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After returning to biking after a 8 year break I've decided to treat myself to a new bike the problem is deciding which one.
My riding will probably be 60% xc/singletrack , 30% Peak District and 10% trips to Alps/ Pyrenees
I was edging towards a Bird 130LT / Whyte T130 but having just been out on my old Turner 5 spot i am now looking at a Turner RFX... but think it might be too much bike for most of my riding.
I have also convinced myself i need a Stanton Slackline hardtail as well.
Whats the collective advice ... i can't google anymore reviews!
Thanks
No such thing as too much bike, as long as you don't live in the Netherlands - just ride faster/bigger stuff.
Turner aren't exactly cutting edge any more, especially when it comes to geo. I'd go for the Bird or Whyte, or maybe a YT, Nukeproof or Commencal to name a few - you'll get much more for your money.
JP
Both the Bird and the Whyte you mention are good all rounders. Both should handle an uplift day and are relatively long and slack for the travel they have.
Not a clue on the Turner but haven’t seen any reviews or any other comments on them online.
Warranty maybe easier on the Bird (lifetime and transferable) or the Whyte.
Personally if you had a Whyte t130 or the bird you can't do wrong plus a Staunton hardtail just makes me green with envy, what a collection of bikes.
Not long had an RFX v4 following a 5 sopt and a burner. The RFX does everything exceptionally well. No downsides that I've come across yet, it climbs better than the burner and is so much quicker on the rough stuff. Might not have modern geo but it just works.
Yep it seams like there aren’t really any bad bikes these days.
Probably leaning towards the bird 120lt
And go from there....
Hi yes the reviews seam to suggest that it climbs very well for a 160 travel bike. Did you buy it direct from Turner?
Starling do a sh!t hot Murmur chassis that just needs a drive train/brakes/wheels
All cheap to pick up and easy to upgrade
I got mine from ebay, wee bit of risk I guess but much money saved - came in original packaging etc. He's still got one in medium for even cheaper than I paid!
Warranty maybe easier on the Bird (lifetime and transferable)
They told somone I know they wouldn't warranty his (bought direct from them) @ 2 years. Apparently that's the lifetime of an aluminium frame. Not a jumper or Racer btw.
That’s interesting if they did - I’ve assumed lifetime is lifetime - even if shorter I’d expect more than 2 years.
I thought 5 years would be a more reasonable 'lifetime' for an alu frame...
Stanton full-suss to nicely cover both your wants?
As it happens, we don't get many but I do have a warranty on a 2015 Mk1 in my inbox right now that I fully intend to sort out, and that guy has raced it. He's looking to upgrade anyway as he's happy with the service from the bike he's had over the years so we'll do him a really good price on a new build.
I think we've only rejected a very small %age of warranty issues over the whole life of the company < 1% on everything and you can't warranty everything - you should see some of the stuff we get queries on. I know one guy that did get a pretty harsh treatment from one of my colleagues for a reason I never did quite figure out, must have been a bad day, but I intervened and he got sorted. I have since that point centralised the warranty processing so its a bit more visible to me so I can see what the service looks like from the customer side.
Occasionally you get the odd one like I had a guy that came to us with "I just broke my X yesterday and Im off to the mega tomorrow". He went through a few - like 50% of all issues we had for a while. In the end you have to say to someone like that sorry but what you're after is a DH bike, every bike is designed to certain limits and its can't be made to suit everyone. While thats harsh on that one guy and I am sure he felt a bit miffed, there has to be some kind of limit if you're seeing the same person back over and over.
On the 120 thats been super reliable though, I think we've had maybe 2 or 3 failures in 3 years. If anyone does have an issue with any aspect of the service you get I'm available on ben at bird.bike - let me know!
Just placed an order on a Bird AM160 following a demo, took me months to figure out who to give my money to. My original list was Cotic Rocket or Flare, Bird AM160 or the 145, Stanton full suss, Trek Remedy. I then decided that I wanted to go british so that cut the list down quickly........ and I finally ended up spending hours on the Bird configurator which was quite fun for a while. Order is now placed 🙂
There's too much choice today these days!
Going to go and see Bird as I am over in the UK this week, it was my first choice and life has told me its normally best to stick with your gut instinct!
Hope you enjoy your new bike!
Hi Ben
I will come and see you Friday ...for a demo...
Occasionally you get the odd one like I had a guy that came to us with “I just broke my X yesterday and Im off to the mega tomorrow”. He went through a few –
That may have been me? I cracked the seat tube on my then 15 year old Turner RfX just before my third Megavalanche (dropper post too short). The guys sorted me a MK1 Aeris rolling chassis in time for my trip, which was great.
Yes I did have two sets of warranty chainstays in the time I owned it. Traded it in for an Aeris AM frame, which is great.