Started as a fun, exciting race series. Ended up a cash grab family day out. You could predict what trails were going to be used months in advance, little to no remedial work carried out on the trails afterwards. The whole post seems arrogant and self pitying to be honest, everything runs its course.

There used to be a local race we had called enduraloo, random trails all over the valley and then a curry. Racing with mates and all the laughs and memories that go with it, that’s the “spirit” of enduro and it’s what tweedlove forgot about.

Only upgrade I made to mine when I had it was to update the brakes/rotors and change the tyres. I’d agree with previous comments, check the bearings as defo a weak point, mine went through two sets in a year, but I suppose that’s Innerleithen in winter, just kills stuff. Although I think it’s also the back end which I found way to flexy hence now having a Wild.
Got one for sale in classifieds if anyone fancies one 😉

Deity Supracush for me, moved from DMR Deathgrips.

I have a Kortal Race in grey size large worn once for sale if you’re interested…

So after the piston in my 4 pot XTs disintigrated and I couldn’t get a replacement I bought TRP Quadiems. I’ve been riding longer than I can remember and I don’t think I’d buy anything else now. Outstanding stopping power, and more importantly for me where I stay absolute consistency in lever feel no matter how long the descent.

Glorious!

If you can’t seat a MTB tyre with a Joe Blow I’d suggest your preparation is suspect.

Got them on both ends atm on an Oiz, rear is surprisingly good, front let go on me yesterday ( admittedly I was on a trail that was a bit much for the bike) so will be swapping it out for something a little grippier. They roll really well.

5 cylinders, 4X4, 400PS and a roof rack

RS3?

Yup, saloon though so not full chav 🙂

5 cylinders, 4X4, 400PS and a roof rack. What more does one need?

Hi all, just found this thread, some beautiful guitars! Have a few knocking about just now, go to one being the Gristlemaster, such a fantastic guitar for the money.
Left to right – Taylor GS mini – Westbury Standard – Shecter Nick Johnston – Reverend Gristlemaster – PRS Custom22 SE

Just bought an Orbea Oiz yesterday, Forbidden druid on order and due in soon to replace the way too short Rallon I’ve been trying to like for a year or so.

“That depends on the carcass, surely?”

It’s the EXO casing both my wife and I killed in the space of a couple of weeks. I guess where you ride is relevant to what you use? Never managed to kill a DHR2 🙂

WTB trail boss is a great allrounder. If you’re riding anything even remotely rocky steer well clear of an aggressor if you don’t want to be walking home.

“ORBEA offers all its users Orbea’s Lifetime Warranty, which is completely voluntary and free of charge. It consists of a lifetime warranty with no time limitations that covers all frames and rigid forks assembled on our bicycles against breaking and/or cracks.
Orbea’s Lifetime Warranty will also extend coverage against paint, varnish and corrosion defects on all frames and rigid forks for 1 additional year after the end of the legal warranty (in other words, for up to 3 years after the purchase of the product by the user).”

I got one after my RocketMax got nicked, it’s a better bike in every way apart from how it looks. I haven’t found an area where it falls down yet. 30+ mile big rides, uplifts and local riding (Tweed Valley) it just doesn’t trip up anywhere. It’s a significantly better climber than the Hightower I used to have. I got it with the X2, the difference between pop and plough is a few clicks and 12 PSI.
The little storage box it comes with is surprisingly handy and it’ll take a bottle as well. As you can see, I quite like mine 🙂

Thanks for all the info guys, bike got nicked last week so just scouting out a replacement.

Did either of you have any issues running the rear brake hose through the frame, looks setup for US in the pictures I’ve seen.
Lovely bike Alex :), whats the mudguard you have on the back?

What kind of terrain makes up your riding mate, also, thanks for the tip for the shock! Do you find the mud clearance ok, have noticed a few threads mentioning that it has a rock crusher between the linkage and the frame.

Santa Cruz Hightower, not a bad bike as such, just never really loved it, and I tried for over two years!

Whyte G160, a sisyphean task to climb anywhere on it and unbalanced garbage on descents.

C456, fairly sure it’s the reason my knees are shot now.

Think my problems stem from trying to have one bike for everything.

I can’t put into words how much I love my RocketMAX longshot, need an XC bike now though 🙂

Yup it’s the 591 I have too. So you can adjust the arms position on the rail, interesting. Google time 🙂
Thanks folks.

The guy that built it was going to put a model railway in it……..

