T6? Jesus. I’m not homeless.

I am fortunate enough to have a couple of sets of TS brakes. One set of Piccola’s on an Epic & a set of the newer Direttissima’s on my big bike.

I’ll echo what others have said about the quality of them – nothing else, bar the Intend Trinity feels as quality as either.

Regarding performance, I will also add, I have never ridden anything that has the level of consistency of a well bled TS brake, regardless of use. The only brake I have used which comes close is the Hayes Dominion A2, which I had on my previous Epic, I do actually really rate the Hayes better than any other brake I have used when you take value into consideration.

My partner bought a bike with a set of the new Tech 4 brakes, which lasted about 2 weeks before they were sold (for some Dominions!). My subjective view was they didn’t feel as powerful as the TS, the levers look comical & crude and regardless of how well, or as many times as I bled them, they still felt mushy.

With our riding group every year, we play a game relating to apres bike beers. Those who need to bleed brakes, or faff about with brake setup, buy the rounds. I suppose I should be thankful as Hope by proxy, very kindly funded our beers all week via our friends who insist on using them still. We stayed on another week, and ended up doing nearly 80,000m of descending in total without touching any brakes, having not touched them all year prior other than to change pads.

I think I would rather run Shimano over Hope.

Do a bit of research on the current model Elements & their appetite for linkage bearings.

The back end is very flexy, unbraced & transmits all the load into a collection of the smallest bearings I have ever seen in a linkage.

There has been some example of some impressive failures, which have damaged frames. With Rocky’s lack of support in the UK, it will be a headache to resolve.

Even by Yeti’s own mediocre standards for building a sub par bike for ‘real world use’ this one manages to be an even lamer duck than their usual efforts.

A quick Google of SB115 SI Link issues will tell you all you need to know.

The setup process takes about 2 minutes…

but if you want an out and out XC bike, you dont get an Evo? just a regular Epic?

Which, other than spec changes & 10mm of fork travel, are the same bike. Which, for what its worth, IMO still don’t really make it a light duty trail/DC bike.

i am assuming the draw of the old Epic Evo is the weight saving over a Chisel? As on paper, although very similar in many ways, the Chisel is a touch more ‘modern’, with its higher stack, longer reach etc.

Which can be a good, or a bad thing when it comes to XC bikes. Most XC bikes are generally a little shorter than trail bikes, with a lower stack, as people tend to ride them in more aggressive positions.

I have ridden a Chisel. It’s not too dissimilar to the Epic, it just weighs a lot more, but then it’s been marketed & sold as a more budget conscious option. If you had the choice of previous gen Epic or Chisel, I would still pick the Epic.

The Chisel Base spec is 32lbs. That’s Enduro bike weight.

10 years ago that might have been enduro bike weight – no-one at the pointy end of racing is running a 32lb bike & making it out of a proper race weekend with it in one piece without a lot of luck. 32-34lb is most trail bikes these days. 32lb is a lot though for an XC bike, it’s 10lb more than my new Epic.

I’m with Alpin. 50 here and as I’m neither elderly or disabled, I’m a long, long, way off considering an ebike of any description. They’ve absolutely zero appeal to me – take something simple, efficient, mechanical and add a shitload of weight and complication to achieve exactly the same result. If you can’t have “fun” on a normal bike, any normal bike, the issue is probably you, not the bike.

What a load of guff ?

As a half decent XC & CX racer, even I can see (and benefit) from the advantages of riding one, when I’m pushed for time, tired or just want to go & lap out some trails, which is great fun.

If you can’t see it as fun, maybe the issue is you, not the bike.

Epic 8 owner here, former multiple Epic & Epic Evo owner.

Mine was actually an Evo frame, mostly as I prefer the colour ways & more subtle branding, but built up with SID Ult & SIDLux, XXSL, silly light 1300g wheels & a lot of other carbon bits & it’s basically 10kg on the nose. The only concession I have is a decent length dropper post.

It’s my going out for proper XC rides, endurance events, XC racing etc so it’s fairly focussed, but even so in the above spec, it’s definitely a ‘calmer’ bike than the old one.which you could expect as its had the longer, slacker, etc treatment. Apart from the tyres (Fast Track/Renegade combo) I would happily do some normal UK trail riding on it also – its very good natured to ride.

