[Closed] Light 29er full sus

At the risk of someone saying "the tool you have is the solution to every kind of problem......"

Epic or Epic Evo

Epic or Epic Evo

I'd love one but they're silly money for a low spec build.

I don't have any bias towards any particular brand so open to any suggestions that fit the criteria.

13kg is pretty light for a 29er trail bike.

11.5kg is really light.

Under £5k only thing i can think of that might hit that weight is a Giant Anthem

The new spark RC

13kg is pretty light for a 29er trail bike.

My Whyte's 27.5.

I have a 120mm Oiz, it's the TR version. It's an XL with some light bits but other non light bits like the cassette, comes in at 30lb in the real world (i.e. with pedals, mudguards, inner tube - couldn't be bothered to take that all off when I weighed it)

But it comes with Fox suspension and a pressfit BB

I have a 120mm Oiz, it’s the TR version. It’s an XL with some light bits but other non light bits like the cassette, comes in at 30lb in the real world

Thats heavier than my Whyte.

I think you've asked for something that doesn't exist. Up the budget a bit and learn to overcome your aversion to press fit BBs and you might have a chance, but even then you'd probably have to order now for a late spring delivery.

learn to overcome your aversion to press fit BBs

I've just heard so many horror stories of them creaking or frames being written off.

I've got a road bike, a trail bike and a hardtail with press fit BBs - no trouble with any of them.

Bigger wheels / tyres do weigh more than smaller ones

Mrs NBT recently upgraded her old XS 26" Turner Flux to a Small Whyte T-130. The weight increase is noticeable. Maybe look at a Turner, given that?

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/vitus-rapide-fs-crx-mountain-bike-2021

That ^^ has a 67 degree HA to offset the 10mm travel you really want.

I’ve just heard so many horror stories of them creaking or frames being written off.

Pressfit in my Spark which has been ridden and raced since January 2018 and never even squeaked.

I’ve just heard so many horror stories of them creaking or frames being written off.

Replace it with a screw-together bb from Wheels Manufacturing.

PF92 bottom bracket on my coming up to 4 year old Giant Anthem. 3,000 miles on the clock and still on the stock Shimano BB with zero issues, zero creaking and zero fuss. As long as PF is done right then it isn't a problem in my opinion.

Not all pressfits are created equal.

BB86/92 (Scott, Giant etc..) is pretty good as long as the frame is made properly and you don't try and squeeze a 30 mm spindle in there.

It is odd that bikes are much heavier now. My Whytes aluminium, some light components but some heavy too. I really thought a carbon XC bike would be noticably lighter. Even with larger wheels and tyres.

It is odd that bikes are much heavier now.

Careful. The last person to say he wanted a light bike got a serious flaming on here. Apparently it's now impossible to ride something less than 30lbs without dying horribly.

11.5kg is really light.

Under £5k only thing i can think of that might hit that weight is a Giant Anthem

This. I've spent a fortune trying to put my Occam on a diet and it's still 13.6kg.

My Anthem Advanced 29er is 12 kg, but twitchy as **** and no dropper.

I don't think it's doable for under 5k. I have been looking at full sus bikes for ages and not bought anything because anything south of 30lb is north of 5k, along way north a lot of the time and I can't bring myself to pay that much for a bike.

Happy to be proved wrong though if somebody can point me in the direction of a bargain.

Light, strong, cheap pick two.

Santa Cruz Blur comes in lighter than 25lb, they occasionally come up on eBay second hand.

Transition Spur comes in around 25lbs - I.e your target weight. But only in the X01 spec which is £5999.

Some bikes are light still - but only generally the really expensive ones. Trail / enduro bikes have all got heavier as people are doing more vigorous riding on them on the whole than people 10-15 years ago. Pre trail centre there was steep tech and downhill runs - but now it’s very easy just with a trip to BPW to find yourself at the top of a trail where you can go really fast, has 4’ high drops on it, big jumps and compressions.

