All Things Bikes and Tacos! (...and every vehicle imaginable)

Fair enough. Agreed long travel bikes are fine for those long fire road climbs because the often long technical descent to follow, but there isn't much worse than a long-travel bike on flat terrain lol

I like a proper rowdy challenging ride, most of us like the adrenaline in the woods after all - not to smooth out the trails.

Also don't listen to me because I'm a Type-B fun kind of guy

 

That's part of where I'm torn... I ride a variety of terrain as @guitarjamman knows. We may do some trails with the rigid fat bikes and are just fine, but then we'll go do up and downs for a day and I'll use ALL the travel on my current FS bike. I've never felt underbiked, but I am finding myself using more and more of the travel more often (let's be honest, current bike is fine, but I wouldn't mind the 160/150 as long as it still climbs well.

I really am 50/50 on buying the frame vs. waiting a year and just buying a complete build.

 

I used to think this way but I'm actually coming around to 130-150 travel being perfect for anyone that's not racing (XC or enduro) or regularly hitting large drops/jumps. I just rode Moab which, is similar to NE chunk in a lot of ways, and my 140mm Offering was perfect. All of my buddies on that trip were on similar bikes and no one had any issues with travel. I can also pretty confidently say that this crew is faster than most riders.

If you've got the funds for two bikes, go for it, but a mid-travel/trail bike really can do all the things for most riders. Just my two cents...

 

My Fezzari is 150/135 which hits a real sweet spot for what I do. I took it to a bike park and am a shitty jumper, but it was up to every hard case I threw at it. The local trail network down the road from my house is an absolute bedrock, boulder minefield - the travel is just enough to absorb the major hits and keep the front wheel from stuffing into a large boulder, while still allowing great pedal transfer to keep the speed up.

The bike weighs around the 31 pound range which is more than acceptable. My old Stumpjumper with less travel (aluminum, not carbon) clocked in around 34 pounds so made a decent gain there. Nothing wrong with a heavier bike, but when doing a 300' fire road climb on repeat it can start to show it's weight pretty quickly.

 

@SenatorBlutarsky just nailed it for me! I mentioned it here a few weeks back - wanting a SJ Evo and then they go on sale! I decided I didn’t need more travel, one because I don’t ride enough other areas for it. I need to adventure out and become a better rider first. But, also, I floated the idea by the CEO and she shot it down!! Haha. That’s ok. She’s been a champ the past few years of covid letting me buy two bikes and three guitars

But, I figure the SJ will be a great bike for me for a few years to learn on and venture out to other trails. I haven’t used all the travel in the fork, which I think means I have it dialed in but I have used the travel on the shock on my local trails. But maybe I haven’t dialed that in quite as good.

Anyways - @Pugga I get where you are coming from! It would be cool to build up a bike on your own! I’d love to do that some day but never will since I don’t have the knowledge or tools.

 

My new catch phrase. Thx.

 

While I personally don't love Spesh, it's a solid bike. The biggest advantage it has is the ability to dial it in to your body and preferences.
Also, as mentioned, building a bike to your spec is a great way to get exactly what you want and learn how to fix the bike yourself. Winter is approaching, and lots of stuff will (hopefully) go on sale. With the upcoming balloon of parts, and likely (but who the hell really knows) tightening of spending, parts should start going on sale and you can get a sweet setup.
As for jumping to 29, you won't look back. I've been experimenting with a mullet setup, and going back and forth to full 29. The 27.5 is definitely more playful, but 29 just has so much better rollover and balance. Perhaps it's the mullet setup, perhaps it's my riding style, but the 29 is just too good in everything, other than making all my shorts look like I shit myself.

 

I support the SJ Evo build.

 

i've been tempted by that price for sure for the frame. Even tempted to get one for the girlfriend. but....can't bring myself to get a new bike right now. enough money going elsewhere.

 

Get the EVO, Long Travel bikes can do anything with some ingenuity.



https://www.pinkbike.com/news/bikep...eries-part-3-saving-the-hardest-for-last.html

 

I have no qualms with going to a longer travel bike, especially since I have a hardtail. Less overlap.

 

The bike finally came in! Just in time for me to go out of town for a few days. Ugh.

 

just reading through this and holy wow. its a crazy feat just doing that distance on that kind of bike with all your bikepacking setup. but to throw racing in, let alone all the extra stuff he was doing as well? incredible!

 

He did a bunch of bushwacking old overgrown routes on a previous leg. Kid is an absolute animal.

 

What's mind blowing is his animal mentality. It was 28F and too cold for him to sleep with gear he had so he just kept pedaling to keep warm. 20+ hours on a bike, monkey butt was real.

 

no chamois, cut up his sleeping bag, 2 20+ hour days in a row. like how? 20 hours of riding, 6 hour nap, 20 more hours of riding. kids do crazy things

 

I've had the debate with myself (and others) many times on travel. The last two bikes I keep going back to leaning towards under-biking than over-biking. But we have lots of flatter pedally terrain connecting the good stuff. If I was doing just big climbs then big descents I'd probably be on a 140-160ish rear travel bike because big bikes do seated climbing just fine these days. It's the energetic, standing pedaling, pumping type of riding that I think the smaller travel is great at. But it is a compromise on the faster chunkier stuff.

As for the 29er thing, I just got my first last fall and honestly noticed zero downside vs the 27.5 and I like to think I'm a pretty playful, poppy, jumpy type of rider. Probably helps I bought a smaller travel playful 29er, but seriously I see no advantage to a 27.5 at least on this platform (Following).

Yeah 130-150 really probably covers the majority of riders' needs. I still wish there were more aggressive geo 130-140 rear 29ers designed for like 150 forks. Seems the jump is often from "aggressive XC rig" to "borderline enduro rig." (see Following to Offering, Ripley to Ripmo, Spur to Sentinel, etc).

 

The Ripmo and Sentinel are definitely borderline enduro bikes, but the Offering is 140 rear and designed around a 150 fork. I personally run a 160 lyrik (and wish I got a Zeb) because I tend to skew closer to the enduro end but you could build up an Offering exactly as you describe.

There's also the Fuel Ex (150/140), Yeti SB130 (150/130), Orbea Occam (150,140), etc.

 

Found this website too...not sure if it's been posted in the 2,000+ pages in the thread, but...

https://www.mtbproject.com/

 

Wanna sell that pretty green lyrik and get yourself a Zeb?