Thanks for the feedback all, will give it a go as a complete bike and if I have no joy I’ll look at splitting it :)

And that’s the kicker – How long are you prepared to wait to get that figure?
If its a quick sell you’re after then its got to be sold cheaper than the alternatives, and that involves lowering expectations…

Ideally I’d like it gone by mid-february. I hear everyone’s call on how my price may be over-inflated, I’ve seen the other threads of a similar kind but I think the price I’m after is not only reasonable but a bloody good deal given the spec and condition. If the 26″ thing puts folks off the Mojo is one of the most popular 650b conversion bikes out there, so if someone needed 650b wheels it could take them :)

I’ve had a look around at similar bikes of a similar age reckon the figure I have in mind is ball park for what I can realistically get for it. I know the 26″ market is dying and prices are plummeting, so I think the figure I have in mind is pretty reasonable for a top spec bike in great condition :)

a ‘whats it worth’ thread in the main forum is a good way to garner interest.

oh wait…

It isn’t a what’s it worth thread, I’m just asking how would be best to sell it. I’ve a pretty good idea of how much it’s worth, just contemplating what the best way is to move it on to a new home :)

Thanks for the replies all, sound advice! Think I’ll give it a week or so as complete and if it doesn’t go I’ll probably split it.

Paulo6624, I’ll drop you an email with details, price and pics :)

It’s a medium 2011 HD140, brand new Reverb and Fox Factory 34, six month old XTR 1×10 groupset and brakes.

pretty sure that’s called new cables*. Xt and xtr are pretty similar.

*or hyperbole

Pretty sure with 4 years experience of several 10spd xt shifters I know how they feel with new cables… :roll: Have you even tried both? I’ve just put xtr shifters on both bikes and they feel way better than the Xt’s ever did, much snappier shifting, better lever feel and smoother too. Same mechs as used with the old xt shifters as well. Normally I would agree with you, my new xtr brakes feel identical to my xt’s on my second bike and the cassettes feel pretty damn similar too, but the shifters are just another level up, they’re actually that good and several others I know have gone to xtr shifters and agreed with me.

Go for Xtr. I recently upgraded my xt shifter to an xtr one and the difference is night and day. not sure how much better it is than a Saint shifter, but tbh for the minimal cost difference I’d say it’s well worth the extra.

Either a 5010c or depending how the switch infinity holds up a Yeti SB5c. Having two mtbs is taking a lot of work and money to keep them sweet so awfully tempted to sell both and get something new.

Yeah the HD140 is actually about 132mm in travel terms, not that it’s really ever bothered me tbh. It’s certainly a great looking bike, and hopefully they’ve gone a lot longer on the geometry. The main complaint I have with my HD is the super short top tube.

Was fine when I rode it just over a week ago.

Nant yr Arian’s “Leg Burner” climb will be awful for an 8 year old. It’s in all routes there.

It’s easy enough to miss out though, just keep away from moorlands and zorro and it’s pretty flat with only a short climb from the bottom of italian job before heading out towards hippity hop, diggers end etc before a final climb upto drunken druid and high as a kite. I’d say Nant would be more suitable for than the Mach trails, hippity hop is a great learner trail that is so much fun for all abilities. The faster you get the more fun it is though, I’m still trying to crack the minute mark on Strava! :lol:

As Njee says 1x seems to be a very uk thing, but the fact is some people just aren’t fit enough for 1x. Yes it has its advantages outside of gear range but if it isn’t for you, it isn’t for you. I see people running 26t chainrings and I think why the hell don’t you just put dual ring on it? I think Shimano are trying to say that in a way, if you don’t have the legs for 1x, don’t use it rather than Sram trying to sell the 1x thing to everyman and his dog.

It’s not that universal actually, single ring is prolific certainly, but plenty are just using 11-36 cassettes.

This will be hugely popular I’m sure, I’m not convinced you’ll get people with XX1 selling up and moving over, but I’m not seeing it as “a lanslide victory for SRAM”.

