mega avalanche on meta 55

lawman

im doin the mega next year and im lookin to buy a meta and just wondered if it would take it???

ive heard stories of frames cracking and breaking so is tough enough for a weekend in the alps??? i plan on going to whistler too in the next 2 years so im rather worried about

opinions???

hucking_fell

The frame should be fine. What weight are you? I weigh 10 1/2 stone and would want more than 140mm forks for the downhill bit though. That's why I've got adjustable 100mm to 160mm forks on my Orange. I'd like to compete in the Mega in the next few years.

lawman

nah ive done snowdon, nevis and helvelyn on a hardtail, so im used to it lol

its just the frame im worried about tbh

hucking_fell

I've just read deadpool2e's "What AM bike frame and fork" thread. He's broke 2 frames doing 2 foot drops? I don't think that's a true reflection of what the frame can handle. He's been unlucky, or he's getting feet and metres mixed up.

deadpool2e

2 Foot drop was a small understatement this is the kinda riding that broke it.

http://www.pinkbike.com/video/80653/#top

Me in front and Mate on another Meta behind.

b45her

Metas do crack , I had one went through 3 frames in 18 months commencal refused to warrenty the 3rd cracked frame saying it was crash damage ( its hard not to crash when the rear triangle snaps) just check the commie owners club forum , they still crack like buggery. Oh and be prepaired for the 6 to 8 weeks it takes them to check and return the new frame,

passout

Mine broke on a climb; Commencal are presently replacing the rear triangle. In this case it was a specific manufacturing issue and they've dealt with it well. They are great handling bikes & good value; I would buy another one. I suspect that an Orange 5 would be stronger.

lawman

thanks for the input guys.

ive got my heart set on next years meta uk http://liberty-bikes.fr/LB/wp-content/u ... a55ltd.jpg, it appears to have a new downtube, revised linkages and a carbon swingarm. will this improve the chance of not snapping it??

my maxlight has taken much more abuse than it probably deserves and apart from the mech hanger it still holds up fine. ive done all the peaks on it and most of the trail centres on it so considering its a 1550g frame its not done bad. surely a meta will be stronger than that

Airienteer

I keep hearing about Metas cracking and I keep forgetting to ask, do they all snap in the same or similar places?

passout

Mine bent near the drop out.

lawman

yer ive heard of that but most seem to to crack by the linkage or similar. im not particualrly hefty on kit, except gears but thats because im lazy, and im light, 10 stone, so i am less likely to break it???

Dirtydog11

Lawman

nah ive done snowdon, nevis and helvelyn on a hardtail, so im used to it lol

Snowdon on a hardtail?

Mmm..... Sounds interesting. How did you find it? (not the mountain, the ride before anyone starts ).

lawman

interesting i own a maxlight xc120 lol

it was great. we got up early to avoid the walkers, had snow up top after 2 and a half hours goin up and then 12 minutes to the bottom

some really gnarly stuff but we rode it all and it was great. wicked on the hardtail cos it was just so hard to keep on track, themost involving ride ive ever done, nevis wasnt bad but i had a huge crash on the fort bill dh track

luckily the bike escaped both unharmed

Dirtydog11

wicked on the hardtail cos it was just so hard to keep on track

Yeah thats what I like about hardtails. Did you go up the LLanberis path and come down the same way or did you use the ranger path?

I'm gonna give it a go this year, although I said that last year and the year before.

Sorry to hijack the thread, I just dont know anyone who's done it on a hardtail.

b45her

My metas cracked in 3 different places ,
1, radiating out from the bottle cage bolt hole

2, toptube to seattube weld

3, mech side drop out cracked and bent resulting in a trashed x9 meck and a destroyed rear wheel

They are great bikes ,but I lost all confidence in it , cept worrying about every strange noise it made , I've been looking for a bike that handles the same since I got rid of it , the 08 reign I have now is the closest I've got so far lol

lawman

yer we did llanberis there and back

it was a great ride, although i personally prefer cut gate path in the lakes or afan simply becaus eits faster and more enjoyable and less chance of serious offs ;lol

toasty

You'll see that 95% of the Metas that crack is infact just the powdery white paint. Go check the forum as mentioned and marvel at how almost every cracked frame is white. Commencal generally respond by sending them a green frame and the problems stop.

I'm not defending them too much here. I've seen a few broken, I'm just getting bored of seeing the same pictures of a hairline thick line on the white paint. The bending dropout is obviously a different matter altogether

Mine's fine :P They do have a few issues, if that frame was a few hundred grams lighter and they didn't have these random breakage issues it'd be flawless in my eyes. Such a fun bike to ride!