Seems to tick the boxes for a lightweight trail-focused 29er hardtail.

Merlin have frames at an almost reasonable price.

But I can’t find any reviews online.

Anyone have one or ridden one? Or recommend anything similar?

Thanks.

Always fancied one but couldn’t justify £1800 on a frame with only a 2 year warranty.

Seems everyone else agreed and Merlin are now clearing out stuff that doesn’t sell.

Ticks a lot of boxes but the chainstays are a bit short for my taste at 420mm.

And internal gear cable routing.

I like the internal routing but agree about the chainstays. Glad I’m not the only one who thinks current trends are too short.

Don’t they also require a unique fork offset?

I looked at these briefly. The price was too much and it is at the less progressive end of progressive. Nice short seat tube for a good length dropper mind.

I have seen one in the flesh and it did look very nice indeed. Fork offset is normal it’s their other hardtail that has offset from I think.

I’ve ridden a demo one that pedals in edinburgh have around the block and maybe over the golf course a little bit and loved it, would be an absolute rocket ship. it’s pretty damn long – even longer than my smuggler. Would love one if I had the money for a nice hardtail.

Love the idea of these, almost ahead of the curve..

Can anyone think of another long travel slack short chain stayed 29er hardtail frame?

I reckon there will be a fair few similar in years to come

Kona Honzp ^
Canfield Epo, YS etc etc

Slightly behind the curve 😉

Got one built up a few months back. Spent more than I ever ever envisaged on a hardtail so I’d rather not know what Merlin are flogging them for!

After my Lapierre XR started getting tired I decided I wanted a slack/fun bike which was also light enough to race xc. Figured 120mm full suss was going to be way too spendy so started looking in to hardtails. The only other obvious option was the Kona Honzo. Maybe I’m wrong but the frame appears a little more refined. The paint job also looks better than the cheapy Transition design IMO. Plus it’s a lifetime warranty. Anyway, I couldn’t get hold of a frame only Honzo and the full builds were a little portly so I went down the route of the Vanquish.

It’s built light but not weight weenie light. Got some DT rims on 240 hubs and the rest was taken from my old bike – 120mm Rebas, Thomson, Maxxis Ikons (tanwall FTW) etc. Soon realised I wasn’t going to get the most from it so after all these years I finally got a dropper. Had to match collar n cuffs so got a Thomson dropper. The spending never ends as I’m now looking at a Wolftooth lever to replace the crap designed-on-a-Friday Thomson one.

Ride wise hmmm, hard to say. I’ve still not had the chance to rag it on dry trails with which I’m familiar. A couple of wet rides at BPW left me a bolt sulky knowing the damage I was doing to a frame not yet protected in copter tape! In a good way I was kind of underwhelmed – a bit like jumping in a VW and finding that it is reassuringly neutral – I didn’t want a quirky beast! I went with a size large. I spent weeks trying to decide on size because as is often the when you are crippled by indecision and spending too much money, I fell between sizes (I’m 6ft and a bit). Everybody had a different opinion on size. Before getting the dropper (450mm total length) by previous post (420mm) barely reached the top tube/seatstay junction. That made me scared.

Let me know if you have any more Q’s…

Stanton Sherpa too….

I thought the silly / custom fork offsets only applied to the new SBG frames.

only a 2 year warranty.

3 years for 2018 frames so they are getting there slowly.

https://www.transitionbikes.com/Support.cfm

My experience of the transition warranty was
Quote
“the paint coming off the frame is only aesthetic and does not affect the functionality of the bike”

Would never have another one!!

IMO the reduced price is still a bit steep. Maybe if they’d been priced like that originally and 33% knocked off now…

“the paint coming off the frame is only aesthetic and does not affect the functionality of the bike”

Was that the importer or head office?

Seems odd that, other than the original press release, there’s no reviews or mentions of them.

Let me know if you have any more Q’s..

Do you actually like it…

Good question. I do wonder if there’s no info about it because it’s a bit of a pup.

Chapaking that was the reply direct from Transition

It’s cool but as I say, a few wet rides at BPW on Ikons to the sound of chain slap means it’s a bit premature to go singing it’s praises. I’ve been impressed in that I generally forget it’s a hardtail until the odd square hit abruptly reminds me!

It’s all about context I guess. I’m coming from an XC perspective. The Lapierre XR was always super capable but there’s no getting away from the fact that it was XC through and through. In buying a Large as opposed to XL Vanquish there’s a big drop from saddle to bar. Of course this is remedied with the dropper but I guess an XL might have felt more composed. However this would prob be outweighed by crappy climbing characteristics.

