Yeah, very honest and down to earth article.
Said what loads of us think and usually get shouted down for:

Carbon wheels?….no thanks, not strong enough for racing at the top level.

Plus sized tyres?….again no thanks, the sidewalls would need so much reinforcing to take EWS type abuse they’d end up weighing close to 2 kgs per tyre (his words not mine!).

I had a very pleasant weekend exploring Brechfa forest recently, didn’t do the trail centre part, just went off into the woods and looked for off-piste stuff….and there was loads!

It was like being 12 again and taking my first MTB into the local woods, only Brechfa is massive….viewed on a fold out ordnance survey map it could cover several of the nearby towns and villages, too much to do in one weekend but I’ll be back, highly recommended.

Nice area too, loads of places to stay and eat.

DHR2 is a good rear tyre but can get stuck in proper mud.

Magic Marys roll well and make a good tyre front or rear, my HT currently has them at both ends….i have a Spesh Hillbilly too which is cheap but grips well, the middle knobs are slightly more shallow than a Mary which works well on the back.
I’ve also got a Geax Datura which is in the same vein, not sure if they’re still made as Vittoria took over, I got one for peanuts from On-One and it works really well, again not as aggressive as a Swampthing but still a widely spaced Moto style mud tyre….well worth £15 if you can find one.

Haven’t used Shortys yet, the £40 price tag puts me off when I can get Marys for £25 and Hillbillys for £30.

just curious – but why would anyone buy a bike without trying it first just because of it’s spec list?

I do it all the time: decide what kind of bike I want (xc, all mountain, DH etc) look at the geometry to see if it’s what I like or have had before, decide if I can afford it….then look at the spec, this is often the deciding factor and the direct sale brands do this better than most.

A Spesh with stock Specialized parts and in-house wheels or a YT with branded essentially after-market upgraded parts for the same price?….no contest, it also helps that companies like Canyon, YT, Rose, Radon etc are universally well received by the mags.

It’s a bike, you’re not buying a house, it’s easy.

Cyclistm, oooh that’s interesting…..which of the favourites did under perform?!

Cheater got caught….good.

There is no good reason to have a bike built like this AND stored in a contender’s pits….hidden motor too, doesn’t look good, it fact it looks like she cheated or was trying to cheat at some point in the race.

A coach or training partner would use a moped or just buy an E-bike rather than go to the time, effort and expense of concealing a motor!

This is something that has been rumored in cycling for some years now, makes you wonder about all other bike changes we’ve seen in major races over the past few years!?….if a 19yr old Belgian Cyclo-Cross rider is involved then how many of the big riders and teams have trialled this tech!?

Cycling seems to want to shoot itself in the foot at every twist and turn, riding a motorised bike is the lowest form of cheating, for me it’s worse than doping.

Glad she got caught, hope the UCI start tearing bikes apart at the big races this year.

Magic Mary front and rear…if you want less drag put a Minion DHR2 on the back instead.

It’s interesting reading this and seeing how other people judge/rate bikes and how/whether cost plays a role.

Personally I set a price limit before going shopping, if I am limited to £1500 bikes then that’s what I look for….if funds allow me to look at 3-4k bikes then I’ll go there instead….what I look for is how good the bike is at fulfilling its brief….for example if it has a slack head angle and 160mm forks I want it to be good at going downhill, if it isn’t I’ll move on….if I look at a short travel XC machine I’ll want it to climb like a demon and weigh bugger all, if it’s a lump to ride and tries to wheelie me of the back going uphill then I’ll move on….basically I want the best in a particular price point….i’m not fussed at comparing a 2k trail bike to an 8k trail bike because essentially that comparison will never occur for me.

If I’m looking at 2k bikes it means I don’t have an 8k budget to blow on a bike….conversely if I’m entertaining the idea of an 8k Superbike I’m probably not fussed as to what 2k bargains are out there right now….for me they’re two completely different things.

My current FS is nothing special (Giant) but for the first time in years I had the money to buy frame only and build it up as I wanted, I’ve had great fun (and wasted loads of money) trying Rockshox suspension first only to sell it all and replace with X-Fusion stuff….i’ve lovingly sourced the last of the awesome SLX double and bash chainsets….i’ve bought carbon bars, had wheels made up from my choice of component parts etc…..it would undoubtedly have been cheaper to throw 3k at a Canyon or YT and have it dripping in Mavic, Sram XX etc but it wouldn’t have been mine and it wouldn’t have been half as much fun.

A lot of the time there is no rhyme or reason behind the choices we make regarding our hobbies, they are often decisions made with the heart rather than the head….as someone above said, sometimes just stems, bars and grips can ruin a bike for someone….i’d need to see Kesteven’s two Reigns back to back and see if there are any ergonomic features that led to him rating it worse the second time round!?