Absolutely this. I’ve never been a fan of Sram shifting, it feels pretty cheap compared to Shimano imo, even the few XX1 groups I’ve tried, while the range is great, it felt no better than my XT setup, if not slightly more vague. Comes down to preference I guess, I’d happily give up a bit of range for a shift feel I’m happy with, plus as I’m currently running a 34-11/36 setup any extra range is good in my book!

could you not just use your existing 10 speed crank and just buy 11 speed cassette, derailer, chain and shifter?

Of course you could. XTR is going to be expensive, whether it’s 11 speed, 10 speed 7 speed… you get the idea. It will trickle down soon.

What’s bodgy about it? Have you used it?

I personally haven’t but a few folks at the LBS have been using the Hope adapters and while shifting is acceptable they say they a)miss the 17t cog and b) shifting in the lower cogs can be a little less smooth on some bike/mech set ups. It’s a good option no doubt, but given the choice I’d rather have something designed for the purpose. Current mechs were never designed for 40/42t cassettes, makes me wonder of the long term effects it could have on them. It’s all well if it works for a few months but in a years time if the mechs scrap it’s not great imo. As I personally I haven’t tried, but I’m kinda sceptical for now.

If Shimano had released XT or SLX 11 soeed first I doubt any of us would be having this conversation though!

Am I the only one who is actually looking forward to trying this out? Sure you can bodge a 10 speed set up to have the same or greater range, but it’s just that, a bodge. This will trickle down to xt/slx within the next year, and if the pricing is similar to what it is now it will be a bargain at those levels. Keeps the standard freehub which is nice and I personally don’t think the chainset looks all that bad, pretty sure people said the same about the last gen xtr cranks when they were launched…

Custom Santa Cruz 5010c. Custom decals, angleset, a burly fork, full xtr and crossmax enduros 8) Not gonna be til late summer time but I can’t wait! Replacing my slightly too small Mojo HD140, be nice to have a new FS having bought 3 HT frames since I’ve had the HD! :lol:

Afaik it’s all open, will be there myself tomorrow :)

Think mine will be a Santa Cruz Solo. I love my Mojo HD140, it’s a brilliant bike to ride, but it’s a little small and sometimes its a pain to live with, nothing major just a few little niggles that my perfect bike wouldn’t have. Having ridden the Solo recently I can’t think of anything wrong with it, later in the year I will have one!

It can get a little hot but given how bloody comfy it is I really don’t care. Best helmet I’ve ever owned!

a few mm mud clearance with the fitted tyres on the intense apparently, would be a worry for the UK

Exactly! I think a lot of riders are scared of longer chainstays but there are quite a few benefits, including more mud clearance, it being easier to balance the bike when drifting and more stability at high speed. Short chainstays are cool too but not if you can only use the bike in dry weather!

Can still get short chainstays and good clearance, the biggest problem that makes chainstays longer is the front mech, which needs adequate clearance with beefy tyres. One of the reasons 1x makes sense for mountain bikes. Couple short chainstays with a longer front centre and the bike will just as stable but feel a little more agile.

I’m not trying to say the customer service is better than the mainstream brands, just it’s not bad either.

Agree, again, my point was to counter folk saying “I buy SC because the warranty is totes amazeballs” (I may be paraphrasing).[/quote]

I just want one because it rode incredibly! :lol: Add in the fact when I started MTB 10 years ago I always wanted a Santa Cruz, for no other reason than they looked cool. I think practically they’re a great purchase too, when compared to their competitors, the lifetime warranty on the bearings and decent mud clearance is a huge thing in the UK. As a slight side note I love how Trek’s warranty basically says we cover our bikes for life… except this model, that model, ohh yeah and that one… ohhh nearly forgot that one too… and our swingarms are only covered for so many years as well, but not on this model, that’s different :lol:

they were made in the USA (that still meant something in the late nineties)

Really? Plenty of stuff was made in the US in the late 90s, I’d say that holds more cache now, as hardly anything is! All Blur frames used to come with a little booklet on the shock saying who made the frame, complete with their signature and a little caricature, impressive touch I must say.[/quote]

Rocky Mountain used to do similar, the chap that built the frame signed it, likewise the wheels were signed as well. Just a small detail but makes it a little more personal.

