Stanton Sherpa

I've got one coming, maybe soon. Ordered a UK built frame right at the end of October and back then they told me 12 weeks, so that's coming up soon. I'll probably email them in a week or so just to check in. But since it's winter/snow/ski season here, I'm in no real rush yet. I have all the parts for it except the fork.

Nice, which color did you get? I was fortunate that the color I wanted to get was available in their ready to ship option. What fork you thinking about & what travel?

Custom color, a darkish red for the main frame color and a slightly orange yellow for the logo, etc. It's an option when you buy the UK built frames.

For fork, Fox 34 130mm. A little concerned about having a bit more travel than they recommend.

nemesis256 said:

Custom color, a darkish red for the main frame color and a slightly orange yellow for the logo, etc. It's an option when you buy the UK built frames.

For fork, Fox 34 130mm. A little concerned about having a bit more travel than they recommend.

Click to expand...

Actually Stanton's site lists the recommended fork travel for the Sherpa as 100mm to 130mm.

nemesis256 said:

Custom color, a darkish red for the main frame color and a slightly orange yellow for the logo, etc. It's an option when you buy the UK built frames.

For fork, Fox 34 130mm. A little concerned about having a bit more travel than they recommend.

Click to expand...

Sweet! On the 4130 frames it's a like £100(around $137usd), but I was fine with the shade of blue. Plus, it was kind of similar to blue on my previous bike that I could probably fool some friends & family into thinking I just sus fork for my previous bike. lol

I think you should be fine as Stanton says the max the Sherpa is setup for is 130mm. I am either going Z2 & either 120mm or 130mm depending on which fork is available first. My LBS said that both will be available mid February, but one might be available to ship & install same week; so which ever comes first. Side note if it's not a Fox 34 SC you can adjust the travel down to 120mm if you don't like 130mm. You can't do that on the SC models for some reason.

Just finished building a 4130 Sherpa up a couple weeks ago. I ordered one of the "48hr" Sherpa frames.
Ordered middle December and arrived end of December. Happy to share my build if people are interested.

Looks great. I put a Z1 on my Bird Forge. I'm 190lbs out of the shower +/-10lbs and I just don't enjoy the feel of a skinny fork. The bigger stanchions mitigates bending which allows the fork to work as intended. If I was building a hardtail for my 125lb GF I'd be fine with Z1 on it.

Interested in ride impressions, specifically if the head angle feels too steep as a trail bike.

leejohnh22 said:

Interested in ride impressions, specifically if the head angle feels too steep as a trail bike.

Click to expand...

The stated 67 degrees is at sag, so as far as I know that's more like a 65.5 when comparing to other bikes.

With a 44mm headtube it's easy to adjust HTA with an Works Component [or similar headset]. Plus at 100-120mm designed fork length I also wouldn't hesitate to overfork it 10-20mm.

nemesis256 said:

The stated 67 degrees is at sag, so as far as I know that's more like a 65.5 when comparing to other bikes.

Click to expand...

That is correct, HT party just did a video about geo on bikes and to be carefully of charts. Sherpa was one he measured.

Now if Stanton would make the SS dropouts finally, I would have one of these!

leejohnh22 said:

Interested in ride impressions, specifically if the head angle feels too steep as a trail bike.

Click to expand...

Where I live, 67 is perfect for a "trail" bike. 🤷‍♂️

vikb said:

Looks great. I put a Z2 on my Bird Forge. I'm 190lbs out of the shower +/-10lbs and I just don't enjoy the feel of a skinny fork. The bigger stanchions mitigates bending which allows the fork to work as intended. If I was building a hardtail for my 125lb GF I'd be fine with Z1 on it.

Click to expand...

So you think I should go with the Z1, especially if it's the same price(at least what her ordering system showed)? This would be my first suspension fork outside a Gary Fisher hybrid I had in the late 00s suntour or rockshox fork. It was solid for bad roads.

SSsteel4life said:

That is correct, HT party just did a video about geo on bikes and to be carefully of charts. Sherpa was one he measured.

Now if Stanton would make the SS dropouts finally, I would have one of these!

Click to expand...

Rumor is the plan to bring that out.

At 130mm the hta get's what .5* slacker as the geo chart is at 120mm sagged.

Funoutside said:

Rumor is the plan to bring that out.

At 130mm the hta get's what .5* slacker as the geo chart is at 120mm sagged.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I emailed Stanton yesterday asking for any updates. I have been checking with them every few months

130 would be .5 slacker at static, at sag would be a little less slacker. As if using the same % of sag for setup, 130 would sag a bit more.

In a related note Stanton did tell me they are in the works to bringing back the Sherpa+ but in TI only for now.

Personally I wish Work or Wolftooth offered a .5* angleset as I've heard the Cane Creek one isn't as good. Would have paired nicely with a 130mm fork where I ride. Will be testing it out with a regular headset for now & if I feel it's not good enough for the steep trails here then I will go with a 1*.

Funoutside said:

In a related note Stanton did tell me they are in the works to bringing back the Sherpa+ but in TI only for now.

Personally I wish Work or Wolftooth offered a .5* angleset as I've heard the Cane Creek one isn't as good. Would have paired nicely with a 130mm fork where I ride. Will be testing it out with a regular headset for now & if I feel it's not good enough for the steep trails here then I will go with a 1*.

Click to expand...

Going by static measurements with 130 you would be 65 degrees. You would need to go Honzo ESD Territory to get Slacker! Crazy to say it, but this Sherpa is slacker then a Canfield Nimble 9 with a 150mm fork! Be Curious how your ride findings end up.

Relevant for this discussion Steve @ hardtail party measured static numbers for the Sherpa which are a bit different than I expected

Yes, I just saw that. I used his patreon service on what bike to get as I was deciding between a few models, including the Cotic Solaris Max. He suggested the Sherpa as I don't plan to ride a mix of xc & trails(so downcountry/trail-country or whatever it's called now). I started out gravel biking(the more touring & xc leaning models than road) before I went with a rigid plus. So, the slackest bike I've ridden was my just sold Bombtrack Beyond+, which I rode with the stock 500mm a-c fork(sus corrected for 120mm fork). That would put it at 69° hta with that fork.

That video now has me kind of second guessing on whether to size the stem based on sagged or unsagged numbers. The B+ came with a 0° rise 55mm stem & reach is ~10mm shorter than the Sherpa unsagged & ~27mm at sag. I have a 40mm stem on order with Ritchey 10d rizer bar but maybe I should be going 45mm stem? Hmmm.

There is no way to nail stem length down to +/-5mm for sure without riding the bike. I'd just get whatever seems right and be okay with making a swap later once you have everything dialed.