Commencal Mini DH

Maddog1979

Whats people's thoughts on this frame.. i'm looking at a 2008 model to build as a cheap 160mm hack?.

Cheers

rockmonkeysc

Cracking frame (literally). Rides nicely enough but heavy for a 160mm bike and there are better alternatives. Have a look for a Giant Reign X, Specialized SX Trail or Trek Scratch.
If it's for downhill & freeride go for something with a coil shock & forks, nothing worse than old or basic air suspension on a DH bike.

Maddog1979

I'm not too fussed on weight as i'm a fat heavy git anyway. I thought the mini's didn't suffer the cracking like the other frames? it'll be for light downhill... to see if i like it or not..

rockmonkeysc

I have seen a couple break at the dropouts on uplift days. It's beginner mistakes which are most likely to break bikes, things like cased jumps, bad line choice & crashes can kill weaker frames. Coming up short on gap jumps & road gaps will put a whole lot of stress on a frame.
The Giant & Specialized I suggested are absolutely solid.

ilovedirt

I've cracked one before (think it was an '06/'07 model)

Maddog1979

It's just there is one going on fleabay complete with 66's and DHX 4 air for quite cheap..

rockmonkeysc

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Commencal-min ... 4ab77d47f0

This one?
The Marzocchi 66 ATA are extremely unreliable. Google it, they are pretty much garanteed to fail. TF Tuned won't touch them because they are so bad. A friend had his replaced 3 times by Marzocchi before he give up & sold them. It's the travel adjust which causes the problems, you start a trail with 170mm of travel & finish with 100mm & all the air is gone. Marzocchi have now give up with travel adjust & only do fixed travel forks.

Maddog1979

LOL yup thats the one... ok ... i'll leave it then.... ta

ilovedirt

The older 66ata isn't too bad, it was the '08/'09 ones that had the problems. Though those mini dh frames do tend to crack a lot...

Also, I don't know where you get your info from, rockmonkey. Marzocchi still make forks with travel adjust, just not the 66, and not with the ata system.

rockmonkeysc

Looks like it's just the long travel forks they have dropped the travel adjust on. ATA has always been unreliable, too complicated compared to Rockshox simple U-turn system

ilovedirt

Travel adjust in general is pointless IMO. As long as the fork is well damped, it serves no purpose. Particularly on a fork like that. Rockshox's two-step-air travel adjust always had problems as well though. Air + travel adjust doesn't work.