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So I have had the itch for a while to upgrade my current Stumpy 6fattie for something longer travel as I am racing more Enduro's and getting tempted by some of the grass roots DH events that are cropping up down in the South West. Last time I rocked up the LBS and see what's on offer knowing I get on with Specialized which they stock. Now this time around it's really hard to ignore some of direct brands that are putting out cracking value for money bikes. Thanks to @matt_outandabout the Radon Swoop is looking way to good to ignore and I am sure they are loads more. But how do you try them or even decide without being able to poke and prod one? Note: The only bike I have ridden and hated was an Orange 5. All the others have okay to great. I'm not super fussy.
Please help me spend my money.
For a forum full of opinions I can't believe no-one has has delved in yet.lol
I can't say much to help really but as the owner of a Jeffsy it's fair to say that the direct brands offer some damned good bikes and value for money.👍
If you’re looking at direct brands, all you can really do is read a lot of internet looking for horror stories that seem to keep repeating and spend a lot of time looking at lists of kit for a certain amount of money. And Geometry charts.
I’ve got a couple of German MTBer friends I asked about Radon a while ago when I was looking at them, as I thought they might be more familiar with the brand/see more of them around. They didn’t really have anything bad to say. It seems a solid value brand. Enduro liked the Swoop recently, especially for €2500 or so with a Lyrik and an XT/SLX 1x11 build with DT wheels and Magura MT5’s ... That’s really quite monster value.
I struggle - we bought the Swoop because we already had a Slide. We also borrowed a friend's new Slide Trail to check sizing.
I would much much prefer a local shop, but they too struggle to have sizes in, so it can be a leap like a distance selling brand to get it ordered in having sat on a too small one in the shop...
And then you compare value for money...
This is the thing. I would love to spend my money at the LBS but the value for money might not be there. I have never been for pouring over geo charts. I guess can you really buy a bad bike from a well known brand?
You can certainly buy a bike from a well known brand that doesn’t do anything the way you want it to or is the wrong size for the places you want to ride regardless of if you actually fit on the thing. ‘Bad bike’ is a very mobile term, a well known brand is likely to be nicely finished, resell well and have good reviews, but until that first ride, you’re still taking a leap of faith to an extent.
Geo charts are only going to let you compare different models you’re looking at and give you an idea unless you seriously know geo inside out (almost no one not working in the industry). They’re useful tools but it’s a lot like that mpg number you know a car will never manage or the 0-60 figure that tells you almost nothing.
I get Matt’s point too. The industry is shrinking the availability of bikes to try before buying to the point where unless travelling hours from home is something you can do to see a bike, you almost might as well buy direct. Not a dig at the LBS, because I always want my favourite shop to still be there too, but I think the model is very much changing and we may start seeing far fewer shops with large retail displays of bikes.
My last hikes have been from bird and Cotic . I felt almost guilty not buying from a shop but brands like these offer as much as a personal service as most shops . You can speak to them on the phone and their both quick at replying to emails so I feel in a way you get better support. If you spoke to either of these I’m sure you would get some great advice and both have pretty decent access to demo bikes .
There is a shop near me which has a good reputation and I’d used there workshop in the past and been happy with the service but when I was trying to replace my stolen road bike they were awful at replying to phone calls and emails and I gave up in the end and bought a Ribble .