hi, im in love with the foes fly and trying to find a 2nd hand 1. for trails in wales (afan, coed-y-bryn, etc.) is it over the top and to slow up the hills?

Yes, have a look at the fxr 2.1, even if your not in love with it, im sure you would find it as much as you need.

On the one hand, if you read the numbers (even without having ridden one, which I haven’t) there is no way that they stack up for riding anything other than a full on DH course. I mean, the thing has 8″ of travel; which is pretty much what most DH bikes are giving.

On the other hand, their website states that the Fly is designed for ‘aggressive all mountain’. I have a feeling that Foes design bikes for very different terrain than you find in the UK, for example ‘all nountain’ in Chamonix is a very different proposition to ‘all mountain’ in Wales.

Do you need anyone else’s approval for this decision or are you just worried that people will think you’ve bought a bike that’s overkill?

no im not looking for approval. but as you said on the foes site they seem to think its all-mountain. i havnt been riding for long but am getting really into trails. i race cars normally but this is a good way for me to keep fit and get that adrenaline buzz i need. i think the fxr prob would be better i guess i just needed someone to tell me.

If you like it buy, don’t give a s**t what people here think.

lol cheers fella, yeh why not after all thats what credit cards are for rite!

Yeah mate – you really don’t need an 8″ travel rig for trail riding in the UK. But I can sense that you’re about to start a really great journey with riding bikes fast. If you race cars then you’re really going to get hooked with the speed thing.

So, on that basis, here’s my recommendation. Get something that will also take you into the DH scene because I’m 100% sure that’s where you will end up.

The FXR will do that and depending on how tall you are, there is one more or less brand new in Freeborn in Horsham for about £700. It was bought by a guy who likes to have the best, look at them for a while and then sell them on. I’d have bought it myself already but it’s way too big for me. It’s an extra large, so if you’re around 6ft 2″ it would probably fit.

I have ridden the fly and the fxr in exotic locations and the answer to your question is jeff nuttly yes its going to be v hard on the ups and probably slower and much more tiring on the downs. honestly. good luck and buy whatever you want.

hi geetee, lol yes when i do somthing it kind of takes over and i have to compete. and i have been eyeing up the alps. well im 6ft so would prob be fine do you have any contact info?

jws the xl will be too big for you at 6ft, im 5.11 and have a med fxr with a 70mm stem and layback seatpost and it fits me a treat, i would go for a large, this is only advice as you are new to mtb, and like geetee says you are going to be going fast sooner rather than later, so you wont want a bike thats too tall or long for you, spend as much as you can to make your bike as light as you can, but you still need parts that are suitable for the frame of your choice, i have had mine down to 32.7 lbs with lite tyres n tubes, for local xc type ridin, but 34.7 for alps, wales, peaks, scotland and such like. Hope this helps.

forgotmename thanks for the advice, im guessing the shorter the bike the better it turns. do you have the curnutt titanium shock?

Yes i got the ti spring, 400lb for a fat bloke, 15st, rarely get full travel tho, but the bike is the mutts, very stiff rear end, single pivot, bearings last for years, im on 2nd foes, i had the previous model from 03 till 07 and changed the bearings before i sold the bike, they were a doddle to fit too.i mailed you a picture.

great pic nice looking wheels as well. im dying to get to some proper mountains, ive got family in milan so not to far from the action so i think ill be doing that this summer hopefully! there is somthing about the foes i love, i think it’s because they are a little rare. i dont have a bike pic to show you so ill send you a car pic instead.

your face is familiar. you dont know lawrence, and mazy etc?

yea i do, im fat gary.

r u Steve?

hello m8, hope ur well. no im james im the one that wiped out my mate gaz down a fire trail lol. i wos on a commencal. what a coincedence do you still do organised trips?

If you want to ride the DH in wales, fine. Personally I think 4-5″ travel is perfect for trail centres. IMHO anymore would be slower on the downs.

in fact your the one who go me hooked on foes. i remember you had one for sale at the time or somthing?

Hello James, yes still do a peaks or wales trips, mosty mates filling the van up, mostly peaks at the mo, not riding the foes at the mo as i got a nice new ex9 for xmas and now i can keep up a bit easier, foes is for alps nowadays, mazy rang recently about a peaks trip so il get on to him tomorrow and sort some thing out, theres room for 4 in my nice new van. are you up for it?

I let a mate have it for £750, it hasnt left his shed since. If you want to ride my foes i could put it together so you can find out how good they are. no probs. just had some wotans serviced and it would be an ideal reason to put them on and have another built up bike in the hall.

sounds good to me, only thing is im still not up to mazy and lol fitness unfortunatly. im quick down the slops just not as quick up. and wouldnt want to hold you guys up. where abouts in the peaks? the new ex9 looks the daddy it’s not the carbon 1 is it?

Thank you for the offer of the bike if i dont sort somthing out before id love to. obviously id give you a drink towards ware and tare.

The ex9 is the daddy and its the ali one, no worries about fitness as mazy n co can go and come back and push us up on their way back up again, i go to anywhere around hope n castleton, ladybower, all good hard routes, proper riding. Id break the carbon one, dont you think?

lol just means you come down the hill quicker! and yeh mazy and co are a bit like ski lifts. i dont actually know where your talking about but sounds good. ill look it up know.

i normally go skiing in lavigno in northern italy but ive been reading in what mtb that its good for riding. its the other side of the mountain to st moritz. have you heard of it id like to organise a trip there. there is a great hotel i use which would let use there ski room for bikes etc. have you heard or been there?

