Mountain Biking

Begbie · 11 Dec 2017 at 16:46

Mark A said:
Bike paid for a few days ago, thanks again for all the help and advice . Just need to get some pedals now, are the new DMR V12 pedals any good, they're currently on offer for £47.99 on CRC for the magnesium body version? Or is it worth stumping up the extra for Vaults?

The superstar nanos used to be highly rated, but it looks like they're discontinued now and the replacement doesnt have any reviews yet, so not sure whether to risk those.

I just got some well reviewed pedals. Steele, sold them to my mate. Superstar Nanos for me, I'll just have to hope the new ones are as good. So yeah go for Nanos, I'm sure they won't have made them worse.

Mark A · 11 Dec 2017 at 19:57

TallPaul_S said:
What did you go for? The 2 or 1? Pics when it comes

I went for the al two in the end after hours of staring at both on the site

. The Al one was probably the better deal, but I think the parts on the Al two should be good enough for my needs and the price saving + the better looking colour scheme for me pushed me to go for that one. I can always upgrade the groupset down the line to Shimano XT and sell the old parts if they aren't great, but i'm sure they will be fine. I'll definitely get some pics up when I get it.

@Begbie, yeah thats a good point, if anything they might have improved them. What didnt you like about the steele pedals? Just googled them and they look pretty decent.

Begbie · 11 Dec 2017 at 20:39

Mark A said:
I went for the al two in the end after hours of staring at both on the site . The Al one was probably the better deal, but I think the parts on the Al two should be good enough for my needs and the price saving + the better looking colour scheme for me pushed me to go for that one. I can always upgrade the groupset down the line to Shimano XT and sell the old parts if they aren't great, but i'm sure they will be fine. I'll definitely get some pics up when I get it.

@Begbie, yeah thats a good point, if anything they might have improved them. What didnt you like about the steele pedals? Just googled them and they look pretty decent.

I just couldn't get my foot on them right, with the superstars (even with pins missing) I never thought about what my feet where doing. But on the steeles, I just kept adjusting them to find a better position. My mate loves them, coming from some vaults (I think) though and PB gives them a good review.

PinkFloyd · 13 Dec 2017 at 15:00

Read some reviews of the new Canyon Spectral earlier. That's a damn nice looking bike at a great price!

TallPaul_S · 13 Dec 2017 at 15:42

They're heavy though unless you get a carbon one, the AL 6.0 is £2300 with GX eagle, pikes etc. But it's 14.7kg for a medium, pretty damn lardy!!

The Vitus Escarpe VRX 29 I was looking at before is also that sort of weight, but it's got a much beefier spec: E1700 wheels Vs m1900, and a Lyric over the pike.

Oh and the best specced CF 9.0 pro is the only one to come with narrow 25mm internal width rims and 2.4" rubber which is a little strange.

PinkFloyd · 13 Dec 2017 at 15:53

I'm taking that with a pinch of salt right now until I've seen more discussion around that. It's got pretty fat tyres that presumably count towards that, and from what I've heard quite a few companies understate the weights of their bikes so maybe Canyon aren't. Definitely something I'll keep in mind if I consider getting one though!

Begbie · 14 Dec 2017 at 11:00

TallPaul_S said:
They're heavy though unless you get a carbon one, the AL 6.0 is £2300 with GX eagle, pikes etc. But it's 14.7kg for a medium, pretty damn lardy!!

The Vitus Escarpe VRX 29 I was looking at before is also that sort of weight, but it's got a much beefier spec: E1700 wheels Vs m1900, and a Lyric over the pike.

Oh and the best specced CF 9.0 pro is the only one to come with narrow 25mm internal width rims and 2.4" rubber which is a little strange.

25mm rear and 30mm upfront, right? My flatmate, is talking about buying one. I think their pretty ugly, never knew they were nearly 15kgs though! WOW.

geuben · 14 Dec 2017 at 11:12

The new spectral is heavier than the old model. I think that bolt on down tube cable housing is probably adding a bit of weight that wouldn't have been there on the old model. Plus the extra thing to stop the bars rotating too far. The integrated seat clamp looks like it would weigh more than a bog standard one too

PinkFloyd · 14 Dec 2017 at 18:36

Looking into the Spectral some more, I'm not sure I'm too fussed about the weight on it's own. Considering I weigh ~90KG and am usually carrying a few KG in a bag I don't think the difference is ever going to be apparent!
Reviews seem to be rock solid on it and I've not yet seen any reviews where they're ridden it and said it's too heavy. Are the weights of these newer bikes not just heavier than everyone has come to expect due to having bigger cassettes, huge disks, bigger rims, included droppers etc? That all said, if buying new I'd probably try and stretch for the CF8.0, it's not much more than the Alloy model below it in the scheme of things.

TallPaul_S · 14 Dec 2017 at 21:12

TBH it's probably not that much different to other trail bikes of the same spec - and with bikes coming with 30mm internal width rims, 2.6" tyres, 35mm forks, dropper posts etc. weights are going up on the alloy bikes it seems. Although when you can get a 12.5kg trail 140mm 2.6" tyre hardtail for £1200 you have to wonder where all the weight is coming from, the shocks are only 3-400g so it must be the frames.

