+1 t130 works

I really rate my works, stiff, fast and having 130mm makes it very precise. Use it for all day xc loops to ews stages

Whyte T130, enough bike for almost anything without being to much and muting a lot of your ride

Tyres are such a personal thing and no longer cheap, I’ve not run the WTB, but they look fine to me, unless your going to be riding serious mud (and then your options are limited in (650b) currently. I would just set them up tubless and get to know the bike first and what you need for your local trails from a tyre. You’ll prob get more performance out of tuning and understanding pressure than just switching to another brand.

@dan2406

Having spent a very enjoyable weekend in the Lakes with lecky94 thrashing a T130 S and Works on some very challenging terrain. I’d say you will be more than happy with the S spec. adjustments/improvements minimal, change the grips to suit you taste as stock are bit hard but fine with gloves tbh. Switch to tubeless straight away as you might as well (and saves you buying spare 650b tubes). I’m 5ft 6 so switched to a 45mm stem, but I wouldn’t rush to change unless your short like me on a medium. Only other tweak would be to check where the cables run under the bottom bracket, they sit in a little plastic clip and might wear thorough over time, which is a pain as they are internally routed.

I own a t130 works and have ridden a t129 2014 model.

T130 scr, exceptionally stiff, nimble, poppy, 650b+130mm rear feels easily as capable as my previous 26″ 150mm bikes.

T129 very Fast DH and everywhere in between. a little less nimble that T130 is the compromise and not as stiff (but SCR would resolve that).

the only reason I didn’t go for T130 was I’m only 5ft 6 and felt a little swamped by 29er wheels, wanted something more jumpy and actually didn’t want to go at the sort of speeds T129 was capable of.

Has anyone take the rear outer air can off yet and checked if their are volume reducers in their ? just to save me the job as it currently feels like their are as the shock ramped up a little quick for my liking

@mboy, one thing I didn’t mention, when you build it up take some care around the sram clear spoke protector that sits behind the cassette, it doesn’t hold very tight on the flat blade spokes of the Roam wheels, mines come loose a couple of times on very very rough descents, when it does it fouls the cassette, stops it freewheeling and brings the chain off. potentially dangerous so I would advise beefing up by zip tying it at the 3 connection points. hope that makes sense

@dvowles82.
Short answer is took 35secs off my PB on a 1mi Strava DH first ride out

long answer
Picked it up on Friday, only managed a few laps round the houses due to rain and stuff but allowed me to set the pressures and convert to tubeless. I also switched to a 45mm stem (as I’m short and felt a little to stretched out on the stock 70mm.

I did tubeless conversion, a bit of fiddle on and had to seat the bead with inner tube, but went up with very little sealant and have stayed up. Even at 25psi, seem to roll very silently and fast. Grip wise, weren’t’ really tested but don’t look like have very deep tread profile so on gloop thing they will struggle to bite. But great 3 season tyres I reckon.

Noticed the stiffness, suspect its combination of all the parts, and also makes me realize that the previous bikes Giant Reign was flexing and pinging its way down the trail. Can feel it just riding up a hill, wasn’t sure how it would translate to going down, the best way can describe the bike overall going down was it seemed to slow things down, I was able to place it very precisely and pilot it, the 650 b isn’t massively noticeable but I did notice that don’t drop in to hollows as much and better float over the mud and soft stuff.

Suspension action isn’t as fluid in the saddle over rough ground but then its not a full floating system so it would never match the Giant Maestro, but where it matters DH, very little discernible difference, maybe not quite as smashable as 150mm gives you, Shocks been really easy to set up, Pike and Monarch definitely give more mid platform support.

X0 just works no problem, hope it lasts as ££££

Bars feel a little on wide side but will hold off cutting down just yet

Switched stem to 45mm, feels nicer as was to stretched on 70mm, suspect it will take a 35mm but may feel overly twitchy, its very direct with 45mm.

Descending, I didn’t have anything really steep to go down but it coped better than my regin generally, I think mainly due to bigger wheels and longer wheelbase. Will try and test more on Thu on some EWS sections in the Tweed valley

Tour de Ben Nevis, basic support, 7hrs ish in the saddle, 42miles in deepest scottish back country. or for free you could do Tweedlove Natural Tweed ride instead of glentress 7 which is just lap race

@dvowles82

I don’t think you’d feel underbiked on a T130 or overbiked on t150, in last 2 years shocks and linkage design have refined a lot, where you’d once need 150mm 130mm today is fine, combine this with bigger wheels (and 29ers and the T129 is prime example) and you need less travel that you might imagine. The benefits are a less spongy more connected ride. That said having lots of travel is fun and flattering as it allows you to hit and get away with things that allows you to build your confidence, if you tune a 150mm bike right you can set it so it won’t use the last couple of cm until you really need it. Conversely you could run a 130mm bike and for the days out at Bike Park or DH you stick some big 2.35 tires on which give you more cushion and make a marked difference to how composed the bike will feel.

As for top tube lengths, don’t get to hung up on it as bike is subtle combination of many angles and lengths (Santa Cruz for example don’t always conform to the latest on trend numbers but consistently review very well). Just to confuse you further why not wait for a Bird Aeris if your keen to get most on trend geometry

@dvowles82. I would say it depends on where you think your riding skills are. I’ve had bikes from long to short travel, when I was younger then sure longer travel bike was great for smashing down things feeling invincible and it makes you realise what your capable of and are a hell of a lot of fun. Then me (like most people) tend to downsize to less travel and do the same stuff as it allows you to finesse and feel the trail more. But I still think its almost a right of passage to have a longer travel mini DH type bike at some point in your riding. Be aware thou I’ve not ridden a 130 or 150 but lots of similar bikes

Can confirm that the Works are coming in to stores, mine came in today ready for pick up Friday.

I would worry less about the shock and more about getting the sag and the feel you want. if you can’t get enough rebound at 250psi, then you probably need to up your psi and accept less sag. Reign is so plush anyway I don’t find I need to go for DH levels of sag or it can blow through to quickly. And sure you can go a little over 275psi if you have to