Variety rig wanted.

psilocybe

Hi all

I'd like some opinions on what bike to purchase, I have a max budget of 2k-2.5k.
I'd like something that will be good at most things really, a jack of all trades so to speak. I live in Notts near Sherwood Pines so it would be used mostly there but will have the odd trip once or twice a month further afield into Derbyshire, Yorkshire and the odd Welsh trip every now and then.

When I was younger (I'm 40) I used to like play bikes rather than XC race rigs but now I feel I need something halfway between the two.

I keep reading people liking the Commencal Meta 55.1 etc but aint sure if I would be better off with the Meta 666 instead, whats the weight differences like? Also the Orange Five seems ok. Are there any other choices that people would suggest to go with?

cheerz
steve

James_F

http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=86098&utm_source=froogle&utm_medium=froogle&utm_campaign=froogle


Marin Mount Vision, Trek Fuel EX9. You could get some great sale bikes in last price range as well from a year or two ago.

badblood

what about one of these?

supersonic

That Bulmers pear cider is lovely.

Bike looks nice too!

grantway

I would say go for a AM rig if you like fast and steep descents.
But dont ignore a 5.5 Trail bike.

If you buy an AM rig personaly i would make sure you have adjustable travel
as you dont want to go uphill at 160mm

I ride a Orange 5 AM this is fab for me, and only 29lbs which is an Orange 5
with a few different bits n pieces

Must say the new Trek Fuel EX9 comes in at avery good price, But
the Lyric's forks still need to prove themselves.

Some people may say the AM bikes going to be an over kill has the 160mm travel
forks are an extra 1lbs in weight.

Best thing is to try has many test bikes as you can on your
type of trails, and then make your mind up and use the magazines
only for the info

BlackSpur

Ibis Mojo SL build from Stif would be VERY nice, you can build it up as light/heavy as you want it.

psilocybe

Thx so far. After just sitting on a Marin Attack Trail tonight I felt at home (didnt get a chance to ride it though), the orange colour put me off a little though. I also sat on an Orange Five AM which seemed ok but not as nice as the Marin. I think the Ibis and Yeti will prolly take me over my budget unless the price of the parts are saved on. I dont like the look of the Trek at all unfortunately.

So far its the Marin thief magnet or Orange 5 Pro/AM I think.

badblood

you should be able to squeeze the yeti build I have in for £2500 if you shop around or make friends with your local Yeti dealer

Anonymous

Why did marin make their top of the line trail bike that bloody horrible orange colour?
the wolf ridge looks much better in gunmetal grey.
They've done the same dodgy colour thing with the 2008 quake as well, the top model is a ludicrous lime green!

grantway

I think there trying to stick out from the crowed, only thing is they dont
give you a colour option and how many sales they may loose from this.

Must say that linkage system looks complecated and would not want something
going wrong with it in the middle of no where.

Also have you seen this months Mountain Biking uk magazine, Doddy
has made a good review regarding the All Mountain rig,
It looks like a true all mountain bike is a five inch travel bike with a longer
fork to relax the head angle for the decents, and not a fully balanced 6 inch bike.

Splasher

There's an IBIS SL for sale on STW http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/r ... ply_661616

Alternatively, I wanted a bike similar to you described and found that most bikes were either not quite right - 6" but too heavy or 5.5" and the right weight or 6", the right weight but too expensive (like the Enduro or the Ramsom), so I built my own up. 152mm rear, 100/130/160 front, 30.5lbs.

grantway

Splasher nice rig but the Orange 5 Pro is 28lbs or the Orange 5AM is 29lbs.

psilocybe

Splasher wrote:

There's an IBIS SL for sale on STW http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/r ... ply_661616

Financial contraints means store bought I'm afraid or I would be very interested in that.Whats yours set u back and what parts u got on that d00d? I need to have a proper test ride on an Orange Five tbh.

Anonymous

grantway wrote:

Must say that linkage system looks complecated and would not want something
going wrong with it in the middle of no where.

If you're referring to the marin, then there's actually less pivots than there are on a 4-bar system. it just looks different.

Splasher

"psilocybe wrote:

Financial contraints means store bought I'm afraid or I would be very interested in that.Whats yours set u back and what parts u got on that d00d? I need to have a proper test ride on an Orange Five tbh.

2008 Reign, Fox 36 Talas R, Atlas stem and bar, XT transmission, ProII hubs, MX819 rims, Ignitor LUST tubeless tyres, Thomson post, SDG Bel Air saddle, Forrmula Oro GM Bianco brakes.

Cost me £900 as an upgrade to my VT (Bought the Reign frame and the TALAS fork and sold the VT frame and the Marzocchi AM1 fork). But I reckon you could build something similar or better for your budget.

Splasher

grantway wrote:

Splasher nice rig but the Orange 5 Pro is 28lbs or the Orange 5AM is 29lbs.

No offense, but I don't think they do. The weight of the Reign is measured, not a spec sheet weight and I've looked down the spec list of the Oranges and there's nothing lighter on them except the fork (in the case of the Pro). So for the 5 AM to be 29lbs the frame would have to be 5.0lbs - same as a Santa Cruz superlight.

But the other thing is, you can play tunes on bike weight. Here's one I made earlier at 28lb exactly, but I wouldn't want to go downhilling on it!

grantway

Splasher unfourtunatly they are !.
I have the 5 AM and had it weighed at Cycle Surgery
and we all laughed at the shop.

But as reviewed recently in the MBR in what trail bike, and the Orange 5 Pro
had been weighed in at 28lbs.

