It was probably 10 years ago when me and all my mates had 45lbs DH bikes and we all thought they were great. However it wasn’t long before we started taking our girlfriends smaller travel, lighter bikes out for a rip. We even started pedaling up the hills but still rode aggressively down, most of the time we ending up breaking stuff and bending frames etc because they weren’t up to the task of how we were riding at the time. However I remember sitting at the top of a long climb with my mates and we started brain storming about a perfect bike, it had to have 6in’s of travel, be comfortable to climb on all day, pretty relaxed head tube angle for hitting things at speed, around 30lbs and most of all still take a pounding (plus also be able to handle 6 foot drops to flat concrete, but we’ve moved on from this style of riding).
Well we tried all sorts of things, building up small DH bikes with light components which didn’t really work out to well. Longer travel XC bikes with longer travel forks, this also ended very badly. So this is where this story sort of ends as me and all my mates moved on. Some still ride, some don’t but we still remember the days when we use ride lots, break things and dreamt of that perfect bike.
Well all of us moved on but not me, my dreams are full of single track riding with long climbs and even longer downhill runs. But I still find myself at the computer working hard and then I drift off and start thinking about that bike which me and my mate’s dreamt up years ago. Although many companies now claim to make that “one bike” to rule them all, they still all seem to me to be lacking something.
So when Transition emailed me some prototype pictures of the new Covert a year ago I thought to myself “Hmmm is this the bike which we talked about all those years ago??” Well it sure ticked all the right boxes, light, strong, 6in’s of travel and comfortable enough to ride on all day. So after 6 months of selling them to dealers and getting some great feedback from customers I decided it was time to build up my own Covert. It’s built with Transition’s stock AM build kit but with an X-Fusion fork (which we are testing) and a Gamut P20 chain guide, 34T front ring, Chromag Ranger 40mm stem, Chromag Acute bar and a Chromag seat post. So far the bike as performed as I imaged it would have all those years ago, climbs with ease and descends even faster. I know a lot of you are laughing at my bias point of view as my living is made from selling Transition bikes. However from one rider to another this is my version of my “perfect bike” which I dreamt about all those years ago.
For more info on the Covert click here.
Cheers
Chris Harris
