Post your Propain!

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Posted: Oct 15, 2017 at 12:12 Quote
I have the Spindrift.. It arrived end of Sept.

I looked at a lot of options to replace my Giant Trance 1 2014. I heavily modified it as my riding transitioned to more DH/endure/bike park stuff, but it just wasn't the right tool. Not saying i'm good, just like that type of riding.

I've just replaced it with a Propain Spindrift and it is the most awesome piece of kit. Just had a weekend away on it. Saturday up BMCC and then Sunday up BPW. I am still buzzing from the experience. The bike is super stable at speed and I've never been the most comfortable in the air, but this bike inspires confidence. I was even hitting gaps!

I went with Eagle GX groupset with the 50 tooth 'dinner plate' granny ring, Lyrik RCT3 and Super Delux shock. I'm 95kgs and it soaks up 4-5 ft drops to flat easily. The SRAM Code brakes are the best I've used. So much power with one finger and really controllable modulation. Bikeyoke (never heard of them before) dropper is great, but time will tell as with all droppers.

For a 180mm travel, long, low and slack bike it pedals so well uphill that I don't need to use the shock lock out options. The other criticism was the position of the rear shock for UK weather. Well, I was keeping an eye on other bikes at the weekend in the same conditions and it appeared that my shock was getting less dirty than others. Maybe because there are two tubes protecting it from the front wheel rather than just the down tube on most, and the rear mudguard that Propain fit is small but incredible effective.

No-one dislikes a new bike, but I'm proper impressed with this one.
And the value for money is insane!

Only negative I can come up with is the saddle is not the most comfortable and it doesn't come tubeless. Hardly worth mentioning. Tubeless took about an hour to set up, and I think ill try a Charge Spoon out.

(Pain is temporary, Glory last forever!) Wish I was ballsy enough to live by that! LOL

Posted: Oct 24, 2017 at 0:39 Quote
How do you feel the Tyee climbs? A mate said they were trash on the uphill, and report on that shit?

Posted: Oct 24, 2017 at 5:53 Quote
declanmtb wrote:
How do you feel the Tyee climbs? A mate said they were trash on the uphill, and report on that shit?

I personally think it climbs pretty well. I've beaten my climbing times on my steel hardtail so I guess it's not that shit! Having the lockout option for long fire road climbs is definitely a preference though, but most of the time i leave it in the mid-open position for climbing.

Posted: Oct 26, 2017 at 2:26 Quote
Here is my 2017 Spindrift, with the Yari fork and Super Deluxe RC3 shock !

photo

I love this bike, and like the others I think it climbs well for a 180mm bike, while it's really stable when the track goes donwhill.
I'm 181cm tall, so I put a 35mm stem on a L frame (50mm by default) and it's good for me.


I just think that the shock bottom-out too quickly even with 3 tokens inside (or do I just send too big jumps ? haha), and I can't find the lock-out easily with my fingers. So nothing really important !

Posted: Oct 26, 2017 at 4:52 Quote
Whats your weight and what pressure you got in the shock?
I'm 96kg in the buff, 250psi in the shock with 3 tokens. I use most of the travel, but not all. I'm not doing insane shit like on the vids, but dropping some fairly chunky drops now. (Some to flat if I don't make the landing zone...)
You should be able to get that shock to support you, Its good for 375psi if I remember correctly.

I've put 1.5 tokens in the fork too and run at 80psi. It's a quality bike though. Glad I didn't go coil on the rear though an the linear nature of the linkage would not be well suited to my weight with coil fitted.

Posted: Oct 26, 2017 at 5:34 Quote
huw169 wrote:
Whats your weight and what pressure you got in the shock?
I'm 96kg in the buff, 250psi in the shock with 3 tokens. I use most of the travel, but not all. I'm not doing insane shit like on the vids, but dropping some fairly chunky drops now. (Some to flat if I don't make the landing zone...)
You should be able to get that shock to support you, Its good for 375psi if I remember correctly.

I've put 1.5 tokens in the fork too and run at 80psi. It's a quality bike though. Glad I didn't go coil on the rear though an the linear nature of the linkage would not be well suited to my weight with coil fitted.

I'm 55kg, run 175-180PSI in the shock and had to add 1 token this week-end (already 3 inside I think), and I still bottom-out on my usuals rides. I will see if I can run more PSI without loosing too much sensibility at the beginning.
(But, yeah, my "usual jumps" are big and I don't think I would go as far in the travel on bike-park tracks... with my previous bike I had to deflate the shock each time I rode bike-park.. haha)
In the fork I run like 50-60PSI (I don't really know) and it's good with 1 token.

And like you, I don't know if I would go coil in the rear... but I've planned to buy a "Fast Suspension's 3-Way Yari Damper Upgrade" for the fork, for Christmas. Smile

Posted: Oct 27, 2017 at 20:03 Quote
Voxran wrote:
Here is my 2017 Spindrift, with the Yari fork and Super Deluxe RC3 shock !

photo

I love this bike, and like the others I think it climbs well for a 180mm bike, while it's really stable when the track goes donwhill.
I'm 181cm tall, so I put a 35mm stem on a L frame (50mm by default) and it's good for me.


I just think that the shock bottom-out too quickly even with 3 tokens inside (or do I just send too big jumps ? haha), and I can't find the lock-out easily with my fingers. So nothing really important !


Hey Voxran, nice rig mate! I got a couple of questions as l haven't really seen much on reviews as yet. With your experience with the spindrift, how easy is it to pop up get up on the back wheel? Has it a playful nature in moving in and out of direction....or tires tracking glued to the dirt, point into the chunk and plow through... thanks mate!