Got both Rockshox and X-Fusion on my two bikes, as with most suspension it’s very subjective and down to personal feel.
Unless a product has a glaring fault then these days pretty much everything on the market is good….RS Revs, Fox-34, Marzocchi 350, Manitou Mattoc, Pike etc….

I prefer X-Fusion’s stuff at the moment, the build quality is better than both Fox and RS which both feel a little toy-like after comparing them to my Sweep, the X-Fusion internal cartridge is an all metal build unlike the plastic stuff found in other forks and the feel is more plush, using less air pressure but still resistant to bottoming out….it’s a nice trick and not something RS seem to have mastered yet….of course being subjective not everyone will like that feel, some would think it’s riding too far into it’s travel etc…if you’re going to put a Fox or RS shock with it then it could be a problem (i initially ran an RS Monarch with my X-Fusion forks and it wasn’t a great pairing) but once I went all-in with X-Fusion and fitted one of their shocks the bike worked just how I wanted it to.

I like it, it’s getting on to 2 years old later this year so will probably upgrade to the new Roughcut damper cartridge that apparently drops straight in but I have no qualms about recommending X-Fusion’s standard stuff to other MTBers.

Hell no!

As above, replace with steel. My steel freehub from SS has lasted years without playing up.

I had a 45650b, it’s a steamroller of a machine. I ran 150mm Revs and with the bigger wheels and slack angles it made easy work of BPW, Antur Stiniog etc….initially loved it, however after a few months it got boring and I went back to a 26inch Ragley….for me HTs are all about small wheels and fast handling, others disagree and there are loads of 29er HT fans to state the case but for me they don’t feel right.

I’d happily recommend to someone else however as it was brutally effective at what it did, just didn’t float my boat.

How did u find the revelations? I’m a bit unsure if I need the 150mm travel as last bike only had 120mm.. Plus the budget is restricting fork choice! Looking at the X fusion streat fork, just can’t decide on colour!

Revs are still good forks although at 150mm you may be better off with wider diameter stanchions, I run Revelations at 140mm on my HT and they feel as stiff as the 34mm legs on my X-Fusion Sweeps (which are at 160mm) so it’s not a direct comparison but you get the idea….if funds allow then go for a Fox-34, Fox-36, X-Fusion 34mm series, Pikes etc….if not then just enjoy the Revs, they’ll help manage overall weight with a build too, I think my 140mm ones are less than 1700 grams new and even less now I’ve lopped off a chunk of the steerer tube.

As above from Nobeer, I’d get a HT.

There are some awesome nu-skool geometry ones about at the moment….Stanton, the new Ragleys, PP Shan etc….spend the money on the best fork you can buy, fit awesome brakes and then don’t worry so much about how little you sometimes get to ride. My Ragley handled Antur brilliantly, no doubt I’m faster on my Trance but I don’t ride FS much so i tend to keep it for dry days, the HT is a brilliant workhorse in between.

Didn’t someone in this country win a regional level DH or Enduro race on a HT recently?….buy wisely and the rear end of a HT these days can be as stiff or flexy as you desire.

I’d go PP Shan frame, Fox-36 forks, XT drivetrain and brakes, custom wheel build using something proven like Flow-EX rims etc, then just invert the forks for the sake of keeping the oil near the seals when you get a posting and go away for months….come home, fit forks and rip the trails again on a bike that will likely need bugger all maintenance.

Cheers, with 180-190mm of rear travel (doesn’t the new Intense have something like 240mm!?) they’ll be responsive that’s for sure!
Interesting stuff, all sports need free thinkers/mavericks like Chris Porter, some of his ideas haven’t caught on but I think this one will….as others on this thread have said it’s got me eyeing up slacksets for my own bike so it’s not just potential Geometron owners that have had their interest piqued by the numbers being offered by Nicolai/Mojo.

My Trance runs the SX version numbers of 160mm/140mm front/rear and has a head angle of 66 degrees, intrigued as to what taking it out to 64 degrees would do….little winter project I reckon!

Loving this thread, I’d already pretty much decided on a Liteville-601 as my next bike but these Geometron’s look fascinating and have thrown a spanner in the works….will the DH-team be running ‘short’ travel rear suspension like the bikes on this thread or going for the usual 200mm+?

Is the idea of Jack Reading going for stiffer suspension based on the theory that the geometry of said bike can do the job meaning less reliance on compliant suspension?….or is he simply aping Aaron Gwin’s setup in the hope something will stick and it’ll work for him?…honest answer please!

