[Closed] Kinesis Sync has landed!

Nice.

@mboy give 1x10 a whizz before you drop for 11 speed, chances are you will almost never use that 11th gear.

Looks lovely but far from needing a dropper post it needs an upper! Seat is already below bars.

Two of those out on their first night ride last night!?

Where?

Is that a small sized frame?

Yep, 650b version.

I've got the large 29er, still very compact though, the thing flies when you put your foot down. Going to experiment with mine over the winter, layback post and shorter stem, I don't seem to be using the dropper as much as I normally do. Very impressed with the direct mount rear mech.

I want to go riding now.

Rewski chief groove has connected the new sync online with the real life saw one he saw out last night so just the one!

Chiefgrooveguru hi! I know who u are since your fall that made u famous!

Everyone saying dropper...I know it would be nice to have but I want this bike to stay minimal, low maintenance and light!

@mboy give 1x10 a whizz before you drop for 11 speed, chances are you will almost never use that 11th gear.

Already have done... Found that with a 32T with 11-36 cassette on a 26" bike I was ok on most rides under 3hrs, except I ran out of top end speed a bit quickly. Tried a 36T too briefly, and that cured the top end speed, but I then struggled up the steepest climbs when my legs were tired.

On a 29er the gearing is 10% taller anyway, so I'm not tempted I'm afraid. Especially as I've now got into longer rides on occasion (did a 12hr solo where a 24/36 bottom gear got a fair bit of use once the legs went past 6hrs!) so probably going with a 26/39 or 24/36 double with an 11-36. Though I reckon I could just about get away with an 11spd with a 32 or 34T ring most of the time...

Must say I'm loving the 11 spd...not missed any gears and loving the granny ring for steep bits. Suprised as I thought I would miss being able to drop a load of gears in one.

@mboy sure, I've never yet needed a lower gear than my 10th (32:36 on a 29er), but so far the biggest I've done is 3 hours in Surrey or a 1/2 day at BPW (the climb 2 and a half times). When true fatigue kicks in I may feel differently ... time will tell.

Sneak peak... Not quite there yet but...

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Just got to re-rim the rear hub with the new 29er rim (so that it's not a 69er as in the photo!), fit my reverb and saddle, shorten the brake hoses, then we're all good to go! Can't wait!

Oh, and don't worry, there'll be decent pics when it's all ready to go...

Spec for those interested is... Medium Sync 29er Frame, Rockshox Revelation RCT3 shortened to 120mm, DT240S hubs on Mavic EN821 UST 29er rims, XT derailleurs, shifters, cassette and pedals, SRAM XX crank, Easton Haven stem, Kinesis F750 carbon bar, Formula T1 brakes, and there will be a Reverb on there soon enough too.

Probably one of the nicest builds I've seen on here! Congratulations, enjoy!

Just in time to enjoy the mud! I've found my Sync is making a very good road bike at the mo, actually weighs less than my road bike, and I did 48 miles of wet, mucky country lanes on it last weekend and am in love with it. Can see my other bikes being quite neglected! Enjoy it Mboy!

Does anybody have a large Sync I could swing a leg over - based in the lakes but will travel...

@ IvanDobski - I do but I'm in the South East. I'm 6ft 4 if that helps?

I'm 6'3 so that'd be fine, I might drop you a line next time I'm down that way with work. cheers.

Perfect, I'll drop you an email. It's a stunning frame, worth seeing in the flesh as pics sometimes don't do it justice, like the cloverleaf TT and HT. It's also a pleasure dealing with Dom at kinesis and upgrade, might also be worth tracking down singlespeedmatt, he's got one of the small 650b versions, I think he's lakes based?

Whatever you do, DO NOT tot up all the RRP's of your custom bike build... Staring at the thick end of £5k for mine! OUCH!!!

Does anybody have a large Sync I could swing a leg over - based in the lakes but will travel...

