Commencal Meta 5.5.2

BurtonM

Can you guys give me your own reviews of this bike, because ive read every magazine review and they all come from pros who pick up on every single little flaw.

Zeroman_IR

I have an 08 one of these, and am relatively new to MTBing having only really started seriously in the last 6 months.

I couldn't be happier with the bike, it's helped my riding come on so much. Climbs great, though I put lower rise bars on which does help. Can't say I've noticed the weight that the mags complain about...though it makes a handy excuse at the top of the climbs ("Yeah, I know you've been waiting 5 minutes for me but my bike's a pound heavier" )

Downhill, the bike just comes alive. It'll soak up most hits and accelerate as it does. Very easy bike to throw around too (I'm 5'11" and I've a medium) and very responsive, even when plummeting down something that you've realised far too late is beyond you :oops:

Also, I wouldn't take too much notice of the reports you hear of frames cracking (I'm sure there'll be an Orange owner along soon with his "review" ). This is mostly due to a strong owners club forum and Commencal are very good to sort warranty issues. My frame's still going strong despite some horrific line choices in the early days.

Anyway, that's my review. All positives I know but I really do love these bikes. Anything in particular you wanted to know about?

BurtonM

the weight issue was what i was hoping for, but i feared if i made it obvious that i noticed the bike was heavy then some clan of orange owners would come and brainwash me into buying a 5 pro.
Yeah the mags do say that the meta cant become a great xc or enduro bike but to be honest, we dont notice the differences its the people who have been riding for a living and for 15+ years that do notice. I think i will follow through with my purchase of this stunning bike tomorow. I say bollocks to any orange bike that gets thrown in my way.

pdid

Don`t worry about the weight, it`s not like iit`s a 40lb downhill monster.

I went from a Rock Lobster hardtail at around 25lb to my Meta 5 which is around 30. It felt heavy for the first few rides but your body soon adapts. They are a superb machine.

IMO the Meta is unbeatable price wise at the moment. I would consider going for the UK with the bolt through fork though.

BurtonM

that is a damn bright bike.

Andy B

Zeroman_IR wrote:

Also, I wouldn't take too much notice of the reports you hear of frames cracking (I'm sure there'll be an Orange owner along soon with his "review" ). This is mostly due to a strong owners club forum and Commencal are very good to sort warranty issues. My frame's still going strong despite some horrific line choices in the early days.

Anyway, that's my review. All positives I know but I really do love these bikes. Anything in particular you wanted to know about?

Orange owner's review of a Meta 55...


..pretty damn good bike actually :P

I have given my mates 55 a ride round Dalby, not quite as stiff a rear end as the Orange 5, but still a very good all rounder.

Anonymous

BurtonM wrote:

Can you guys give me your own reviews of this bike, because ive read every magazine review and they all come from pros who pick up on every single little flaw.

Those reviews will be more useful than asking owners what they think of their prde and joys.
No offence meant to meta owners here, but generally, people will have positive views of things they own, and will often overlook little niggles and so on.

grantway

Very good words of wisdom there Yeehaammcgee

grantway

Imbeing censored Think Bike Radar are taking back handers !!!

Great news my mate wanted a test bike Meta5 for a try in Cwm Carn Two weeks
time The shop refused, was all ok when we said we was going to Coed Y Brenin first.
I asked why has im taking my 5 inch trail bike?

Mrs Toast

yeehaamcgee wrote:

BurtonM wrote:

Can you guys give me your own reviews of this bike, because ive read every magazine review and they all come from pros who pick up on every single little flaw.

Those reviews will be more useful than asking owners what they think of their prde and joys.
No offence meant to meta owners here, but generally, people will have positive views of things they own, and will often overlook little niggles and so on.

I don't know - I think the bike will only become their pride and joy if it's a good ride. T'husband sold two bikes (a GT Avalanche 1.0 and a Specialized FSR) after a couple of months of ownership because he either didn't like the way they handled or felt.