Have you heard of jacobs ladder, the beast, hollins cross, whinstone lee tor, cut gate, cavedale, roych clough, to name a few, but theres much more than you can do in a weekend, check out os touring map 4, peak district, it covers a big area but not too detailed.

no i havnt heard of them but that doesnt mean alot as im new to the scene, views look good though. well im up for it and ive got a friend if there are any spaces left. id better go,
uv got my email so keep in touch and let me know dates etc. and thank you very much for the chat and advice. cheers gary

If the trails aren’t tough enough for 8″ just ride em harder

I rode the Fly before buying my FXR and it’s a fantastic bit of kit. Don’t get put off by the amount of travel, it might sound a lot but it doesn’t ride like most other full sus bikes out there with that amount of travel – the Curnutt shocks make a HUGE difference to the ride.

I’ve seen Flys built complete at 32lbs without going daft on money, my FXR is now down to under 28lbs all up (including pedals and strong tyres) and outclimbs and out descends pretty much everything else I’ve run into on the trails both here and overseas.

If you’re around 6′ go for a large – I’m 6’3″ and have the large and it’s the right balance between long day comfort (best ride just under 150 miles in a day) and fun flickability in the woods when it gets technical.

Whatever you end up with from the Foes range you won’t regret it, they’re awesome bikes and if you do ever need help Balfa & Foes are fantastic. Enjoy whatever you end up with 🙂

Thanks for that post IWH, im just struggling to get hold of an fxr.
i cant find any new stockist in uk and there are no second hand ones available and i dont fancy buying just a frame and having to build it up. as im trying to keep the price down.

Shame as I just sold one having listed it on here a couple of times. Contact jamie@balfa.co.uk and he’ll put you in touch with your nearest stockist.

The Fly might sound overkill for Wales (from a travel point of view) but like I said, you can build it up plenty light enough and still have a bike that’ll take whatever you can throw at it.

excellent thank you, i’ll try and contact him. all this talk has made me desparate to get one, and hit the alps!

JWS – Foes bikes are special, they hark back to those halcyon days of mountain biking when all the best and coolest bikes were ‘hand built in the USA’. Most bikes these days are welded in Taiwan and the Taiwanese welders are reported to be the best in the world. But there is just something so cool about the low volume true craftsmanship quality of brands like Foes. The other thing that really sets Foes apart is that biblically brilliant Curnut shock. Curnut invented the whole ‘platform’ damping technology then sold the patent to Fifth Element and started the whole damper revolution thing off. The curnut shocks on the Foes, their 2:1 leverage ratio, the quality of their build – they really are special. One side thought about that shock is how easy it is to service and get warranty support should you need it. There are clearly other Foes riders on here that could answer that question (I’d be interested to hear myself).

If you want to think about what else falls into this category, then also consider Nicolai. They’re German but they’re completely hand built to each customer’s spec and you can even have a completely bespoke frame built with your own geometry and sizing. The really cool thing about Nicolai’s is that, like Foes, you just don’t see that many of them around. The other hand built American brands like Intense, Ellsworth etc, tend to be a little more prolific. Then there are the pseudo hand built brands like Yeti and Santa Cruz, which are mostly made out in Taiwan.

By the way, did you see the big review of Foes in Dirt a few issues back? They included reviews of the DHS Mono and the Fly.

People still read Dirt? 😉

Servicing of the Curnutt shocks is now handled in the UK by Balfa who are trained and certified to do it by Foes / Curnutt. Turnaround is about 3 days from my chats with Jamie about this.

As far as warranty / spare parts go I’ve only ever had one ‘problem’ and that was with the air shock on my 4X which had a faint clunk on rebound. A quick call to Foes who said that it sounded like an internal valve wasn’t seated quite right and I had a brand new air shock delivered (set up exactly for me) the very next morning (I was in the US at the time so they got it to me double quick but I don’t doubt they’d be almost as fast for UK issues).

As for build quality the only bike I’ve ever had to touch it was a Klein Adroit from ’96 (when they were still built by Klein). It’s the only other bike that’s ever come through welded perfectly straight and with everything done right, and I’m picky about such things as paint that isn’t quite spot on or bits of swarf still in threads etc.

I take pride in the fact that my bike was built for me with subtle tweaks that make it unique (after a chat with Brent himself) and that I can phone and talk to the man who built my frame should I have question. There’s only a handful of places you can do that with full suspension bikes these days (and don’t say Ellsworth – because you can’t).

Now, if you’ll excuse me I’ve just fitted my hardpack tyres to the FXR and I’m off for a rip over the moors 🙂

I own both a fly and an FXR 4X (among other foes) both 2004 models i.e. pre 2:1 ratio. Neither is built particularly light and i can tell you now i wouldn’t want to try going up hill on the fly even with a much lighter build.

The FXR is a much better climber, and i think realistically if i tried i could build it up in to a nice all day, all mountain, trail bike (see how many buzz words i got in there).

The geometry of the fly is way closer to that of a DH bike than a trail bike and to be honest thats what i use mine for. Running 888rc2x’s and a dh build kit its 45lbs so its not a light bike but its survived me crashing it a fair number of time and everything i have tried to ride here and in canada.

I doubt you could call Tony Ellsworth and talk to him, but can you can call Karl Heinz Nicoalai and I have done several times when ordering my Ion. And bike is straight as a dye!

That sure is purdy, in a macho sort of way.

Thinking about my earlier comment I’m not sure anyone would WANT to call Tony and speak with him. Not the nicest of chaps.

One_happy_hippy – the 2:1 ratio and associated frame tweaks completely changed the way the bike climbs. You’d need to try one now, it’s much more fun going up 🙂