Long Termer – Pyga OneForty Pascoe
Tom’s been putting in some serious winter miles on the South African Pyga OneForty Pascoe.
I had a couple of Pygas to test last year, the OneTwenty and OneForty, both of which were great bikes, so when I was offered the chance to build a OneForty as a long term test bike it was rude not to! Based in South Africa and the brain child of Patrick Morewood (formerly of Morewood bikes), Pyga have a slightly less gravity focused market in mind. Currently the OneForty (or Pascoe as it’s known, in honour of a SA trail building legend) is the longest travel frame in their range, but a OneSixty is on the cards in the near future, and doubtless there will be forays into carbon fibre as well.
The Pascoe’s angles stack up nicely: 67degree head angle based around a 150mm fork and an effective seat angle of 73degrees pair well to give a really controlled feel while climbing and descending. What’s immediately apparent when you jump aboard is the length of the bike, the top tube of the Large comes in at 627mm, billed for riders from 5’10 to 6’2. At 5’11 it feels great, and my lankier friend at about 6’2 found it equally good. Much taller than that and you might be a bit stuck unfortunately, but the S and M sizes cater for rider 5’2 to 5’6 and 5’6 to 5’10 respectively.
All the usual features are found on the Pascoe, ISCG05, tapered head-tube, stealth hose routing, and 142x12mm back end. The back end also features the same progressive-falling rate that balances the rising rate of the shock to give an overall pretty linear feeling back end that delivers a ton of grip, and a brake that is positioned above the pivot and the axle meaning the suspension will stay active even under heavy braking. We’ll explore the ins and outs of the frame design in detail in a separate article, but it’s fair to say it works a treat, and rides more like longer travel bikes.
I’ve had the Pascoe since late October, and it’s had some pretty hearty (ab)use. Initially this review was going to be a brief “First Look”, but it took a little while for Pyga to sort out some changes to their UK distribution model. They are currently recruiting dealers and building up a demo fleet, the best place to stay up to date with that is via the Pyga Bikes UK Facebook page. With half a year of riding under the wheels, it seems a little bit odd to do a first look!
When I first rode the Pascoe a while back I was struck by just how pinned and responsive it was – the long top tube and cockpit, while not in the realms of Chris Porter’s bikes, do give hints that bigger bikes are better, especially once you get used to it. I find quite a lot of bikes I was previously happy on a bit short now. The frame has held off endless rock strikes, trees and generally being a bit battered. The cable and hose routing reduces rub, obviously a few areas have started to wear a bit, but that’s to be expected.
The Monarch shock (a 2015 model) was a big disappointment. After under 20 hours of riding it didn’t hold any air at all, and despite a full air can strip down and rebuild it appeared that the shock was goosed, leaving me racing on a borrowed shock (Cheers Matt/Gwids!). Rock Shox sorted a new shock in quick time, and since the the Monarch Debonair has been faultless. I need to experiment a little more with dropping the pressure and increasing the number of tokens, but the combination of the subtly falling rate at the end of the travel combined with the ramp up at the end of the shock stroke delivers a great linear feeling ride, yet somehow barely using all the travel (Hucking to flat aside!). The suspension delivers a really bottomless feeling ride, the slight falling rate at the end of the travel, paired with the ramp up of an air shock means you always feel like the suspension is active and working. Under heavy braking the back end remains active, delivering loads of traction. My understanding – and from the number of sad people with wheezy shocks I’ve seen – is that the 2015 model had issues, the 2016 version is great!
After 6 months of Welsh winter, between 2 and 6 rides a week, and at least as many hosings down, there was eventually a tiny bit of play in the top linkage bearings. Despite the number of pivots, pulling the bike apart was straightforward, and all of the bearings are easy enough to remove. It’s worth inspecting the exploded diagrams to spot the grooves for lining up your favourite drift to get the semi-blind bearings started, but overall, straightforward for all but the most ham-fisted. New bearings in and the back end was stunning! Out of the box the back end had felt a little bit stiff, even without the shock in, but once rebuilt it was stunning, moving perfectly. The guys at Pyga suggested that the frame builders had been a bit over enthusiastic with the grease gun leading to this, and it’s not something we spotted on previous Pygas.
In the UK these, and the rest of the range are available as both framesets and full builds. With a demo fleet floating about the country now, I’d recommend getting a leg over one of these and giving it a shred. With the South African Rand doing pretty badly on the currency market, perhaps it’s time to cash in on that!
Pyga OneForty Frameset £1715
Pyga OneForty X1 Build £3790 / GX Build £3005
Pyga Industries — Pyga Bikes UK Facebook
Action Photos by Rick Littlejohn, Martin Francis and Chris Lazenby