Short Travel FR frame

FrontRanger · Dec 21, 2005

I am in the market for a short travel frame. I am thinking 4-5" of travel in the back. The Mountain Cycle "slopestyle" that was posted by Twisted is a definitely possibility but the wait time is unknown. What else is of that genre. I was looking at the Transition but the Preston FR has too short of a TT. Thinking Heckler as well. I would go with an ASX or Bullit but the standover is way too high and a little more travel than I want. Just needs to be super stiff and pedal well.

Thanks.

Techfreak · Dec 21, 2005

FrontRanger said:
I am in the market for a short travel frame. I am thinking 4-5" of travel in the back. The Mountain Cycle "slopestyle" that was posted by Twisted is a definitely possibility but the wait time is unknown. What else is of that genre. I was looking at the Transition but the Preston FR has too short of a TT. Thinking Heckler as well. I would go with an ASX or Bullit but the standover is way too high and a little more travel than I want. Just needs to be super stiff and pedal well.

Thanks.

Sinister Splinter with the shorter shock (2" stroke) will give you EXACTLY what you are looking for. Change the shock to a 2.5" stroke and you gain an inch of travel, if you decide you want more. It is a single pivot bike, but it pedals really, really well (as in surprisingly well). Also has a feature that lets you adjust the geometry without any tools. Infinite adjustment of the HA from 70*-67* with no tools. The large has a 24.5" TT.

singletrack · Dec 21, 2005

FrontRanger said:
I was looking at the Transition but the Preston FR has too short of a TT.

Transitions have a steeper seattube angles than a lot of similar bikes, which makes the effective TT shorter. That can be corrected with a setback post.

FrontRanger · Dec 21, 2005

Techfreak said:
Sinister Splinter with the shorter shock (2" stroke) will give you EXACTLY what you are looking for. Change the shock to a 2.5" stroke and you gain an inch of travel, if you decide you want more. It is a single pivot bike, but it pedals really, really well (as in surprisingly well). Also has a feature that lets you adjust the geometry without any tools. Infinite adjustment of the HA from 70*-67* with no tools. The large has a 24.5" TT.

Sinister is nice but damn it's pricey. Might have to look again at the Transition. Any other suggestions out there?

zeeth2800 · Dec 21, 2005

Craftworks

My friend has a craftworks FS frame that is super sweet... it pedals amazingly 2

Techfreak · Dec 21, 2005

I thin kthat if I was 6" shorter I'd be looking very closely at a Transition Preston. The Sinister is expensive, but I think it is worth it.

ronny · Dec 21, 2005

I don't know how tall you are, but just moving up a size with the Preston might be an option. There is not a drastic difference between the medium and large, but the extra tt length might be bang on for you. I agree about the short tt length, because I have a medium Transition Preston medium and the tt is a little short for trail riding. When I got the frame in the mail, I was surprised how small it really is.

Check out the Blur 4X. It has 4.5" of travel and a lot of guys are using them as trail bikes, despite the lower bb height. The Azonic X-tension, and Heckler will work also.

SHIVER ME TIMBERS · Dec 21, 2005

ronny said:
I

Check out the Blur 4X. It has 4.5" of travel and a lot of guys are using them as trail bikes, despite the lower bb height. The Azonic X-tension, and Heckler will work also.

good choices...I like the Heckler...very light too

FrontRanger · Dec 21, 2005

ronny said:
I don't know how tall you are, but just moving up a size with the Preston might be an option. There is not a drastic difference between the medium and large, but the extra tt length might be bang on for you. I agree about the short tt length, because I have a medium Transition Preston medium and the tt is a little short for trail riding. When I got the frame in the mail, I was surprised how small it really is.

Check out the Blur 4X. It has 4.5" of travel and a lot of guys are using them as trail bikes, despite the lower bb height. The Azonic X-tension, and Heckler will work also.

I am 5'6 with short inseam. So I need lots of standover clearance and the Medium would probably not be too gentle on me. The Heckler is looking more and more like the way to go.

XSL_WiLL · Dec 21, 2005

Call_me_Clyde said:
2005 Leader 636F. Couple hundred bucks. Here's a link and a pic:

http://www.leaderbikeusa.com/products/frames/frames.htm

I hope you're joking. It doesn't even look like it has disc mounts.

