Recommendation for Enduro Frame

[Andrew Burns]

Hi all, I've been riding a 2019 Giant Trance 27.5 for a few years as my first MTB and it's been a great bike, probably still more bike than I need even now to be honest. I am however considering building up my own mtb, I built my first road bike from a direct-from-factory Chinese carbon frame ~10 years ago and I really enjoyed it and the bike is still going strong (hong-fu FM-039 frame).

If I were going to build up a bike I'd be keeping my Trance for general trail riding and I'd probably have the new bike be more of a specific bike park/shuttle bike. So I'm thinking a longer wheel-base, slacker head tube and more suspension travel than the Trance. I've also put this in the 29er forum but I'm also open to 27.5 for both wheels or a 29 front 27.5 real mullet set-up.

Any frame suggestions?

I've looked at the Ican P9 which people seem to like, but it doesn't seem that different in terms of geometry to the Trance so I'm not sure what the point would be. I'd get a bit more suspension travel and a slightly slacker head angle, but potentially not to the degree that I'd even notice. I suppose that if I fitted a longer travel fork (170mm) and went to a mullet wheel setup I'd effectively slacken the head angle a bit more and increase the wheel base, which might make it more noticeably stable at higher speeds in a straight line...

[FullCarbonAlchemist]

Fairly safe bets:
*Carbonda FM1002
*Light Carbon FS947

Unproven, some questions about link bearing design but otherwise promising:
*FS830 (open mold, sold by Haideli and TopFire)

Not recommended due to ongoing bearing/linkage issues without a proven solution:
*AM831

[endo.alley]

I have had a P9 as one of my bikes for a few years. I can attest the frame quality is good. The geometry is a little bit dated. I would consider it more a hardy trail bike than a full on enduro. I just recieved a new 9Point8 brand head set slacker. I am quite interested to see how that will work to slacken the headset more to my liking. The problem with a longer fork is that you will also slacken the seat angle. Which is already quite slack by modern standards. There are some really interesting Chinese consumer direct frames out there. Like the Carbonda/ Flybike 1002. Or the Haidelli FM830. I am waiting to see what people say about that bike (830) once finished and tested. And there is the LCF947 which looks incredible. But only in a size large/extra large. Since the size medium doesnt seem to accept a sufficiently long enough dropper post for most enduro riders. Another I have seen is the Topfire 931. I don't know anything about it.

[Andrew Burns]

Hey thanks for the recommendations! The FS830 looks really good! I can see in the thread for it there was the question asked about the pivot bearing design but no feedback yet, but there are people who seem happy with them so maybe it's fine?

The FS947 also looks really good, but I'm a medium frame with my Giant and you're saying that max 135mm of seatpost engagement might not be enough for a decent dropper post? I'll have to check what the drop of my current giant one is, it's definitely 'enough' but I still do hit the seat sometimes when moving around a lot.

[Eddy-haideli]

Hey thanks for the recommendations! The FS830 looks really good! I can see in the thread for it there was the question asked about the pivot bearing design but no feedback yet, but there are people who seem happy with them so maybe it's fine?

The FS947 also looks really good, but I'm a medium frame with my Giant and you're saying that max 135mm of seatpost engagement might not be enough for a decent dropper post? I'll have to check what the drop of my current giant one is, it's definitely 'enough' but I still do hit the seat sometimes when moving around a lot.

Hi, Merry Christmas.

For the FS-830 Frame, if you got any question, feel free to contact me.

Eddy@haidelibicycle.com

Thanks
Eddy

[FullCarbonAlchemist]

Hey thanks for the recommendations! The FS830 looks really good! I can see in the thread for it there was the question asked about the pivot bearing design but no feedback yet, but there are people who seem happy with them so maybe it's fine?

The FS947 also looks really good, but I'm a medium frame with my Giant and you're saying that max 135mm of seatpost engagement might not be enough for a decent dropper post? I'll have to check what the drop of my current giant one is, it's definitely 'enough' but I still do hit the seat sometimes when moving around a lot.