I think the opinions of people who have owned and ridden a bike extensively are as valuable and valid, if not more so, than reviews from a journalist who's only had a limited amount of time on the bike.

Of course, there's always the risk that people might overlook any niggles because they've forked out a large amount of money and don't want to admit they might have made a mistake, but then again, if they've spent a large amount of money on something, they might be more likely to speak up about any issues. LIke me with my Nissan Micra. WHICH IS RUBBISH.

Best thing to do is to take both magazine and owner reviews into consideration, and to also make sure you're also paying attention to the year of the model, in case there are any major differences.

For what it's worth, I demoed a Meta, and it handled really nicely. Lovely suspension, and a surprisingly good climber, despite its weight. Big bike though, I had less than zero standover on the small.

Anonymous

Mrs Toast, that's all very valid, but I still think people can, and do, get satisfied enough with their toys to overlook some small niggles - and one persons's small niggle is another man's deal braker.

If I was after a relatively unbiased opinion of a bike, I'd check out as many professional reviews as I could find, because those bikes are not one's they have any attatchment to.

On the other hand, if I was after an idea of what kind of maintenance something needs, or how often, then I'd ask long time owners.

Anyway, it's just something to be aware of.

(on a related side note, I've seen several mac owners who 'switched' because they were tired of windows crashing. Even if the mac crashed right in front of their eyes, several times repeatedly, they seemed oblivious to it!)

Mrs Toast

yeehaamcgee wrote:

(on a related side note, I've seen several mac owners who 'switched' because they were tired of windows crashing. Even if the mac crashed right in front of their eyes, several times repeatedly, they seemed oblivious to it!)

Pfft, I had an iMac, one of the second generation one. Was about as stable as Amy Winehouse on a unicycle, apparently they'd not actually tested the driver compatibility with OS 8.6, I think it was. As soon as I installed my brand new printer and scanner, it kept falling over. Ended up having to do loads of messing around with the systems extension. AND it only had one mouse button!

BurtonM

Mrs Toast = legend. Valid points there.

grantway

Pdid see you over Coed Y Brenin Im there from this Thursday

pdid

grantway wrote:

Pdid see you over Coed Y Brenin Im there from this Thursday

Not there till Friday night, gonna be doing Llandegla and Penmachno on the way down so won`t be riding there till Saturday.

Can we leave your ramblings to the thread which was created for you, no-one wants you trolling yet another Commencal thread :twisted:

pdid

yeehaamcgee wrote:

If I was after a relatively unbiased opinion of a bike, I'd check out as many professional reviews as I could find, because those bikes are not one's they have any attatchment to.

I think the key is to balance between reviews and long term owners. However, do you think that any magazine is going rubbish a bike from a manufacturer which pays them a lot of money for advertising?

The reviews are so inconsistant across all the magazines, a bike which doesn`t work for one person can be the best thing since sliced bread for another. Which is why it`s best to try before you buy.

Use the magazines to make a shortlist, research further through forums and the like and then test ride. Make your own mind up

Anonymous

pdid wrote:

yeehaamcgee wrote:

If I was after a relatively unbiased opinion of a bike, I'd check out as many professional reviews as I could find, because those bikes are not one's they have any attatchment to.

I think the key is to balance between reviews and long term owners. However, do you think that any magazine is going rubbish a bike from a manufacturer which pays them a lot of money for advertising?

The reviews are so inconsistant across all the magazines, a bike which doesn`t work for one person can be the best thing since sliced bread for another. Which is why it`s best to try before you buy.

Use the magazines to make a shortlist, research further through forums and the like and then test ride. Make your own mind up

No, I don't believe that a magazine review will be completely free of bias. But it will likely be less so than asking a bunch of fans what they think (again, no offence meant, just human nature)

toasty

Indeed, the fan boys have a reason for being fan boys though, it doesn't always make their advice useless. I used to be a Specialized fan boy, I'm a taller rider and found their sizing and shape fit me bang on, I've had 3 Specialized mountain bikes, an old Enduro, a Stumpjumper hardtail and an FSR XC.