Call_me_Clyde · Dec 21, 2005

Inexpensive 3.5" travel FR frame

2005 Leader 636F. Couple hundred bucks. Here's a link and a pic:

http://www.leaderbikeusa.com/products/frames/frames.htm

Call_me_Clyde · Dec 21, 2005

Oy!

XSL_WiLL said:
I hope you're joking. It doesn't even look like it has disc mounts.

Well call meeeeeeeeeeeee stoooooooooooopid! I didn't even notice. Obviously if the is the case, the frame is useless. I have their 626S and it's a great frame. Can't vouch for the 636F first hand other than the fact that I know they build a decent frame. The one review here on mtbr shows that the build includes discs. Could be front only {shrugs}

Once again, my signature line holds true.

Bob

Edit: Could also be that the disc mounts are obscured by the fact that it's the drive side view of the rear triangle.

finchy · Dec 21, 2005

that leader frame looks like garbage... check out the RM switch it looks right up your alley aswell

TheSherpa · Dec 22, 2005

If your looking at Hecklers, check out the Prophet MX series. They are super stiff with the 135/12 TA rear end and better geometry than the heckler IMO.

Ivan the Terrible · Dec 22, 2005

Get the Preston

FrontRanger said:
I am 5'6 with short inseam. So I need lots of standover clearance and the Medium would probably not be too gentle on me. The Heckler is looking more and more like the way to go.

I am about 5'8" and have a medium Preston. It fits well and I run a 70mm stem. You could run a 50mm stem and it would be perfect. These bikes are amazing!!!! I really can't recommend one enough. There are alot of great bikes out there but you should consider putting this one on your short list. Good luck

toyota200x · Dec 22, 2005

The Leader bike looks kind of cool and for a couple hundred bucks it sounds like a deal. It does look a little wal-mart though.

ebxtreme · Dec 22, 2005

FrontRanger said:
Sinister is nice but damn it's pricey. Might have to look again at the Transition. Any other suggestions out there?

Front Ranger,

Give Kevin or Kyle a shout at Transition and let them know about your sizing questions. Those guys can put you in touch with others your size that ride that same frame. It sounds like the small would work for you.

edit: Just saw Ivan's post. Sounds like a Medium could work for you, but I'd think the small would be more ideal. Just my 2 cents.

I know several people that own the Preston and they flat out abuse those bikes and do stuff I'd never expect a 4-5" travel bike would take.

Regarding the TT length, keep in mind that a shorter cockpit usually is more beneficial for FR/DH, so you shouldn't necessarily expect to ride a bike with an XC length TT. Also, as singletrack mentioned, the seatpost is a bit steep, so a layback seatpost can help change the effective TT length an inch+.

Of course, the Heckler is a sweet bike so that's another great option.

Chers,
EBX

austinb89 · Dec 22, 2005

Call_me_Clyde said:
2005 Leader 636F. Couple hundred bucks. Here's a link and a pic:

http://www.leaderbikeusa.com/products/frames/frames.htm

yep just puked in my mouth

themontashu · Dec 22, 2005

Call_me_Clyde said:
Well call meeeeeeeeeeeee stoooooooooooopid! I didn't even notice. Obviously if the is the case, the frame is useless. I have their 626S and it's a great frame. Can't vouch for the 636F first hand other than the fact that I know they build a decent frame. The one review here on mtbr shows that the build includes discs. Could be front only {shrugs}

Once again, my signature line holds true.

Bob

Edit: Could also be that the disc mounts are obscured by the fact that it's the drive side view of the rear triangle.

That may be true it may have disk mounts but 3.5 inches of travel with Vmounts, its a pile of crap.

FrontRanger · Dec 22, 2005

Ivan the Terrible said:
I am about 5'8" and have a medium Preston. It fits well and I run a 70mm stem. You could run a 50mm stem and it would be perfect. These bikes are amazing!!!! I really can't recommend one enough. There are alot of great bikes out there but you should consider putting this one on your short list. Good luck

They don't have standover listed anymore but I am pretty sure when they had just the two sizes 17 and 19(?) they listed the measurement. And the toptube on the 17" sat about an inch or so above my junk. I wish they had a local dealer so that I could give one a test ride.

Short Travel FR frame

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