What frame for enduro

LawrenceP

I'm buying a new frame for enduro riding, I live in the south so there aren't many massive rock garden or anything like that. So I'm stuck between the banshee rune or spitfire. The rune has 160mm travel and the spitfire has 20mm less. I'm just not sure wether I'd be overbiked with the rune, or if the spitfire wouldn't be quite up to riding in races.
Any help would be greatly appreciated

rockmonkeysc

You don't need 160mm. A 140mm bike is plenty big enough and probably better for everyday riding.
Why is it between two banshees? How about a Transition or Intense? Or even something more mainstream like a Giant Trance or Specialized Stumpjumper?

LawrenceP

RockmonkeySC wrote:

You don't need 160mm. A 140mm bike is plenty big enough and probably better for everyday riding.
Why is it between two banshees? How about a Transition or Intense? Or even something more mainstream like a Giant Trance or Specialized Stumpjumper?

Honestly, the banshee just looks to be much better value, the equivalent intense or transitions is about £500 more. And the more mainstream brands don't have the right sort of attitude for this kind of bike, the spitfire in the steeper head angle setting is still much slacker. But thanks for the advice

rockmonkeysc

Why do you need it that slack? It's just going to steer like a barge.

lawman

Imo any bike with 140mm or more should have a 67/66 degree headangle. Currently mines at 66.5 and is in no way barge like at all, still super nimble and the extra stability is really noticeable.

I rode the Rune a few months back and it felt like an awful lot of bike, way more than any other bikes I tried like the Yeti SB66. A friend rode the Spitfire and wasn't that impressed. Overall we decided they were probably the worst bikes we rode that day. Not terrible by any means, but certainly not as good as the yeti or the whyte 146 I also rode.

The new Bandit 27.5 looks good, also check out the whyte G150.

rockmonkeysc

Thats way too slack unless you need something to cover up your inability to handle a bike properly. Its not that long ago dh bikes had that sort of head angle.
68/67 degrees is about right if you want it to steer properly on the twisty bits.
I have had a couple 160mm bikes with 66 degree head angles and they were fine for freeride but thats about it.

lawman

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Thats way too slack unless you need something to cover up your inability to handle a bike properly. Its not that long ago dh bikes had that sort of head angle.
68/67 degrees is about right if you want it to steer properly on the twisty bits.
I have had a couple 160mm bikes with 66 degree head angles and they were fine for freeride but thats about it.

All about feelin comfortable on the bike If you're comfortable on the bike, you'll go faster. I feel super confident on my bike setup as it is, the slacker headangle is great and it gives me the confidence to really chuck the bike around. It's great through twisty sections at high speed, section of my local trails is a high speed twisty section of singletrack and it feel utterly awesome down there, backed up by me taking the KoM by nearly 10 seconds. Granted it's not for everyone, but all the people that have a go have said how confidence inspiring it is.

Obviously there's more to it than headangles, but a long, slack and low bike is the way to go for Am/enduro/trail whatever people wanna call it

ej2320

lawman wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Thats way too slack unless you need something to cover up your inability to handle a bike properly. Its not that long ago dh bikes had that sort of head angle.
68/67 degrees is about right if you want it to steer properly on the twisty bits.
I have had a couple 160mm bikes with 66 degree head angles and they were fine for freeride but thats about it.

All about feelin comfortable on the bike If you're comfortable on the bike, you'll go faster. I feel super confident on my bike setup as it is, the slacker headangle is great and it gives me the confidence to really chuck the bike around. It's great through twisty sections at high speed, section of my local trails is a high speed twisty section of singletrack and it feel utterly awesome down there, backed up by me taking the KoM by nearly 10 seconds. Granted it's not for everyone, but all the people that have a go have said how confidence inspiring it is.

Obviously there's more to it than headangles, but a long, slack and low bike is the way to go for Am/enduro/trail whatever people wanna call it

Agreed, I take rockmonkeys point but the slack head angle does amazing things for my confidence..

I went from a 71 degree to a 69 degrees head angle and I was noticeably faster within weeks because I felt so much more stable and confident I could throw the bike down a drop..

I then test rode a mates bike with a 67 HA and the same happened again, confidence grew and was even quicker.

Bike on order now has a 66 HA with 160mm travel and I will ride XC slogs all the way to local DH runs.. having said that any slacker than 66 probably wouldn't be suited to trail as much.

Also the OP about the Banshee being better value isn't true unless it's on offer.. Banshee are by no means a value for money option.

ilovedirt

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Thats way too slack unless you need something to cover up your inability to handle a bike properly. Its not that long ago dh bikes had that sort of head angle.
68/67 degrees is about right if you want it to steer properly on the twisty bits.
I have had a couple 160mm bikes with 66 degree head angles and they were fine for freeride but thats about it.

While we're throwing about opinions and sweeping statements like they're facts, you're wrong. (See what I did there?)
My Reign X has a 2 degree angleset in it (not sure what that makes it, 66/65ish? either way, it's way too steep out of the factory) and it corners like it's on rails. You might have had some crap bikes that were too long in the back end or something or you just weren't very good at corners, or maybe you just weren't riding it fast enough who knows. Either way, it's horses for courses and not all bikes are the same.