Chaps
I have had great fun on this frame for the last 3 months since I bought it. Unfortunately I orginially thought I would get away with the 18" frame even though I am 6'3 - the reach and seat height is fine but it is a little short on the legs due to the forward seat position and has given me some knee trouble. If I was just bombing around trails for an hour or so I would have kept but this is the bike ffor getting the XC miles under the belt so it has to go.
This frame is great - but it is a bit different - very slack (with my 140 fox Talas on it was a 65 degree head angle) and you ride with your weight quite far forward due to the steep seat post angle. The steep seat angle really does make climbing a lot easy and descending makes the front end feels more like my Nomad.
It does ask a lot of the front fork though so if you are thinking of buying this I would ignore the Ragley guidelines of 130-150mm fork and go no lower than 140mm and I reckon 150 would be best. Would also make it reasonably chunky like a Pike to get the most out of the bike. Personally if I was keeping it I would have droped my 36 Fox Float to 150.
Anyway explanation over.
Selling for £250 with the headset- as I got it on offer for £210 at Chain Reaction. If anyone is interested I will post some photos up. You guys get first dibs - this weekend it goes on ebay.
Review below:
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... x-11-41649