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bought my five29 a month or two before going to Verbier on holiday.
bike rode like a bag of spanners all week, no grip, no compliance. Still enjoyed the holiday but was playing catch up all week.
Turns out the OE Tyres (2.2 Rubber queens were rubbish, hard plastic compound)
Swapped to some 2.35 Schwalbes (HD and a MM) after a while once we had come back home and it transformed it.
put a Corset sleeve on the shock to make the shock more linear and it bumped it up a notch again.
Its lovely, had it.... 4.5 years now.
Intense 6.6 original frame was black, lasted less than 3 months, replacement frame took 10 weeks to arrive, equally shit, but this time silver as waiting for a black frame would have added months to my already long wait. Quality control was non existant, rear triangle flexed so much under hard cornering that I learnt how to fall off using the 6.6. Total build cost was over £3.5k back in the day when you couldnt spend £5k on a mountain bike. Sold it for less than grand 20 months later, it was and remains my biggest waste of money. Intense are triumph of style over substance.
My only one was a 1999 GT XC4000. Not a fortune but felt it at the time!
I bought it to re-ignite my cycling fire having drifted away from the sport in my late teens. My previous bikes were a Saracen Tufftrax followed by a Orange Clockwork and my period away from MTB's coincided with the rise of full suss so I thought I better get in on the action. Fail.... Going from a light and responsive rigid Clockwork to a soggy boat anchor GT put my bike riding ambitions back another 5 years.
My only one was a 1999 GT XC4000. Not a fortune but felt it at the time!
I bought it to re-ignite my cycling fire having drifted away from the sport in my late teens. My previous bikes were a Saracen Tufftrax followed by a Orange Clockwork and my period away from MTB’s coincided with the rise of full suss so I thought I better get in on the action. Fail…. Going from a light and responsive rigid Clockwork to a soggy boat anchor GT put my bike riding ambitions back another 5 years.
I had one of those, assuming you actually mean XCR4000. Looking back now it was probably an awful bike but I loved mine, but at that point I was just into ragging it around the woods on all the DH bits I could find. It ended up with a short (for the time) stem, bomber z3s (then Psylos), Magura brakes and the infamous Tioga DH tyres. Frame is still probably sat in my dads garage.
My tracer 275c
Bought as a 50% off sale bargain.
Just never got on with it..... had it 2years n went the Alps on it and it was awfull to twitchy n short
Santa Cruz Heckler. Was my treat for first proper job out of university. Pretty top spec for the time. Was great fun on xc and twisty single-track but on the steeper jumpy stuff i wanted to progress on, it just felt super short tall and nervous.
After a few years of trying to fix it with a coil shock, bigger forks etc I have up and sold it to a mate for bugger all.
My first 29er. Bought a nice looking Titanium frame from a fairly well known Chinese frame builder. I bought it used from someone in the UK it was well priced, obviously for a reason. I hadnt really done my research in to what made a good or bad 29er. So very quickly I learned about toe over lap and BB drop.
The Ti frame had a crazy high bottom bracket and a really short top tube. it also had a fairly steep head angle. It would go into a speed wobble and I crashed it almost every ride sometimes going in a straight line.
Once I understood what made for a better riding bike, i rebuilt the donor bike (On One Parkwood) and even though it was probably a bit on the big side for me it was a great bike and I ended up keeping it for ages. Now got a Santacruz Chameleon and at last have a nice riding bike that fits properly and takes 29 and B+ wheels. It was certainly a learning curve!
Mine was a Cannondale Jekyll 27.5 from Pauls Cycles and a PSA from here. I swopped out the SRAM drivetrain for 1x XT/Saint, Renthals, minions, offset shock bushes and still absolutely hated it. Cracked it after 3months at Antur Stiniog. Paul's swopped the frame under warranty.
Took it out to Morzine and it was still crap.
The shock was great on big slow hits but spiked on fast sharp edged stuff. The geometry was crap as well, large offset forks but fairly steep headangle even with two offset shock bushes.
Sold it when I came home from France and effectively stopped riding after 30years it pissed me off that much!
Bronson 3 cc. Spent around 6.5k on it. Just kept swapping bits to try to make it better. Carbon everything and sub 30lb. Great on flow trails, just awful in the rough, harsh, did the opposite of inspiring confidence, kept crashing and going otb.
Reviews said it was great, other owners said they were great, the V2 I tested was great.
Binned it off for a massive loss a few month back but kept the reserves, which now fitted to my new bike make that feel harsh also compared to the alloy wheels it came with.
I had a frame made by a very experienced and well respected UK frame builder. I wanted a 26" tourer with Rohloff, good clearance, but fast and lively to ride.
The resultant frame cost £1,500 and built into an impressive bike. But it didn't look quite right with a steep head angle and low offset forks making it look oddly snub nosed. It rode OK but wasn't anything special and not what I was hoping for. I sold it after a year or so and stuck all the bits on a Troll which is probably closer to what I was looking for.
The problem was that I told the builder what I wanted and he interpreted my ideas differently to how I had envisaged. It was my fault for being to hands off and letting him just get on with it. It was also around the time that I began to realise that my ideal off road tourer would have bigger wheels....
If I ordered a new custom frame today I'd spec or discuss every detail like BB drop, off set, trail, tube diameter, etc. More likely, I'd probably just buy off the peg or from someone like Shand who specialises in the sort of bikes I tend to like. Or buy a Tumbleweed.
I didn't hate it, but I was never happy with my BMC Trailfox... Fantastic geometry, but a suspension design I just didn't like. I did spend a bit too much time and money trying to work with that when with hindsight I should have just sacked it off quickly and started again.
OTOH, it then got nicked and I got way more than it was worth in the insurance settlement, so, what does hindsight know?
Olly
Member
Turns out the OE Tyres (2.2 Rubber queens were rubbish, hard plastic compound)
Aye, I crashed a Five 29 on dry tarmac in my testride because of that, they were absolute crap. I suppose credit where it's due for Orange equipping their testfleet exactly how they come out of the box- terrible cable setup and silly narrow bars included, on that one. But you really shouldn't have to replace tyres on day one on a bike like that, and anyone riding a five 29 that didn't need to replace the tyres, had bought the wrong bike
Ton, I guess you are fed up of explaining.... But what didn't you like about the Jones Plus? Did you prefer your ECR?
I am Jones curious...
Saracen Kili Crome 853, hated it and immediately regretted selling the Inbred. I sold it after a handful of rides.
Really interesting thread, I don't know if I've been lucky or just learned from the Charge that each bike deserves a period of adaptation. My last full sus was a Specialized Pitch. I didn't really bond with it at Glentress, but fatter stickier tyres and a baptism of fire on the North Shore quickly forced us to bond!
Am getting nervous about the 'dream' (within budget) gravel bike I'm building next door, reeeeeally hoping it's not a stinker after all this. At least the frame was cheap...