Vitus sentier + or VR+

madbutch75

Torn between these two. The only difference is the rockshox rekon is a gold on the VR+ and £150.00 more. I can get the cheaper and fit a dropper post. Any thoughts? Anyone rode the new sentier + ?

bartimaeus

I have a VR+ (as does my son, and now a couple of my friends after seeing ours in action).

The Sentier is a really fun bike. It's very sturdy but not too heavy, and the 2.6 tyres give it loads of grip. To go tubeless all you need is valves and sealant - and the tyres went up first time with a track pump. The rear tyre is pretty low profile, though, so it slides in the winter slop... I'll probably get something more mud friendly for next winter. The Minion up front is excellent.

The geometry is a fashionable long-low-and-slack (though not as extreme as some new bikes) with a short stem and wide bars (800mm on the L), so it's not XC 'quick' on the flat, but downhill you can really chuck it about, and the extra tyre volume and 140mm forks give it a very forgiving ride for a hardtail.

The basic Sentier+ is Deore 1x10 rather than the NX 1x11 which you get on the VR+, but the gear range is the same (11-42). I can't comment on the difference in the forks as I have not ridden the basic Recon, but I've been very impressed with the Recon Gold on the VR+. This style of bike is crying out for a dropper, so I've gone for a Brand-X Ascend which routes internally, and again it's very impressive - on a par with the Reverb on my FS , and with a shifter style remote which is better than the Reverb push button.

If you are going to add a dropper anyway you might want to look at the VRS+ which is SLX 1x11 and which comes with a Brand-X Ascend XL as standard. The VRS has a Reba up front... I believe this gives you the option of adding volume spacers if you want to tune the fork characteristics further. If I'd had the money I'd probably have gone for this model, but I don't think you will be disappointed by the VR+ and apart from the compromise of 1x10 the basic Sentier+ should be just as much fun as it's 'the same bike' but with a different spec.