Thanks folks. Seems they were not popular for some reason, i guess over-priced originally.

What else is there out there similar?

I’m looking at the kona honzo as a direct comparison. I’m also open to 659b bikes as well.

I agree that they were over priced originally but that doesn’t normally stop people if it’s a good bike, just limits the numbers out there. However, these seem very limited, both sides of the pond.

Thing is this is so overpriced at nearly 2k originally for a frame that’s not going to be used for racing it has really priced people out imho.

If you think about what it is aimed at, its kind if a do all 29er, 1 hardtail to have in your fleet but way too slack and long forked for xc racing.

I think when you get into the realms of 2k for a frame like that people will generally be spending that on something full suspension when it’s long and slack.

If love one of these to replace my xc “race” hardtail and my bigger travel play hardtail but still can’t justify one at over a grand for the frame.

Think whoever above said they’ve kind of got the price now down to what the rrp should have been and with 30% off of that people would start buying them.

chilled76, that was partly my reasoning – for my needs (xc racing and British trails) it’s as close as I could get to a do-it-all bike without spending >£5k on a full suss. Obvs it would be out of its depth in the Alps but I’ve yet to see something that covers every base!

Dekerf853, don’t take my feedback as a downer – I’m not one to gush. Also, it’s a hardtail, I really wouldn’t expect a revolutionary experience. Yeh it’s $$$ but as mentioned above, it serves a niche that very few others cater for.

PS. beyond the Honzo what about the SC Chameleon? A reasonable weight and slack without geo that’s too radical. You never know, they might realise a carbon version as they do for the Highball…

I borrowed one for a weekend and it was an absolute riot. Light enough for general XC duties but was happy flying down steeps. I would have one if I could afford/justify two bikes that nice.

Still tempted, but still bothered by the short warranty.

Well, the question has resolved itself now. They’ve gone back up in price.

Would love to know if dropping the price helped shift any!

So it is, glad I got one at the reduced price! 🙂

Not ridden it yet, but it looks lovely.

Picked mine up for £1200 including delivery from Bikeactive, just before Xmas. Just finished building it, first ride this weekend.

https://www.vitalmtb.com/community/marty-crosley,6603/setup,36085

Rich, we need a picture.
HYD: “KILL TRAIL Death SLED”, sounds like fun!

They should release a updated transam 29 instead and go direct sale so the prices can drop.

https://ibb.co/eUuSdT

Here’s my new vanquish. In my opinion the sickest bike you can throw all your money at…

ive spent years waiting for something like this to come into my radar and it’s finally happened..!

My use for it is a capable all rounder that can handle the hectic stuff as well as eat up the climbs and also throw on the bikepacking gear for singletrack trips.

Customer build kit is as follows

Transition vanquish XL frame

Fox factory 34 130mm kashima fit4

sram xx1 eagle drive train

Shimano Xtr trail brakes

rock shox reverb dropper post

Thomson bar and stem

wheel works carbon wheels

xtr pedals

continental Xking 2.4’s (majorly shit tyres, swapping out for 2.6 Maxxis rekons for a little extra Cush and traction)

and there it is my dream bike has finally arrived 🙂

@ JEZ – how come the X King tyres are ”majorly shit tyres” ?

I’m thinking about one on the rear of my 29er hardtail.

Daiboy…..

How have you been finding the Vanquish for the last 6 months?
Anyone else got any experience of either of these bikes, real world feedback still seems thin on the ground. Particularly interested in the Throttle. Prices of the 2018 seem to be dropping again.

Still drawn to these but…

…rear tyre clearance seems a bit limited.

…largest chain ring is a 34 (by that should be enough).

…rear brake routing seems to be left side only.

…Only one set of bottle bosses.

…Still very limited rear world feedback on them.

Why not commission a Chinese carbon frame maker rather than pay for a brand name that’s wildy optimistic on pricing.

Testing one next week, will report back. Pricing not so optimistic if you know where to look!

I actually seem the sale price hence my optimistic comment even at sale price.

save 2/3 and get a custom version with same geo if that fussed.

Transition get far too much credit for their toy frames

save 2/3 and get a custom version with same geo if that fussed.

Transition get far too much credit for their toy frames

You could make the same argument about any frame then. Why bother with any branded bike/frame when you could just order the same thing from China  cheeper. Only its not the same thing at all.  I’ve got a Vanquish frame ordered from a UK supplier for under £1100. I’ll get it in 48hrs, full UK backup and service and the knowledge that I’ll be getting a quality product.

And yes every MTB is a toy wherever it comes from.

Impulse buy ?