Avanti Torrent and Coppermine/Vapour thread

[Llama Shmeagle Spleen]

. Llama, thats awesome, what do you think of the coil shock?

Rides great with the coil, I'm rocking coil front and rear as I'm a pretty big dude. Virtually no bob and WAY more tuneable that an air shock. The dual flow rebound is great. It's 15kg but thats with 2.5 inch rubber. Wish I had a higher spec frame with a direct mount front mech tho.... Can't run a clamp band with a coil and on a three day mission it gets to be pretty hard work.


Phalophalot, I've got a hope bolt up hub in the back of mine and it's sweet, running a lopes guide too, any bb mount guide is sweet.

 

[floody]

Ah right, never noticed that with the lower model frames, I just assumed they all had direct mount derailleurs

Phalophalot, I've run BB mount E13 LG1+ and TRS+ guides on my two with Renthal rings, work fine and super easy install, straight on no faffing around with spacers (although I changed the spider on my X9 cranks to suit 4x104 'ring...the S1000 cranks on the coppermine are a standard 4x104 triple and everything slipped together without fuss).

 

[Llama Shmeagle Spleen]

Scored a 2012 torrent 3 frame!!! woot! can has front mech! it's the copper coloured one tho.... not sure how thats going to work with my red hubs. hwell:

might have to get it powder coated.

 

[floody]

Nice! Little bit lighter too. The copper color is certainly polarising.

 

[Rexy]

I feel like the Torrents still have a way to go (need to shave some weight out of them, get the shock tune sorted) but are in the right ballpark in terms of price, geometry etc.

If they keep putting the work in to improve them and people can get past the brand name, I can see them becoming a popular bike in the next few years.

 

[floody]

Agreed, the weight is a bit of an issue in that class. I see they're having a shot at a carbon ridgeline so maybe 2015 will bring a carbon, 650B Torrent. My Torrent and Coppermine have been pretty dialled in regard to shock tune for me but I am pretty heavy so run a lot of air pressure...maybe for someone lighter they don't work as well?

 

[Rexy]

I found mine to be very linear. It blew through the travel too easily and just didn't support itself well, which I think contributed to the sluggish feel probably more so than the weight. Speaking to people from Avanti it seemed this was intentional - they wanted the bike to use its travel easily, I guess to push it at the entry level market (kind of along the lines of what Trek do with DRCV I suppose). I think messing with volume reducing kits could really help out here.

 

[Maltese Falcon]

My Torrent and Coppermine have been pretty dialled in regard to shock tune for me but I am pretty heavy so run a lot of air pressure...maybe for someone lighter they don't work as well?

I'm 70kg & my shock goes through it's travel beautifully, it still sprints really well even with the pro pedal off all the time.

As for the weight of Torrents, my frame weighs 3200grams with shock which I guess? is average? with all the xtr gear & 1 x 10, stans wheels etc, I have the weight down to 11.7kg at the moment.

I have also been told by a very good friend that owns an Avanti plus store that one of the guys in New Zealand already has a Carbon Torrent 650B with 150mm travel!.........................if only it had 26 inch wheels.........

 

[sdhardie]

Hey everyone, I don't post on RB too often but this thread took my interest. I have a '14 Torrent 2 on order at the moment, it is coming as a replacement for my 26" '13 Stumpjumper evo. I'm pretty excited to get on this bike after riding other 650b bikes and seeing how fast they roll. Apparently they hit the shores early to mid Sept...


Initial spec upgrades/ changes i'll be making are

Bars/Stem/grips to Renthal Fatbar, 50mm stem of some description and ODI rouges

change the Deore brakes for Elixer 5's (i'm sure they work fine but so do the avids, and when the bike is specced with SRAM gears i can keep the bars tidier with combined mounts)

Ditch the dual ring/ bashie and all that jazz, replace with a 36t raceface narrow wide and an e thirteen xcx etype mount (i think i should have gone for a 34t but meh), I run this setup on the stumpy and it has been bulletproof!

Chuck a 2.4 Maxxis HR II exo 3c on the front and a 2.25 Ardent exo on the back both setup tubeless. I reckon the Honeybadgers will be decent tyres but I have put too many holes in single wall tyres to bother using them.

XTR trail pedals, a reverb stealth and a bottle cage and we're ready to ride!


My stumpy is built to a very similar spec and weighs in at 13.5 kg ready to ride, so I kinda expect this to be somewhere around the 14kg mark.

Once everything has come in I'll post some pics and weights. Gimme a few weeks to get used to it and I'll let everyone know how it rides too.

Cheers, Sam.

 

[crjohnson]

G'day guys, happen to buy myself a 2012 Torrent 1 last weekend, can't wait to go for a ride after reading some posts about them! My first bike was an Avanti escape and was almost going to buy a trance or anthem but decided on the Avanti (more travel, better forks, rest of the gear seemed the same!).

I've been keen to play around with carbon fibre sheet, make some parts out of it, is there anyone who currently makes aftermarket parts for these bikes? An idea was to make a plate carbon shock pivot/link (or whatever its called!), with some alloy bushes for the bolt wholes and bearings.

Currently it weights 15kg, how do people manage to lighten these bikes? I'm guessing the 1x10 gears (no shifter, derailleur etc), carbon seat post/handle bars and tubeless tyres?

