Thanks for the write up, been looking at this for years.

Anyone want to run a bike shop for three weeks next summer??

You will be driving past a lot of fantasic natual riding but a tour of the trail centres is a good way of packing a lot of great riding into a week, whatever anyone says.

Day 1 – Kirroughtree
Day 2 – Dalbeatte + Mabie Double
Day 3 – Innerleithen (Red + DH tracks)
Day 4 – Glentress
Day 5 – Drive + Laggan
Day 6 – Fort William
Day 7 – Rest, insert somewhere in the middle on the day with the worst forecast.

If you make a chicken line try to make it slower than the feature line, otherwise people will just default to the chicken route and the feature will become overgrown/fall down.

If you let one form naturally it will most likely be a short cut

I think they are discounting the parts at the moment when fitted with a service.

Totally worth it, it’s a fantastic damper. My new 34s have been faultless!

We use pinkbike for advertising shop stuff, it has been amazing for helping us reach people that otherwise would’t have known we existed.

In our defence we only use it for offers and odd parts we are trying to clear very cheap, rather than just the blanket listing of new frames.

You are right though, being able to filter out/in trade sellers would be a useful tick box.

First drop September – and currently on schedule I think..

We have one last large Teal Smuggler for the year – the most sought after size/colour!

Another shop cancelled an order so we snapped it up.

Give us a shout if you want to know anything – Pedals Bike Care[/url]

The Smuggler can be built quite light if you try :D

Smuggler Lefty

They are very good bikes, but will carry a 1lb weight penalty over a ‘light’ alu frame, and up to 2.5lb over a super light carbon (like the Yeti ASRc)

BUT they have a very steep seat angle, pedal well, and cover ground very quickly.

Having owned both a Phantom and a Smuggler the Smuggler feels a bit lighter up the hills whereas the Phantom is real stiff little big wheeled BMX rocket.

My Smuggler weighs 29.8lbs inc Vaults and a small mudguard, with 5lb worth of tyres (WTB Tough front and rear, at 1140g each 8O )

The only thing that puts me off the Atlas is the slack seat angle.

We like them so much we will be running all three as demo bikes for 2016, C****n Patrol (med), Scout (large), Smuggler (large). + a Banshee Spitfire or Rune + a Yeti of some form, not sure yet. At the moment it’s an SB5c.

The Smuggler failed to podium this weekend, if only I were a few months older to get into masters ;)

As you say the Rides don’t use a self extracting nut, so either buy an ISIS (ohh err) style crank removal tool or a self extracting nut from the turbine etc chainsets.

Go 170 and if you still find it too low bump your Pikes up to 150 then buy some lower rise bars to offset.

They certainly aren’t always perfect – nothing ever is – but it doesn’t stop them being ace bikes. Any frame with a lot of rotation in the shock bush like this is going to be heavy on bushing wear, but the alternative is NO BOTTLE. Which just doesn’t bare thinking about.

For the rattle – if you stick something onto the cables you won’t be able to change them in a hurry. We supply all of our frames/fit our custom builds with 6mm inner insulating hose, just pop it over the cables before the forks go in and done. You can still pull cables through/move your dropper as they are all free running, and if you knacker a cable and need to change in a rainy car park you can. You may or may not be able to catch the start of the tube again, but at least you can still get a cable through easily and the tube will still stop rattle even if the cable is outside it.

We ran out when I built mine, and it’s not too bad just s bit of rattle if the reverb hose slips down.

I don’t think so. Tested the Scout around Tweed valley on all the EWS type stuff etc, it was grand. Smuggler is 115 rear, previous Phantom was 105..

With the right geometry travel is less important, it’s just traditionally you had to have the travel to get the geo, as that was all that was made. Don’t miss it in the slightest, my Smuggler is quicker down anything than my old bikes, without a doubt. Including things like a Spicy, Covert, Socom, Dixon etc..

Wot he said. Except the Smuggler is quickest. Fact.

170 cranks are a must on most of these newer long/low/slack type things. Plus they are a better fit for most S/M/L size people anyway. From my limited understanding of road fit, 175s only give you a good foot position if you are really tall, and that is usually with a steeper seat angle. Chuck in a slacker seat angle and you need an even shorter crank arm still to maintain the correct knee cap plumb line/pedal axle alignment.

That could all be wrong, I am mechanic not a bike fit specialist. Or a road rider really, but I know on my CX bike 170 feels much better, in the same way I much prefer steep seat angles.

Somewhere along the line 175 became standard for new mountain bikes, but I am pretty sure it’s wrong.

We have stock of medium Scouts, medium Patrols, and one large Smuggler. With a bit of a gap between last 2015 delivery and first 2016 we bought up what we could to bridge the gap. Selling pretty fast but still a few left.

Doing a fun enduro this weekend on my Smuggler, should be a good race.

Meant to say – to bring it closer to the Patrol.

Call it ‘Trail+’ vs ‘Enduro’ :D

The Scouts feel great at 150 front as well, the BB is verging on ‘too low’ sometimes so the extra ~5mm from longer forks is nice, then just lower the stack with bars etc to suit.

The slacker head angle on the Patrol makes it feel a bit slower to steer on tamer trails, but has the trade off of bring super stable in the fast stuff.