I found the suspension good, very active, but reliant on compression damping so stop you pogo'ing along under pedalling forces. This is neither a better, nor worse way of doing it, I just wasn't a massive fan of their approach.

If I don't like something I'll say and replace it, I'm not that precious. Every time XT hubs get mentioned I'll moan, I've broken 2 in different ways, I find my £250 XT wheelset too flexy. I found my FSR XC too bobby, my Avalanche was too short in the top tube, my SLX brakes and shifters don't feel as good as XT to me. SLX brakes also weigh far too much, oddly I liked Tektro Auriga much more which aren't particularly cool. My old Enduro had a stupid shock ratio, far too short a shock for it's travel (6.5"), this completely shafted the damping up, you had to ramp it right up and you'll still get hardly anything.

I still completely stand by my decision with my Meta though, full sus trail bike wise in the last year alone I've also demo'd (about half of which before buying the Meta):

Specialized Enduro
Orange Five
Giant Trance X
Bionicon Golden Willow
Santa Cruz Blur LT
Niner Jet 9
Giant Anthem X
Titus FTM
Scott Genius

There would have been more but a lot of brands don't stock bigger brands in their fleet, take note Yeti, Cannondale and Lapierre. Each for around an hour, some quite a bit over that, roughly the same amount of time magazine testers will give a bike I'd imagine, there's only so many hours in a day. These chaps aren't always professional magazine journalists, each magazine will use a small group of general trail riders to collaborate opinions.

I'm honestly fairly impartial, I'd love an excuse to sell my frame and get a new one and generally pump cash into biking fairly frequently. The Meta needs nothing though, the new Flow + Pro 2 wheelset is solid, XT kit is perfect for general use, the Meta is very plush and reliable. I've never had a bike I've felt as sure about on all fronts, even the Zaskar concerns me in a few areas, the entire seattube gets quite a lot of flex under force whch feels pretty wasteful, the top tube also isn't quite as long as the Stumpy HT I was used to.

For the Meta the only issue I've had though is the cable rub and the original XT wheels falling apart. The flex is noticable but I can't say I've ever had issues with it in a negative way. The frame is about 8lbs with shock which is a bit steep as well, but aside from that it's been flawless. Very, very good fun and inspiring to ride, you'll find yourself leaping off things you didn't even realise were leapable.

I saw plenty bombing around the freeride courses up in Scotland as well, obviously not doing huge drops but then they're trail bikes, they were riding exactly the same things as the Orange Fives, Enduros etc.

Mancunianfightingcat

Just a bit of input from me, hopefully this will come across as impartial.......

I was in Merlin (who sell the most Meta 5.5s) on Thursday night and was talking to one of the guys in there. Coincidently, my mate has an 08 Meta 5.5 and he'd spotted 2 tiny cracks just in front of the lower shock mount on his. On closer inspection, these appear to be superficial and look pretty much to be the paint rather than the weld, but with his bike being white, they've filled with cack and look worse.
Anyway, back to Merlin, we were discussing these cracks with one of the guys in the shop. He walked straight to a Meta in the shop and said "is it cracked here?" and pointed at the exact spot. He explained that he has had 4 Metas (4, 5 & 6s) and they have all developed these tiny cracks, but not one of them has actually progressed beyond 5mm or so. They've also had "quite a few back from customers".
He also explained that Commencal themselves are not concerned as they are not structural cracks, more like paint defects. He also told me that it is the UK importer who is insisting that the factory replace the frames as they want to keep their customers happy, so much so that Commencal are changing production factory, (although most mountain bikes are made in only a small number of factories).

Merlin suggested my mate carry on riding the bike until he can do without it for 4 weeks and then get a new frame under warranty.

I hope that gives people a bit more info on the subject, yes the frames do seem to have a regular fault, but it does appear that it is not in anyway structural and is on the whole, only cosmetic.

Yes I do ride an Orange 5, but if I'd not been in the position to afford one, I would definitely strongly considered a Meta 5.5!