Psa - vitus frame

Bargain!

That frame is a monster truck. Really good suspension. I would say a much better descender than the new one. I had the 2020 VRX full build and it soaked up most things in the UK and the Alps. MBR have a nice review of it and the bike handles rough terrain brilliantly as demonstrated in the video.

With various deals on forks around at the moment you could build something very nice for <£1,500

I had a half eye on these. They do have pretty long seat tubes for their reach which could limit dropper potential.

They're a bit shorter than the newer versions too

That said, I've always had half an eye on these. Now then.... Cheap 150mm forks...?

Anyone know how this would compare to the bird am9 v1/v2 which is also reduced?

I have a pike select which I could change to 150mm but the full builds came with burly forks so not sure better selling pike?

The am9 is longer and lower so arguably has more modern geometry

That looks pretty great- they're pretty tall if memory serves, both in BB height and seattube... Space for a 2.6 650b rear? Mullets make older/conservative geo good

Bloody hell, those are good deals! That Bird is appealing…but the Vitus is a bargain

Anyone know how this would compare to the bird am9 v1/v2 which is also reduced

geometrygeeks is - as ever - a useful starting position.

Reach is similar within a few mm

The vitus has a taller front end which some people prefer, some don’t

Bird loses a bit on the seattube which may help if you want to really slam a dropper

Both bargains IMO. Shame I’m not in the market!

The Vitus is a bit less suitable for people toward the bottom of the size ranges. Longer top tube (slacker seat tube angle) could be an unfixable problem. Longer seat tube, you can just run a shorter or low-stack dropper (which will cost more to buy). 450mm chainstays are long for the smaller sizes.

£450 vs £625 with a shock (Select on the Vitus, Ultimate on the Bird). £175 is a fair bit of money in a budget build, whether it's worth it will be personal.

Note that the AM9s are V1 or V2 depending on size. I'm not sure what the difference is. I know V3 have shorter seat tubes, and at some point (maybe independent of the versions) the RRR (reduced rising rate) shock link was introduced giving less progression.

The Vitus frame has a quite a linear rate linkage, and it seems from the pic (description doesn't say) it's also using the linear air can. It would probably be better with the progressive can on there, and maybe some damping tuning as well, otherwise it will be blowing through the travel quite quickly. Tokens can stop the bottom out, but it will be still be moving around the sag point quite a lot unless you run a lot of pressure.

I have just built up a large 27.5 version of the 2020 escarpe for my growing lad with parts from the old bike.
*Stealth ad - cotic rocket 275 with cane creek DB IL in medium for sale soon. Got a small amount of paint repair to do first*
We have had an escarpe before in small so it was an easy decision as the small one rode really well.
Anyway, the large one rips. Properly fast and fun through tight turns, good in the air, good in the rough. Obviously I have been testing it a lot and just to make sure I also crashed it, ahem. Eh, things we do for kids...

Things of note.
The headset is garbage. It's an all plastic (bar the bearings) acros thing. The compression ring is already looking beaten up. It will do for a bit, but I have a proper headset on order.
The shock is quite linear. I was surprised when I was bottoming out on the garden test drop at 25% sag. It comes with 1/2 a volume spacer. I kept adding volume spacers and ideal set-up is .... all of them, ie gnardog + 2. It is quite active, but it does ride fine like that tbh. Maybe if you like a lot of support then you will want a megneg or similar.
As before on the small one I cut and fit a small plastic shock guard. There are 2 threads for this.
We have over-forked this too and are running a 160mm fork. Works well.

I don't think you're supposed to use gnardogs in 2023 shocks, they use new purple spacers. Not sure what the consequences are if using the old one or if it will damage any bits on bottom out or anything.

I don't think it is a 2023 shock? (2020 frame). The gnardog and old shape spacers fit perfectly. I don't know why they bothered with a single purple spacer in there though as it's about 1/2 a regular spacer and does naff-all.

I think you need the gnardog and 2 proper spacers to avoid damaging things.

Maybe CRC are selling these frames with the wrong shock then? It does seem odd that I needed to stuff the shock with spacers to make it usable.

Just put the serial number in here to find out.. https://trailhead.rockshox.com/en/search/

You are right. It's a 2023 deluxe and is meant to use the purple spacers. But the old ones + gnardog fit. Hmmmm.

Right then, I have now caught up on the all new shiny world of 2023 rockshox stuff. No megneging anything or whathaveyou. So the shock is a RS-DLX-SEL-C1. It has the linear air can, medium compression tune and a linear rebound tune. So what you want is the progressive air can. This is available aftermarket and is cheaper than a megneg. Might have to check to see if they are a simple swap or not and that the specified compression and rebound tunes work with the progressive air can.

Will 27.5 3inch tyres fit in this 29er frame?

I very much doubt it

Some were specd with 2.6 and the previous model max was 2.8 so I'd say no, the 27.5 model is also available but for £560 instead of £450, you'd think it would be the other way around.

How much would you be looking to spend for a fork to match this frame?

e.g. this collection of 36s and yaris are around £500

https://www.stifmtb.com/collections/clearance-suspension?gf_242709=29&gf_242712=150mm%2B160mm

Looking for a longer travel bike but for occasional use, so it's hard to look past second hand rather than build it new (even with a bargain frame).