Check the reach and head tube length numbers on the 947, you could probably do OK with a large if you were raising the front end/cockpit to shorten the reach and maybe over-forking by 10mm. Personally I do find being able to run a super long dropper helps in the steeps…but it’s as much a cosmetic thing as anything else for me.

Having the outer tube of the post sitting up super high out of the frame is something to be avoided in modern bike fashion

[endo.alley]

Check the reach and head tube length numbers on the 947, you could probably do OK with a large if you were raising the front end/cockpit to shorten the reach and maybe over-forking by 10mm. Personally I do find being able to run a super long dropper helps in the steeps…but it’s as much a cosmetic thing as anything else for me.

Having the outer tube of the post sitting up super high out of the frame is something to be avoided in modern bike fashion

Depends. Are you a rider? Do your local trails provide advanced and technical terrain? Or are you a flatlander that happens to own a mountain bike? Nothing wrong with that of course. Buy makes all the difference in bike selection and setup.

[Andrew Burns]

Depends. Are you a rider? Do your local trails provide advanced and technical terrain? Or are you a flatlander that happens to own a mountain bike? Nothing wrong with that of course. Buy makes all the difference in bike selection and setup.

Well I already have a good trail bike that I'll still want to use for anything flat/climbing, just looking for a frame more or less exclusively for going down.

[endo.alley]

Well I already have a good trail bike that I'll still want to use for anything flat/climbing, just looking for a frame more or less exclusively for going down.

Building a bike for descending. And the performance of the dropper post is not important to you? Curious.

[Andrew Burns]

Building a bike for descending. And the performance of the dropper post is not important to you? Curious.

Maybe re-read what I've written and see if at any point I said that I didn't care about the dropper post??

Just measured my medium Trance and it has a 120mm dropper, which as I mentioned seems adequate but could be longer as I still hit it when descending sometimes. With the frame geo and my height I could probably squeeze a 150mm into the trance, but I'd have to carefully check any potential future frames as I'm on the border between 'small' and 'medium' so it depends on the specific frame as to how much seatpost I could fit in with my leg length.

[endo.alley]

" it’s as much a cosmetic thing as anything else for me." 
Having a longer dropper post and a bike designed to handle it is not just a cosmetic feature for many people riding aggressive terrain.

[FullCarbonAlchemist]

" it’s as much a cosmetic thing as anything else for me." 
Having a longer dropper post and a bike designed to handle it is not just a cosmetic feature for many people riding aggressive terrain.

Of course, but in terms of whether it really matters to the average rider, they aren’t necessarily going to use most of the drop on any sized post. You and I certainly do, but outside of enduro racers and hardcore gravity types I rarely see people use more than a couple of inches of drop. Personally I have a horrible spinal condition that means I only use most of the drop when I really need to, and only for short periods.

I’m a huge bike fashion queen and care way too much about the aesthetics though, so I was mostly just trying to make a joke. I know that doesn’t always translate well into text..

[endo.alley]

I have in the past tried to get all matching Kashima coated tubes on my bike. That's an expensive fashion statement to pursue. I like the seat as low as possible even on high speed flow trails for aggressive cornering. I can angulate the bike into the corner easier with the seat down and out of the way. I was really interested in the 947 frame but for its issues with the size medium.

[Andrew Burns]

" it’s as much a cosmetic thing as anything else for me." 
Having a longer dropper post and a bike designed to handle it is not just a cosmetic feature for many people riding aggressive terrain.

Yep that sure is a statement made by Fullcarbonalchemist, who is not me, Andrew...

I'm fully aware of what a dropper post is used for, as that's what I use mine for. But yes thanks for the advice about the 947 frame, I'll probably not be able to use it as I'm between a small and medium frame size and so I definitely wouldn't have a lot of post sticking out of a medium frame...