The storage is a plus for me as I never ride with a pack & it’s a big space to fill with spares & snacks.

General all round thumbs up from me.

 The Epic Evo will be have more scope for weight weenie-ism for sure, but personally I’d be delighted with a 28lb bike.

Yes, there are plenty of sub 10kg Evo’s out there. Albeit spendy, it’s possible to have one around 10.5kg which you would happily ride on most stuff. The biggest point of weakness being the tyres, but thats the same for those +/- 28lb Chisels.

I have a new Epic 8 Evo, built back to a Epic (already have an SJ15 so no need for the Evo) which comes in at 10.65kg which I will happily race XC on this winter & ride anything around the Surrey Hills.

A lighter set of wheels (currently got a 1.5kg set) and brakes could get it pretty close to 10.

We’re about 15 minutes from Monmouth & echo what others have said about the local area. If you are more in to the FoD it’s definitely not an affluent area (there are pockets of it) but there is quite a few nice little hamlets (which compared to Winchester prices) are still very affordable. The locals are a friendly bunch if you make an effort to be part of the community although, having been here for 5 years we will never be considered locals ?

There isn’t a lot work wise in the area, but we are both remote, so not a concern. The walking & biking is great, but be prepared, the FoD in winter is genuinely one of the sh*ttiest/most slippery places I have ever ridden & the winters can feel like a long time here. The riding in general is great though – you can do 100’s of km of gravel, to some fairly committed off piste death & everything in between.

I’d be happy living in Monmouth, buy I wound’s be going in the Wye, due to the aforementioned pollution. I’d still struggle to find anything else that would give us the range of outdoor life whilst being a practical distance from our offices, and Heathrow for me as I travel a reasonable amount for work, along with being able to get to a big city like Bristol in 40 minutes.

All of this is making the Trek seem a much more viable proposition really isn’t it.

I think politely, you are probably (definitely) overthinking it.

Suggest you measure the actual on the bike also, newer Treks are notoriously out on their geometry also, read some reviews where they measure the actual, rather than the manufacturers charts.

For example, I have a ‘23 Top Fuel which, ironically on paper, near enough mirrors the older Fuel EX you have.

In reality, it’s a 64.5 degree HA & the wheelbase is 3cm longer than Trek claim. I am running a 130mm fork, but 10mm does not make anything like that kind of difference to the numbers.

The new Fuel EX follows a similar pattern.

I bet if you back to back tested & ran control wheels/tyres there would be virtually no difference in actual times through sections between that bike & say the Megatower you are referencing.

The problem is not the bike. Same for nearly everyone.

S4 was sub 19kg with pedals on my Park scales – here for less than £7k.

https://www.specialized.com/gb/en/turbo-kenevo-sl-expert/p/199106?color=318002-199106&searchText=98021-3604&gclid=Cj0KCQjwla-hBhD7ARIsAM9tQKt3FeAj-oNeD4s3n3BCSWGMFVpJ2Y_1p_y8-cPqD_zCYwBDp3Q8I3IaAjyHEALw_wcB

With a shock that grenades itself if you look at it funny and tracing paper thin tyres.

I don’t think I know anyone with a real world KSL thats sub 20kg with a decent shock (coil) and tyres on it. Which is about 2kg less that quite a few full fat bikes of the same price (not discounted).

You’ve mentioned british ranking points a few times. Who is giving these out? Ranking points on a national level for enduro outside of the BEMBA races isn’t something i’ve ever heard of before. Given British Cycling don’t recognise enduro as a discipline where are they coming from?

If it’s a BC sanctioned DH event then generally there are ranking points available. How many depends if it’s a Cat A race B, etc, etc.

The problem with it is the same as it has always been. It doesn’t actually reflect anything and for the most part is meaningless. The reason is you can pick and choose low attended A races as highlighted above and basically come last in your category yet pick up significantly more points than a stacked field of racers at a B race who would all smoke you.

Unless you are right at the sharp end podiuming nationals and feeding into a World Cup programme it is basically who is prepared to enter the most races and travel the most.

it was the same 15 years ago when I was coming out of juniors and going into seniors. There were riders going straight into Expert which is a non age specific category as a feeder into Elite who were there purely on the number of races they entered.