O+
Posted: Oct 27, 2017 at 20:09 Quote
Voxran wrote:
Here is my 2017 Spindrift, with the Yari fork and Super Deluxe RC3 shock !

photo

I love this bike, and like the others I think it climbs well for a 180mm bike, while it's really stable when the track goes donwhill.
I'm 181cm tall, so I put a 35mm stem on a L frame (50mm by default) and it's good for me.


I just think that the shock bottom-out too quickly even with 3 tokens inside (or do I just send too big jumps ? haha), and I can't find the lock-out easily with my fingers. So nothing really important !

That's REALLY hot.

Posted: Nov 5, 2017 at 6:27 Quote
acetasting1992 wrote:
badillac wrote:
Propain Tyee 2015

- Tyee -
Owning this thing since 2015 and still loving it....

That thing is dope! like the colours. do you live in van?

Thanks man! I lived in van for almost a year. North Shore is heaven on earth! And the Propain handled the gnar quite well.

Posted: Nov 8, 2017 at 13:08 Quote
So this is my beast!
Lyrik RCT3, Super Delux, Code RSC, GX Eagle. I love this bike. Climbs much better than expected for 180mm travel, but descends superbly!


2018 Spindrift Large

Posted: Nov 27, 2017 at 14:48 Quote
huw169 wrote:
So this is my beast!
Lyrik RCT3, Super Delux, Code RSC, GX Eagle. I love this bike. Climbs much better than expected for 180mm travel, but descends superbly!


2018 Spindrift Large

Been away for a while and now there's a Propain thread, awesome Big Grin

Nice looking bike in the neon orange- I do fancy one in gunmetal although like the raw too. The custom colour option is nice but comparatively pricey from what I've seen others offer.

What size did you go far- I'm torn between the Large and Medium and just can't decide- at 5ft 11 with 32inch legs and a longer body/ arms I would have said large but Propain are insistent on Medium. I've often found German bikes too short/small (with exception being canyon) so I'm unsure. Looking for 460 plus reach says Large which i what I usually aim for being careful on seat tube length as that's what usually gets me (as often too high) but maybe I'm wrong.

How do you find the codes? I was tempted but unsure on real world modulation so current thought was to go standard formulas and get some Hope Tech 3 V4's as I know where I stand with them.

Posted: Dec 3, 2017 at 11:16 Quote
huw169 wrote:
So this is my beast!
Lyrik RCT3, Super Delux, Code RSC, GX Eagle. I love this bike. Climbs much better than expected for 180mm travel, but descends superbly!


2018 Spindrift Large

Does it really climb that good? I'm now looking for "do-it-all" bike and considering Reign SX, Supreme SX and Spindrift. It should be able to let me do some trips (20-30 kilometers around mountains) and give a safe reserve in bikeparks. Do you recommend this one?

Posted: Dec 3, 2017 at 13:26 Quote
I'm 6ft1 with 33" inside leg. Propain told me Medium too. I went large and I'm glad I did. You could always get the 125mm dropper rather than the 160, but I have about 1.5-2" collar to frame rise on my post as you can see in photo. That seat is all the way down. Also, can always shorten stem if need to.

As for codes, they have so far been amazing. I'm coming from SLX though, which I cooked in Morzine. I'm 95kg and there is masses of power and control for my needs with the codes.

As for climbing, I can't fault it. Lets be clear, I'm no technical climber. I climb to get to the trail head. However, I'm coming off a Giant Trance 2014 which is renowned as a great trail bike. Mine had 160 forks (SX style) and 156 rear travel, so was quite capable. This is equally as good in that category in my view, especially if you use the switches on the shocks, which I rarely do.

Where this bike excels is bike parks! I've done Tidworth, Wind Hill, BPW and Black mountain on this. I've noticed a significant improvement in my riding already. Hitting stuff I would never have done on my Trance. I didn't know what people meant by the phrase 'feel like your in the bike', but I now know that I felt perched on top of the Trance giving me balance issues. This is way way better! I appreciate they are very different bikes, but I can only report on my own experiences.

I was also looking at the Supreme SX (looks complicated in the rear shock area), Giant SX (wanted to get away from main stream and Propain spec is way better for the same money), Intense Uzzi (f**king expensive if your able to find one, and doesn't climb so well, and the Propain spec kicks it way into touch for a lot less money), Banshee Darkside (my cousin has one and he broke it after only a couple of months, its also quite short)

I haven't done any mammoth rides on this yet, but I wouldn't have any issues with going on one. This one is 15.2kg as you see it, so not super light, but it does ride well. Only thing I have changed is the saddle. The GX Eagle 10-50 system is superb! I've absolutely nothing bad to say about it.

Careful if you want a coil and weigh a bit like me. It's a very linear curve on the rear.

Posted: Dec 3, 2017 at 14:47 Quote
huw169, thanks, than sounds reasonable. I can have Reign SX for about 3300EUR with some customized kit, but still spindrift conf. kicks ass. I've heard about linear curve here thus why I wanted to buy a "project free" built with a CCDBA CS or SuperDeluxe and put some rings into it.

I'm not techincal climber either, I just want to travel between one singletrack/mountain trail and another one Smile . Still preffer riding that carrying Wink .

Confidence in bikeparks is what I'm looking for therefore it sounds good.

I'm 5'10, therefore M should be just fine.

BTW: is it the 2018 Liryk on the front? Do you like it?


 


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