Pyga Stage Max – First Look
Pyga, based in South Africa and offspring of Patrick Morewood, are all about producing bikes that people want to ride. In SA Marathon riding is big business, with huge numbers of riders getting stuck into multi-day epic races. They describe the Stage Max as “Marathon on Steriods” (I’m sure the steroids were prescribed for a legitimate medical condition, and well documented, and certainly not playing the system… ahem), and it’s designed around being a bit longer, slacker, and more playful than its racey little brother the Stage.
At the heart of the bike is a carbon frame giving 126mm of rear travel and working with a 140mm fork out front. 67.5 degrees sounds pretty steep as a head angle, but as a 29er this shouldn’t be a limiting factor. The bike is reasonably long, the chainstays are 438mm across the range while the 3 sizes (M/L/XL) give a top-tube reach from 600-645mm, nothing too outrageous. The back end makes use of a similar pivot position to the OneForty, letting the bike remain active under braking, and also allowing a pretty linear travel for the Monarch shock. There’s plenty of debate from folk who haven’t ridden them saying it shouldn’t work, but following a single pivot bike down a steep line on the OneForty (similar brake design) it became pretty apparent that it seems to!
The Stage Max also features Pyga’s +Five chainline, effectively the rear axle is offset by 5mm to give a better chain line, and the 142mm back wheel just needs a slightly different dish to account for this. This should mean better shifting into low gears and less wear on the drivetrain.
Our build was put together by Sean from Pyga Bikes UK with Pikes, SRAM’s ROAM wheelset and GX drivetrain. Dropper post and solid anchors as standard. In the UK there are two full builds available with XX1 and X1.
The first ride out was a quick blast round some local trail centre and linking paths. Nothing too steep or loamy and with a few sharp little climbs. I’ve ridden a few 29ers and have normally been pretty underwhelmed, the speed from the wheels being outweighed by a twitchy feel. There wasn’t much of this on the Max, the bike just gobbling up the trails and even in the wet and with a head wind, Strava tells me I was fast! A few seconds on the trail centre descents, and whole minutes on the climbs. With this in the bag it was time to hit some steeper, more natural trails for a real test. In the depths of some truly filthy trails the bike held it’s own, carrying good speed through really rocky and rooty sections, and soaking up a few drops nicely.
On dryer sections the Onza tyres held on well, but showed a bit of weakness as the gradient and wetness increased. Lining her up next to a couple of 275 trail bikes the front end is currently about 2cm higher, but with a couple of spacers to swap from under the stem there’s room to drop that a bit and get even more aggressive. So far, so good!
Pyga come into the UK through Pyga UK, who have a few demo bikes, so get in touch with them to find out where you can get your leg over one.
Frameset (Monarch Shock) £2250
XX1 Build £5585
X1 Build £4695
