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I'm thinking of getting a trail bike to complement my longer travel bike. Ideally something I can get fairly cheaply second hand, around 120 ish travel, 27.5 with 142*12 so I can share wheels. Options I've considered include t130, commencal meta tr, aeris 120, transition scout, vitus escarpe, oranges 4/5 and banshee spitfire. Anything I'm missing?
Aeris 120 is boost I believe so that doesn’t meet your criteria. Good bike though and you could use adaptors.
Escarpe is a bit heavy and a bit longer travel than you’re after.
Out of your list I think I’d go t140 or transition Scout.
Not as fancy as all the others but a Boardman Pro FS (blue one) has 130mm travel, is fairly light and I believe is non boost. You could probably pick up a while bike complete with gx 11 speed / Pikes / sram Guides for about the same as you’d pay for a frame for most of the other options.
I had the pro fs before that (steeper / less good forks etc) and I still have some times on flat / twisty / pedally trails that I can’t get near either on my hardtail or Aeris 145lt. It was he perfect bike in a lot of ways for that sort of trail.
Thanks Joe. Yes, I was aware of the boost on the Aeris (same on the Commencal too I think) but I was still drawn to those bikes anyway... Good shout on the Boardman, I'll take a look.