The great debate – 150-160mm Bikes

ianv

We are in agreement on this. What I meant was, buying a yt or something is the most cost effective way of getting a bike and would probably work out cheaper than an own build.

I see – and YES very good point!

hexhamstu

That a Zesty or Spicy?

how tall are you, Chumba VF2[/url] frames are good value at the moment 🙂

What bike do you ride at the moment, are you happy with it in the UK, do you want to end up with something way too big for most of your riding at home (95% of what it will be used for)?

Ms AD and me spent 3 weeks in Franch / Italy / Switzerland last year on 140mm travel bikes (BLT2 and Prophet), which were fine. I’m not really jumpy and did have a few issues with breaking bumps more than anything else. To some degree it’s a myth that you need a huge bike for the Alps, parts of the UK are pretty steep and techie too. Have you ridden in Spain I’ve not seen many huge bikes there and parts are far more gnar than anything you’ll see at a bike park in France.

But…for this year’s trip, to have more fun I’ve stuck with the same bike after going through the same thinking as you. But I’ve done the following:

160mm Coil Lyriks (as much for stiffness as travel, it isnt just about the +10mm!)
750mm bars
70mm stem
Bolt through rear
Bigger Rotors

…about £600. I reckon this will give me a bit more speed and confidence and I didnt want my (now) 150mm air forks taking that sort of beating again (we’re going for 6 weeks this time). Bought a full face too.

Then, when we get home, I can put my air Revs back on and I have a bike more suitable for the trails I ride here. the big stuff can come back out for Snowdon and uplift days.

In the end, I didnt want to spend my holiday riding a ‘cheap’ 160mm bike when I had a very goodm tried and tested, 140/150 bike at home, and then putting the big bike in the loft for the rest of the year.

Great idea agent. I took a spesh Sx out and it was great for that week but no use the rest of the year. Going to sell it in the spring

Gnat’s ballsack over your £2.5k, including selling my old bike.

Probably easier to ride than my 5, as it’s a lot lighter (sub 27lbs). I use it for everything other than riding/racing DH on, although i’m half tempted to use it on some of the smaller local races rather than my actual DH bike.

I’ll use it to race the Mega on, and some of the Gravity Enduro races, in other words – pretty much anything.

http://www.yt-industries.com/en/bikes-2012/wicked-160sl/

YIKES!!! Works out about 2500 with BOS shocks!!

Hob Nob – how much you pay for frame then?

Frame was just under £1000 (literally just – can’t remember exactly as it was won on Ebay from the States).

Rest, I just bought as & when I saw a stonking deal. It can be done, if you arn’t in a rush. I would guess it took me nearly 3 months to get it to it’s finished state.

Spesh SX was my original plan, as an extra bike. You can pick them up complete for under £1000 for a 2006 version which is what I was after at the time. Would have gone for a coil shock on that.

….and then not ridden it again for a year.

Was a bit put off by the weight at the time, but my BLT build is over 32lb and now I couldnt care less about a couple of pounds.

Love my covert.

your 800 quid frame is only half the picture, you are going to need to spend about the same or more again on some forks worthy of the frame

I will have a pair of brand new, tapered steerer, white Rock Shox coil Domain R 160mm forks up for grabs shortly. Just bought a new Kona Stinky TL and planning on swapping my Lyriks over.

Should be with me tomorrow so please get in touch if interested. £175 including Parcelforce 48 hour delivery.

mama DOT dirt AT ntlworld DOT com

Buy a pitch, stick some bigger forks on it and use some money to go on a skills course 😉

The mk2 SC nomad has a 1.5 head tube

They are all fundamentally the same and you will be as happy (or unhappy) with one as with all the others…

Buy a pitch, stick some bigger forks on it and use some money to go on a skills course

^^This is not a bad idea at all.
Don’t be mistaken, those pitches are very capable indeed.

soobalias – Member
any of the new frames come with a proper 1.5″ headtube rather than the tapered ones?

Mega has a 44 standard, which accepts 1.5″, tapered and 1.125″

Pitch is very capable, just doesn’t have that “niceness” factor some other bikes mentioned have had.

Mine has been to the alps, ridden some of the freeride in chatel, it’s happy riding the off piste bits that make the blacks look tame. Covers ground fast, jumps well. But don’t go buying one expecting it to pedal like a 100mm bike.

In the uk i use it for 3hr+ rides with xcers, i use it for uplift days with dhers, i also use it for “freeride” where people are on slopestyle bikes.

It is however getting to the point where i’m not too confident in it on bigger gaps and drops im doing now but it was more than happy with this gap over and over again

There was a full build NP Mega on Ebay that ended on Monday . Nice spec , won with 1 bid at £1500. Would have ticked most of the box’s.
JHW was selling a specialised something for £1k, again suitable for what you want .

skywalker – Member

You don’t need a 160mm bike to ride trail centres…A Zesty, Five, BLT2, or Bandit will handle anything the UK has to throw at them and you won’t be over biked

I don’t think you were trying to be funny, but you are.

The guy who mentioned a Pitch and a skillz course is bang on the money for several reasons. The Pitch is a very good, cheap bike with an excellent warranty. Also if you need 160mm to go down a mountain you may be in need some training.

That YT is amazing value, BOS front and rear, reverb, crossmax and top end Sram for 2.5k. As hob nob says if can wait you can build a high end bike cheap; old model yetis, Turners and mojos all been half price or less in the last 12 months, already links above to lyriks and bombers around half price etc, but would like to see a YT in the metal as they are terrific value.