I’m not trying to say the customer service is better than the mainstream brands, just it’s not bad either.

It’s a minimal cost as has been said, around the £40 mark and it will make a big difference to how any bike rides

£40 on top of a service, which you’d not otherwise need on a brand new shock… So more like £150. But yes, accept that’s not the sole preserve of boutique brands.[/quote]

Agreed, doing it to a new shock is silly, but that wasn’t my point –

In my experience it’s best to ride the bike until it needs a shock service, figure out where it needs improving and get it tuned.

The solo was also great bike but the I needed more bb clearance and travel. I wasn’t convinced that the Solo would tackle Alpine riding as confidently as the Bronson. UK riding I think it would be superb.

The Solo I think is a better bike for the UK than the Bronson. It can take serious abuse, you just have to look at Josh Bryceland racing one in the EWS last season and the Blur TR video to see the shorter travel bikes can take a helluva pounding. I think for mere-mortals in an alpine environment the extra travel of the Bronson would be a help but in the UK I don’t think you need any more bike than the Solo.

SC bikes are also so easy to service, that’s why I think it’s worth paying that extra.

Which is lucky, because various models have had serious problems with eating linkages and pivots!

I don’t buy into the ’boutique’ brand thing being better. You’re paying for exclusivity and not benefiting from economies of scale. Nothing wrong with that, but that’s about the size of it!

The bike I’ve had most problems with was a Titus (from when they were a proper standalone brand, rather than part of P-X). It kept snapping linkages, in the end it went back to the US, who refused to accept any problems with it, charged me for a new swingarm and took 3 months to return it. Perhaps unsurprising they then went out of business!

Things like ‘easy to service’ are massively clutching at straws, and their warranty is less good (on paper and in real life IME) than many of the mainstream brands. Needing a shock tune out of the box is proper shit IMO, if there’s unanimous agreement on that, why don’t they change the stock setup?

Sorry, that’s probably heresy on here![/quote]

I think your experience of one “boutique” brand is pretty narrow minded, just because one is like that doesn’t mean the rest are. Sure some of the smaller brands simply don’t have the warranty of other brands, Titus and Evil spring to mind instantly, but they are tiny companies and can you fault them for being a small company and not being able to compete with Specialized or Trek who have hundreds of people doing warranty work? Some of the “Boutique” US brands have a great rep for Warranty, Santa Cruz even with the known carbon issues on old Blur’s and Tallboy’s, Ibis have a great rep for warranty, even outside the terms of the warranty, folks getting new frames even though they aren’t the original owners, Yeti have great warranty too and so on.

In the case of Santa Cruz, problems with the pivot points cracking has pretty much been resolved with the newer bikes (Solo, Bronson etc) and you can’t argue with a 5 year defect warranty, lifetime crash replacement and lifetime bearing warranty either. The bikes look incredibly easy to work on and are thoroughly though out, the threaded BB and grease ports for example are sensible choices and in comparison to Mojo, which needs new bearings/linkages every 12/18 months at £120 odd a pop, over the course of 5 years a Santa Cruz would save me £600, which is a lot of cash.

I’d have to agree that many bikes would require a shock tune to get the best out of the bike, sure you might get lucky with a bike that’s sweet spot is right for you, but suspension setup is so personal you simply can’t cater for everyone. in my experience it’s best to ride the bike until it needs a shock service, figure out where it needs improving and get it tuned. It’s a minimal cost as has been said, around the £40 mark and it will make a big difference to how any bike rides. My Mojo HD felt so much better once it had been tuned to my weight and riding style.

Very possible that neither ring size suits the VPP.

It’s also possible that Santa Cruz’s VPP is nowhere near as good as the DW Link on the Mojo.[/quote]

They’re comparable in performance, obviously I’ve spent a lot longer on DW-Link than I have on VPP but performance wise they seem similar. They both pedal incredibly well, are very efficient and I think the traction when climbing on both is great as well. DW-link is perhaps a little more supple over-small bumps, but that’s very much down to shock tunes rather than the inherent characteristics of the designs themselves. I don’t think the pedal feedback I felt was not detrimental to performance, it was just a bit of a weird feeling, feeling the chain tighten as you pedalled hard to counter the pedal bob, which you don’t feel on DW-Link, but I have to say it was much better on the Solo and back to back I’d say there were negligible differences performance wise between the two systems. Both are certainly better imo than the likes of FSR and Treks ABP designs.