I bought a frame only trance early last year, initially I ran it with 140mm Revs as that’s what I had lying around….great trail bike that can ‘enduro’ if you want, 140mm of travel with the quality DW/maestro rear suspension actually feels like a lot more.

Over time I got curious about the SX model and the 160mm forks too….so I bought some X-Fusion ones that were going cheap on Wiggle, it takes the head angle out to 66 degrees and makes it far more aggressive…to the point I’m postponing buying a planned DH rig this year until something goes drastically wrong with the trance in this guise…and then I may just get a 160mm Lyrik on the front instead, the frame really is that good…very light and doesn’t appear to be weak as a result….i’m happy riding it either way, I suspect with a 160mm front end it would be too much like what you sold….get the standard 140mm version, the Revelation fork is still a decent bit of kit that was making the Dirt-100 up until very recently, at 150mm it can get noodly but at 140mm it’s fine for trail use….in fact I have one in my Ragley HT and it handled Antur superbly a few months ago.

but the cranks look like they’re way too far back.

That was my first thought, looks like the pedals are behind the rider canting you forward into an almost time-trial roadie position!?….i love the original 27.5 Geometron but this one just looks weird and looks like I’d end up in a precarious position when descending.
All this is said having never ridden one of course so disregard at your pleasure.

quite common for decent restaurants nowadays to talk about the provenance of their meat – the breed, how and where it was raised, and why.

That’s because they’re pandering to the middle class tits eating said meal who want to feel like some kind of connoisseur and mildly superior for eating in the aforementioned establishment.

For what it’s worth I’m so cool I won’t eat meat when in a restaurant as the chef never cooks it as well as I do at home.

Another here who is yet to be convinced. The range on 11speed cassettes has now rectified my main concern with going 1x, I don’t think I’ll fall over sideways on my steepest climbs now but chainline does continue to bug me….all the anti 2x and 3x brigade would bash cross over gears, horrible chainline from smallest front cog to smallest rear cog etc….and yet seem perfectly fine going through chains on 1×11 systems due to horrific chainlines when in either of the largest or smallest cogs….it’s due to stuff like that which has seen me go back to 2×9 for my FS….parts are practically given away on CRC and Wiggle and chainline seems superb….also my SLX chainset comes with a built in bash guard that I’ll miss horribly when I have to abandon 2x drivetrains….finally by keeping two chain rings I’m able to run an 11-32 cassette which is a joy to use with no huge gaps in ratios at the back.

Where is that?

Have tiagra-9 speed on my Allez and 105-10 speed on my Ribble….the 105 is much nicer to use.

im loving my saracen 14x and 16x frames. 26 deffo aint dead for me

They were/are great bikes….nearly cried when my 142 was stolen….nearly, probably dust in my eye or something.

No problem with the short headtube on my medium Trance as I like the aesthetics of a low front end anyway, I then just use bars with anything from a 25mm rise upwards to get to where I want to be.

XT every time, good weight, DH power, currently cheap at £50 an end…..probably on balance better than the Saints I have.

A new set of XT brakes for my FS build, some On-One carbon bars for the same and some mk2 Nukeproof Electron pedals (the plastic ones) for the same build…i reckon this is going to be a seriously light ‘all mountain’ bike given that it’s still an Alu frame….can’t wait, just need mechs and shifters.

Neighbours!?…lol, how frightfully working class.

Had a 45650b with a 150mm fork….i sold it as it was boring.

Now let me explain that comment as it sounds like I’m bashing the bike, I’m not, it was very capable….too capable.
I like HTs to be flickable, I like them to pop off roots, manual over obstacles and make me think about line choice…the 45650b was so good it took a lot of that away…i may as well have been riding a FS….which is a massive compliment I suppose!

It rode great, climbed well, descended like a DH bike and was all day comfortable….price is unbeatable too, in raw they’re stunning…i had it all 3 months before breaking it down and selling it off to buy a 26er Ragley….which behaves how I like HTs to ride.

I’d get one if outright speed is your goal, it really is a steamroller of a bike and makes a tricky trail ridiculously easy to ride…if however you want fun, but more involvement from your HT then chose something else.
Enjoy either way!

Mary front. DHR2 rear saw me reet up until things got biblical here in Wales, now on Marys front and back and sometimes still look at the Dirty Dan sat in the garage for a front through winter…DH only mind, you’d not want to pedal one of those buggers!

Looks long and low, I like it, 150mm out back with a 160mm fork sounds about perfect for racing, uplift days etc.
Spoiled for choice now….Codeine, Aeris, Airdrop, Empire, Rocket etc….almost wish I hadn’t bought that Trance earlier this year!

