The progressive Pipedream Full Moxie gets ready for a year of hard riding, Lake District style. The time has come for our long term tester Jim has put together a long term test bike, in the form of the steel single pivot Pipedream complete with DVO suspension and Hunt wheels. Over to Jim for the full run-down....

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So first up, why is it my long termer? With its respectfully slack head angle, reasonably steep seat angle and simple single pivot suspension, it looks like the perfect playmate for some wrenchingly hard Lakes climbs and long, rough descents. Interestingly you can run all sorts of wheel sizes here, including a mullet set up so it's an adaptable and versatile frame, both to ride and test parts on.

The frame is £1,499 at full retail, if you want this shock you'll be looking at a price of £1,750. If you are looking to build a bespoke bike, it could be done on a reasonable budget. 
 

Bike frame details

Made from a custom butted, heat treated CrMo, the single pivot design moves on decent sized bearings, with a very cool CNC machined yoke. We like a steel bike here at off-road.cc, our last leader Jon loved the Cotic Rocket and Rach raved on about the Shand Shug when she tested it. The whole frame has custom tubing, all heat treated, and the eagle eyed may notice no gusset at the headtube - something I'll cover more in the future as I update you about our partnership!

As I mentioned the geometry is right up my street and looking pretty progressive too. The bike has a 64 degree head angle and 77.5 seat tube angle, showing it's up to date approach to geometry figures. The reach on this bike is 470mm, with 440mm chainstays and a wheelbase of 1250mm, all decent enduro bike category numbers. Size-wise, it comes in long and longer, I have the long, as I’m is 5ft 10” but taller riders can go longer with a reach fo 510mm

The Build

As it’s a frame test only, the FullMoxie will go through a gamut of parts over the next months but here's how she will start life with me. It’s currently running a 12 speed Shimano drive chain and brakes, and alloy Hunt TrailWide wheels. Initially, I've fitted the wheels with Maxxis High Roller II tyres but will hopefully have some winter worthy WTB tyres on the way soon.

Steering is taken care of by OnePointNine stem and a Funn Bar. A 170mm KS Lev dropper is also incoming to replace the one I had knocking around in the workshop. 

Building the Full Moxie up was easy - the full length outer cabling, that neatly runs along the top of the down tube, with all three cables together bucks the inner cable routing trend. That’s no bad thing, it saves a heap of workshop time and energy.  There is also a happy cry from me on with regards to how easy the dropper cable was to install, was the highlight of the build. The rest of the frame is well finished, and the paint nicely consistent all over, topped off with tidy welding as well. All in all the Full Moxie weighs in at 16.5kg or 36.3lbs in old money.

Initial Ride Impressions

First impressions out of the box, there is no getting round the frame is on the more portly side of things. But really, that is a too finer focus, the only true way to evaluate is to get out on the trails and see how the weight carries itself both up and down. 

My first two rides were more than pleasantly surprising - the bike rides lighter than it feels when you pick it up, I feel like the combination of rolling speed from the 29er wheels and the steep seat angle are playing their cards here. The bike also rolls really well - all round, up, across and down the trail. Yes, this sounds like a 29 cliche, but it’s most noticeable immediately. I scored a series of personal bests on a local descent, which definitely says something about the ride and the suspension set up. 

Even with some heavier tyres fitted the ride is still punchy, the weight of the whole set up is a little more noticeable, but it's not heft that really poses me a problem given my everyday riding requires a tough bike with tough tyres. I’ve also found the pedal clearance is good, at first running 170mm cranks and now 175mm, I’m still finding less strikes on pedal and chainring than I might normally on my other bikes in my shed, namely a Santa Cruz 5010. 

I’ve just fitted new TRP brakes and will be adding other parts as time goes on so check back so for those reviews and updates. A quick overview shows this bike is clearly for the gravity obsessed, and whilst it’s no cross country whippet, it isn’t shy to longer, cross country type riding. I'll be back soon with more - watch this space.....

• For more info head to: www.pipedreamcycles.com

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