If you want to have a look at my medium bike, I'm not far from Birmingham so you'd pass through on the way down. I'm a Kinesis dealer too, so have a small range in (sadly no larges right now). The size/fit is the same as the FF29, so if you can find a large FF29 (a bit easier) locally to you then you'll know it fits. 6ft3 should just about be alright on a large I reckon as they've got a decent TT length, though you'd probably want a 400mm seatpost.

It's also a pleasure dealing with Dom at kinesis and upgrade

Big thumbs up to the Upgrade boys, soooooo much more helpful and knowledgable about their products than most distributors.

I've actually just sold an FF29 as I could have done with a touch more standover on the large. The sync looks to be a bit better in that respect?

Definite more stand over available on the sync than the ff29, completely different feel, they really are non-comparable (in a good way...I think), I've got both in medium, just waiting for my sync to come back with 1x10 gearing replacing the old 2x9

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posted for siaxminster 🙂

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Where are you getting the X Fusion forks from? See good reviews for them, might be the last money I spend on my Ti456 to eke another year out of it...

[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7427/11966607436_4d6738c879.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7427/11966607436_4d6738c879.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/114525955@N06/11966607436/ ]image[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/114525955@N06/ ]simonharttrup1[/url], on Flickr

@brassneck
The slide Rs came via upgrade bike around £270 I think
The carbon rigids came from Fat birds £230 but worth every penny

Any shop that sells Kinesis will also be able to get X-Fusion. They are both distributed by the same company.

A quick and dirty progress update photo...

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Just gotta shorten the brake hoses, set the rear tyre up tubeless, and swap my Reverb over from my other bike (and probably change the saddle).

Very nice. 8)

Frame size?

It's a medium. I'm 5ft10 if that makes any difference.

dam - that is sexy

Nice... that the direct mount rear mech?

Yeah it's the direct mount, haven't tested it as such yet but shifts in the stand seem exceptionally precise and crisp!

[i]It's a medium. I'm 5ft10 if that makes any difference. [/i]

Is your seat at pedalling height?

Had the DM fitted to mine, impressive, ultra snappy gear change, just makes the overall feel of the bike very lively.

Is your seat at pedalling height?

Might be 5-10mm out, as I've not yet fine tuned it, but it's close. It's a 350mm post on just about the limit of its extension right now (the Reverb going in is 380mm). I an long in the leg though for my height.

Thing that's going to be hard to get used to is the bar height! Already feels like they need dropping, and that's with flat bars and a zero rise stem. Might end up with a negative rise stem and a shallower headset top cap to lower the front by 15-20mm to make it closer to my other bike. I like quite a low front end which is the challenge with 29ers, and though this isn't talk compared to some, that fork is at 120mm whereas my other only has a 100mm fork on it.

[i]Might be 5-10mm out, as I've not yet fine tuned it, but it's close. It's a 350mm post on just about the limit of its extension right now (the Reverb going in is 380mm). I an long in the leg though for my height.[/i]

tbh I was thinking how low the seat was in relationship to the bars...

Niner makes some bars with a bit of drop (instead of rise) to them which might be worth a look.

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My bikes normally have bars and saddle about level. So this is a bit more upright at the moment indeed. I can get a 10mm lower stack top cap and a -6 degree stem on there easily without drastically affecting the aesthetics which should get it about level.

It's all personal preference though eh, I know people that ride 29ers with 2" rise bars on and sat bolt upright!

Soooooooo... I finally got out on the bike! Embarrassingly late I know (I've been busy), but I got a quick blast over the Malverns on it tonight.

First impressions...

Without wishing to sound cliched, it's the least 29er-like 29er that I've ridden so far (including the ultra short back ended Whyte T-129 and 29C). I mean that in that it doesn't feel like a big bike, it feels quite compact and is definitely more playful than other 29ers I've ridden. Obviously the benefits of 29ers are still there in abundance, but with less of the drawbacks of most.

