I suspect not



Hard asnails?

my cat's called nails, and having just prodded him, I find that nails is in fact quite squishy











IGMC

id hazzard a guess that it handled similar to my banshee due to the chunkiness of it.

i went from a XC frame to the banshee and the first thing i noticed was that it moved when and where you wanted it to straight away. also on landing a jump or drop of sorts you knew exactly when you had landed and it felt solid and stable on doing so.

im not the most graceful rider in the world so this rigidness suits me just fine.

Much the same with my old Kona Stuff, it was a cast iron whore to ride up and loved it going down and off things..... aaah memories.....

150mm rear hub - please take note all other manufacturers who have yet to see sense.

The hooge tires take the edge off it a bit, and obviously you never sit down so it doesn't pound your backside ;-) You certainly know whether you've landed smoothly or not, though. Although the long-cage mech and over-long chain provide ample auditory clues by themselves...

Oh and I've got the same 8 inch Hayes brake on the the back of my hard knock hardtail and ..............my FS XC bike. Why make do with anything smaller?

"The effective top tube on the M is just over 23in. Of course, effective top tube is all-but irrelevant on a bike like this on which you're rarely going to be sitting down"

Have you ever tried dirt-jumping with a 23" + top tube? Or tried to pull up on a low-speed drop? Or manual? I'd say effective top tube length was pretty important on a bike like this.

Nope. Front-centre is important.

True, but a 27.1" front centre on a medium, that's long.

It seems to measure 26.5 on this one, but yes, it's fairly long. The numbers kind of hide the story, though - part of the reason the FC is long is because of the big fork. The actual BB/handlebar relationship isn't what you might think from looking at the numbers, and your weight distribution is distinctly rearward.

its not a dirt jump bike.

maybe thats why its not a pefect jump geometry.

its being marketed as a "free ride" frame so surely the longer top tube makes it a bit easier to handle on the climbs and down hills.

"bit easier to handle on the climbs"

That'll be that uphill freeriding i've been reading about. The next big thing apparently

It is designed to be at least vaguely able to climb. Given that its natural environment is a hulking great wooded mountainside with a fireroad that winds its way to the top and a stupidly steep technical trail going back down again, it's the right shape IMO.

well my definition of free riding might be different than yours dzm, but as far as im concerned freeride means a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

you need to climb to the top of the hill to get down it.

unless your talking about that lazy fat arsed version of freeriding which has been hijacked by the media over the last few years.

I ride a Norco sasquatch and it is amazing - same frame as the rampage and can vouch for its ability - I can take anything, way more than I can throw at it. I can keep up with big full sussers in the downs and actually pedal up - albeit getting a bit knackered in the process (35lbs is a lot for an HT).

I use this bike for everything (except road miles where I use the road bike) it is 10lbs heavier than my last HT but inpires a lot of confidence and I know it wont break.

The finishing kit is poor though - I found that cheap hubs meant a whole new wheelset in a few months, ISIS BB - forget it, 2 of these in 6 months and I went for a shimano saint.

I would say better to buy the torrent frameset (can you still do this?) and spec it with a tough wheelset, avid brakes and some shimano saint kit - it will last forever!

hmm, it almost sounds like a challenge

I've got one of these sitting in a box back in New Zealand at present. The few chances I got to ride it back in the Uk it was pretty awesome. I look forward to throwing it off some NZ cliffs.

As for me, I am sweating my Ar$e off in Kolcuta, India at present. I will have to endure the beaches of South East Asia before I will get to ride my bikes again.

The horror, the horror...

howdo mark?

hello mark. long time no hear. well, i suppose your travelling about a bit! i'm off to kiwi in feb for 5 weeks or so : ) yey.