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

That sounds soooo familiar. Got a pile of hand picked parts (some in route vs in hand) here. But still no frame, or a frame route decision.

 

That looks right, just make sure you choose the sram XD driver, assuming you’re still running the stock cassette according to that brochure

 

Yeah it’s so tough, like right now would be a perfect time to start acquiring parts. My main thing is do I want to build a lightish trail/XC bike, which would fit most of my riding or something like a Ripmo that would feel a little more comfortable at bike parks and national forest riding in western Virginia.

I kind of like the idea of the Orbea Occam but I’m weary of not getting to ride it before I order it.

maybe I’ll just start ordering parts and see where it gets me haha

 

rainy days off from work means its time to muck with the bikes. decided to swap from maxxis to vittoria tires on both my bikes, we will see how they stack up here in new england. I do like the look of the vittorias better than the maxxis, fingers crossed they perform as good as they look. next up would be finding a replacement cassette for the e13 on my capra, its an XD hub currently, any recommendations?

here's a pick of my trail dog in training. shes been out a for a few short, local rides but has a long way to go.

 

For what it's worth, I have the Orbea Rallon and I absolutely love it! I've ridden many of the high end long travel 29ers and this was by far my favorite. It looks like the Occam is just a smaller version of the same frame design.

 

Not sure how much you ride Park but Ripmo is getting to be a lot of bike with almost 150mm in the rear. It's a great bike but a 120-140mm, modern geo 29'er will do about everything most people need, on the East coast anyway.

 

All public land trails closed in our county for a week, regardless of whether State Park City or County Park etc, ostensibly due to people coming here from out of town and ignoring SIP and distancing orders. Beaches as well, so no surfing. Just for the “Easter” week, but we’ll see. I’m sticking to walking and riding the neighborhood which is not bad where I live. This is getting weirder by the day ...Note: I totally get it and I’ve been following the rules (and just common sense), I wear a mask in public, etc but this feels like a slippery slope.

 

Yeah it looks like a solid bike! Pinkbike and bike mag seem to be similar in there reviews that it’s just a solid trail bike.

That’s what I’m thinking. Most of my riding is going to be XC with hopefully weekends in Harrisonburg doing bigger rides and the bike parks on occasion when this all ends. I’ll still have my stache too. These are the bikes I’ve been tossing around in my head:

norco optic
Ibis Ripley
Evil following
Revel rascal
Orbea Occam
Kona process 134

the optic is probably the obvious choice for me since I can get it local and it’s the most do it all bike but other than the 125mm travel it’s probably the most aggressive and heaviest of the list. I just need to get a demo in probably

 

Fun 10 miler yesterday! nice day 60 degrees felt like 70 with the sun out!

 

I just bought the same bike. Trance 2, correct?

 

Surprised not to see the new SC Tallboy on that list.

 

I was on a search like you couple years back. Trying to balance my most frequented mellow trails with the ability to travel anywhere and never feel totally under-gunned. I kind of fell for the reverse mullet bikes (party in the front, business in the back). The Transition Scout fit my needs perfect and I've been SO happy with it. It rides way bigger than a 130mm rear travel bike should and never feels like too much bike on more mellow stuff. So I guess my advice would be to really look at the more aggressive shorter travel bikes out there. Since you're looking at 29ers the Transition Smuggler should really be on your list.

 

Yeah the tallboy should’ve been on my list

The smuggler should also be on my list. This might sound dumb but with them just updating the scout I’d be worried about buying the smuggler then they update it a year later, I’d be pissed haha.

 

I made it a point to not look at new models once I got a new bike....that lasted approximately 2 years now all this home time has me on the prowl.

 

The Evil Following is a great bike. Rides a lot bigger than it is.

If you have a stache, I vote go bigger! The longer travel bikes pedal so well these days so why not get more bike! I will concede though that bike needs are very different in Utah compared to NoVa.

 

Exactly, I had told myself to wait but now I want to more than ever and riding isn’t even as easy right now haha

Yeah the closest mountains to be are about 2+ hours, which is fine for weekend trips but a little harder to justify a bigger bike for me personally. Now if I lived in the mountains of Virginia I’d be all over a ripmo, wouldn’t even be a tough decision haha

 

Well the Scout was updated so fast (IMO) because when they launched the re-design in 2018 there was no carbon version. That said, I think 2018 was also the launch of the current carbon Smuggler so it may be getting near a refresh. Their geometry is pretty damn dialed though starting with the SBG bikes and the Giddyup 2 suspension is really good too. I would buy without hesitation. You're never more than a season or two from the next best thing being released so buy what you want when you want and ride the shit out of it.

 

If you’re looking at an optic and ripley (polar opposite personality bikes), then you’re definitely in the category of owing the V4 TB, Smuggler, and Following a fair look.

Geo for the new Following looks sick

Agreed. The Smuggler is a shit eating grin inducing kinda bike. To me it climbs way better than the press gives it credit.
It’s for sure on my list, even if the current geo is 2 years old.

 

@backcountryj I knew the Scout was going to have better DH chops than my old bike (Pivot Mach 5.7) but it was the climbing ability that really impressed me. Other than being pretty heavy, that thing climbs incredibly well both in and out of the saddle. So much traction and pedal really nice.

 

Fair point haha, my bikes are currently 3+ years old so I just want something a little more baller haha

The following is definitely high on my list right now!