The thing is, i don’t give a toss how it pedals.. I couldn’t care less how it climbs, how it goes along the SDW, Ridgeway or across a Pennine trail… I don’t care if the ascent at Afan takes me 30 mins or 34 mins… It’s just getting to the top/over/up something. The bike is for going down, the rest… it’s just ‘time’

sounds like you’ve got the wrong bike then. Probably should just be riding a DH bike.

The rest of us, who understand to get to the top of a hill, generally you have to pedal a bike so all of those things are important because in reality we don’t live in Whistler bike park bashing out endless laps.

I don’t want ride a bike that’s crap at riding up hills when the reality is that’s 80% of a bike ride in time.

Given that air is both free and has no weight penalty, I’m amazed folks still choose a fork with less travel for these sorts of bikes. I mean geometry requirements aside, clearly you can ride most things with a 120-140mm fork, but everything is so much less stressful (apart from jumping obvs) with a bit more travel available to you, why not go for it?

Generally a 180mm Zeb for example, is a decent chunk more in weight than a Pike or a 34. The shocks are also heavier, as they are larger in size, and style as most of them on longer travel bikes are essentially DH shocks where shorter bikes are predominantly inline style or small trail piggyback options.

However it’s not weight variance that makes the difference it’s how the bike uses it. Comparing shorter travel bikes to big enduro sleds is wildly different. Pedalling my Spec Enduro at 180/170 is really not my idea of fun, compared to my 24lb Stumpy.

I also cannot comprehend how delusional people are about how great these massive bikes are at pedalling and riding mellow terrain.

Never a truer phrase than Skills Compensation.

I mean, there has been some stretch to some peoples suggestions on here, but a mid travel bike that weighs as much as most enduro bikes, probably isn’t the one for the short travel crowd 😂

It’s still the wrong bike though 😉 (allegedly 🤷🏼‍♂️😂)

Heaven forbid there might be some people who have been there & done it already, offering some advice. I must have missed all those instabangers of the DH WC boys riding round the Surrey Hills on their DH bikes.

Just thinking out loud:

Rocky Element, Transition Spur, Santa Cruz Tallboy, Norco Optic, Trek Top Fuel, Spec Stumpjumper, Nukeproof Reactor, Scott Spark, Evil Following, YT Izzo – thats just what I can think of, off the top of my head.

What even is it? It’s not an XC bike as it weighs nearly was much as some 140/150mm trail bikes, and its clearly not one of them, as they appear to have made it with geometry from 3 years ago.

I can’t think of any reason why anyone would buy it over 5 or 6 other better options in that segment. Unless people love spending money on bikes guaranteed to fall apart & leave you with f*ck all support 😆

I have read that it comes with a racing tune as stock and this is probably true, not the plushest on the safe trails I’m riding at the moment but when you do give it some beans over the rough stuff it takes it all in it’s stride.

I know there are tuning ‘options’ in terms of varying shim stacks from new, so if could be considered to go with a lighter tune from new?

Personally I think a form of that is what I am after, due to old wrist injuries I struggle with that initial harshness to battle through – so if it can be tuned/set up in way, then i’m keen to explore.

But, past events have made me wary. I know there is a new BOS fork out also, which if it was as the old Deville was, minus the reliability issues would also be great…

I’ve got a couple of friends who are very senior in the industry, one at Wiggle CRC & they have had off the chart sales – March was the biggest month they have ever had, their issues are now supply. The other is at Spec, again, sales have gone through the roof, not just of cheap, low end stuff – across the board.

The STW bubble is absolutely not a reflection of the industry it would seem.

A progressive curve is basically exactly as it sounds. It gets progressively harder the deeper you get into the travel.

Capra 29, Whyte S150, Ion G15, Raaw Madonna, Process 153, Instinct 29 all should work well with a coil.

I’m also really struggling with the geo. The long reach is deceptive. This really only comes into play when out of the saddle descending. When seated, the ETT is slightly shorter than the 4.5 and with a shorter stem and wider bars coupled with the steeper STA and smaller ST it makes the cockpit feel quite cramped and in turn I feel ‘on’ the bike not ‘in’ the bike. Now I know there can only be a matter of 1.5-2cm difference in all this but it feels significant. The Ripmo also felt short yet the Megatower with practically the same numbers as the 130 did not. Which might be to do with the STA not being as steep as stated on the Megatower.

