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Is it any good as an all mountain machine?
If you have or have had one what did you think? What are you comparing it to.
Shortlisted bikes are
Bfe, Surge, AKA, Ramones Ali or CroMo
Needed for trail centers, natural singletrack, lakes & blasting local woods, bridalways
Anything else I should be considering?
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I had (still have as a back up bike) a Mr Hyde, and I don't think they changed things TOO much when that 'became' the AKA. It was a pretty good AM HT - bombproof with reasonable angles. Rode it 1x9 with (burly) 100mm forks in all the ways/areas you've mentioned and it did them all better than I could.
Only slight niggle I had was the back end made from girders which beat me up on anything longer than a couple of hours.
I moved on to a BFe with a similar burly AM build and love it. Just as stiff and strong (if not stronger), feels more capable downhill (although it does have 150mm forks on it), and is just barrel of monkeys fun to ride anywhere.
I reckon you'd be fine with the AKA, but recon the BFe is a better bet.
What size frame did you get. I'm thinking of a small ( I'm 510 ) as I'd like it responsive. What, and I don't want to sound rude, do you weigh as I've read lighter peeps don't get on with the Bfe rear being so unforgiving.
I got an XS BFe as I'm only 5'6". Still long enough TT to ride all day but plenty small enough to chuck around.
For my height I'm pretty heavy (about 80kg I reckon but can't remember the last time I was actually weighed). On longer XC type rides where I'm sitting down a lot the BFe does get a bit uncomfortable after a couple of hours but nothing unbearable and once the saddle's dropped and the trail gets technical or heading downhill that's all forgotten anyway as the thing just comes alive.
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I love my AKA , I run it with Talas 110-140 terralogic forks, it feels and rides good. Its strong, fairy light, has sliding dropouts and came with seat post, seat clamp, headset which rather nicely has two crown races, one for tapered forka and one for straight 1 1/8th.
Can you get 12mm Maxle drop-outs for it?
There is a picture of me going over that jump on my BFe, brilliant bike.
Stanton slackline worth considering too I reckon - I've ordered one of the ti frames and can't wait to get it and build it up, will be running with some 36 floats lowered to 140mm. Can't go far wrong with a bfe either though to be fair.
It's no wonder you can't afford fuel Stevede 🙂
Ha ha, have temporarily put it on the credit card until I've had a shed clear out to pay for it with real money! May be up the week after next with my girls - if I'm allowed to bring a bike I'll give you a shout! Oh and in case you thought I'd gone mad - the enduro is staying! 1 hardtail and 1 bouncy bike, job done 🙂
Life's just not right without one of each 🙂