Looking to move off my Zesty and onto a FS 29er, settling on a Transition Bandit (got a test ride coming up). Any thoughts to help convince me if I’m doing the right thing?

Bandit

Looks good, check out the 2013 Banshee Prime as well, bit cheaper and 130mm travel

damn! another contender! Interesting with those rear drop outs.

😀 decisions decisions..

Becasue the Spearfish is just as good but 1/4 of the price ?

And 50mm less travel, depends what you want, spearfish is more of an XC thing, the Transition and Banshee are more AM IMO..
No disrespect to the Spearfish, damn good frame and silly cheap, but the Horsethief is more of a comparison, but they’re getting thin on the ground now.

El Guapo 29er coming soon and is likely to be cheaper still.

Top tube way too short for me otherwise it would have been a yes.

Built up a Bandit 29er a few months ago and absolutely love it. Had a test ride first and then did a lot of research for other frames with similar geometry. The only thing that came close was a Stumpy FSR evo, but I could not find one outside of the USA.
I got the frame from one of the German sites for £1,100 delivered so may be worth looking about for clearance bargains now that Transition are dropping it from their range.
In my opinion it rides great and I can’t tell any difference when it comes to jumps other than the front fork having less travel than I am used to.

I enquired about a Horsethief but couldn’t get one. I’m 6’4 so need an XL, which makes it harder to get hold of stuff.
I’m demoing an “L” – not ideal but again a problem with being tall, no demo XL’s,
PJM – re the short top tube, did you ride one or just judge it from the geo stats? This is a concern.

No ones mentioned Orange yet!