I say less, cos immediately obvious (even though I've slammed the stem and fitted a lower stack top headset spacer) is the handlebar height. It's still too high for my own tastes, so I'm going to have to fit a stem with some negative rise I'm afraid. It doesn't feel massively too high, but could do with going down another 10mm. Obviously I could shorten the fork travel, but the bike is designed around a 120mm fork optimum and that's the travel I want to run.

Power transfer is very direct though, I'm not as fit as I was a few months ago (have had no time to ride!) but out of the saddle standing on the pedals it's stiff, probably aided by the SRAM XX BB30 cranks and 142x12mm axle. It also has that "flat back tyre" feeling that many of the best Ti bikes have in abundance. You'll either love it or hate it (it's been 8 months since I last rode Ti, but I quite like the feeling), but you'll be checking that the back tyre isn't flat quite a bit for the first few rides! That's not to say it's flexy, far from it to be fair, just that the inherent properties of Ti mute the ride quite a lot compared to alloy, carbon and even steel.

The frame is also exceptionally UK conditions friendly, tyre clearance is as good as if not better than I've seen on a 29er (despite the shorter than average stays), a 2.25" has plenty of mud room and even a Hans Dampf fits with good clearance. The Direct Mount for a Shimano mech also seems to make the shift very crisp.

Other bits of the bike... The Rockshox Revelation RCT3's seem as well controlled as any fork I've used (and unlike Fox they seem to be happy to give up their stated travel), the M780 XT shifters and mechs totally faultless, the SRAM XX crank is ultra stiff and shifts well, and MY GOD the Formula T1's are powerful! First ride out by the end, the power was better than anything I've ever used before, but also more controllable than anything else too.

Now to get out and ride it some more!

So... Changed the stem for an 80mm with 10 degree negative rise, and put my Reverb on... WOW! What a difference!

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Bar height is finally about where I want it, and I'd forgotten just how much I miss a Reverb until I ride a bike without one. Done a lap of Verderers at the FoD on it this morning, followed by most of the Enduro XC loop (with added tech DH sections thrown in) and loved every moment of it. I've ridden some good bikes in the past, and a number of decent 29ers now, this is definitely the best one so far!

Mboy great to hear your thoughts! It's my 1st Ti bike and i've not heard of the 'flat back tyre' feel before but that's exactly what i felt on my first few rides! Also agree on the power transfer when you put your foot down it goes! Coming from a heavy full susser i'm loving being able to stand up and pedal and have just put my reverb on as was desperately missing it in the Surrey hills. Hoping to do forest of dean on it next month which will be it's first trail center outing. Can't wait!

What date you heading up to the FoD? I'm relatively local and know lots of trails off the beaten tracks (Verderers and Freeminers are ok for a quick blast but quickly get boring), happy to show you around.

Just weighed mine (geek alert!), with a patina of dirt from Sundays ride was quite impressed it weighs bang on 12kg all in! That's with heavy tyres, UST rims and a Reverb. Can easily see swapping lighter wheels and tyres in, and ditching my Reverb, would get it under 11kg which is respectable for the odd XC event.

Yeah mine came in at 22.9lbs, sensible build with nobby nics although have since put reverb on but will put the Thompson masterpiece back on for long xc summer rides/races. My friend and i are hoping for 22nd of March for FOD and would be great to get shown some of the natural stuff maybe after a lap of Verderers to warm up?

Can't manage Saturdays as I'm busy in the shop, but I'm definitely free Sunday 23rd at the moment.

Shame, we have got to do Sat this time..

[i]Yeah mine came in at 22.9lbs[/i]

How?

Carbon bars, Thompson masterpiece, Sids, xo1, wheels are nothing fancy oh and it's a small 650b not the 29er..

Yeah mine came in at 22.9lbs

How?

My Medium sized 29er version is 26lb with some much heavier kit on it... Reverb post, UST rims, Maxxis tyres, 2x10 groupset. I'm not surprised Myti's has dipped under 23lb with the build on it!

Shame, we have got to do Sat this time..

