Short travel 29'ers

Anybody else on one?

Been riding a Giant Trance with 115mm travel and 66° headangle for the past 6 months, digging it. It reminds me of the fun of riding a hard tail, without the rattle your vision blurry bit.

Probably trading the Trance in sometime for an 120mm Evil Following if I can sell off enough to pay for it. Trance is a bit on the min-max lightweight side. A heavier frame like the Evil would probably have better survivability and stiffness under my bulk.

Fun category, I'm going to stay with it.

The newest Tallboy looks ace for that. 2020 Norco Optic as well.

Ed. 

I’d probably go Nicolai Saturn 14 ST 29 just to be certain though. ;) 130mm rear 140mm front.

Ed.

Banshee Phantom V3 and Prime V3 look sick too

If I was buying another FS bike right now I'd get a GG Trail Pistol. We've got the 2018 GG Smash in metal and the 2019 GG Smash in carbon in the garage so we are pretty comfortable with GG. I've been riding from home most of the time to the trails and that ends up being 40K-70K loops with a lot of techy shredding in the middle. I've got the metal Smash and it does amazing for these rides, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't dream of a lighter duty TP while grinding away in the saddle. Great handling bikes that punch above their weight class. Made in the US if that matters to you at a very competitive price and I like the fact you can do a la carte builds so you can get a complete bike without having to immediately swap out parts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dlLYFGhO4c

love the look of that bike

http://www.swarfcycles.co.uk/contour-29er-fs.html

not loving the price though :(

I think I’m going for one of these:

https://rsdbikes.com/portfolio/wildcat-v2-aluminum/

Looks very Optic-esque but nicely priced at $1600 CDN

Posted by: tashi

I think I’m going for one of these:

https://rsdbikes.com/portfolio/wildcat-v2-aluminum/

Looks very Optic-esque but nicely priced at $1600 CDN

I built up a RSD Middlechild for my GF last fall and as I pulled each part out of the box to install on the frame I was impressed. Everything was value focused, but no junk parts at all. I think the only part we replaced that was lacking was the dropper remote. She's loving that bike. I'm glad we took a chance on RSD.

Good to hear. Taiwanese built, Canadian marketed with modern geometry looks good to me.

Also: that purple looks dope.

I have the Trance 29er. Great bike for the price. I like that you mentioned the hardtail part,because that was the way I was going to go,but decided on a little cush instead.

Vik - if you had to do it all over again, would you go straight for the Trail Pistol (and maybe over fork at some point )? Or get the Smash and then hanker for the N+1 ?

Posted by: Sethimus

love the look of that bike

http://www.swarfcycles.co.uk/contour-29er-fs.html

not loving the price though :(

That is super sexy! Not for sale in US or Canada though.

Posted by: Brother-Lu

Posted by: Sethimus

love the look of that bike

http://www.swarfcycles.co.uk/contour-29er-fs.html

not loving the price though :(

That is super sexy! Not for sale in US or Canada though.

Dear Lord. 

I would hang that on the living room wall between rides.

Pricing isn't out if this world bad. Might just be a matter of arranging shipping over the phone.

Running down to the store for lottery tickets now.

Vikb are the GG decals removable? Looks like the engineering department got all the art department's funding.

2017 Django 29er 120mm with a coil over and a 150mm 36. Very fun bike .

Posted by: DanL

Vik - if you had to do it all over again, would you go straight for the Trail Pistol (and maybe over fork at some point )? Or get the Smash and then hanker for the N+1 ?

I'd have to ride a TP for a while to be sure of my answer. If I could only have one bike I think I'd get the Smash and build it lighter duty than my current burly dual coil machine. Since I have a nice metal Smash buying the carbon version of the Smash with a lighter build seems redundant. I plan to keep the metal Smash for years. So the TP seems like a great counter point. If I built a TP I would build it 140mm/120mm no matter what. If it was my only bike it would get a heavier duty build so end up more like a Smash-lite. If I am adding the TP to a Smash I can go lighter duty on the TP build since I have a bigger bike to jump on when I need it.

Sorry for the less than simple answer. 

I won't be getting a TP this year since I am building a Cotic hardtail, but perhaps next year if my finances allow.

The Banshee Phantom is using a convertible dropout system which would allow myself to use my current 135/142 hub...🤔 I could pull all parts off my Surface minus the dropper and headset.

The Forbidden Druid XT looks to be a solid spec option for a unique frame. Sounds like a Druid SLX is in the works too  

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FYI if ordering a frame from a small company overseas (UK) have them ship through their national postal carrier (UK=Royal Mail) so you’re not hit with excessive fees upon delivery. 

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