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Looking for full suss bike under £2k. Does anyone own or have information on the Evol or Escarpe? I mostly ride around stainburn, gisburn and the sales.
Sorry. I meant the Dales.
Evol was tested in this months magazine, got a favourable review.
Had a brief ride on last years Escarpe and was really impressed. Slightly shorter seattube would be nice but wasn’t detracting. Felt nice geometry wise and very decent spec for the cash.
I had the Sommet (Escarpe's big brother) for a couple of years before I wrote the frame off in a crash (no fault of the frame mind). Excellent bike and every reason to believe that the Escarpe would be equally so (it has certainly reviewed very well).
However, I now have the 2017 Giant Trance (new geometry). Its Maestro-Link suspension is essentially a rip off of the DW-Link used by Ibis, Turner and Pivot (amongst other high-end brands) - Dave Weagle did lots of work with Giant, they got rid of him and then launched Maestro shortly afterwards, he sued, they settled out of court. Having owned both a Turner 5.Spot and a Flux, I can say that the Giant is very similar and arguably the best all-round bike I've had (bette geometry that the 5.Spot and Flux), super plush and controlled suspension downhill and pedals superbly on the uphills. I've got the Trance 2 which has a great spec and can be picked up for significantly less than £2k if you shop around -
https://www.paulscycles.co.uk/m1b0s183p7760/GIANT-TRANCE-2-2017
Assuming you can find the right size, I'd say that the Trance is a no-brainer for that cash..
I have an Escarpe, albeit a 2016. The newer ones are slightly longer I believe.
It's a great bike. It rides like it has more travel than 135mm and pedals well. I built mine up from a frame and have 150mm Yaris up front.
I'll have the escarpe VR 27.5 in a couple of weeks, the bottom level canyon spectral is £2k and a decent spec too, but the escarpe is hard to beat, especially at £1650.
Thanks for the replies. I'll checkout the trance as well