Another "What full susser" thread... please help!

Johnny Chimpo

I currently ride a giant hardtail which has 100mm travel. I currently use this for a local riding with a mixture of fire roads, A roads and dirt trails, plus what are becoming more and more frequent trips to Glentress.

I've been thinking about getting a longer travel full susser mostly for glentress and any other trail centres I fancy trying. I ride quite aggressively and like to hit as many jumps and drops as I can, and I dont think my 100mm travel is going ot be up to it for much longer, hence the idea of a longer travel full susser.

Only really have a budget of about £800 so it will need to be a second hand bike or just a frame that I can build up over time.

I've been looking around and thought I had settled on a 07 or 08 giant reign, then a couple of 08 Specialized Enduro's came up on ebay.

Just wondering if one of these would be better over the other, or are there any other bikes or frames that could be recommended to me?

Any help would be greatly apppreciated!

Cheers all!

neninja

Check out Pauls Cycles

Depending on what frame size you need they've got some good deals on brand new Giant Trance's - 120mm front suspension and 5" rear

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.p ... Suspension

Proutster

+1 for the above. I got my 2010 Trance X4 as my first full-susser for £845 in early Sept when some shops were just beginning to offer discounts in advance of the 2011 models.

It's very much a do-it-all bike and if you can still get one then it'd fit perfectly for what you want - I ride it around the Peak district and have been over to Llandegla a couple of times and (so far) it's coped with everything I've thrown at it.

Another good thing is that it's the same frame as on the Trance X1 which was (I think) over £2500 new, so you can upgrade as things wear out (which is my plan).

Johnny Chimpo

cheers guys, will get a look at pauls cycles.

Ideally wanted something with a bit more travel, was thinking about 140mm, hence the reign or enduro.

Out of curiosity what height are you and what size frame do you have? Was originally looking at Mediums (18") as my hardtail is (17"). I know all frames are different and that I should trying before I buy, but I might not have this option. Im 5ft 7" so just checking if a 18" Trance would fit me okay, or the 16" would be better?

Anyone else any other suggestions?

cooldad

I'm closer to 5' 10" and 18" is about right for me - you might be better of looking smaller, but would try first.
Go into an LBS try out and buy cheap online. Evil but necessary.

neninja

You're on the border of small and medium with Giant frames.

You'd probably get away with a medium frame Trance as they have decent standover room for your nads but the 08 Reign's are quite tall so you'd want to look at a small.

I ride a small frame Giant Anthem but could also happily ride a medium.

I bought a 145mm travel bike for trail centres etc and found that much rear travel was simply too much. I'm breaking that bike and building up a new frame that's shorter travel in the rear.

Proutster

I'm 5ft 11 and have the Large Trance X4 (the 20"). It fits me well, so as neninja says below you'd probably be OK with Medium (18") in the Trance.

When I was buying I saw the Medium frame ones that Paul's had in their magazine adverts and was severely tempted as they're a good dea,l but after trying a Large at my LBS there was no way I could go with the Medium.

Good luck - try really hard to, at least, sit on one before you buy it - it's a big (costly) mistake to make if you buy one and then find it's too big/small.

Ian P

Sizing of bikes is also dependent on how you like the bike too feel. I prefer a smaller bike that I can move around on and went for a medium trance at 6 foot. Been very happy with it and while I do run a slightly longer seat post since I need a extra centimetre or so when doing long climbs I definitely wouldn't have wanted it to be much bigger. It's done me brilliantly this summer with many trips to peak, lee quarry, wales and a number of the 7 stanes. Am considering putting some 140mm forks for more agressive riding.

neninja

I forgot to add I'm 5ft 7 too

The Teocali I had was a 16.5" but I found that too short for me. The latest frame I've got to build up is 18.5" which in theory should be too big for me but it's shorter in the top tube than my 16" Anthem X (but with less nads room!!).

So basically you really need to get round some shops and try stuff out.

Johnny Chimpo

Cheers guys, so you definatelt think I should go for a Giant Trance instead of the Reign or Enduro?

CFS

If you want 140mm Travel, how about.
http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b2s1p1504

Seems like a good price, I like my Teocali a lot, It'll cope with GT no problem.

neninja

I'm selling my 2009 16.5" Teocali Super 145mm rear travel with Fox 140 RL from it if it's of interest. Ad is going on the board in the next hour.

I could sell the bike complete except for brakes and seatpost for £750 - that would be a 2 month old Teocali Super 2009 with Fox RP23 rear and Fox Float 140 RL front, SLX groupset with XT shadow rear, Stans Flow wheels tubeless with Kenda Excavator 2.1 tyres.

You'd just need a set of brakes and a seat post which you could get for under £100

Ian P

Johnny Chimpo wrote:

Cheers guys, so you definatelt think I should go for a Giant Trance instead of the Reign or Enduro?

I guess that's going to depend on what you want from a bike and what you plan to do with in. My Trance has been comfortably up to trips to Peak, Glentress, Innerliethen etc and any limits have been mine rather than the bikes e.g. did the black graded drops on Caddon bank (which are 3 to 4 foot I guess) no problem (bikewise, not sure I'd be going much higher at the moment!). A bigger bike is likely to be heavier up hill but will help downhill. As I said, I'm consider some longer, beefier forks which will help on steep stuff but still leave it pretty rideable for longer routes.