Also MBR mag in Febuary 2007, done a frame test but built the frames with the same
bike parts and got the Orange 5 Pro down to 27.1lbs
The actual weight of a Medium Orange 5 frame is 5.66 lbs.

Going downhill on the 5 AM is fab no probs there point and shoot with the
Fox Talas 36 r's on the front super stiff and very reliable.

dave_hill

Splasher wrote:

2008 Reign, Fox 36 Talas R, Atlas stem and bar, XT transmission, ProII hubs, MX819 rims, Ignitor LUST tubeless tyres, Thomson post, SDG Bel Air saddle, Forrmula Oro GM Bianco brakes.

Cost me £900 as an upgrade to my VT (Bought the Reign frame and the TALAS fork and sold the VT frame and the Marzocchi AM1 fork). But I reckon you could build something similar or better for your budget.

I'm thinking of much the same upgrade after I found that there won't be any Remedy's available until the end of July and most of them are spoken for anyway .

How do you find the ride of the Reign over the VT? I'll probably go for Lyriks over the Foxes 'cos I'm a RockShox whore, but other than that...

Anonymous

well unfortunately you are all wrong, you should buy one of these:

Splasher

grantway wrote:

But as reviewed recently in the MBR in what trail bike, and the Orange 5 Pro had been weighed in at 28lbs.

The actual weight of a Medium Orange 5 frame is 5.66 lbs.

Well when MBR built the 4 frames up with identical parts, the Orange 5 frame in medium weighed 6.66 lbs so your's is a whole pound lighter! You must have the helium filled one

No the Reign and the Orange 5 frames are both about 6.5lbs and thereafter you end up with a bike weight based on the bits you put on. But of course the 5 is a simple single pivot 5" trail bike whereas the Reign is a proper virtual pivot point AM bike at 6" (don't rise to it)

Splasher

dave_hill wrote:

I'm thinking of much the same upgrade after I found that there won't be any Remedy's available until the end of July and most of them are spoken for anyway .

How do you find the ride of the Reign over the VT? I'll probably go for Lyriks over the Foxes 'cos I'm a RockShox whore, but other than that...

Dave,

It's better but the VT was such a good bike for its day it's not like day and night. Where it is better is that the frame geometry suits a long fork better and that combined with the virtual pivot point makes it a cracking climber (for its weight). It's a touch lighter as well but the VT was lighter than the 1st generation Reigns so you won't notice that much of a difference.

Have you considered a Heckler?

As for Rockshox forks, the Lyrik is a great fork but the coil is heavy and the air forks haven't got a great reputation for reliability but since you're an RS fan it's got to be.

psilocybe

Well I went for the Orange Five AM in the end, one of the reasons being it was a simple no nonense bike that was pretty understated and after further testing it felt good to ride.

Splasher

Enjoy.

mozzle

No matter what advice you get given, the final decision comes down to what YOU feel comfortable with. Lets have some pics of the final build....

grantway

Nice one Psilocbye you wont regret the 29 lbs rig has to offer, not let me down one
bit. But gets a lot of attention.
So what colour did you go for ?

Some people just need to read the tests before typing in there assumptions, maybe
for them they are still in April :oops:
Or has they say in the East End of London.
Dont try and P1ss down my back and try and tell me its raining

dave_hill

Splasher wrote:

Have you considered a Heckler?

To be honest, I'm not keen on the styling of Santa Cruz bikes. I did like the look of the new Blur, but MBR said it was neither one thing nor the other.

As for Rockshox forks, the Lyrik is a great fork but the coil is heavy and the air forks haven't got a great reputation for reliability but since you're an RS fan it's got to be.

From what I can make out, they've got the 2-step thing sorted for 2008. There's also the Solo air too, but I do like to be able to shorten the travel for climbing.

dave_hill

sheepsteeth wrote:

well unfortunately you are all wrong, you should buy one of these:

Pardon my hignorance, but worrisit??

Very, 'andsome machine but it looks a bit overkill for an all-mountain ride, wouldn't fancy lugging those forks round a 30 mile hack in the Dales... :shock:

psilocybe

grantway wrote:

Nice one Psilocbye you wont regret the 29 lbs rig has to offer, not let me down one
bit. But gets a lot of attention.
So what colour did you go for ?

I went for a 14" (I'm 5ft 6" and a fag paper") Cosmic Super Turf, or as my wife put it "Green" lol, it was between that and the Pearl Black. I'm having the bars changed to the highest rise EC70's and changing the SRAM stuff to XT.

BlackSpur

I *think* sheepsteeth's bike is a Bionicon Golden Willow, and a very nice looking bike it is too sir! Is the adjustable geometry really all it's cracked up to be?

Anonymous

hey dave, as blackspur says, it is a golden willow and to be honest, it is designed for almost exactly the type of ride you have suggested. the bike weighs 28lb (weighed not guessed!!) and is the best bike i hve ever ridden.

the forks are really light and the fact that they are triple crown doesnt make them downhillers, they are quick release but the legs are solid 35mm so they are very stiff

Blackspur, the adjustable geo is supriingly good, it is nice and slack for going down (and i quite like it in that setting for normal riding too) then for climbing, it packs down really low to make climbing alot easier.

i couldnt reccommend it enough to be honest, everyone should be riding one 8)

Splasher

grantway wrote:

Nice one Psilocbye you wont regret the 29 lbs rig has to offer, not let me down one
bit. But gets a lot of attention.
So what colour did you go for ?

Some people just need to read the tests before typing in there assumptions, maybe
for them they are still in April :oops:
Or has they say in the East End of London.
Dont try and P1ss down my back and try and tell me its raining