Gooner-dom it is a zesty!

I have just built a SC Nomad after trying most of the bikes above, its 160mm Lyrik (Air), RP23, XT Drive Train, XTR Trail brakes usual Hope Hoops on 2.4 High Rollers… I have to say it climbs brilliantly my previous bike was a Cube Reaction Team pretty much a XC racer and even with twin up front the Nomad hasn’t really slowed me down.. and when you do get to a down well WOW !

3,300ft of climbs in the Peaks on Sunday and i didn’t wish for my Cube at any point. . .

Awesome frame well worth the $$

I don’t think you were trying to be funny, but you are.

Whats so funny?

I have a stock Giant Reign which does admittedly include 160m Talas which is fine for all I want/am able to ride in the Alps. My mates ride Orange 5 and Specialsied Enduro with longer travel forks. Our guide in Les Gets last year had a Zesty and the Trail Addiction guides ride Dialed Alpine

It all depends what trails you ride and how aggressively you ride them.

Nomad 2 with coil U-Turn Lyriks gets my vote
This combo will let you ride up the hill / Alp as well as down it

Don’t get too hung up about the rear travel. In my experience it the 36mm stanchion forks at the front that will make all the difference to the descending.

Many 140mm rear travel bikes with a 36 fork at the front would out descend a 160mm rear travel bike with 32mm forks up front.

Whats so funny?

The thing about passing the overbiked threshold for UK riding then recommending a few (very nice) bikes with rear suspension 😀

Hobnob

Want to sell me your nomad 😉

The thing about passing the overbiked threshold for UK riding then recommending a few (very nice) bikes with rear suspension

Not one of those.
BORE OFF.

I was overbiked riding to work today as I had round wheels, I should ahve been using the more appropriate star shaped wheels, and a stick in the spokes for brakes.

LOL

I can get a Covert 2011 with Fox RP23 Kashima for £900 – Ex Demo frame MEDIUM – Hmmmmmmmmm

Hobnob

Want to sell me your nomad

Sorry, this one is a keeper!

gooner, I’ve seen people get new ones for that.

Wrecker, I apologise. I didn’t realise you got so much excitement from suggesting a bike for a complete stranger.

Star shaped wheels? You funny toys19. Easiest is bestest. Everybody on the internet knows that.

I like the Covert. I followed a chap down here on one and he/we took some amazing little detours with some nice big drops in the cacti…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxPBfYYxBkk

Most of the group who ride here were on DH bikes but there were a few on AM set ups like myself.

The whole point of a good AM bike is that it can do the same as the DH bikes and yet is capable of being ridden to the top of hills the shuttle vans won’t take you to (and that the DH crown won’t walk to). It’s not an XC/Trail bike so yes much of the time your “overbiked”, but when it comes to the doonhall sections you have a better tool for the job. I’d rather be overbiked most of the time and enjoy the doonhalls than be quicker on the boring bits and a frustrated mincer when the trails gets interesting.

Gotta love STW, it’s those little differences that bring us together.

You’d be better buying a bike that does the 95% of riding you mostly do and then either hiring/buying-selling another one for the odd times you need something else or adding a number of components that beef/lighten it when required.

You can buy 2 new wheelsets for £600 – say Hope Hoops with one set running Flow’s and another on Crest’s. Then add an extra fork, bashguard etc smaller/bigger discs.

So probably a 5 or the like is the best starting point.

+1 messiah, “overbiked” is such tired hoary Willy waving. I ride a bike that will excel on the big riding days of which memories are made of (Morocco, alps, Rockies, India…). Oddly though I also ride it and enjoy riding it on more mundane local trails, so I’ve explored bluebell carpets in the chilterns on a Nomad. My riding group typically includes singlepeed rigid 29ers through to big bikes like mine, but we’re too busy enjoying ourselves to sneer at each others choices.

The op asked for recommendations on the best 150-160mm bike, not judgement on his riding ability or whether he needs 160mm.

I rode my Anthem to work along the road this morning and I was woefully overbiked. Should have ridden my road bike. I rode my El Guapo through the singletrack in my local woods on Sunday and again was terribly overbiked. Should have ridden the Anthem. I took my road bike to the shops yesterday to get some bread – massively overbiked. Should have borrowed the missus’s shopper. Honestly if only I could pick the exact right bike for the exact right situation I’m sure I’d enjoy my riding a whole lot more

Finally some like-minded people on the nonsense expression ‘overbiked’

Sorry, off topic, but I did post a lot earlier in the thread right on topic

Ha – chuckling to my self here.

Yes i could use a skills course DEFINITLEY then so could any rider!!! The pro’s are coached after all! The jedi runs skills courses and i definitely want to ge on that. It would improve any rider fullstop!

Ive seen a kid on a BMX on a DH run (and he was awesome!) so does that mean the elite downhillers are “overbiked” on V10’s, Sessions, Demos, etc?!

Im not asking anyone to pick my bike, im not asking anyone to tell me a 160 bike is “overbiked” for UK – Yes i agree the Zesty, 5, Foxy etc are all more than capable in UK condition BUT i was asking for peoples opinions on different 150/160mm bikes – Thats all. Not what should I buy.

Opinions on the 150/160 bikes is all i am after – Just to see if certain bikes come up that i’ve not though about or know about (Like the YT industries post earlier).

To those who have shared useful info thanks. 😀