Only moved in a couple of months ago but has potential.

“I’ve no interest in either happening. Sorry. Was that not clear?”

As a local and selfish ****, I completely agree.

So, was out on mine for a few hours last night, less than ideal conditions but what a blast.
I’m running a coil on the back of mine and it climbed the 1500 feet or so of fire road with very little bob, felt good out of the saddle too. Very good traction from the back end on ice.
Position on the bike when climbing felt weird for about 20 mins.

The trails I was riding were mostly Innerleithen DH tracks, gold, cresta etc and it felt massively stable, maybe lacking a bit of pop at the back end but speeding up HSC should sort that. Also rode Angry sheep and Mince baby mince which rely on maneuverability to be fast. Everything clicked when I kept myself centered on the bike which let me weight the front.It has no problems with tight corners at low speed either which was a big surprise.

There’s no getting away from the fact that it’s a big bike, I’m 5’11” and 84kg on a size large and it feels spot on for me, but I think the most pertinent thing is as always, where are you going to be riding it. For me living in Inners it’s that little bit more bike that the Hightower never could be, the slightly sluggish climbing is something I’ll put up with, but I’m already musing over a short travel XC……

I chose Cotic for customer service and I’ve had one of their bikes before.It was also easy for me to get a proper test ride on my local trails and when I mailed Joe at Starling he had no plans apart from his workshop or Forest of Dean.

That’s weird, I was taking my figures from the official Cotic and Bird sites so I wonder which is correct !?!?!

Ianpv, just looked closer, are you talking about a Rocket or a longshot Rocketmax?

They do feel huge, I was lucky enough to have a whole afternoon on one on Inners uplift and I was sold, not just for it’s abilities in steep stuff, but on nadgery awkward tech too, the kind of stuff that hangs a bike up and you have to keep momentum as you can’t get a pedal in.
Sold a Hightower for it, and very happy I did.

2 degrees slacker up front and 25mm longer wheelbase,linkage driven single pivot.I’m not sure how good a comparison the AM9 is.

Not really been out long enough for a long term review. I’ve had mine two days of which one day was building it :).
Everybody seems to think its a bike for blasting stuff and big hits, but what sold it for me during the demo was actually the slowest, tightest trail I can think of and it was superb. Long doesn’t mean it can’t dance.

Fathomer, I know you probably already have but check how long the steerer is. Just bought a Rocketmax frame and I had to buy a different stem with only 30mm stack to get it on my 175mm steerer.

Edit: sorry, just noticed your forks are new 🙂

I have a Hightower frame for sale. In the new classifieds there are ten pics in the ad. On the old one there are none but had two people ask for pics on the old classifieds  although it didn’t sell. Think that says a lot about how much it’s used.

On my third, first two had this issue, this one seems ok, although not a great fan of it and only use on uplift as it detracts from climbing efficiency significantly.

Ta ta warranty if you do that I’m afraid 🙁

Running Rekon+ 2.8 on Scraper i45’s, really like the profile, gives it a bit of edge to dig in once the ridiculous amount of grip eventually lets go 🙂

Have been using this for a while, good pressure and can clean two bikes on a tank. 12v or battery (lasts about 10 washes)

Sealey power wash

As some have already said you need to look upon the tyre as something else to tune. My Hightower is running 45mm Scrapers with rekon 2.8 front and back. For faster stuff I run 16/18 F/R and slow down the rebound on the suspension to account for the undamped rebound on the tyre. Golfcourse and other steep I run 14/15 F/R for loads of grip but the tyre still has enough support to not roll too much, although you still notice it have a moment or two if you’re feeling cocky.

Fair comment Thomthumb, think I was just very disappointed in it as a whole. “Climbs like crap” is maybe a little unfair,I just noticed that even when set up properly you had to consciously time your pedaling to prevent pedal strikes on climbs, also when putting in the odd crank on descents.
I spoke to Trev from Enduro mag about his long term test 160 as I was struggling to get mine setup right and he put it rather succinctly.

“great for flat out shenanigans!”

That about sums it up. Tech climbing and tight stuff, not so much.

Defo get a test ride, I bought the works 2016 and sold it 3 months later, just couldn’t get on with it. There are a couple of folk where I live who have them and can’t say enough about how good they are but I found it sluggish and it’s climbs like crap. You’ll need to accept the fact that pedal strikes will be a regular occurrence.
Well made, great spec and look lovely though.