LONG TERMERS
Countless hours on the trails make this the ultimate test of performance as well as reliability
£4,499 • 29in • privateerbikes.com
MONTH 10: Air or Coil? RockShox or Öhlins? Heavy or light? Ben rides two different 141 builds back-to-back to try and answer these questions
THE RIDER
BEN SMITH Position Art editor
Mostly rides Forest of Dean
Height 5ft 9in Weight 76kg
THE BIKE
n Progressive trail bike from UK direct-sales brand with 141mm travel, coupled with 150mm-travel fork
n Special-edition bike features Öhlins RXF36 M.2 Air fork and TTX2M coil-sprung shock, and tougher wheels and tyres
n Long, low and slack sizing and geometry with proportional chainstay lengths
n Shimano SLX/ XT drivetrain and Magura MT5 brakes offer no-nonsense performance without sky-high pricing
There’s something about this stealthy black bomber that attracts a lot of positive attention, more attention than I’ve experienced with other bikes I’ve had. Obviously the flashy yellow spring on the shock and matching Öhlins graphics on the fork have something to do with all of the comments, where “Nice bike, mate” is usually followed by… “Is it any good?”
To which I respond: “It’s a great bike, really capable and lots of fun.” Before pausing and adding a hesitant “but ”... that hesitation is driven by doubt. Because one question that lingers in the back of my mind is: do the component swaps made to the Öhlins edition 141 actually make the bike less suitable for the kind of riding I do?
Changes that include the burlier, higher-spec Öhlins suspension, the tougher-casing rear tyre and heavier-duty Hunt Enduro-Wide V2 wheels. All of which are designed to allow the bike to take more of a beating than the regular 141, which is already a very progressive trail bike. These upgrades also add cost, weight, drag and, as I’ve found out over the last 10 months, complication.
As for my riding style, I’m less point-and-shoot, preferring technical trails that reward skill over bravery (I’ve never been very brave). So I’ve often wondered if I’d be better suited to the standard-spec 141. To put this nagging question to bed, I borrowed a 141 GX Pike (RRP £3,689) for a couple of weeks and did some back-to-back testing.
The standard 141 feels easier to accelerate
And it was eye-opening. My main takeaway was the weight saving - around 2kg in favour of the GX Pike bike. The wheels on my longtermer are around 0.5kg heavier than those on the regular 141, so a fair chunk of that extra weight is unsprung and rotational, and makes its presence felt in the way the two bikes feel on the trail. As you’d expect, the standard 141 feels easier