What sort of time you planning on riding? I can see if I could manage half a day maybe (and go in either late or early depending).

Driving up from South coast so not totally sure on arrival time but hope to be there by 11am.

Actually been getting out and putting some miles in on the Sync recently... Here's a couple of pics for proof!

Me with the bike, up the top of Snowdon on Friday...

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The Bike at the top of one of the nice DH sections on the new Carfall trail at Cwmcarn...

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What can I say, the more I ride this bike, the more I love it! It's had a good pasting so far to be fair, to the tune that I already need to give the rear wheel some TLC as it's a bit out of true (the bike descends so well that sometimes I have to remind myself there is no rear suspension!). The only things I'm not 100% happy with are that the Kinesis R750 flat bars could really do with having 9 or 10 degrees of sweep rather than the 6.5 they do, and I keep finding the legendary inbetween the centre knobs and the side knobs "land of uncertainty" on the front Maxxis HR2 tyre, it doesn't half grip when you lean it right over but I'm finding too many front end washouts when I'm not quite committed enough.

Looks great!

Pleased to hear you are enjoying it.

PS. Apologies if you got a spam email from me Mark but my yahoo account got hacked.

Cheers, and yeah did wonder about those rogue emails! Hope you got it under control now...

Myti, enjoy FoD this Saturday, sadly definitely not going to be able to join you, you will enjoy it though. Hopefully it will give you a taste for some of the quality riding there, and if you fancy popping up for more at any time in the future, let me know, we can organise it in advance and I'll show you some real quality stuff.

The Kinesis website says the headset is fully integrated on this frame but I see everyone in running a bottom cup on their builds, can you run it without the lower cup for a lower front end?

Cheers mboy can't wait for tomorrow and will definitely be back at some point. Nice to see the pics too.

After much umming and arring my large frame arrives on Tuesday. It'll be replacing a Solaris, which I love, but as the Solaris replaced a Soda, and there is no persuading Cy to do a ti 29er, there was something inevitable about this once I'd sat on it at the bike show.

Still can't quite decide whether to go 2x10 or make the switch to 1x11. I'll probably take the plunge. Everything else will be coming straight off the Solaris, so 120 Revs and Stans/240s wheels, reverb and 750mm flat bars.

I'm going to miss my Solaris a lot, but this is the only thing I would have considered swapping it for. Can't wait.

😀

Thinking about getting myself one of these but am unsure about the geometry. Does anyone know if the geometry provided on the website is for a 100mm fork or a 120? Failing that could one of you kind souls let me know how there's measures up? 🙂

@floyd - pretty sure it'll be 120, maybe just tweet Dom @Kinesis_UK or call upgrade

thanks for that, will give them a call.

The only thing that I have reservations about on the frame is the integrated headset, always seemed like a bad idea to me, I don't see any advantage, just disadvantages. However no one else has has said anything about it so I guess I'm a bit out of touch? What do you think, not an issue?

I was a bit weary of integrated headsets on it bikes after all the trouble Litespeed had a few years ago, but my LBS assured me that as long as it was installed properly it would be fine. I guess the big advantage is that it keeps the stack hight low.

With regards to geometry, I think I worked out that it's about half a degree steeper than a Solaris fork for fork (although my maths isn't great). It certainly feels smaller (which I guess it is - I had an XL Solaris) and tighter, but just as confidence inspiring. Oh, and a LOT faster up and down.

Minor Thread resurrection...

bol, where's the pics??? How you finding it 3 months on?

Here's a pic of mine in the sun earlier, still covered in mud from a nice technical 40km in the FoD yesterday...

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Still loving this bike more than any other HT I've owned! Not changed the spec much at all since I got it, just tyres and a Handlebar change. Been looking at new forks though, and I've come to the conclusion that the 26/39 chainset is very slightly overgeared for me for most of my riding, so looking at replacing with a 24/36 soon.

What forks are you thinking of?