 

[L3ONNOEL]

G'day guys, happen to buy myself a 2012 Torrent 1 last weekend, can't wait to go for a ride after reading some posts about them! My first bike was an Avanti escape and was almost going to buy a trance or anthem but decided on the Avanti (more travel, better forks, rest of the gear seemed the same!).

I've been keen to play around with carbon fibre sheet, make some parts out of it, is there anyone who currently makes aftermarket parts for these bikes? An idea was to make a plate carbon shock pivot/link (or whatever its called!), with some alloy bushes for the bolt wholes and bearings.

Currently it weights 15kg, how do people manage to lighten these bikes? I'm guessing the 1x10 gears (no shifter, derailleur etc), carbon seat post/handle bars and tubeless tyres?

I'm going to take a guess and say the frame ways a bit due to the 6 series alloy used

 

[guitar1234]

I'm going to take a guess and say the frame ways a bit due to the 6 series alloy used

The most weight would be in the components, Firex cranks and Alex wheels are strong, but far from light. Wheels will make the biggest difference so I'd say invest in some Stans Flow EX's or even Light-bicycle carbon wheels and you'll lose a bit

 

[crjohnson]

Glad to hear the wheels are strong! My last ride around lysterfield on the Escape resulted in a fairly wobbly rear wheel! At least for now I'll just ride the thing before playing around too much..

 

[floody]

Yeah my Torrent 3 was mid 12kg with a dropper post, renthal bar, dropper post, chunky ABD 4X stem, platform pedals, 2.5 tyres, chainguide etc. There is heaps of weight in the rims, crankset, brakes, bar, stem, post....The easton haven wheelset (~1.8kg) and X9 cranks (quite a bit lighter than Firex), would probably have been the biggest part of that.

Frame is no lightweight but the majority of pork is in the parts which are chosen more for durability and cost than weight.

 

[floody]

I found mine to be very linear. It blew through the travel too easily and just didn't support itself well, which I think contributed to the sluggish feel probably more so than the weight. Speaking to people from Avanti it seemed this was intentional - they wanted the bike to use its travel easily, I guess to push it at the entry level market (kind of along the lines of what Trek do with DRCV I suppose). I think messing with volume reducing kits could really help out here.

Interesting. I found compared to my Enduro and SX-Trail one of the most noticeable things about my 2011 Torrent 3 was the fact that it didn't wallow mid travel in corners and I was gobsmacked at how well it climbed. Maybe there was something wrong with mine!

Hey everyone, I don't post on RB too often but this thread took my interest. I have a '14 Torrent 2 on order at the moment, it is coming as a replacement for my 26" '13 Stumpjumper evo. I'm pretty excited to get on this bike after riding other 650b bikes and seeing how fast they roll. Apparently they hit the shores early to mid Sept...


Initial spec upgrades/ changes i'll be making are

Bars/Stem/grips to Renthal Fatbar, 50mm stem of some description and ODI rouges

change the Deore brakes for Elixer 5's (i'm sure they work fine but so do the avids, and when the bike is specced with SRAM gears i can keep the bars tidier with combined mounts)

Ditch the dual ring/ bashie and all that jazz, replace with a 36t raceface narrow wide and an e thirteen xcx etype mount (i think i should have gone for a 34t but meh), I run this setup on the stumpy and it has been bulletproof!

Chuck a 2.4 Maxxis HR II exo 3c on the front and a 2.25 Ardent exo on the back both setup tubeless. I reckon the Honeybadgers will be decent tyres but I have put too many holes in single wall tyres to bother using them.

XTR trail pedals, a reverb stealth and a bottle cage and we're ready to ride!


My stumpy is built to a very similar spec and weighs in at 13.5 kg ready to ride, so I kinda expect this to be somewhere around the 14kg mark.

Once everything has come in I'll post some pics and weights. Gimme a few weeks to get used to it and I'll let everyone know how it rides too.

Cheers, Sam.

Sounds like a pretty spot on recipe there. I daresay it won't climb like the stumpy but I bet it descends well.

 

[sdhardie]

Cheers floody, I reckon it's about as good as the budget will allow. Yeah, as you can see from the build specs climbing isn't too bigger issue, on an every day trail ride you can deal with it. I'll be using this bike to race Gravity Enduros (XC hurts me way too much) so it needs to be a little burlier than one built for general mtb use. That said I reckon with the bigger wheels it might not be too much worse than the stumpy up hills. Guess we'll see when it comes in.

 

[floody]

 

[Maltese Falcon]

It looks fast standing still!, but, I'm 4ft nothing, the last thing I need is bigger wheels, I can barely handle 26 inch wheels!

 

[floody]

It looks fast standing still!, but, I'm 4ft nothing, the last thing I need is bigger wheels, I can barely handle 26 inch wheels!

Has to be asked...why are you on a medium bike then? I'm 5'10" and thats the size I ride, although on the 29er coppermine it means you really sit 'in' the bike more than the 26" torrent (IMO).

 

[Maltese Falcon]

Sorry Floody, I was being sarcastic, I'm 5ft 6 so medium Torrent seems spot on, but just recently I saw a friend test riding a 650b bike & I honestly thought it was a 29er!
the wheels just looked far too big for her & she's the same height as myself.