The full builds are expensive, but you could build one yourself for much less than the RRP of those. There’s also the alloy bike for folks whose wallets don’t stretch as far and if that’s too much there’s the Heckler which has exactly the same geometry. Bikes are expensive these days, no matter which end of the market you look at. In comparison to the rest of the market, Santa Cruz are ball-park frame wise for their carbon frames and the only frames are very competitive.

Interesting that youfelt a lot of pedal feedback on a Bronson with XT 2×10, but the Solo with single ring felt good – lot of bikes are designed around that 32t middle ring – what were the ring sizes on the 2×10 setup? Very possible that neither ring size suits the VPP.

That was certainly my thought, even before I rode the Solo with XX1 I was a bit like, “I’m sure it shouldn’t be this bad” on the Bronson. It had an XT 38/26 chainset so it’s a way off the 32t of a standard middle chainring most bikes are designed around. The Solo had a 34t chainring, which is the same size I run on my Mojo, which I can feel zero pedal feedback from. I felt a tiny bit on the Solo, but no where near as bad as the Bronson, and I had to really concentrate to notice it. I think the chainring size could have a lot to do with what I was feeling, I certainly think both bikes were designed with 1x in mind.

I think what excites me most about the Solo is how versatile it felt and the potential it has. Imo the Bronson’s geometry is on the conservative side of things, the chainstays are a bit longer than the Solo’s which I noticed and the BB a little higher and I don’t think it corners as well as the Solo because of that. Sure the Bronson can plough over the rough stuff as well as most 150mm bikes but I was hoping it would feel livelier than it did. Personally the liveliness of the Solo really appealed to me, you just get on the power and it goes like a rocket, but flexy fork aside I didn’t think it gave up a huge a mount to the Bronson over rough terrain.

I plan to tweak my Solo a little bit, just to make it suit my style a little more. It needs a beefy fork, the 32 is just too weedy for it, so a Pike or 34 is a must. The XL I rode felt a tough stretched, but I loved the extra stability of the longer wheelbase, so like my HD140 I’m gonna stick a Works Components angleset on it so it sits around 66.5 degrees, so I get the cockpit of the Large but the wheelbase of the XL and a steering feel similar to my Ibis. The longer fork will raise the BB slightly, but the headset should bring it back down a touch so it shouldn’t be much higher either. What I should end up with is a bike with a smidge less travel than the Bronson, but more aggressive geometry, how it should be imo! 8)

Obviously it’s going to be a very personal set up but thats the great thing about bikes like the Solo, you can go with a light, XC-orientated build and have a bike that can race XC events as well as be happy on the trails or build it a little burlier and it can handle any enduro events you throw at it.

Will most definitely be purchasing a Solo later in the year and I can’t wait!

[shameless brag] Mine is being built on Thursday, after a month waiting. [/brag][/quote]

Still my Mojo HD to razz around on for a little while ;) It’s a bit on the small side, hence me wanting something new, bought it during my gap year and I’ve grown out of it since, but still a bloody good bike, gonna be sad to see her go!

Having ridden both the Solo and the Bronson, I came away disappointed with the Bronson. It felt sluggish and it took me a while to get the suspension feeling balanced, it had a pike up front and the basic CTD evo shock which could partially explain it, but even putting that to one side it didn’t impress me like I thought it would. It had the SPX built, XT 2×10, reverb, WTB/DT350 wheels and 2.3 High Roller 2’s, so with the carbon frame as well not a cheap bike and yet it weighed over 30lbs with my XT trail pedals which I was not expecting, it was a good 2-3lbs heavier than my Mojo HD140. I weighed the complete wheelset of the Bronson and it was a good 500g heavier than the superstar switch/Stan’s crest wheelset, which in turn are some 2-300g heavier than the wheels on the HD, so just in the wheels alone there was a huge difference between what I ride week in week out. Overall I came away really disappointed, it didn’t have that wow factor I felt with the HD or indeed the Solo. Sure the Bronson would be lighter if I’d specced it up how I’d want it, but even so I wasn’t blown away by it, the weight being one issue, the huge amount of pedal feedback through the VPP under power and the in-balanced suspension put me off it. In a nut shell I was disappointed, perhaps I was expecting too much from it. It wasn’t a bad bike, just not as good as I hoped it would be.