Bikes have to be stronger as a result, as do tyres, and suspension forks need to be stiffer and then you need bigger brakes to slow it all down consistently etc.

I think down country bikes are beginning to make the xc bikes that were in the minority (mostly used for racing) a bit closer to trail geometry so they’re more appealing to ride more of the time and would suit an awful lot of people. However light weight with strength and decent geometry is expensive.

It is odd that bikes are much heavier now.

Not really. Travel got longer, tyres got wider and more capable, frames and bars got wider to better use them. It's death by a thousand cuts.

My Yeti Sb95C is 29lbs running 2* XTR, carbon wheels and 2.4 tyres. I could strip weight by going 1* or using lighter hubs (the wheels are 1.55kg on 30mm internal width), but it wouldn't be much.

A Yeti SB115 SE Turq will get you to 26lbs in a small frame...but it'll cost ya.

Light, strong, cheap pick two.

Can I choose Light and cheap (ish) so it's strong (ish) but doesn't need to be very strong for my weight.

That Vitus above ticks all the boxes, doesn't it?

Haha yeah, I like it!

I think lightish, strongish, cheapish, pick two will make it much easier for me to justify a new bike.

So sort of go forth and prosper(ish).

Had the cheaper model Rapide FS delivered last week but not been put on it apart from a spin around the block.

Out of the box with tubes and the included test ride pedals it was 12.7kg in a large.

Put on my Hunt xc race wheels with tubeless barzo/mezcal and its 12.04kg.

Feels a bit like the Trek Slash I had to sit on and it's pretty long. Need a dropper and a TwistLoc though.

That Vitus above ticks all the boxes, doesn’t it?

All except weight.

The last person to say he wanted a light bike got a serious flaming on here.

Only because he wanted seriously light, around 23lbs iirc, for mid range money, based on what he'd ridden 20 years ago (and wouldn't disclose his body weight) for just riding around on, rather than for any specific propose. And he was an arse about it.

A £5k bike, sadly, isn't going to tick every box. You might get the top end frame, which will give you a light starting point, but it will have decidedly midrange parts hung off it, which with add a couple or few lbs to the total but it will still climb really well, to the point where there won't be an issue with weight. Say the bike is 28lbs, add that to your 130lbs body weight, 158lbs. Say instead you go mad and upgrade everything to carbon ultralight stuff or go for the top £10k+ model and get it to 23lbs. Your total system weight has dropped by 3%, and its cost you a fortune for that three per cent. The bike will probably be less durable, more flexy too, which isn't ideal... I have a fatbike that I sometimes run 29x2.4 XC wheels on, which makes the total bike 4lbs lighter (23lbs vs 27lbs). its only about a minute or so an hour faster on lumpy terrain, even with all the weight being in the wheels and the added rolling resistance.

If you simply want to have those things, then fair enough, fill your boots, they're lovely things, but accept it's very much an 'I want', rather than an 'it'll be crap without' deal, and it costs a lot. The last XC FS 29er I built finished at 27lbs, expensive build, but with a dropper and durable tyres. It monstered the 23lb fat bike with skinny wheels, and my 25lb 27.5 trail bike almost everywhere, particularly the climbs.

And I've had 3 PF bikes, all have been fine.

If you want light ish then the gx transition Spur comes in on budget and is just over 26lbs. That’s still light and quick to pedal and if it really bothers you with a few upgrades over time you could get down to the magic 25lb Mark.

Premier Icon
mjsmke
Free Member

That Vitus above ticks all the boxes, doesn’t it?

All except weight.

You said you wanted sub 11.5kg. Vitus list that bike as 11.3kg in Medium, and you want a small, so it meets your criteria. Not withstanding the difference in cost for the brands you have been looking at will easily afford you some Mt zoom or kcnc kit. There’s easy improvement in bars, stem, rotors, bolts, spacers at least and if you want even the wheels and drivetrain as they wear. You’ll add to it with a dropper but will still be under your requirement.

I'll have another look. I thought it was much more than that. It does look very nice.

