Voodoo Hoodoo or Bokor? - please help

roliusprime

Hi everyone

I currently ride an old trek 6000 circa 1999 with upgraded front forks to Tora 302 (2010 version metal coil). It has v brakes and all of the drive train/gears etc are of deore standard or above (but a few years old)

The main problem is the frame is a 19.5 and ideally for the type of riding I do (single track/ridge way/small jumps and drops) I need something slightly smaller and lighter with more standover. I'm about 5 10/11

I'm thinking of converting the trek to be a commutor bike with fixed forks and purchasing one of these for off-road

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165499

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165499

My basic question is - are the upgrades on the bokor worth the extra £150 - is my ride going to be that different?
The Hoodoo itself has an amazing review on this website and I'm tempted to go with it and upgrade down the line if I need too... has anyone got experience of the two forks - the Raidon x1 vs the epicon?

What I don't want to do is buy the Hoodoo and find the Raidon is rubbish compared to the Tora I already have!! Halfords wont let me take them for a spin....

Thanks for any help or advice I really appreciate it!

R

supersonic

A 17.5 inch frame can have less standover than a 19.5 - it depends on many more factors, I would go and visit the shop and see the bikes in question.

The Bokor in question has more front travel, but is pretty weighty. It is a better fork - I'd be looking at the Boardman comp though, which has the same fork, albeit with a shorter version of it (and qr axle). Is a lot lighter.

Uli

Bokor has drivetrain one notch higher spec than hoodoo, not that you are really going to notice the difference in shifting. IMO do you really need 140mm fork on xc hardtail?

roliusprime

Thanks for the advice guys.:-)

Maybe I should just mention the way I cycle though. Although i'm not particularly excellent yet at biking I do like to try and jump off anything that remotely looks a kicker (I used to skate) so I want something that suits that alongside
all day riding.. Bearing that in mind what's the better bike for buck? any advice on the fork difference?

Cheers!

.blitz

My mate has a Bokor from 2009 without wanting to sound harsh it's a thoroughly uninspiring dull old gate-on-wheels that sucks the life out of every ride

A typical example of reasonable spec list bolted onto a frame made out of recycled scaffolding

luv2ride

this?
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... 65499#tab2

a mate has the 2010 version and I'm pretty impressed with it. think it peaked with that model year, but the new version looks ok too?

supersonic

It's just a bit weighty (bokor) - a little more capable than some xc/trail bikes, simply due to the longer fork.

Fury is a decent bet, but the new Boardman Comp is specced like the 2010 Fury, with the smoother Epicon.

Uli

.blitz wrote:

My mate has a Bokor from 2009 without wanting to sound harsh it's a thoroughly uninspiring dull old gate-on-wheels that sucks the life out of every ride

A typical example of reasonable spec list bolted onto a frame made out of recycled scaffolding

Voodoo redesigned their frames from scratch last year I think.

.blitz

It looks dangerously the same to me, esp the bolt-on drop outs that have been the cause of several brake/gear problems on my mate's bike.

In all fairness the Bokor is a very easy bike to ride it's light & stable but to me the geometry feels like a MTB from the 1990s with the emphasis on staying seated and pedalling, like a road bike. I think MTBs have moved on a lot esp in the last 5 years and simply bolting a collection of reasonable-spec bits to a tired old frame does not make a modern MTB.

roliusprime

Thanks again chaps lots of food for thought...

@Blitz - thanks for letting me know your mate's experience with the Bokor. So what in your opinion is a good framed MTB for the £450-£550 price point? Bearing in mind I want something I can ride all day but is also robust enough for drops and jumps.

I'm tempted by the Hoodoo now as it's cheaper (£450 at the mo), lighter and has a brilliant 2012 review on this site that praises amongst other things the fork and the frame - can I trust that review!?

The £150 spare that I save might go someway to tweaking a few things on the Trek to make it road worthy.

Can anyone offer an opinion on how the Hoodoo's Raidon x1 fork will compare to my current metal coil Tora 302 from 2010. Especially in terms of landings after getting airborne!

thanks again!

R

.blitz

Difficult question to answer. Good frames at that price point are rare and inevitably come with just enough componentry to get them out of the door and are nearly always heavily compromised with poor forks and wheels.

Product managers know this which is why inexpensive frames can be made to look good with an impressive spec list. If the bike looks as though it's been covered in superglue and ridden through Chain Reaction it will be easier to sell than a low-spec bike that has an expensive collection of tubes holding it all together.

You might like a Bokor. My mate is OK with his but he doesn't love it or rave about it and every time I ride it I know why. The Halfords Buying Experience was like an hallucination they wouldn't let him ride the bike even inside the store but they did let him sit on one that was the wrong size so that they could order the right size for him

The forks locked solid after a few rides and even though it took Halfords a month to repair aka swap them, to their credit they did so with a newer, later, better model of fork which basically means they sent the original forks back to Fishers (UK Rock Shox importers) and Fishers sent them the nearest modern equivalent. The drop outs have been a different story they are simply not beefy enough imo to keep such a critical part of the bike aligned. They weren't properly aligned to begin with and constant adjustment to the tugs and bolts has caused them to make an indentation in the frame so now they stay misaligned.

But don't let me put you off

anj132

The way I see it...

The Bokor seems more setup for more trail riding than the boardman based on fork length & rotor sizes & overall weight. Fury between the two. This is without looking at geometry of all the frames but it's my feeling of it.

I think there are reviews for 3 of the bikes however IIRC WMB reviewers on the hoodoo & fury and MBUK on the boardman and they tend to have a different slant. I've tended to notice that WMB seem to look at more overall value for money and MBUK trail riding/decent aspects. So whilsts MBUK might call the boardman (iirc) 'twitchy on the decents', I don't think a WMB review would have said the same and would of got a higher review/mark. This might be slightly off-topic but it's perhaps best to look at the bike's equipment for more what you want to do than purely the reviews.

Although I'm not sure what you want to do, you say ST but doing jumps etc sounds like you want to be more of a hooligan So look at maybe at where you want to go and be doing The extra travel will make the bokor slightly slacker than the hoodoo (if the same frame geometry) which will suit more decents - pay off is the climbing. The boardman here would be better at climbing considering it's much lighter weight.

I would personally have to try and justify that extra £150 over the hoodoo for any of the others and when other avaliable funds would be possible in the future.

i.e. You may want to get some knee pads, gripper pedals, a camelbak or upgrading the trek etc... and the £150 spent on this may give more value but if your going to have a spare £150 in a months time might be best spending more on the bike now. Only you can say.

On the frame sizing of things, Halfords don't seem to stock smaller sizes of the Voodoos, might be worth getting them to order one in to see how they might size up. I'm slightly shorter than you but I wish I had sat on a 16" voodoo before getting the 18".

I like the idea of having the 140 fork if I wanted to change to a typical steel LTHT such as a blue pig (although still possible on a 120) in say 12 months. Ideally get the best bike for the job now but needs and wants change.

But overall, I don't think you'll be disappointed with any of them - get one and enjoy it.

MeddlE

One thing that has been missed is that the Bokor has a 15mm through axle on the front instead of the qr front on the Hoodoo, better for the hooligan riding style.