A few weeks after I rode the Bronson I finally got a go on the Solo. Now it’s worth pointing out I rode a large Bronson and an XL Solo, which was a smidge big for me, but it did come fully ENVE’d, XX1/XTR’d up so it was blinged to the hilt, but straight away it felt far, far better than the Bronson, the suspension felt great off the bat, despite not having anything like the time I had to set up the Bronson and it felt like it railed corners with the lower BB and shorter chainstays, yet thanks to the length of the wheelbase on the XL it felt super stable too. If I had two minor niggles it would be the that the 130mm Fox 32 felt a little flexy, not as bad as my personal 150mm 32, but still more than I’d like, especially after riding Pikes and Fox 34’s on other bikes. I also felt the shock could have been a little more progressive as I bottomed it out once or twice, but thats an easy fix with some volume spacers, rather a full re-tune I felt would be needed on the Bronson.

I’ve banged on about the Solo on other websites, but it really did blow me away. It’s exactly the kind of bike I look for, fun, agile yet it has the brawn to really take some abuse and it was fast as fark. Before I rode both I’d have leaned towards the Bronson as my next bike and indeed it was probably the one I’d gone for had I not had a chance to ride either. I’m sure glad I got to ride both though. Will most definitely be purchasing a Solo later in the year and I can’t wait!

The Fox 32 has no right to be any bike with over 120mm travel. I wouldn’t be surprised if Fox lightened up the 34 for 2015 and did the 36 in 650b for the 150mm plus market, bikes like the Solo need a stiff fork and the 32 just isn’t. My 150mm 26″ 32 flexs like hell, back to back on my local trails with a Pike it was all over the place!

As I’ve said I wasn’t overly impressed by the Bronson, I wanted to like it, but it felt pretty dull. Admittedly the one I tried was the Xt build with WTB wheels (which weighed a metric fuckton btw if you’re thinking of a complete build, over 800g heavier than my current 26″ wheelset) but it didn’t feel as special as I thought it would and the Solo just felt like a rocket. I’m planning on building one with a 140mm 34/Pike, works angleset, 2015 Xtr, Reverb, Easton Havoc bar/Stem and Crossmax Enduros, should be under 27lbs and the geometry will be closer to the Bronson, headangle will be close to 66.5 degrees, lower BB and shorter chainstays than the Bronson and the wheelbase should by my calculations come out a hair longer. Just have to start saving now, but I’m hoping to have it done by the Autumn.

Sorry! Solo 27.5. I couldn’t get the front to stick and felt it wanted to slip away really easily. But perhaps that’s my riding.
Tallboy wasn’t tall enough! God knows where they get there sizing from. No XXL.

I’m 6ft 1 and rode the XL Solo and Tallboy, found them both a little on the large side tbh but I’m between the sizes, had the reverbs bottomed out on the seat tube on both bikes. Had no issues with the front washing out on the Solo, trails were slippy but just need a hint more weight over the front end and the grip was great.

Overall I was pretty blown away by the Solo. Coming of a Mojo HD140 that’s a smidge to small for me and has a few little niggles (it eats bearings, no ISCG tabs, no Stealth dropper routing and older 135x12mm back end) the Solo clears all those and I reckon the large with my preferred 55mm Easton Haven stem would be spot on size wise. Low BB and short chainstays felt awesome, very nimble but the extra wheelbase of the XL meant it felt very stable but it was a tad stretched out for my liking, which kind of fits with my pre-ride thoughts that a large Solo with a works components angleset would be the way forward for me at least. Shocking seeing how many bikes came with Fox 32’s, just not burly enough for the bikes they were on, certainly the Solo would benefit from a lowered, 140mm Fox 34 or a 140mm Pike.