If it helps, i own a giant anthem 29er. It has 1x10xt gears and light wheels, tyres, components, fork etc. All better than mid range.

Still over 12kg and it suffers from being wibbly....

29ers are just heavy. Tyres alone can be 1kg each. (My front on the Hope is 1200g for instance)

Id be looking at the vitus as mentioned but I'll add Intense Sniper... personally I'd want the Sniper T and listed as 25lb/11.3kg for Elite build which is £6k but Pro build is £5k and might not add much more weight over Elite. Could go Sniper XC though which will be in your weight requirement even at expert level build based on quoted weights

https://uk.intensecycles.com/products/2021-sniper-xc?variant=36546731770007

Fails on Fox forks and pressfit bb though 🤷

Cannondale Scalpel SE 1.

£5100, XT kit, 120mm. 67 degrees HA, Rockshox fork, dropper.

My large weighs 11.4kg.

Press fit though….

Not wanting to flame you OP, but I'm amazed you're T130 weighs under 13kg. My old T130C RS which was built light as I dare (700g tyres, 1700g wheels, carbon cranks, bar etc) was 13.5kg. I'd be checking another set of scales!

More helpfully though, as others have said, you'll have to compromise somewhere and it's going to be down price or weight really. I have a Spur (GX build in large) which I've extensively swapped/upgraded stuff on and it's 12.3kg. I'd have to go way lighter on the front tyre (Dissector is circa 950g) and wheels (Hunt XC Wides at 1650g) and back to mechanical X01 over GX AXS to drop below 12kg.

For me, I'd be aiming to get as close as you can for your budget, the Vitus or the Spur would be a good shout, the Spur fits every bill aside from weight and long term, you could get it down if you had money to spare down the line. I'm 72kg and find it light enough as is though, it's a rapid bit of kit!

Cube do a 120mm version of their XC bike. I have the previous version, weight is around 11kg with a few upgrades.

With modern 29ers, as others have said, the tyres weigh a lot. So you can save weight by putting fast XC rubber on, but it's obviously a compromise. You'll probably miss the grip more than the grammes.

The new version looks interesting at around £4k

https://www.cube.eu/en/2022/bikes/mountainbike/fullsuspension/ams/cube-ams-one11-c68x-tm-29-flashgreynolive/

1200gm front tyre on a Giant Anthem?
Small mismatch there. You can get some 750 gm 29er rubber thats still reliable. Not enduro reliable, but xc, marathon, trail center reliable.
Light wheels and tyres make a bike feel faster out the corners and generally abit more spritely

1x cassette weight can vary alot, unless you are willing to invest a chunk of cash or accept say a 11 - 42

Tricky balance of spend v reliability v weight saved.

That Cube is a lovely looking thing, for some reason I've recently become attracted to "in line" shock arrangements.

I'm avoiding a bike purchase though by sending my Spark in for a refurb - new bearings, BB and a brake bleed none of which have been touched for 3.5yrs. Should last me a bit longer.

Inline shock is great to be able to fit 2 bottles. Downside is it doesn't work well with my boot rack.

but I’m amazed you’re T130 weighs under 13kg

It's the 2015 works model with all Sram X1. Size small and its not very long. 25mm rims and light tyres too.

That Intense Sniper and Cube look like good contenders.

1200gm front tyre on a Giant Anthem?
Small mismatch there. You can get some 750 gm 29er rubber thats still reliable. Not enduro reliable, but xc, marathon, trail center reliable.

Thats a crazy heavy tyre for an XC bike. I've got Forecasters on now which are about 750g

Just to defend my Oiz's weight which I mentioned earlier

Hasn't got light tyres, wheels or chainset, and has accessories attached. It's also an XL. It's the carbon one but I think there's an even lighter carbon one above it, there's an ally one below it

I should probably do the weight again with the accessories removed but CBA. I weigh 13 stone so probably won't notice a huge amount

@singletrackmind hope has the 1200g wheels, the giant is running a ground control front and racing ralph rear.