That’s the thing with reach and a steep seat angle, especially compared to a bike with a comparitively slack seat angle. You are not miles out over the back wheel and thus creating extra space, albeit in the wrong place. I imagine you do feel a bit more perched on top with a bike with a much more steep seat tube.

The Megatower looks like is has a fairly reasonable effective seat tube angle, but the actual seat tube angle reportedly slack, which obviously gets worse the longer the post is, If your tall which you seem to be by testing L and XL bikes, the Megatower probably feels really roomy in comparison.

I’ll just leave this here.

@cokie this is great to see.
I’d just like to say well done to the Singletrack and Pinkbike trolls on boosting Sick’s reputation.

Firstly, as number one fanboi, congratulations on digging up an old post.

And given by the hammering they have been getting on Pinkbike, when their reputation is at gutter level, I guess the only way is up. If only success in life was measured as a number of followers huh? Mind you, with the latest bits on on there dragged up from Dumber & Dumber’s past, we can assume most of the IG followers are bought, or bots. In other words, a sham, like the hundreds, and hundreds of frames they have sold already, and the hundreds awaiting delivery.

Have they already gone pop now anyway? There has been radio silence for weeks. Given their total narcissistic desires, that’s literally a lifetime for them.

Or maybe Dim has got lost in the massive warehouse of frames they have.

I think 1997 was the first year I could officially vote. I didn’t because I was 18 & couldn’t have cared less about politics.

The Lib Dems probably align with my personal views most these days. I would be more likely to vote for Tory over Labour though. Blair, Brown & Corbyn have been a succession of weapons grade d*ckheads.

The reality is, I just don’t care enough about politics though, and nor do I want to.

The Ripmo was on the list actually, and thought that was in for a shout – originally she didn’t consider it because it was kind of marketed as a big enduro bike and in reality it’s not, it’s a trail bike.

Weight is good, numbers look good, can put a bottle in the right place on it. I may be slightly prejudiced, but it runs on bushes & having had a bike in the past do that, i’m not interested again (and i’ll be the one looking after it).

orange is probably a no-go, she can’t stand the look of them!

Actually ended up riding an SB130 this weekend & there was a lot of grinning. Don’t know what the reality of owning one would be like though, when you need the support.

The plastic from a 4l milk container is also exactly the right thickness if you’re in a pickle.

Have used one on my HT for years, did it as a bodge and it was great. never touched it since.

Thanks everyone. I kind of agree, that both on paper are great bikes and pretty similar in terms of what they are good for.

The MTBR Yeti forum looks like a right bunfight between the superfans & the people with issues. A bit concerning to see a few issues with the new bikes though, that certainly doesn’t help the decision making process I don’t think.

I think she is swaying towards the Evil, my main concern is the weight – for a 6ft guy at 80kg it’s probably less of an issue than it is for a lady of 5’9″ and nearly 20kg less. Attempting to hunt out a local dealer with a demo now.

To come across genuine rolled out the right buzz words and names of products bikes/influences like Brooklyn machine works and how they’ve ridden for years. How many videos have you seen of them ride? Maybe 2 or 3? Strange that. With their ‘team’ they shouted about Steve Geall joining, anyone seen him with a sick bike at all? Didn’t take long for sick bikes to be removed from his bio and he no longer follows them. They also had a female rider Tess with them, she had a proto frame but isn’t riding it or for them now? No mention of sick on her bio and doesn’t follow them either. Strange.

A quick look on R&R shows they do have some great racing pedigree though, the bikes tested to the highest levels. The one race they did, propping up the bottom of the field with last & second to last place, by some margin.

There is some delicious irony to their ranting at anyone and everyone who dared even mutter a vanilla comment towards them, or their products (real or CGI) let alone something negative. Absolute bizarre levels of narcissism & some quite frankly, odd behaviour.

Probably the weirdest thing though is the amount of airtime/publicity they were given in the media, for behaving like a couple of pre pubescent teenagers. A great example of how easy it is to gain traction, by being a total charlatan.

They are the true definition of all fart, and no poo.