The suspension performance felt really good, didn’t have the time to fettle it a huge amount but it felt pretty good off the bat, something I couldn’t say about the Bronson I had a few weeks earlier, which also seemed to give more feedback though the pedals under power, could be because the Bronson had an XT double chainset and the Solo was running XX1, which is perhaps better suited to the suspension kinematics, because the I felt the same on the Tallboy LTc in that I didn’t feel as much chain growth through the pedals when out of the saddle. Perhaps the only niggle I had with the Solo’s suspension performance was it didn’t feel as progressive as my custom tuned RP23 on my HD, but that’s an easy fix with some volume spacer tinkering and a cheap fix too.

Overall my initial feelings of the Bronson were a bit meh, it felt planted enough but it just felt a little dead to me and I just kept thinking I’d be pretty bummed if I’d just put a large chunk of change on one. Tallboy felt good, but not my kinda bike, I’m not fan of 29ers but there was no doubt it was a good, fast bike, just not for me.

The Solo is without doubt one of the best bikes I’ve ever ridden and the other chaps I rode with agreed. It was frighteningly fast, planted, super light and I can’t wait to place my order later in the year!

Surprised by your feelings towards the solo, maybe you prefer a bike to feel plush and flatten the trail

I do – that’s why I was testing FS bikes. If I didn’t want to smooth the trail out I’d ride a hardtail

As I said – the Solo was good, but not sufficiently better than my Tracer2 to warrant spending £1.5k+ changing the frame/forks/wheels over. I think the shock was definitely set up less well than the Bronson – as I said, it felt a lot harsher than the Bronson even with 5″ of travel. And it wasn’t as fast or as fun as the Carbine 29![/quote]

That’s fair enough, but I felt the Bronson was too plush, kinda killed the trail and felt like too much bike for a lot of places, even some of the gnarly trails I have in Mid-Wales, I just prefer to have a livelier bike like the Solo than a bike that just ploughs through everything in it’s path, more fun that way imo but still gives a comfort and control boost over a HT. Perhaps you just want a plush bike to make up for your lack of skills ;)

Surprised by your feelings towards the solo, maybe you prefer a bike to feel plush and flatten the trail, but I ****’ loved the Solo I rode, even though the XL was a little big for me, but certainly rideable. The Solo is an insanely fast bike, it pedals super well and has enough travel and stiffness to get you out of trouble, if anything the only thing I felt could be improved was a tough more progression from the rear shock, a simple fix with some messing around with some volume spacers and I’d like a stiffer 140mm fork like a shortened pike or Fox 34. I rode the bronson a few weeks back and felt pretty meh about it, the Solo blew me away and on a bike I’ve never ridden before to match my PB’s or get damn near to them on strava is damn impressive. I will definitely be ordering a Solo later in the year. It’s not a plough bike for sure, but then thats not what its meant to be.

I think along with 3D printed parts, electronics are going to be big for drivetrain and suspension. 3D printers are going to be everywhere in a couple of years and there are so many applications in the cycle industry that I can see the majority of parts being 3D printed within the next 5 years.

No worries about it going off-topic chaps, threads like this usually do! :) Thanks all for your participation, the response has been way beyond my expectations!

Done. Good luck with it and hope you’re not too duffed up in Aber from the weather of late!

It has been a little rough I must admit! My house this year was struck by a tree, luckily minimal damage caused. Seafront was a right state though!

Done, but glad you added the extra info as seems very light for a dissertation?

There’s plenty more to do once I’ve gathered all the demographic data, plenty to expand upon with more than 75 different print, online and video adverts to analyse it should shape up nicely :)

Aber’s great, not a huge amount to do in the town, but plenty of pubs and great riding in the area and decent access to other trails as well, Nant Y Arian, Mach Trails, CYB and Penmachno are all within easy reach. I’ve certainly enjoyed my time there, university’s standards of teaching are falling though and the admin and management side of them are hopeless.