Looking at similarly specced bikes to the AL 6.0 with GX eagle, the Trek Fuel EX 8 plus version is 14.5kg and the Whyte S150S (ok, a 29er) is also 14.5kg. So actually it's not much heavier tbh.

For me, as I'm 6ft 3in I'm always going to be looking at an XL size bike, which for me realistically means a 15kg+ bike, maybe 15.5kg with an aluminium spectral, with pedals (my pedals are 380g) so weight for me is a factor especially as I'll be riding up as many hills as I will be going down them.

Back when I first started riding MTB about 15 years ago anything approaching 35lbs was DH bike level weight!!!

If I was buying a Spectral I'd try and get the CF8.0, almost same spec as the AL6.0 and only £400 more, with better wheels and the carbon frame and importantly for me, 13.3kg, so 3lbs lighter. I'm also tempted by the new Cube stereo 140, eagle, nice light wheels (1680g) with fox factory 36's and a DPX2, carbon frame and 13.2kg quoted weight. Should be able to keep an XL version below 30lbs.

DereksDontRun · 14 Dec 2017 at 22:31

The new Spectral looks nice, but the change to the rear shock/suspension instantly made me think it just looks like a Jeffsy 27. Comparing the dimensions from YT's and Canyon's websites and they're v v similar... So, I guess the new Spectral could just ride like the present 650b Jeffsy? According to the spec's it's about 1/2 kg heavier, but with bigger/heavier tyres and the fancy/nice cable routing sleeve on the down-tube - so the frame weight is probable v similar. While I love my Jeffsy, I've got to admit the ability to run a normal water bottle on the Spectral is a nice improvement.

PinkFloyd · 14 Dec 2017 at 23:00

Not sure what size I'd go for. I put my figures into the calculator on the Canyon site and it came back with "your measurements don't look right, do you have really short legs? Contact us" lol. Toss up between medium and large I guess! I should stop reading about this bike for a while, can't really justify it right this moment, especially when I've not ridden my current bike for a good month or so due to the weather...

TallPaul_S · 15 Dec 2017 at 00:17

PinkFloyd said:
Not sure what size I'd go for. I put my figures into the calculator on the Canyon site and it came back with "your measurements don't look right, do you have really short legs? Contact us" lol. Toss up between medium and large I guess! I should stop reading about this bike for a while, can't really justify it right this moment, especially when I've not ridden my current bike for a good month or so due to the weather...

Ha, my choice is pretty simple, just done a quick measurement and I come out as 190cm height, 92cm inseam, 70cm torso length, 45cm shoulder width, 70cm arm length.

Unsurprisingly they recommend an XL

Even when I'm in between a L and XL I'll go for an XL as I have long arms, an 800mm bar is what I'll be after on my bikes.

Mark A · 16 Dec 2017 at 01:06

PinkFloyd said:
I should stop reading about this bike for a while, can't really justify it right this moment, especially when I've not ridden my current bike for a good month or so due to the weather...

Haha, I thought that exact same thing, but i'm too weak

. Its really not bike riding weather at the moment where I am, but i'm hoping having a shiny new bike will force it to be bike riding weather as i really need to stop being lazy and get into shape again.

Just checked the DHL site and my bike is finally in the UK and should be delivered today (sat) I should probably go to bed so I can get up to sign for it.. :eek:

.

TallPaul_S · 16 Dec 2017 at 15:57

I wouldn't visit the YT website over the next few days Mark

The AL two is £1499 now.

Mark A · 16 Dec 2017 at 17:20

Just my luck

. I doubt there is any point asking them to refund the difference as its not like I can return it to Germany.

I just hope the bike is worth the price I paid and isn't just massively overpriced to begin with if they can afford to drop the price twice.

TallPaul_S · 16 Dec 2017 at 18:33

Tbh it's no different to a lot of the other discounts on the end of season bikes, there's plenty of bikes now with 40% or more off, the discounts have steadily increased over the past few months - the 2018 YT bikes will be due out very soon and everywhere is trying to get rid of their stock of 2017 bikes.

Even at full price the spec was very competitive so I wouldn't worry.

YT have always been very well specced, the top of the range one out specs many £5-6000 bikes from the main brands even at the normal price - it's got fox factory suspension all round, carbon wheels and bars, a full carbon frame, and so-on.

Mark A · 18 Dec 2017 at 14:14

Just had an email back from YT and they requested my bank details to refund the difference :eek:

. I'm glad you let me know they had dropped the price now. YT seem like a really great company, they didnt have to refund me. Also they reply to emails straight away, I honestly just expected no reply from past experiences.

TallPaul_S · 18 Dec 2017 at 17:18

Mark A said:
Just had an email back from YT and they requested my bank details to refund the difference . I'm glad you let me know they had dropped the price now. YT seem like a really great company, they didnt have to refund me. Also they reply to emails straight away, I honestly just expected no reply from past experiences.

Awesome!!

that's some good CS there.

Mark A · 19 Dec 2017 at 07:25

Just ordered some Superstar stealth black nano x pedals for £33 using their 33% off code. The code is for the 18th, but it seemed to go through ok..

I was originally going to go for the DMR Vaults for £67 on Ubyk, which seems a decent price, but for half the price I couldn't say no to the Nanos. They apparently now use a plastic bearing that doesnt require lubricant, so we will see how that goes. If its no good it should be easy enough to source a DU bushing instead.