| The Compo is
sold by Planet X as the "hardcore do-it-all bike". It's a beefy
hardtail, with Easton RAD tubing (as seen on Cove's Stiffee hardtail, and
various
North
Shore
full-suss hucking bikes), suspension
corrected for big forks, and plenty of space for big tyres (upto 2.7"!).
The stiff aluminium frame makes for an immediate ride - it accelerates well
and goes right where you point it. It's compact size
makes the Compo a joy through singletrack, and lets you drop the saddle for
hardcore silliness. The geometry of the Compo is a little weird: The BB is
very high for a hardtail, which is great for clearing rocks without grounding
your cranks. Due to the steep angle of the seat-tube, the riding position is
very upright. Initially this makes riding the Compo feel a bit like driving a
bus, rather than riding a mountain bike. However, given time it all makes
sense. The position keeps your weight forward to make those long-travel forks
work for you on the descents.
The light weight frame allows for a freeride bike that can run with the XC
crowd. I've raced mine at Mountain Mayhem (24hrs), Kona 100 (100km XC), Dyfi
(40mi "Freeride" enduro), and taken it on numerous all dayers. It
can do all this, whilst feeling strong and nimble enough to push your riding a step further. The big front end can take
dual crown forks, if that's your thing and inspires plenty of confidence to
run at things with wild abandon.
That's what's good, so what's not good?
Brake bosses - Why? Who is going to use V-brakes on a bike like this? Yes it's vanity, but this is a £500 frame, so it should look
perfect.
Cable guides - The cables run along the side of the top tube, meaning that
they rub against your leg when you stop and stand over the top tube. Worse,
the cable stops have a tendency to catch your knees in minor incidents. Since
there are no hose guides on the top tube, you have to use separate ones that
bolt into the existing cable guides. Their rounded profile makes this
difficult, as you tighten the bolt on the hose guide, it begins to slip out of the cable guide.
Big gusset on the seat-tube - The length of seat tube above the top tube
means that you have to be very careful about how much seatpost you have
inside the frame. If you go by the guide on your post, that won't be enough.
Your seatpost should come as far down as the bottom of the top tube, which
means it must be very long. Even with a 400mm post, I cracked my frame at the
weld from the big gusset to the top-tube. This has dented my confidence
somewhat, but the failure was not catastrophic (I didn't notice it until I
got home) and Planet X turned the warranty replacement around the same day as
they received the old one.
Overall, it's a very good bike... more fun than anything else I've ridden
(including a Cove Stiffee), and it can do more things than most other bikes
out there (and, generally, do them better). It really has upped my game,
daring me to try new kinds of riding and reacting coolly to my cock-ups.
Paired with Fox Forx you can do stunningly stupid things and come rolling out
the other side. The breakage has dented my confidence a little, but any bike
can break given the right (wrong?) kind of abuse and it wasn't like the
head-tube broke off. If you have a split personality, riding both far and
big, this is just the bike to match it.
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