pricey for me, I am only even considering the 5010 as I found a small frame at 40% off and would have transferred my revelations, spank wheels, reverb etc over from my hardtail.

Swaying more to the Whyte now though as it is british made to handle the conditions etc, going to get my knee fixed and get some demos next, cheers! 🙂

Having looked at the weights I will only save around one kilo by changing to a shorter travel bike, so I don’t think I will gain the flickability and playfullness I thought I might, that will require skills instead. So maybe I stick with the longer travel and be happy in the knowledge that the extra kilo is giving me extra workout on the climbs but the bike can also handle dh tracks when I get back to that level?

It’s not so much about the weight, more the fact that shorter travel bikes are a bit livelier than bigger bikes because they can’t flatten so much out. I buggered about with mine (170mm) to limit the rear travel to 120mm or so and dropped the front to around 140mm (which sharpened the front up) and it was loads more fun through the woods and for general arsing about on than it was in full-on 170mm slack steamroller mode. It’s loads faster pointing down with all the travel wound back up to 11 though 😆

Having owned a bike with 80mm front and 63mm rear – I’d endorse the concept of short travel. Sure you cant’ blast through rock gardens at warp speed, but you can ride normal trails fast, and the lighter weight and more stable platform to pedal make it responsive and fun when it’s not just going down.

If you threw a load of money at me and told me to buy a bike right now, it’d be a Salsa Spearfish.

I’ve got an older spearfish (2012), and I can’t imagine wanted ‘more’ bike….it’s an xc speed demon, bikepacking rig, and everyday cruiser…..all with superb comfort.
I’ll be gutted when all the new standards every year finally make it obsolete…..

Spent a couple of weeks on a 5010 around Hebden Bridge/Tod and it was ace. Handled everything, including the steeper trails, and at points had me wondering if I really needed more than 130mm travel.

Orange Four looks fun!?

I didn’t get on with whytes when I demoed them head to head with spesh bikes

Bought a camber evo instead – sounds good for your needs – I understand that they are all now evo geometry. The other bike that I enjoyed demoing was the good old Anthem.

Ooh thanks for all the ideas here, focussing on fixing my torn acl then demo-ing some bikes! 😀

I’ve got a DMR Bolt with 125mm of travel. Marz CR350s at the front set to 160mm, but I’m thinking of reducing them to 150mm.
For me it’s more than enough – ridden most trails at BPW, Cwm Carn DH and XC, Afan, Quantocks DH and XC, Gawton, etc. Never felt like I’ve needed more bounce on the DH stuff, but it doesn’t feel overly squishy on the XC stuff either.

I love my Jekyll with the choice of 160 or 95 front and rear on the fly.

Have a 5010 V2 with a 150mm fork on it and it’s such a laugh and surprisingly capable, especially on steep stuff.

I’ve even being racing some enduros on it.

i didn’t get on with the t-130 when i rode it. which is odd, as i thought it was going to be the one.

Only had a short demo ~ 1hour, perhaps i needed more time on it, or to change some components…

Bought a camber evo instead

Me too, and then upped the Pike to 140mm with a new air shaft.

Cracking bike, perfect for anything including Inners (which I ride regularly).

not sure how bikes with 5 & 6in travel forks are being considered short travel.

back in the day etc etc….

I think it’s more the rear travel we’re talking about. Most frames will be happy with between 120 and 160 these days.

I have a 2015 whyte t-130 & love it, more than enough bike for what I ride. But I’ve always been more on the xc side of things than gnarly downhiller.

not sure how bikes with 5 & 6in travel forks are being considered short travel.

back in the day etc etc….

But you need 160mm to be seen riding down anything, dahling- didn’t you get the memo? 😀

4 years ago I wouldn’t even consider anything less than 160mm, then I rode a 5010 v1, and thought it had 140mm travel (it has 125) will handle everything from all day rides to trail centres to enduro racing to tamer DH rides (spent a day following a guy down the blue DH trails in whistler on one).

I run mine with a 140mm pike (did have a Rev, but was a little flexy) and it will be the very last bike in my flock to leave me. I may well be buried with it.

Modern bikes are brilliant.

I built up a Saracen kili flyer 12x 120mm rear and a 140mm pike up front. I can safely say that its slays everything i thrown at it, trails, uplifts days and even up and down Snowdon. Unfortunately looking to sell now to fund a trip to Canada so let me know if you are interested could be open to a test ride, based south wales.

Camber 29er will do everything you require and more.

can recommend a rocky mountain thunderbolt, really
capable fun bike, from finale to exmoor.

ajantom – is the bolt not very heavy? I know some people shred on it, but I am a weakling so not sure s steel frame is right for me.

jam bo – yes I am talking rear travel, mostly because I love my hardtail which is 150mm front, so kinda looking for something between that and my 160mm f&r big bike which is overkill for most stuff.

haribodan – A bit far for me and will be a couple of months till I can ride yet. 🙁

PriceJohn – me too, hence the change of heart

Though despite all this I am swaying towards just riding what I have and forgetting all this, ride what you got, right? I just want to be able to ride again!

not sure how bikes with 5 & 6in travel forks are being considered short travel.

+1 120mm rear travel is enough 🙂

sazter – im not moving until the end f August and in no rush to shift it until then 😉 Where abouts are you?

I’ve been riding a Scout for just over a year. It’s exactly like the reviews suggest. It’s not slowed me down at all, if anything I’ve got better race results (I don’t race much), probably because I’m enjoying riding it. To be honest I can’t really tell it’s short travel, it’s just a well designed bike.

The low BB takes a little getting used to – shorter 170mm cranks help. I’ve got some slackening bushings in the rear shock mounts (because I had them) and 150mm forks as well and it feels like a capable all round bike.

I’ve briefly ridden the 5010, old and new. The old one is too short and tall for my taste but the new one is great.

haribodan – Glasgow

noahhowes – sounds exactly like what I want – perhaps a frame only and build with my revs etc off my hornet if I decide to go for it. 🙂

ajantom – is the bolt not very heavy? I know some people shred on it, but I am a weakling so not sure s steel frame is right for me.

Heavy’ish – think the frame is about 9 lbs with the shock. Built up mine weighs about 31-32 lbs, depending on what wheels I put on it.

What i like about it is that it honestly feels bombproof. No flex, no mucking about! Pretty simple design, and the only bearings I’ve had to replace in two years have been the ones around the BB shell. These pop on and off by hand. Easy-peasy!

It doesn’t ride ‘heavy’ if you know what I mean. I even have it set up as a single speed currently 😉 I did 20 miles on Sunday, and 15 miles on it today, both rides had 2000+ feet of climbing.

It’s even happy with 26 or 27.5 wheels (it’ll take huge tyres on the back with 26 wheels, and I’ve currently got a 27.5 wheels on it with 2.25 tyres.)