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Post a pic of your non trials bike


Bucky

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I've never used a Fox or Reverb but have heard awful stories about the Rockshox and would never consider spending £300 on such a minor component, especially when the £90 BrandX does exactly the same job... The XL is my second Ascend (first one was just a mark 1 standard one with 125mm travel) but both have been absolutely spot on with no problems at all. I 3D printed a little bracket so the lever bolts on to the Matchmaker thing on my lever to clean up the cockpit but I honestly can't fault the Ascends.

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My reverb has been spot on for the 6 years I've had it. I've carried out one service at which point I replaced the top DU bush with a delrin one and the original ifp with the latest version from sram. I've also replaced the top seal with a decent wiper as the original one had worn out.

I've not really had any of the major complaints that you read about on the interwebs, the original ifp burped air a couple of times but rebuilding and servicing is pretty straightforward albeit messy.

You can pick them up for about 100 quid second hand, give it a quick service for 15 quid and jobs a good un :)

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I think if I do get a dropper it'll be a cable actuated one.

Is there pros and cons to having the cable snib (don't know what they call it?) at the lever end and the post end?

The one thing that puts me off droppers is the play you get in them, if any. And the weight. And when I didn't have an internally routed set up, I didn't want the extra cable flapping around.

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I have a cheap crap dropper that came on the bike and it's been replaced under warranty once, but I've never had any play in it - assume you mean travel up and down whilst riding?

If so, mine and all my mates have been rock solid until you want it to go up or down.

Extra weight I'm sure is a thing, but I'm not sure what the difference is, I doubt it's enough to really impact your riding.

Cable routing is one thing I'd like to change with mine, though that's a problem with the whole bike to be honest, too many cables everywhere. Losing the front shifter is on the list for starters.

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The weight isn't really an issue is it? I mean not really, want your bike lighter? Put smaller tyres on and smaller forks, then it'll be lighter, it's not like you're competing xc at Olympic level ;)

The only play in a dropper post is a tiny amount of rotation around the post axis, talking about 2mm side to side movement on the nose of the saddle, it's not noticeable in any way shape or form when sat on it.

People complain about the hydraulic line on the reverb but I've had zero issues with it and it's definitely less maintenance than a cable and doesn't suffer with kinks like a cable will. With regards to the cable nipple, I believe it's easiest to have it at the base of the post with internal routing, that way all adjustments are at the handlebars.

If I were to buy one new now I would probably go for the bikeyoke revive or the one up components, both seem to get excellent reviews. Bikeyoke do a coupler for the reverb stealth that converts it to cable.

 

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I recently bought a Planet X pro carbon with he new full ultegra groupset on. Never had a full carbon road bike before, bought it for fitness mainly as sitting on my arse driving all week aint doing me any good. That and a prop's physique as well. It's so fast it's unreal. Biggest ride to date is 46 miles, rode to Gainsborough, had coffee and crumpets, and rode back. I don't need 50mm carbon wheels, but I really want some 

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Edited by bing
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  • 2 weeks later...

Oops, so I accidentally a Calibre Astronut... Abused the Duke of Edinburgh discount to get 15% off and paid £2.95 for postage. Ordered just after 8pm last night and it was here about midday and I was at the local pump track and jumps about half 1! Quite impressive service to be fair. Will get some picks up soon but for the money it seems very good.

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Earlier this year I spent all my money to this. Now I'm slightly regretting it, as it seems that I'm mainly practicing trials and something cheaper like Commencal Meta am or even a hardtail would do the job for trails. Not sure If I'm going to sell it though as It's already lost too much value due to early release of the 2019 range. And I like the color!

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On 18.10.2018 at 5:45 PM, Jere_h said:

Earlier this year I spent all my money to this.

Did the same thing but I don't regret it as I don't do trials anymore. :)

I have ordered a Formula Selva fork but other than that, it'll stay like this for now.

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Edited by niconj
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

This is my ride. 2016 Canyon Strive AL 7.0 Race Medium. I love this bike to bits. I thought the shape shifter function was a bit of a gimmick when I heard about these bikes but I really like it in practice! Modifications are: I've changed the dropper for a 170mm drop reverb, 28 steel chainring, Wheels are Hope pro 4 on DT Swiss EX511 and the tyres are Continental Trail King 2.4 (only just fits on the back) Pedals are Nukeproof Electron's and I've put some volume spacers in the forks and rear shock. The bike can handle anything I can throw at it and its got me out of trouble a number of times when the feature I was riding down exceeded my skill level. I went to this from a 26" 16" frame Orange Five which I loved at the time. This bike just feels so much better to me though and gives me so much confidence.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Acquired this last Sunday. Bargain for £670. 2013 Saracen Myst, Boxxer world cups, fox DHX rc4 factory series rear shock, avid trail 9 carbon brakes, superstar wheels, zee gears. Handling is nothing like a normal mtb, have to ride it from the rear wheel MX style, and it just floats over stuff and can take a proper hit. Went and had a test at leeds bike park yesterday, off to Greno Sunday to have a proper go at some rough stuff. I'm planning on doing the 2019 Yorkshire mates race series, pretty much a no frills bit of racing for a laugh, and a few uplift days here and there

