My recent bike history has been:
Sat on an Orange Four in a shop ‘felt alright’ so bought it.
Read reports and looked at photos of a Cotic Soul ‘looked alright’ so bought it.
Now I’m in the market for a new bike and I don’t want to make the previous mistakes - Four was too ‘sit up and beg’ and felt too big. Soul is a good HT but I’m a FS man really.
Yes the standard reply is TEST RIDE, but at £60 a pop (you can’t expect a LBS to get you in a fleet) it’s not practical to try too many, plus some just aren’t available (Canyon etc) and recently the Cotic event near me didn’t have the size or models I may have been interested in - Hargroves do a fairly decent event at QECP but again models and sizes can be a bit limited.
So what do you do?
Can you help me narrow things down a bit (That Guy Kes bloke just says every bike he reviews on YouTube is fantastic!).
I’ve been thinking about a Whyte S120 or T130 (possibly the 2018 as the 2019 might be too much bike for me).
But are there others I should consider?
Budget £4K
I don’t want a racing machine or a big travel bike.
I like to feel quite stretched out.
Must be carbon and internal routing.
Must be new from a shop / direct sales.
I’m 5’7” 83kg and 50 years old.
I ride blue (and sometimes red) trails but don’t jump and also enjoy
XC on the SDW.
I’m not asking anyone to choose a bike for me, just to throw some ideas out there so I can look at alternatives to the T130 and S120 which if possible I can test ride without having to spend a fortune on £60 a pop sessions or piss off the LBS’s in the area asking them to get every bike known to man in for me.
The whyte is a nice ride and is long, but with the wheels and tires it needs some effort to ride, fast on the downhill requires effort elsewhere unless you upgrade the wheels and run lighter tires. Depends what’s more important to you.
I have a fair few bikes in my head that I like the look of, the geometry works, and come from brands that are reliable, these bikes sometimes change in my head, but there's always a few there.
When it comes to new bike time, I buy one of them, the one I fancy most at that time.
I've tried demoing bikes before, a long time ago, but it doesn't really work for me, too limited choice, too much reliance on the bike/components not being a worn out pile of shite when you get there.
Tbh, I've never had a bad bike yet, and I reckon there's less and less shite bikes about now than ever.
£60 might not be nothing but it concentrates you into only testing what you've short listed, and compare to spending £4K on something you eventually dislike, it bugger all. That and you potentially get a decent amount of time to test it, I've normally had bikes for 2 day for that £60.
Also you potentially get that (last) demo day payment back off the price of the bike, if you buy it from the shop that you demo'd it from.
Otherwise there are lots of 'big' demo days to be had, if you not panic to buy the bike this minute, which consider it's the wettest part of winter, your HT's will be fine till April...
Even Canyon have demo's in Bath/Cannock (March/April)
I did the bike demo days, then specific demo's*
.
.
.
*but have then bought my last two bike sight unseen ;D
Leisure lakes run a good demo day at Cannock once a year. Not sure when in the year though! Cotic also run demos from their base in Calver with a good range of sizes etc.
I decided that it was worth putting the leg work in and traveled around as necessary to try the bikes I was interested in.
I take what I like about my current bike and decide what I'd like improved. I loved the geo on my 2015 Reign but thought I could do with a tad more reach with a bit of a shorter seat tube and wanted something that was stiffer, burlier and had a bit more travel and grip at the back - so went with my Commencal Supreme SX. Bought the frame based on reviews without a test ride.
I love it.
Aye, pretty much that philosophy here too rayban.
Only time I actually demoed a bike I hated it once I'd bought it.
I tend to buy a second hand frame that was highly rated at the time. That way I get the pleasure of building a bike and without the financial pain if I don't like it.
I narrow down bikes to a handful based on spec, geometry and of course price. Then I get to any big demo days to ride them. I rode the Cube Stereo 140 at hargroves QECP demo day and the canyon at the MBR demo day, along with a stumpy.
I've bought all my bikes untested/unseen- the only ball I've dropped was on a new Flare frame, I should've waited and bought one second hand so I didn't lose any money on it when I (inevitably) ended up punting it on 😆 My current mk1 Switchback was bought because I wanted something like the BFe I had at the time, in steel, but without the untidy seat tube/seat stay/top tube like the BFe.
Should tick most of your boxes, even if its marketed as an 'enduro' bike. I currently have a dune r carbon and while it needs more maintenance than most bikes I've had it easily the best I've ridden and pedals amazingly well with the shock fully open, I'd guess this thing will pedal better still
What size was the Four, only if it was too sit up and beg that says that the top tube was too short for you, but you say it was too big.
I've ridden MTB's for 34 years and have yet to demo one.
Ride your mates bikes. Or pick some bikes you like the look of, then ask on here if anyone has one and fancies a ride where you can swop bikes.