That Instagram guy, is absolute gold.

I’ll give you a free pro tip on the SJ of that era, as a Spec employee.

It was a total bodge job, to have a 650b bike. It’s a 29er frame modified badly to take 650b wheels. We had to run an external lower headset cup to raise the front end enough to allow for the smaller wheels.

Save your money & cancel the offer.

Increasingly i find myself wondering “Should I have actually bought a large T-130”

I think it’s fair to say, yes you should, given your height. Given how small they were, an XL wouldn’t exactly been considered roomy at 6ft.

[sick]basically you’re a **** **** ******* *** **** ******, you should be grateful, we’re living the dream dude, printing t-shirts, sticking it to the industry, we’re awesome. Buy our sh*t. PS, we can’t ride for toffee[/sick]

Yes some t shirts saying the bike industry is shit and some self loving post that seem to support the opinion of others that the folks who frequent STW are all dickheads and aren’t their target customers anyway.

Basically this. They are actually a couple of foul mouthed nobheads, with some very odd narcissistic personality traits.

The irony is amazing – endless ranting & tirades of abuse, yet they get all shirty as soon as anything even remotely negative towards them.

Big mouths, small platform. I’m amazed people even consider buying a t-shirt, let alone a bike off them. They are hardly ground breaking leaders of change.

That was my concern when I saw them on Kickstarter.
A hipster brand coming out of no where with an ill detailed Kickstarter campaign that failed to secure funding. They then come out with a more complex frame concept (those full susers) and graduated to value Ti pinion frames. Seems a confused brand with no real direction or pedigree.
I do like the geometries and effort, but I feel they need to start simple, i.e. their initial steel HT frame offerings, before diversifying

That would be my concern. Every week there is a new latest and greatest, constantly revising designs, ideas, features, specifications etc. The full suspension bike idea seems to have been ditched already, now a load more HT designs. It’s all a bit Dory from Finding Nemo.

It just gives the impression of endlessly winging it, which may be their exact plan. But winging it only gets you so far before it all goes wrong.

But hey, what do I know, I work for one of the industry heavyweights, exactly not what they want to be, or achieve.

I would agree with this, but then they’d dismiss me as an internet hater who’s just too square to understand their rad-ness.

And this is the crux of it all – the subtle irony of hating on what they feel a hater is. Small platform, loud voice.

Neanderthal alpha male BS.

Let me guess, went racing, got smoked, now butthurt?

No different from the girls jean wearing faux BMX’ers braying at each other as to who can boost a jump higher.

This is the bit that gets me, the are many ways to be a better rider other than improving some meaningless data on a screen

Takes nothing else into account. Everyone knows if you have a bunch of mates, going racing and beating them all gives you top bragging rights.

But does bit of data on a screen really reward the training, stressing, taking race lines rather than fun lines, the expense, having to ride boring stuff because it’s part of the course?

Do you honestly think 90% of the people who enter the local/regional races you mention train specifically for those events? Judging by the people who do go, I doubt it.

Maybe my view of the MTB public is skewed because I come from a BMX background, but it is soooo tragic when you see the typical enduro warrior at the likes of swinley, GoPro, giant Sat-Nav, riding horrifically dirty because they’re pedalling hard in all the wrong places and subsequently braking hard in all the wrong places because riding is only about being fast, being stressed, fighting the bike, just so you can “improve” your data on a screen. It’s not just me who has this view either, when my other BMX mates come out too, the consensus is it looks pretty tragic. Just chill.

If you’re doing stereotypes, is it as tragic as your typical wannabe BMX’er riding an MTB in his sisters skinny jeans, who can’t ride up any hill because he’s too busy trying to be cool and non conformist, but can’t pedal a bike more than a hundred metres without wanting to hurl up a lung?

Just as tragic.

I maybe get worked up about it because the best rides are the ones with sound people, relaxing, pushing each other, laughs and a general feeling of positivity and smiles, just bums me out people missing out because of meaningless nonsense.

What’s meaningless nonsense to you, is fun and interesting to someone else. And vice versa.

But it’s not a bike, it’s (bad) marketing guff about a concept at this stage.

You do realise those bunny hop videos i posted were in slow motion yeah?

It wasn’t a reference to the speed…