MMs front and back, Schwalbe seem to have pulled off the trick of making a winter tyre than actually rolls well too. I love them and the fact they’re cheaper than Maxxis Shortys and Continental Der Barons is an added bonus for me.

I bought these in RCT3 version when Wiggle were panic flogging all their 26 inch stuff, great fork. Only thing I did was sent it away to TFtuned to have the pushloc nonsense taken away and replaced with a manual compression dial.

If I hadn’t just moved house you’d have had a definite customer in me….the setup day at BPW really appeals and not just for the demo of a Geometron, I reckon it’d be an invaluable day with regards bike fit, suspension setup etc and most people would come away understanding a lot more about their bike whether they then bought a Geometron or not.

Hopefully I’ll have some spare pennies in 2016 at some point, how much is the frame set again?

Tom, couldn’t say about Michelins but I’m intrigued by their mud tyre….all the reviews say there’s nothing better but it is draggy as hell on the flat, very much a DH mud tyre if that makes sense….not really for trail use.

Their Magi-x compound is supposed to be as good as Maxxis’s 42a/supertacky stuff so I’ll be trying their tamer tread patterns out next time I see them in a CRC sale.

What ‘wrecker’ said, tried both but bought the Trance, if I raced Enduro more than a handful of times a year I might have bought the Reign but realistically for 90% of my riding the Trance with 160mm forks covers all bases.

What size wheels?

26 inch Marys are cheap, I run a 2.35 on the front…..out back it’s a 2.3 Minion DHR2….been great so far this winter although not for proper off piste slop obviously.

In sloppy situations I’ll go for a Dirty Dan up front and put the Mary out back.

I have no idea if they work with glasses but I’ve always just used my dirt bike goggles on DH stuff, they’re by Dragon and price anywhere from £30 – £150 and seem unbreakable.

Yep, that Last looks great, could be my first 29er….will go nicely with the 26 inch Ragley Piglet….a fine selection of HTs!

I have a similar pic to Turnerguy on my old phone, mate turns up at mine on a nice day at the weekend in his bike….’fancy a blast and then we’ll go for a pint?’…..sounded good so off we went, just jeans, trainers and t-shirts….went hammering down a long steep road we’d ridden loads that has a sharp right at the bottom.
Turned into that right bend, mate ahead made it through….i didn’t despite having ridden it loads of times….diesel on the road?…oil?….who knows?!….ended up on my side attached to the bike sliding along the road, at some point my clothing must’ve snagged and I went onto my back using the rear and top of my head as a brake against the tarmac….the mess it made of my scalp wasn’t pretty…..thankfully it was all superficial, no fractured skull, no neck injury etc….but I clipper my hair short and scared children for the next few weeks until things healed….it also hurt quite a bit!

Point is you never know when the surface is going to change and spit you on your arse, I always wear a helmet on the road now for that reason alone….i know it won’t protect my feeble body from being crushed by an HGV, I know it won’t stop a car wheel from crushing my cranium…..but to be honest if you’ve ended up in one of those situations you’ve been the instigator of your own stupidity. I wear the helmet for my cock ups, not the actions of others I have no control over.

My favorite riding is uplift days, had a fantastic 2015 at FoD, BPW, BMCC, Antur Stiniog etc….i wouldn’t ride those runs with half the commitment i usually do if my dome was uncovered, the thought of smashing down onto the rocks at Antur without a helmet terrifies me….it would be a boring day as I tip toed down the runs feathering the brakes and not getting near my limits purely in order to make some kind of statement about not wearing a lid!

Each to their own, I go without a helmet plenty of times however, usually high summer when I want some sun on my face/head and go for a pootle with the dogs at barely walking speed through the local woods….before anyone says it, yes I know freak accidents happen and I could still fall and fracture my skull at nodding pace but it’s about your own personal assessment of risk.
When I go for a road ride I’m actively trying to maintain a high average speed, I’m looking to belt downhill and see what numbers come up on the computer….at an uplift day I’m trying to get faster ready for my next pitiful attempt at racing….when I’m pulling the tail of the tiger like that it seems daft not to protect my faculties.

I’ve come off my bike loads over the years, I know it hurts and over rough ground it can become an inherently unstable activity….i’ve never in my 38yrs shut my hand in a car door, fallen over in the shower, fallen down stairs or any of the other accidents some people have suggested wearing protective gear for…in my experience they’re low risk so no helmet for me, coming off my bike however happens several times a year when I’m trying something new or pushing on…so for me the risk is considerably higher.

Can’t say I blame the land owners, I wouldn’t want the crazy amount of MTBers that appear in Peaslake at the weekend cycling through my garden either….i know it’s massive and ‘garden’ is a vast understatement but the principle stands.