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Keen to get myself a carbon hardtail for racing 4/5/6 hour events and the odd team 12/24 thrown in there as well.
Ideally I would like a Whyte 29C which has nice short chain stays and the critical 69deg headangle. I've ridden one and really like it. However I don't think I can get one as frame only.
What others options are available on similar frame? Will be running a 120mm fork and am 5'11".
I see that Flyxii have a 69deg carbon frame but I'm a little hesitant going down the direct chinese carbon route.
Your comment re the Chinese thing....me too. So I'll watch this thread with interest.
I think it just depends. Some really good, others not worth the money (and may fail).
But really I'm interested in what other branded frames are out there.
e.g. Kinesis FF29er would be good if they did it in carbon
I would have said an FF29, you're only losing half a pound in weight over carbon, I'd seriously consider it.
I was going to say a Cube (I've got a Reaction GTC & been VERY impressed by it) but that's 69deg head angle with a 100mm fork, so might be bait slacker than you're looking for & you might struggle getting it frame only again.
What abotu a Canyon? Those FF29 things look well good.
Yeah maybe I'm being too picky about having a fancy frame material and aluminium would do the job nicely.
What I like about a good carbon frame is that they are fast when you put the power down but can be quite compliant over the bumps. Again you might not get that with a cheap chinese job.
Canyon, maybe, they look nice. Frame only ? Could buy one and sell some of the bits (I already have some kit to put on a frame).
Damn. I wasn't going to recommend a Canyon as I didn't think it'd be you!
Looks pretty impossible to get an off the shelf, 29er, carbon, 120mm bike.
Frame only then 🙂 Or full bike, and buy a new fork....
+1 for not rulling out alu.
As for HA, 69 is pretty slack, while I appreciate it's personal preferance I think you could think about it more holisticly, especialy as you mentioned shorts CS's. I think wheelbase probably has more bearing on bike handling than the other measurements, especialy as slack HA is generaly coupled with a short stem to make it feel similarl to steep and a long stem (then a longer TT to keep reach consistent, and push the wheelbase out further giving even more sability).
Short CS + slack HA = medium wheelbase
long CS + steep HA = similalry medium weelbase.
My El Mariachi has a 72 HA and quite long stays, and I'd say I use it for more 'trail' than 'XC'. I'd never have asked for it to be slacker/shorter like the 2014 version, which may be 'better' but I've not ridden it. But then I think it's more to do with skills/balls than bikes, most XC races are probably more technical than most weekend warriors would describe as 'trail'.
Wat about one of these instead then? 😉
http://www.billys.co.uk/english/group.php?prod=5SA-2013Horse3&PHPSESSID=frdd72ht056dghst59b3kean81
I have a Stumpjumper Expert carbon 29'er setup as "Evo" with 750mm bars, 75mm stem, 100mm forks, 1 x 10 gearing and big tires
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works very nicely for fast trail riding, but could easily be "raced" if necessary probably by swapping the tires and perhaps a dual chainring at the front
scott scale is 69.5 with 100mm fork. Might have more chance of picking up a second hand frame than a whyte. I test rode the whyte c and the scale back to back. The whyte felt better on the downs but overall the scale was faster by quite a margin, I reckon the 'feel' was down to the carbon wheels which meant the whyte was twice the price of the scale.
I went with the scale (in the sales...920) and bought some light bicycle rims to play with.... about £2k cheaper than the whyte...
If I didn't keep getting punctures on descents I would be faster on the downs than my nomad. So will be investing in bigger tyres and tubeless for trail centres.
Don't forget 29ers tend to have stepper head angles than 26ers. So 29er frames listed with 69 degree head angles are comparable to a 26er with 68/67 degrees, which is pretty slack for a racey bike.
Great comments and links guys plenty to think about.
Esher shore has got the sort of thing I want. Planning to have two sets of wheels for normal riding and trails.
Slam the stem too obviously!
Cannondale Flash
Virtually all of them are gonna be around that sort of ball park. Trek Superfly is 69.6 deg with a 100mm fork.
I thought they were all 71deg?
Bit off the wall... but for racing this would be awesome:
http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/2013-scott-spark-940-29er-medium
I concur with the Kinesis fans, FF29 awesomely fast racer and more than capable at trail riding with 120mm forks