Posted by: Heinous
I'm, dredging this one up...
After a while rolling increasingly bigger bigger bikes, I've been on a Devinci Spartan 29er. I've really enjoyed it - it's a great bike, and one of the more versatile of the long travel 29ers. I run it coil both ends and that seems to have unleashed it.
Anyway, I'm considering downsizing to a shorter travel frame. Partly due to a move in geography, partly due to curiosity. High pivot tempts me. The two that keep coming back for me are the Forbidden and the Knolly Fugitive LT. I'd like to run a coil, and either seems suited.
The recent Knolly Warden review was positive but somehow fell flat in my reading - what are people's perspectives on the Fugitive LT? Anyone rocking a coil in one? The Druid seems really tempting, it's just so well resolved from a design perspective.
What are people's thoughts on these two?
I moved from a process153 with a coil to fugitiveLT as it was time to upgrade my bike and I was also curious to see if a smaller travel 29er would do the job in a more interesting manner. Then my friend moved from a YT Capra to an Evil Offering and never looked back which sealed the deal. I'm not riding anything differently here, I would probably have to have a little think about where I would ride it in Whistler Bike Park as I think it wouldn't be as fun on say, Crank it Up or Frieght Train. But it's a ground hugging speed missile nevertheless, very very stiff chassis which makes for instant responsiveness and climbs much more enjoyably.
I'm about to swap in a coil to my Fugitive LT - it's not that I don't like the DPX2 but it feels a little dead/damped even though the general suspension duties are being handled ok - and I don't like the way that it handles repeated square edge drops like the last sections of pipeline or lower oilcan. I'm cautiously optimistic but the choice of coil is a tough one as 185x55 is a rare size.