For my XC, Red and Blue trail riding duties I ride a YT Jeffsy in 29 inch flavour.
For anything else I ride my YT Capra.
Based on build quality, geometry, price and spec.
I didnt demo the Capra, but I did demo the Jeffsy.
Thanks chaps
On paper, based on reviews, feedback on here a 2018 T130 ticks the boxes really- a mate has a low spec 2017 one in my size I could try for an idea as the only one I’ve had a go on before was a large and much too big. (The 2019 T130 just looks a bit to ‘much bike’ for me with the 140 and wheels/tyres) plus I can get a 2018 Works version for 2019 RS money.
I still do have an itch to scratch with a 29er (I’ve tried an On One up on the SDW but it’s not a fair comparison) so most probably will give the S120 a go.
I like the Whytes but they do seem heavy compared to other bike manufacturers?
Either that or I buy new wheels/ tyres and a dropper for my Soul?.....
A nice hardtail's a nice thing...
I loved my LS SOUL it was so mich fun on the tamer stuff. In the end I sold it as it wasnt the right bike for 80% of my riding. I now have a trek remedy which is awsome. It isn’t the right bike for 20% of my riding and sometimes i still wish i had the soul. But living in a flat means I have no spare storage for more than one bike.
A few of my mates ride the T130 far more capable than the 130mm suspension suggests,
In the time old tradition of recommend what you ride have you considered a sc 5010,
no help today now but stif had the mk2 for £2750 a few weeks ago, it seems they only have the mk2 bronson at £3.2k on sale but it may be too much bike
Why not go British and try bird cycles or airdrop bikes they represent excellent value and you get to choose components you prefer.
I demoed a Whyte for a weekend at Afan, nice bike. But it was heavy.
This makes interesting reading as far as paying for demo's goes.
Only time I've ever demo'd a bike was from my 'LBS' where I'd been a well known customer for donkeys (excellent donkeys BTW) & actually had the bike delivered to my house by the factory rep, then after the test ride I dropped the bike back off at the shop.
No charge.
That's how I bought my last new bike anyway.
Why are you discounting race bikes? I would have thought an anthem, scalpel, top fuel, spark etc would be great for someone looking for a stretched out position on a bike for wheels on the ground type riding.
Right here’s my plan.
Demo S120 for £60 and a grand deposit.
Borrow mates 2017 T130S.
Compare both on the same day over the same trails.
Obviously the T130 is a lower spec but it will give me an idea.
My local shop does club/shop rides. Same sort of riding I do and some more challenging. I look what others are riding and try a few out. Free test rides good laughs and business for the shop.
“Four was too ‘sit up and beg’ and felt too big.”
So you probably find it has too much stack height but too little effective top tube and too much reach. So that means you need something with shorter forks and/or less head tube length and/or a higher BB, and a slacker seat angle. And that’s the opposite to what’s been happening to most MTBs in recent years.
Are you coming from road bikes?
Guesswork mostly and common sense.
Only one I got wrong was a Kona process 153 which I hated, but sold it for £20 less than I paid, so more than ok with that.
T130 I own felt perfect from the first ride. It's the shorter 2015 not full on long and low. I adore it and since buying it I've never contemplated getting rid, which is unique for me
Sounds fair. I demo'd a bike n lined it got the money off the sale.
Demo days are ace. I go n do the lesuire lakes one every year as it's a top day out.
If I had to buy a new bike now it’d be
https://www.tweekscycles.com/uk/transition-smuggler-carbon-gx-full-suspension-mountain-bike-2019-2003816/?sku=WIN01.19.11.3922&istCompanyId=56f52ebf-49f3-492a-9cbb-cb6ab0fc1bf0&istItemId=-xtqqitltlq&istBid=t&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkPPg24zC3wIVD1XTCh3cTw0XEAQYAyABEgLN0vD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
it has to be a demo these days, if possible, or at least ride a mate's bike to get a feel.
Bikes are just so different when you get on them. In my experience, there have been plenty of bikes that looked good on paper and in pics but when I rode them it was pretty clear, pretty quickly that they weren't for me. I'd include in that group all the Oranges and Whytes I've ridden...
You could follow my example and get through literally DOZENS of bikes over a decade-long period before cumulative experience and changing bike geometry mean you finally understand what you need (and it's available to buy).
I've bought a few bikes without much more than a quick spin outside the shop. I then fettle it with changes of stems and bars etc, and then just adapt to what the bike is, rather than what I want. Lots of bikes are good, there's lots of types of riding, so I just adapt. If a bike is sit-uppy then I throw it down steep stuff, that's what it's best at.
Of course, I do own more than one bike, and I know what the bike is designed to do before I buy it.
