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Alpine 160 Long Term Test
Right - so ive been riding it about 4 months now and thought I would give you an update.
In short this thing is immense, the tyre choice of a minion on the front and an ardent on the rear was a stroke of genius by the past owner. The bike grips superbly whilst also rolling quite well in single track.
Issues I have encountered are mainly with the Bos fork and purely down to my own stupidity:-
I didn't equalize the chambers correctly when pumping them up and this resulted in my stanchions dropping down to circa 50mm of travel during an xc night ride....not fun but entirely my fault. Following instructions on tinternet i managed to get them going again before losing the top cap from the air side, f**k knows where that went but i bet a replacement wont be cheap.
Apart from that its been faultless, the x fusion gravity dropper is working superbly as are the Formula 1 brakes.
The only issue I think I am experiencing is the size of it, being completely honest the 16" frame is a bit on the short side for me at 6ft. However its fine on the downs, drops and jumps you just have to remember the tyre is under your arse more than it probably should be (I'm also getting an 18" next week to test and will provide details of fit etc).
It went on an uplift at UKBP in september, great place did circa 25 runs and this thing nailed everything a dh bike would you just have to pick your landings a bit wiser but in the berms and kickers its gone, the acceleration is immense.
Also been doing a lot of trail riding / aggressive xc on it. Its a bit slow on the ups and road being honest (hence me having an anthem 29er for mile munching xc marathons) but thats probably down to having a 34 tooth front cog, active front suspension and wide tyres. To put it in context my trance would cover the road to the woods circa 5 miles in around 20 minutes, on the alpine it takes 25, on the anthem 29er it takes 17!! However I never brought it for that purpose ( I had it to replace my dh bike) so for it to be able to do it on top of general xc riding which i do on it for 10 mile loops etc its perfect.
In short its not one bike to conquer all, but it has a bloody good go!!
![The hound hitting the first table in sleepy hollow puddletown]()
![Trail dog]()
In short this thing is immense, the tyre choice of a minion on the front and an ardent on the rear was a stroke of genius by the past owner. The bike grips superbly whilst also rolling quite well in single track.
Issues I have encountered are mainly with the Bos fork and purely down to my own stupidity:-
I didn't equalize the chambers correctly when pumping them up and this resulted in my stanchions dropping down to circa 50mm of travel during an xc night ride....not fun but entirely my fault. Following instructions on tinternet i managed to get them going again before losing the top cap from the air side, f**k knows where that went but i bet a replacement wont be cheap.
Apart from that its been faultless, the x fusion gravity dropper is working superbly as are the Formula 1 brakes.
The only issue I think I am experiencing is the size of it, being completely honest the 16" frame is a bit on the short side for me at 6ft. However its fine on the downs, drops and jumps you just have to remember the tyre is under your arse more than it probably should be (I'm also getting an 18" next week to test and will provide details of fit etc).
It went on an uplift at UKBP in september, great place did circa 25 runs and this thing nailed everything a dh bike would you just have to pick your landings a bit wiser but in the berms and kickers its gone, the acceleration is immense.
Also been doing a lot of trail riding / aggressive xc on it. Its a bit slow on the ups and road being honest (hence me having an anthem 29er for mile munching xc marathons) but thats probably down to having a 34 tooth front cog, active front suspension and wide tyres. To put it in context my trance would cover the road to the woods circa 5 miles in around 20 minutes, on the alpine it takes 25, on the anthem 29er it takes 17!! However I never brought it for that purpose ( I had it to replace my dh bike) so for it to be able to do it on top of general xc riding which i do on it for 10 mile loops etc its perfect.
In short its not one bike to conquer all, but it has a bloody good go!!
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Member since Jul 25, 2004
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2 Comments
- 1 0
STARWARS
(Nov 29, 2013 at 10:01)
Bloody good video 
- 1 0
sewer-rat
FL (Nov 29, 2013 at 11:16)
Cheers bro!!
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