Going to take advantage of Black Friday deals and C2W and get myself a new bike.
Budget is a strict £1,000 so please, even if it’s £1,025 I’m not interested.

Right, a couple of weeks ago I was looking at a Vitus Nucleus because they are cheap, now I’ve worked my way up to a Sentier VR 29 but come to the internal agreement after having a Bird Aether 7 as my last bike that the Sentier would be too short.

I’ve decided on a few options.
Ribble Trail 29 AL, currently available for £999 with an SX groupset and Recon Silver forks – it’s longer than the Sentier, looks a tonne nicer but has some less preferable components.

Ribble HT725 AL, my god – looks perfect! Geometry is superb and looks bang on for me, same forks and spec as the 29 but with fatter tyres and 20mm longer travel. Top tube is also longer, looks good.

Nukeproof Scout 275 Race – again, this is my sort of bike. Comes with 11-46 Deore 10 speed. I put this above SX so it appeals on a spec level when compared to the above two but it’s a little less slack than the Ribble 275. Same forks minus 10mm travel.

Also just come across the Canyon Stoic that is a 29er, long (480mm reach in Large) and slackish (65 degrees) spec seems pretty basic with some Deore and some “Pro wheel” but would be a good base for upgrade. Forks looks very bulky basic.

Ideally I want a 29er, I’m 6’ and feel it would be good for me – but I’ve always smashed bikes about and so the slacker 27.5’s look right up my alley. So I think it maybe comes down to spec. Is SX really that bad? If it as good as Deore I could probably take the Ribble.

I had Deore 12 speed on my Bird, will I notice a big step down on SX?

Posted 2 months ago

If the Ribble is the better fit then you can always put something nicer on (XT / GX / X01 if you’re feeling flush) as and when the SX stuff wears out.

Posted 2 months ago

As far as fit goes I’m not that fussy, they’ll all be long enough – maybe the canyon would fit “really” well but the others will be fine.
I’ve only seen the Ribble’s in the metal and they look incredible, but I’m sure the others will be nice too.

Would probably knock the forks off soon enough anyway so they’re not super important but I’m going to try really hard not to change too much too soon.

Posted 2 months ago

You’ll need to replace the SX pretty quickly as it’s not fit for purpose. But anything from NX upwards is fine.

I’d go with the Ribble or the Scout over the Canyon solely because I haven’t heard anyone say good things about Canyon’s customer service since they started selling bikes in the UK.

Posted 2 months ago

I’d have Deore any day over NX/SX, but I wouldn’t he choosing a bike based on derailleur. Get the one with the best forks/brakes/wheels, treat the gearing as consumable

Posted 2 months ago

I have a stoic with deore and suntour forks.

The deore is faultless and better than my eagle 12 speed. The forks are basic but work. The only immediate upgrade was a cheap dropper and I had some deore 1 finger brake levers to replace the 2 finger ones.

Posted 2 months ago

The frame itself is great, well worth some upgrading of components in the future. Really rate the bike

Posted 2 months ago

If I’m choosing on things other than the mech I wouldn’t even look at the Canyon because of the wheels and forks – it’s a £300 cheaper bike afterall. The others are under £1k due to the sale, the Canyon is largely attractive purely because of the length of the 29er frame.

I think the Scout has better wheels, branded at least. The Ribbles are generally nicely spec’d with own brand finishing kit that looks good.

I genuinely think I’d just get the Scout if it was slightly longer – it’s only my weird internal conversation suggesting I need a 29er that’s complicating things.

So we’ll sack the Canyon off and leave the other 3 on the table.

Same forks, similar build.
It sort of ends up in a 29 v 27.5 debate and I don’t think I want to get involved with that.

A 29er with the Ribble 275 would be a winner (or a Scout 290 in the sale!) would win out right, but it’s not a perfect world.

Why is it always so difficult?

Posted 2 months ago

Popped in to see the Ribble’s again today – couldn’t sit on them unfortunately but had a bit of a wiggle on the components and they don’t seem too sketchy, I quizzed the one guy in there that seems to know anything and he basically admitted the sx mech is disposable but if you swap it for a GX later on you’ll get the same feel as you’d expect from a higher group.

He confirmed the warranty would be void if I put longer forks on the 29er so I’m now erring towards to Scout on the basis Blake from GMBN ran his older one at 170mm and didn’t break it so I’m u likely to cause havoc if I put better longer forks on one. Now just to arrange my C2W voucher and flip a coin I suppose.

Posted 2 months ago