Commencal Owners Club BBQ - Llandegla Pics and Report

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February 09, 2012, 09:58:27 AM

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Total Voters: 252

[Vic-Tim.com]

I was a little late getting out of the office yesterday, so didn't get up to the centre until 4pm and the fun was already kicking off ( doesn't anyone else have a proper job? ). The weather was playing nice and though it was cloudy, it didn't rain. Rus from Commencal was up with the kick ass 2009 range and the BBQ was being stoked....

Owners wise, I caught up with a fair few people, off the top of my head we had; 5 x MiniDH, 3 x Meta 666, 6 x Meta 5, 2 x Combi Disc and 1 x Absolut. Really wanted to get everyone together for a picture, but for some reason everyone was out on the trail and it was dark pretty early on! It was a good first event though, small start.....watch out 2009!



I managed to spend some quality time with the 2009 range. I compared my 2008 VIP Meta 666 with the 2009 model and though I think I like my colourway better, there were some very nice tweaks to the shape.


2008 in the front...


Nice new 666 rear suspension

They had the very nice looking 24inch Absolut built up....liking that orange ( nice contrast to their favourite green )




Nice details!

I almost broke a fingernail picking up the silly light Carbon Skin. Not a bike for all-mountain thrashing, but if you are a racehead, then this should be on your list for a winning bike.




Mmmm carbon...

They had the Meta 5 frameset on show. Something I didn't realise is that for 2009 there is not a unique VIP colourway. Basically it is the Team build colourway ( the green you see here ). So for those custom builders out there, you will be using a the Team colours next year..woohoo!


Majestic Green Trail killer..

Yeah they had the DH bike and indeed the new good looking MiniDH variant, but actually the bike which grabbed my attention the most was the Super4. I'm going to predict that this is going to be a huge seller in 2009. With even the magazines realising that 6" is overkill for most trail centre riding and bikes like the Meta4X being a little hard on the uphills, the Super4 is perfectly placed to take the limelight. Well balanced, good looking and well kitted out. Could this be the year that we all have two bikes? One for XC and trail centres and one for carnage runs?




How good looking is that!

So that's your lot. If you were there and I didn't see you...apologies and voting still continues on whether I should replace my brown seat on my 666. Maybe a Superteam seat is white overkill?

Thanks to Rus from Commencal for coming up with the fleet. Thanks to Bob, Jim and the crew at Llandegla/Oneplanet Adventure for putting on the BBQ ( which are still on from 6-8:30pm for a couple of weeks yet ).

For more details on the 2009 range check out the main Commencal site here

For more details on Llandegla and Oneplanet Adventure click here

[Ant]

Those bikes were awesome!

I saw your bike too, i rekon i saw you, but i only popped to the trail centre for a few minutes after my ride, i was knackered! Towed my mate all the way back after the last black section, his mech hanger snapped.

I was surprised though, i didn't like the look of the new Mini DH on the internet, or in pictures, but seeing them, WOW are they nice! the commencal skin looks really nice too, nice and stupidly light..

First time i saw a furious, and it looks stupidly beefy!

I do however, really like the new range. Last thing i thought when looking at the '09 range, was that my 8 month old mini DH frame needs swapping for the new version..

[w00dy1980]

That Super4 linkage looks awesome but as with all Metas bloody awkward to clean! 

Would you say the bike was noticeably lighter than the old Meta4 or even the 5.5?

[Vic-Tim.com]

I do however, really like the new range. Last thing i thought when looking at the '09 range, was that my 8 month old mini DH frame needs swapping for the new version..

It is weird, I had an 07 Team MiniDH and thought it looked awesome. At first I wasn't really taken with the 08 version, but it has grown on me. But out of the box the 09 version looks flipping sweet!

That Super4 linkage looks awesome but as with all Metas bloody awkward to clean! 

Yeah, I do manage to use all the little brushes in my Muc-Off collection 

Would you say the bike was noticeably lighter than the old Meta4 or even the 5.5?

Hard to say, but it 'felt' light. I think the trick would be to build up a frameset with some nice light parts to make the best out of it.

Tim S

[Steve P]

What's the difference in the linkages between the 08 & 09 versions of the Meta 6 (or Meta 5 for that matter)?  They both look the same in the pics?.

[Vic-Tim.com]

What's the difference in the linkages between the 08 & 09 versions of the Meta 6 (or Meta 5 for that matter)?  They both look the same in the pics?.

Slightly different profile and longer to allow for a larger volume RP23 and increase in stroke length ( Fox are actually developing their shocks on Commie bikes this season, thanks to those lovely Atherton types )

Tim S

[Steve P]

Cheers Tim.

[Cheers Drive]

I was at Llandegla last week as part my local clubs yearly biking holiday, I can't believe I missed the owners BBQ by a few days. The shop was great though, I noticed that the shock bushings had play in them so they changed them whilst I was having lunch before the second lap.
Interesting trail centre too, the terrain was not at all like the other centres we visited and was better suited to a hardtail than the Meta 5.