Ended up staying with the Rev's at 120mm. Entertained a few ideas, but decided that for now at least, it wasn't worth it.

Have just fitted new wheels, new cranks, a 30T Works Components ring and a 40T Hope T-Rex and gone 1x10 though. Literally just finished, will post pics tomorrow...

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Sync in the sun

bol, where's the pics??? How you finding it 3 months on?

Still haven't taken any proper pics, but loving the bike. Rode it at Dusk till Dawn last week, and it was great. I know it's been said before, but if ever there was a bike that prefers to be ridden quickly. I took it to Llandegla a while back and it was amazing. Pure adrenaline - had me smiling all the way and riding so much faster than I had on anything else.

One thing that was doing my head in was the incessant creaking of the press fit bottom bracket. It's been cured since swapping to a Hope one. The graphics are a little more fragile than I'd have liked, but that's my only criticism of the frame. I'm trying to resist some wide carbon rims at the moment, which I think is the only reasonable upgrade.

Must try and get some pics done this weekend.

Must try and get some pics done this weekend.

No excuses not to mate! I'll have yet more of mine tomorrow for the thread...

Agree on the decals side of things, they're not the hardiest. But that's an exceptionally minor criticism of an otherwise superb frame!

What Cranks and BB are/were you running that creaked all the time? I've stuck with SRAM PF30 BB so far and a proper 30mm SRAM crank and haven't had any creaking issues as yet touch wood.

I was using xx1 cranks with a sram bb. I was forever tightening it, but by the end of a ride it would creak with every pedal stroke. No such problems now though thankfully.

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I'd like to say I'm a better rider than photographer, but sadly that isn't the case.

Are they ^ 100 or 120mm forks? They look quite short.

They're Revs at 120.

bol, looks like ours are very similar builds... Yours slightly blingier than mine to be fair... Ironically just take a set of DT240's off mine too! What rims you running?

Here's a few new photos of mine...

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Oh, and it's now 11.4kg, or literally a gnats chuff over 25lb (including cage and guard etc.) which isn't bad I don't think. A light pair of tyres would have it sub 24lb so probably light enough for a few XC races. Might get the Reverb fixed at some point too for more hardcore trail duties.

Mines a bit blingy as a way of me comforting myself that it's now my only mtb. I've got a crest on the front and an arch ex on the back. I'm a bit of a heifer for a rear crest on a hardtail.

Clink you were right, they were a bit short. I've just taken the air out and set them up again and they're now back where they should be at 120. Given that I don't measure them usually, I wonder how long they've been at 110. They were working fine.

Clink you were right, they were a bit short.

Glad to be of service!

I really want one of these. Do any of you lucky owners ever get to Swinley? Id love to have a go 🙄 😆

No but I often ride in the Surrey Hills.....

I have spoken to Upgrade and AW Cycles in Caversham. Hopefully if everything works out they will have a medium Sync that I can borrow for the weekend to throw around my local trails.

Had a call from AW Cycles. I will be picking up the Sync tomorrow and keeping for the weekend.

Its been a busy week and a half for the post man but I am now in possession of the following:
- Sync Frame - Size Medium - Praxxis GXP Bottom Bracket Fitted.
- FSA Headset.
- X01 Drive train (with X1 shifter)
- 380mm / 125 drop Reverb (thanks to Paddy at Upgrade for the advice)
- Rockshox SID Forks
- Thomson Carbon Bars and 80mm Stem
- SRAM Guide RS Brakes (180mm front/160mm Rear Rotor)
- Hope Enduro Hoops with Blue Hubs
- Specialized Butcher / Purgatory Tyres
- DMR Vault Pedals
- ODI Ruffian Grips and Hope Seat Clamp (both in Blue)
- Fizik Gobi Saddle (off my old HT)
- Miscellaneous other bits and pieces.

I have a friend who is a Cytech qualified Mechanic who had kindly offered to talk me through the build so we just need to find a date in January and I will get it all built up.

I will post pics of the build and post when I can.

Cant wait