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 09/07/2018 at 1:05 AM, Tony Harrison said:

First proper park ride on my YT Capra CF Pro Race today and it's a f'cking beast. Other than swapping the grips for Deathgrips and fitting the Brendog DMR Vault pedals it's standard. It's just pure fun all the way down the hill...

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Some of you may remember I bought this absolute animal of a bike, and what an absolutely insane bike it was, until in August I found this crack (the holes are where a plastic cable clamp/guide screws on)...

 

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Immediately I contacted YT who said I'd need to send the frame back for inspection, which I duly did. Weeks passed, eventually I got a response to say the frame needed to be replaced, and that would happen 'soon'.

More time went by, I watched the last few weeks of summer weather go by with no bike...

Eventually I got it out of YT that I'd be waiting for a subsequent batch of frames to be sent over from the factory. I pointed out that bikes were still available over the website, with an estimated delivery date earlier than the vague estimate for when my replacement frame would arrive. The weak - very weak - response from YT is that they didn't want to take any frames off the assembly line as most (yes, most, not all) were already purchased.

This royally irritated me, after all, as an existing customer am I not worth more? I loved riding the Capra, had gone to great effort to buy one, and could see myself being a customer for many years to come. I really respected the story behind the brand and how the company had grown. In deciding to buy a Capra I chose to ignore those around me who mentioned rumours they'd heard about bad customer service - and quite rightly. Pick any company and there'll be sob stories on the web...

Again and again I was fobbed-off and not given a proper response. In the end I got legal advice and wrote to YT to say they had one day to get back to me or proceedings would begin, and that all I would accept now was to send the rest of the bike back and have a full refund on the original purchase price. This seemed to get their attention and late October finally I was able to send the rest back.

Another MONTH and I got my refund... : /

So now I'm back to square one, time to decide what bike to buy. The Rocky Mountain Altitude is a strong contender, and a 150/160 travel bike will suit my needs I think. I stepped up my game at Morzine in the summer, outdoing what I'd done on a DH bike the year before, but plenty of people were absolutely throwing down on shorter travel bikes so I'm not convinced that 180 is necessary.

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@Ross McArthur thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out. People warned me about buying direct - the nice thing about going through a shop is you're more likely to have decent customer service. I think the Capra was around £4700, but I'm tempted to buy a reduced price 2018 model of something and do some upgrades.

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To me the direct sales thing makes prefect sense. Imagine having to call up the bike shop for an update. "Hey bike shop, have Hot Lines (the distributor) got back to you about my bike yet? Hold on, we'll give them a call. Hey Hot Lines, its bike shop here, have the Bike Company (manufacturer) got back to you about that bike yet...? No"

Id much rather be in contact with folks myself instead of relying on chasing multiple people up down a chain. Its just a shame it just doesn't seem to run as smoothly as it all should.

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2 hours ago, Ross McArthur said:

To me the direct sales thing makes prefect sense. Imagine having to call up the bike shop for an update. "Hey bike shop, have Hot Lines (the distributor) got back to you about my bike yet? Hold on, we'll give them a call. Hey Hot Lines, its bike shop here, have the Bike Company (manufacturer) got back to you about that bike yet...? No"

Id much rather be in contact with folks myself instead of relying on chasing multiple people up down a chain. Its just a shame it just doesn't seem to run as smoothly as it all should.

That kind of comes down to how good the shop is though, in much the same way that direct sales rely on how good the company is that you're dealing with.  If shops are decent they'll be able to keep you in the loop and look after you rather than you having to chase them up.  If they're not, they won't.

To look at it another way, it's about how much attention you're likely to get from a customer service team too.  If you're dealing with a company selling direct (e.g. YT), they're selling thousands of bikes internationally.  They probably won't have a massive customer service team so you've got whatever that number of people is dealing with thousands of potential owners worldwide, whilst also dealing with sales queries, etc.  If you're dealing with a bike shop they'll have a fraction of those sales, so you're more likely to be able to get the focus of their customer service team.  That doesn't guarantee them giving a shit, but again, that's why you buy from decent shops.

I can see direct being the way things go in future, and if I was in the market for a new bike the YT or Canyon bikes would certainly be tempting, but it doesn't seem like the customer service side of things are that dialled in yet.

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