What style of bike XC or Trail?

infinitydreams

I use to be into mountain biking about 20 years ago and have only recently got back on a borrowed bike.

Some of my friends bike at Swinley Forest and all have FS bikes including a Canyon Spectral Carbon 27.5 and another with a YT Jeffsy 29. I borrowed an older FS 26 and had a brilliant but knackering 4 hours.

I’m now keen to get myself a bike but want a little advice. I’ve also enjoyed riding hardtails and ideally as light as possible so FS bikes weighing 13-14kg seem heavy and the 29” wheels seem huge to me but guess you get use to them.

I was looking at the Canyon Spectral CF 8.0 but then I started looking at hardtails and now I’m confused.

My sort of riding will be a combination of Swinley Forest, tow path with the family, maybe and it’s a big maybe bike park Wales sort of thing once a year.

Based on this would a lightweight XC like a Scott Scale or Cannondale F-SI be ok? Or should I really go FS and deal with the weight gains?

I did look at Bird Bikes and their latest hardtail but the weight puts me off.

What other bikes for £2 to £3.5k should I be looking at?

jamski

I would definitely say full suss trail bike. 120-140mm is a good middle ground in my opinion, and suits all sorts of riding. I'd suggest Bird Aeris 120 100%, the AM9 (29er) gets race reviews too, but it's a bigger, burlier bike, but is meant to handle brilliantly. The thing with Bird is you can put your money in the parts you want.

My Aeris 120 is about 14.5kg, and it doesn't bother me one bit while riding.

infinitydreams

Yeah Bird is really tempting due to them being local and the service is meant to be outstanding. It’s just the weight and lack of carbon frame putting me off.

JBA

Go and trial a couple of Bird bikes.
I have a mk1 Bird Zero and it is a great bike and by no means heavy.
I also have a Giant Trance and that is a brilliant bike for trail centres but not too big or cumbersome for more XC-oriented riding. However, if you are only likely to visit somewhere like BPW once a year the Anthem is probably better suited to your needs. The 2018 Anthems are 130mm front and 110mm rear travel.

steve_sordy

@infinitydreams:

Don't forget that your mtb ambitions are sure to grow. There are two ways to deal with that, buy cheaply now and save the money for when you really know what you want. Or, go big now, taking your lead from the mates you will be riding with.

For the latter, the Jeffsy appeals to me. I have ridden a few of these and I am astonished at what a great bike they are for the money. You have a choice between the 29er at 140mm travel, or the 27.5 with 150mm. With your money, the bike will be light enough to fit your brief.

I have ridden bikes from no travel up to 165 and for me the "one size fits all" category for general trail riding is a lightweight 130-140 travel FS. A lot depends upon the fit, so do a test ride. If you can't do a test ride, then compare the geometry with a bike that you can test ride.

infinitydreams

Have to say the YT JEFFSY 27 CF PRO RACE does look good and has a serious discount at the moment. At only 12.5kg it is mighty tempting....

kajjal

What you could try is going somewhere that hires out FS bikes and try the different types to get a good feel for what you are looking for. I have a 120mm Camber 29" wheeled bike which works very well for how and where I ride. To be fair most good quality modern FS bikes are fine it is more the spec, price and your personal preference that decides.

As Steve says if you find a bike you like have a look at similar bikes by spec and geometry. For geometry, reach and stack provide a good rough comparison but be careful of stems as they affect things as well.

infinitydreams

Yeah I’ll try and test a few this week. I really didn’t like the 29” wheel size as it just seemed ridiculous.

steve_sordy

infinitydreams wrote:

Yeah I’ll try and test a few this week. I really didn’t like the 29” wheel size as it just seemed ridiculous.

I believe that the 27.5 wheeled Jeffsy is lighter than the 29er version, despite the extra 10mm on the suspension travel.

infinitydreams

Just seen the Scott Genius 730 which looks rather tasty!

JGTR

infinitydreams wrote:

Yeah I’ll try and test a few this week. I really didn’t like the 29” wheel size as it just seemed ridiculous.

Yet every manufacturer now has one in their line up, have been the standard wheel size for XC for years now and ar winning races in DH?

Ridiculous!!

moonshine

I'm in a similar quandary....
On the xc front, I'm considering a Giant Anthem Pro or Santa Cruz Blur... Middle ground Santa Cruz Tall Boy, and Trail of Giant Trance or Santa Cruz Hightower...
My leaning is towards the Blur, anthem and tallboy as Recreational XC / trail is more my thing than trail / DH albeit I would do some easy (green / red DH) in the Alps, but I'm more of a technical rider from a road background than from a BMX past.

