Do it! You will not regret it!

You're welcome

Thanks mate!

Thanks mate! You are not wrong, it is great to have the second bike there for something a little bit different. Both of those bikes would do you well!

I bought the expert for the same reason. Love my 5010 but wanted a different feeling ride for the same trails. It’s been great

Agreed! Been riding mine a heap lately while the dual suspension bike is out with a busted tyre...absolutely loving it 😁

If you have £800 I'd start with a good set of alloy wheels. These will make a huge difference to the handling of the bike compared to the noodles that come with it. I used the nukeproof horizon v2 wheelset and can not fault it, but there are plenty of good options out there. I liked the horizon set because they were a ready made, bolt on and ride option. You should have plenty of change.to also go an oval chain ring. I would then hit the second-hand market for some upgraded forks. Anything with 34mm stanchions or more will be a big improvement over the 32mm standard ones. Depending on how big the hits you plan to ride and how much you like climbing, I'd go for 140 150mm travel. You might have to save a few more £ but you shouldn't be far off, especially if you can get the wheels on sale. You don't need to go straight for the big, top of the range forks. You can normally get some decent 34mm stanchion forks pretty cheap as people upgrade their to the top range options. Keep an eye out and you can often get a bargain.

@@ThatAverageMTBguy I'm soon going to be ordering the oval chain ring, but first can you give me your thoughts of using an oval chain ring & how it has helped you? I've seen many different review of them with some saying they don't help much and others saying they can help a huge amount in climbs

@@user-dh8jf6sg2c yeah, there are a lot of conflicting accounts out there about them. For me it was a game changer. Not so much in the technical climbs, though it did help. For me it was the even application of torque on the steeper climbs. I am genuinely disappointed that I can not use an oval on my new gearbox enduro bike. The good thing is that it is easy enough to reverse and there is demand for them so selling it if you don't like it will be easy.

Thanks mate! That sounds like a mint build tho! There is a fella who i see on the trails round here with a single speed, rigid fork Fuse and he loves it for the less rowdy flowy trails and XC riding. He still runs the dropper though.

@@ThatAverageMTBguy that's awesome! I haven't quite decided on the dropper yet. I use mine as more of an adventure rig that can still have some fun when I want to. I have tried to get a kona unit for years and somehow they have evaded me. At one point I ended up getting a Jamis dragonslayer instead but it was the 26+ model and I didn't keep it for long. Now that I have another bike that has big wheels and can be set up SS I'm going to run with it.

That sucks that they don't carry the fuse there. It looks like you can get the Fuse in Brittan and Italy (the two I checked) so maybe have a look on some of the other EU country specialized sites and see if there is one closer to home. It looks like they only do complete builds though, no framesets but it wouldn't hurt to ask a dealer in one of the countries that does sell the fuse. Good luck!

Can you ship from US or is it not worth the cost?

To be honest, I'd say its not worth it. Have a look at some of the other brands I mention in the video and see if you can source one of them locally. The Fuse is great, but many of the other brands are comparable, especially if you are buying a frame only.

Its a 140mm travel fork it is current form. May look to up it to 150mm in the future. It is a 51mm offset. Its custom tune ID is DG8G if you're interested in more details. I never rode the original fork, I had the Z1s put on before I picked it up so I can't give a fair before and after report. However, I can say that the Z1s make it handle really well. The extra 10mm in travel doesn't seem like much but makes a big difference on the trails, as does the slightly slacker head angle. I would imagine that given my weight and heavy riding style the original fork would be vague and noodlely, combined with the original wheels I would suspect it would be hard to hold lines when off camber or trying to man-handle the bike around at speed. As I note, in its factory spec, this bike would struggle to ride the trails i like to ride it on, mainly due to the wheels, fork and brakes. After upgrading all these things, its bulletproof and handles like a dream It has made me much better at riding tech by forcing better line choice and smooth riding.

@@ThatAverageMTBguy thanks for the response. I agree. I’ve been in the stock recon fork and it’s garbage. When I bought mine, I had every intention of upgrading things especially the fork. I have been debating between 150 and 140. In hindsight, do you wish you would have gone 150? I’m in the process of trying to pick up a fox 36 right now but after being out of the game for a bit deciding between 44mm offset and 51mm offset is killing me. The current offset of the recon is a weird 46mm. I charge pretty hard and am a bigger guy. What would you suggest?

@@wisconsonoise Sorry for the slow reply mate. I do kinda wish I had done the 150mm, but that said it is an easy change on the Z1s and I figured if I wanted to I could upgrade the travel as needed. I like the stability of the bigger offset as I am more of a pick and plow kinda rider.

@@ThatAverageMTBguy all good! I appreciate the feedback

Two reasons, first I don't think it was available as a frame only and secondly because it was an insurance replacement for a bike that was stolen. If it was an option it would have 100% been the way to go!

@@ThatAverageMTBguy I got the same stock bike. The frame I great, could spend more but wouldn’t get more. I have ridden it stock for a few years and will probably do a similar build as you have. How has the suspension/brakes healed up over these years?

@Justobserving9291 great actually! The forks and the brakes are good as gold. Just gave the brakes some fresh oil as they were starting to feel a bit spongy but now they are back to like new. Forks have had a simple lowers service twice now to keep them fresh and they are still feeling great. Only issue I really have at the moment is a buckled rear wheel after a nasty oops. Very impressed it didn't taco and let me ride out, but it's done so new rim for me.

It's an XL frame 👍

@@ThatAverageMTBguy Thanks. Is it true that the internal routing makes a lot of cable noise in this frame?

@@fengcarlos yep, it 100% is true. I have considered pulling the cables out and putting some of the foam sheathing in to quiet them down, and likely will next time I do a full tear down. The reality is that it's not a quiet bike, even the chainstay protector that comes with the bike is not adequate, hence I wrapped mine in an old inner tube to quiet it down a bit and save the paint.

@@ThatAverageMTBguy yeah its weird that the Fuse has that issue, a lot of internal routing frames dont have that issue. I'm considering the Fuse and the Cameleon (Frame Only)

@@fengcarlos Both good frames. I do feel that the SC bikes are all extremely over priced for what you get. It is slightly slacker, but that is about it, so is the torrent, the scout and the stoic. The frame costs nearly as much as my complete bike cost me (RRP $2300AUD at the time). Don't get me wrong, I would dearly love an SC in my collection...and lets face it, Specialized are also charging way more than they need to for bikes these days.