I'm thinking of trading in the hardtail for a full susser. Was at the Afan Forest bike fest in Wales at the weekend where Sanatacruz, Commercial and Orange had some test bikes to play with. So as you do, mate and myself took out a total of 6 FS bikes for a one hour blast each and came away knowing that FS is the way to go for us.
Bikes:
Sanatacruz Nomad
Commencal Supreme Mini DH 6.1
Commencal Meta 4.1
Orange Patriot 66
Commencal Meta 5.2
Sanatacruz Heckler
I think that's kinda in my preference order, the two Meta bikes where most similar to our HT's, they climed like moutain goats on amphetamine. However they didn't really improve any of the downhill sections.
Heckler and Patriot where fairly similar, their rear ends just couldn't live with the nomad for supleness or control. The Patriot especially got very crashy on the downs at speed. Also the heckler had awfull forks and brakes fitted which coloured the experience.
The Supreme was crazy, like riding a giant marshmallow, it was even easy on the climbs and really started to shine on the decent.
And finally the nomad with Fox DHX air 5 and the Fox Talas 36 forks was in a different league to most bikes I've tried. It climbed very well, just sit in the sadle and peddle away but when you get to the downs, Oh god it's just amazing. So fluid and controlled, you can pick lines with loads of confidence that it will stick to them. It seems to allow you to pick lines more on preference instead of necesity than lower suspsion equiped bikes.
And there you have it, we both now want nomads with the above suspension fitted, bad bit is that's a £3.3k bike
The thought is that we're both wanting to go a bit more crazy on the downhill sections and jumps etc. My Kona Explosif feels like it really sufferes if I go crazy down, the rear end get's really punished on the like of the Wall or Skyline trails in Afan Forest.
Anyone else tried the above or can recommend some other similar kit to try out?
Bikes:
Sanatacruz Nomad
Commencal Supreme Mini DH 6.1
Commencal Meta 4.1
Orange Patriot 66
Commencal Meta 5.2
Sanatacruz Heckler
I think that's kinda in my preference order, the two Meta bikes where most similar to our HT's, they climed like moutain goats on amphetamine. However they didn't really improve any of the downhill sections.
Heckler and Patriot where fairly similar, their rear ends just couldn't live with the nomad for supleness or control. The Patriot especially got very crashy on the downs at speed. Also the heckler had awfull forks and brakes fitted which coloured the experience.
The Supreme was crazy, like riding a giant marshmallow, it was even easy on the climbs and really started to shine on the decent.
And finally the nomad with Fox DHX air 5 and the Fox Talas 36 forks was in a different league to most bikes I've tried. It climbed very well, just sit in the sadle and peddle away but when you get to the downs, Oh god it's just amazing. So fluid and controlled, you can pick lines with loads of confidence that it will stick to them. It seems to allow you to pick lines more on preference instead of necesity than lower suspsion equiped bikes.
And there you have it, we both now want nomads with the above suspension fitted, bad bit is that's a £3.3k bike
The thought is that we're both wanting to go a bit more crazy on the downhill sections and jumps etc. My Kona Explosif feels like it really sufferes if I go crazy down, the rear end get's really punished on the like of the Wall or Skyline trails in Afan Forest.
Anyone else tried the above or can recommend some other similar kit to try out?
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