If you want to be quick as possible down really steep nasty stuff = Patrol.

If you want the most fun jumpy but stable trail rocket = Scout.

If you want the fastest all round trail bike = Smuggler :D

Currently on a Smuggler but got a nice Patrol coming for next season, as I want to be achingly enduro.

Cademuir – they have totally clear felled the two ‘off the top’ not a trace, I couldn’t even figure out where the tighter one came down while standing on what used to be the exit. Everything below the upper fire road is fine, and riding great. Seems like a lot of riding places getting done at the moment, I guess they are all just the same age!

Recommend what you ride…

Transition Smuggler! I heard there was a large teal available somewhere.

HOLY SMUGGLER BATMAN! STOP PRESS!

The medium Smuggler is now reserved BUT –

We have just managed to secure another large Teal. The holy grail, the ever wanted frame, the unobtainium.

Just don’t ask who we had to kill to get it.

So then if anyone wants a Large Teal Smuggler we will have one as of tomorrow. And this really is the last one, we mean it this time. Honest. No Really.

For anyone that hasn’t seen it yet Vital did a slideshow thingy that talks about tuning Monarch air springs with bottomless tokens, which could be useful for anyone needing more progression without forking out £50-£80 for a replacement air can.

Vital Rockshox Guide

But that’s the crux of it – people equate travel with gnarr and so if your bike has 100mm rear you will be a mincer/your bike can’t handle fun stuff. I wouldn’t worry about it, we can be smug in our state of enlightenment.

End of August + 5-6 weeks on a boat lands in the UK sometime between September-November?

2.3 Maxxis will be fine I think. It’s only really tall tyres that have an issue, so the 2.3 Vigilante scuffs (only just, I ran a worn one off my old Phantom for a month) now using a 2.4 Trailboss with plenty of room.

Bungalistic – call us for a chat. Some things just can’t be said in public :D

We don’t know. Given they have mostly sold out world over they will be keen to get them back out ASAP, so I would take a guess at some point between September and November with all the production time + shipping.

Bigjim!

Post that Lomond picture on our FB so we can share it, it’s ace!

We have one more Smuggler frame available for this year, medium Teal. As above, they are great bikes. I am PB’ing left right and centre ;)

We don’t run a Smuggler demo at the moment but are for next year. In store Smuggler, Patrol AND Scout demo bikes for 2016.

If are after our last Smuggler get in touch. Lots of pictures on our facebook:

Pedals Bike Care Facebook

Exactly why we took a punt and ordered a pair. We might loan them with new bikes or just rent them out. It will be very interesting to see what they think of my suspension setup, I like to think I have my bike pretty dialled! Perhaps not.

It looks like a really clean and simple product, very well thought out.

WTB KOM i25 built onto DT 350 or Pro 2 hub set. Everything you want and the easiest rims to tubeless in my experience.

Eeep hello. Yes they have been ace, running 140mm 29 version for a few months now. Better than a Pike, lighter than a Pike, cheaper than a Pike. Three strikes of awesome

Any ‘Tough’ WTB tyre. Vigilante, Trail Boss, etc

September/October/November/December apparently

No use, we only have mediums in Patrols, Scouts and Smugglers.

We even have to give up the one stock large frame we had on order for ages as they over sold customer orders. We are just too honest I guess..

Go up the golfy and check for yourself.

It’s about two weeks

Everyone that works in an Edinburgh shop needs to be on the lookout for a girl getting a Canyon valued, then say it’s worth £250 tops :D

They are ace! I am the gentleman from Pedals that bigjim mentions above.

Had it built up for a few weeks now after doing a frame switch from a Phantom, which was also really good but I am a sucker for a bottle cage. And it’s blue.

It’s very fast and tons of fun. The only place it’s noticeably better than the Phatom is jumping, otherwise very similar. Both Jims & Dougs comments above are pretty accurate, but I think Jim under sells just how good it is in the tight and twisties, I think being an XL the front-centre is about a foot longer than his old bike! At 5ft 9 the medium feels spot on for me.

I don’t have any photo hosting accounts so don’t know how to get a picture up but here is a link to one:

Smuggler!

We have three frames left for the year, until whatever gets released in October arrives. Hopefully a carbon Smuggler, but it won’t be!

Not sure about the tyres, don’t use either so can’t take a guess. Depends how high/rounded they are, as above the clearance is tight over the centre tread not the sides. The Vigilantes in that picture don’t really fit, if they weren’t part worn when I fitted the wheels it would scuff. When it’s time for change I think a Trailboss 2.25 so I can keep the really tough carcass.

Yeti SB5c / Ibis 741

We just built a set on DT 240s for someone who hangs around on here, he should have just had the first rides out on them so might show up say how great they are.. hopefully. I would look like a twazzock if he says they are rubbish.

They LOOKED amazing!

The Diamonds look ace, I had a bounce on some and they seemed lovely, not ridden any yet though. Enjoy!

Pikes are £820 at RRP for 2016.

Fox 34’s are £750, Diamonds are £750, Fox 36 RC2s are £899 and Fox 36 Fit4 (same damper as the new 34’s) are £840.

Neither Banshee, Transition or Yeti exclude racing.

Bikes are meant for racing :D
Those that do exclude I wonder if they count strava..