I don't like air as crashing hurts and I'm too old (45) and have to go to work in the morning!

infinitydreams

“Have to go to work in the morning” exactly the same and also while I’m only 36 I’m physically and mentally 56!

I didn’t think researching and purchasing a new bike would be such a challenge, I do enjoy the quest though!

A friend just showed me Evil FS bikes, bloody gorgeous and I thought “oh bargain” at €3199 then I realised that’s frame only and full builds start at €5699

Really thinking I should be going light HT with good spec as I’ll do way more XC than bike parks.

JBA

If you are feeling 56 get a short travel FS. Your aging bones will thank you.

Giant have a demo fleet. If there is a Giant dealer near you ask them to get an Anthem in for you to trial. They usually give you 48 hours for a test ride.

JGTR

I didn’t think researching and purchasing a new bike would be such a challenge, I do enjoy the quest though!

Not really, there’s loads of great bikes out there - doesn’t really matter which one you get you’ll end up with an awesome bike

Also agree with above - full suspension is much more comfortable and your body will thank you for it!

infinitydreams

I did a little more research into the YT bikes tonight, and while they seem to be very well spec’d the customer service and quality seems very dodgy. Makes me think I’d be way more comfortable going with someone like Scott or Giant or Bird (wish they did carbon)

CitizenLee

Santa Cruz 5010 C

JGTR

infinitydreams wrote:

I did a little more research into the YT bikes tonight, and while they seem to be very well spec’d the customer service and quality seems very dodgy. Makes me think I’d be way more comfortable going with someone like Scott or Giant or Bird (wish they did carbon)

I’ve found the opposite, very good service. What people fail to grasp is that if there is an issue then you are dealing with a company in another country and can’t just ring them up or drop your bike into a shop. I couldn’t justify spending the extra £1k on a similar specced Whyte/Bird etc.

Other thing to bear in mind is that any issues with the components just send them back to the UK retailer, I had an issue with my Fox rear shock and rear wheel, both went back to the UK retailer and were back repaired/replaced within 3 days - they even rebuilt my rear wheel for free after I broke a spoke after 12 months!

steve_sordy

JGTR wrote:

infinitydreams wrote:

I did a little more research into the YT bikes tonight, and while they seem to be very well spec’d the customer service and quality seems very dodgy. Makes me think I’d be way more comfortable going with someone like Scott or Giant or Bird (wish they did carbon)

I’ve found the opposite, very good service. What people fail to grasp is that if there is an issue then you are dealing with a company in another country and can’t just ring them up or drop your bike into a shop. I couldn’t justify spending the extra £1k on a similar specced Whyte/Bird etc.

Other thing to bear in mind is that any issues with the components just send them back to the UK retailer, I had an issue with my Fox rear shock and rear wheel, both went back to the UK retailer and were back repaired/replaced within 3 days - they even rebuilt my rear wheel for free after I broke a spoke after 12 months!

That is my experience too, 100% !

joebristol

Test rides are probably the way forward - on terrain similar to what you will be riding.

At Swinley, whilst there is nothing that needs full suss, I imagine some of e oedally parts could get a bit annoying on a hardtail. I have both and ride the hardtail more to keep my eye in on cornering (I can get a little lazy on the fs sometimes) but the fs everywhere else.

I find I can ride further on the fs without feeling so battered and my lower back can tighten up (previous disc injury) much quicker on the hardtail.

Pros of the hardtail are it gets up to speed quicker / accelerates better and on long draggy climbs it’s faster. Everywhere else the fs is quicker - and it’s an Enduro bike with 170mm/160mm travel and slack geometry - plus weighs around 32lbs.

At Swinley you could test ride Whyte and Bird quite easily. Maybe try the Bird Aeris 120 / Whyte t-130 / Bird Zero TR / Whyte 905. Whyte do carbon versions of the t-130 if that’s really a want you have.

I’d probably avoid pure xc bikes as they are generally less fun in my experience - the geometry on trail bikes is more playful and unless you’re racing xc they’ll be great.

The Jeffsy is said to be really good, but doesn’t it now have about 160mm of travel?

As much as I love my Aeris 145LT it’s not ideal for towpath bimbling.

If you go fs maybe make sure the shock has a lock out and pedal platform position - it’ll make life easier on towpaths etc. Rockshox deluxe rt3 has this if Rockshox, not sure on Fox.

RDB66

I would recommend getting a FS over a HT if your feeling old ! I have a BMX (35+ years ago) and Road background and the ole Knees are very thankful for a FS bike.