come ride with us , here in NE Scotland………..:)

Dave has got one.

ride report after GT please, DAVE 😀

TLR – you still haven't been in touch for a test ride…. 😉

No photo's yet guys but first impressions.

For context i've been riding a scandal as a stopgap but with long forks, air pikes. Anyway, first impression is that it's pretty light, 3.66lb including a king headset, compared to the scandal at 3.62. Obviously, the scandal is not meant for long forks so was running pretty slack, but an iphone says this is a degree slacker with the seat tube being 3 degrees steeper. Bottom bracket is 10mm lower on the Ragley and reach 10mm less.

Ride impressions. Awesome. Got up and down things that i've never managed before and the 2 bikes before the Scandal were a EX8 and Commi 55. Uphill especially just brilliant, even with forks fully wound out, just sit in saddle and spin. Downhill is harder to quantify because you never know how much of the advantage is in your head but got down some steep stuff and jumped further that i managed when either full susses were new.

Early days but chuffed so far. Photo's tomorrow hopefully.

Cool glad your please so far Pritcsa 🙂 Glad we could supply it!

We'll get some pics tomorrow on the shop ride. Can't wait for the Pigs to arrive so we can get our demo stuck together

Putting SLX on a Ti frame is like buying a Monet and putting it in an IKEA frame. Spoils it for me, honestly.

I feel like calling social services.

Makes sense to me, performance benefits of xtr etc are not worth the cost IMO.

Buying a ti frame and putting xtr/thomson on it is like lacking the courage or thinking capacity to do something different…do you aspire to a BMW?

Nope; I've got one. Cheaper to run, tax and insure than the old Peugeot

Do you really think that a person willing to pay over 1K for a hardtail frame has considered the relationship between performance benefits and cost?

It's simply an opinion, not a criticism.

The social services bit was a joke.

You can't get the feel of a ti frame without a ti frame…slx gears, brakes, hubs etc all work near enough as well as xtr for me and I'd rather spend the £ on something that will make more of a difference to my life.

It's got to be about how much of a difference is there really? XTR brakes and cranks don't do it for me at all. When the time for new shifters come, they'll be XTR but mechs are too vulnerable. The difference between my XTR pedals and 520's convinced me (none that i can tell). Sean is right about the frame to a degree tho, doesn't matter how good it is it's not going to be 5 times better than the scandal as that's a great frame. Could be 5 times better than the Commi tho.

cynical-al.
well named and a very bitter man.

Some photos and second ride impressions.
Photo's feel free to link, can't get it to work. 🙄

So shop ride today in the peeing down rain and loads of mud. The good news is it seemed even better than it did yesterday. Outclimbed the full sussers on all the technical climbs, i'm not as quick or as fit as some of the others but got further up or cleaned everything. And down hill was a hoot. Was massively torn between this and a 456 but looks like it may work out after all. Very, very happy.

pritcsa's Ragley…

Nice to see one built up at last.

looks good too. purposeful and unfussy

I soooooooooooooo would of had that climb if i haven't broken my shifter… 🙄 😆

Awesome bike though and bloody hell does it climb, even descended well in todays Mudfest!

On the XTR vs SLX thing…XTR works well but you could almost hear the money falling out of your wallet in the mud today 😥
…bloody hate gears

cant wait to get mine, blue pig or mmmbop for me though, unless i win that mbuk comp 😀

pritcsa – you'll probably need to go up to a 36t ring – I used to run 32t on my old bike, but on the Ragley was running a 36t for two weeks before I noticed it wasn't a 32t, I was riding so much faster 🙂

cynical-al.
well named and a very bitter man.

Jeez I am just giving as good as the rest 🙄

brant – Member
pritcsa – you'll probably need to go up to a 36t ring – I used to run 32t on my old bike, but on the Ragley was running a 36t for two weeks before I noticed it wasn't a 32t, I was riding so much faster

Posted 34 minutes ago #

i'd better start making a 38t middle ring then 🙄

STW review.

Time for a bit of more detailed feedback then. Had the Ragley for 6 weeks now, done about 3-400 miles on it, mainly techy short rides but a couple of four hours rides too. The bikes awesome. Set up is 16 inch frame, 140mm pikes, inline thomson post, 685 low rise monkeylites, firstly 70mm thomson stem, now 60mm Raceface.
So far it does everything i want it to and is exactly the type of bike i was looking for. It both climbs and descends brilliantly, fast, steep or tight descents are all handled brilliantly, i'm particularly surprised about it's willingness to go around switchbacks but on steep stuff it's just stupidly good. To borrow the old cliche it'll get up anything i can, the balance is brilliant for me, I tend to climb with the forks set at about 130, this being the sweet spot between the with the forks absolutely planted but loads of weight on the back wheel for traction, i've cleaned two climbs i'd never managed before. It's even given me the confidence to climb up a two foot banky step that some people won't ride down.
In terms of feel, to me it seems to have the perfect amount of "spring", it's feels very similar but probably slightly firmer than my old inbred or handjob, very similar to my scandal but more "planted". Certainly i had a Soda for 6 months and it bears no relation to that, i'm 15 and a half stone and the Soda was all over the place.
Bad points for balance? Not many. I wasn't convinced about the cable routing but now love it, but… the bolts have discoloured which i don't like. It's like having rusty bolts on your stem, no! Thomson style rust proof bolts please. Erm, that's it, absolutely nothing else i'd change so i'm really pretty damn happy.
I know what you're thinking, rose tinted glasses syndrome but I think i'm quite good at being objective about bikes and have always been able to avoid loving something just because it's new so don't think that's the case.

pritcsa, how tall are you?

Yet more torment for my brain…. 😯

I suppose the only way I can understand one is to ride one….

😀

I'm 5 9". Shorter legs longer upper body. About 230mm of seatpost showing.

Forgive me, but I've not been paying attention – only just come across this thread.
How did the bikes fair at Sleepless as I saw a few (?).
I know Twinkly was not too well, but the bikes seemed to going well.
Plus I see you're going to Kielder for the Killer Loop, which bike are you taking BTW?
I saw a review by Guy Kesteven recently in perhaps WMB (?), and he's a become another 29er convert, confessing to loving the Lynsky he'd been riding; so his review should be interesting.
See you up there.
(OnOne Ti29er – of the curry house in Peebles)