difference between socom and m series?

I ride a Demo9 right now. It's about as slack as you can get.

I love slack bikes. I think my Reign with my 36 has a 67 head angle. I don't think I'd like my "DH" bike with the same head angle.

So the Socom is 8.5 lbs right? How heavy is the M6 frame? I'm being a weight weenie because my Demo9 is 51 lbs. Any other awesome bikes out there that are pretty light weight? I'm not worried about breaking stuff because I'm pretty light weight.

 

The FRO moniker has no meaning for most frames. The Spider and 5.5 FROs were lighter duty frames. All the other bikes with the FRO tag are the same. Yes, there were some Socoms with the FRO badge, and some without, but they are the same frame and tubing thickness.

I'd be amazed if the Socom were 8.5 lbs. I'd bet that real weights are heavier.

By the way, be careful using Intense specifications for comparisons. Some of the newer models are accurate, but many of the older models were way off.

My medium M6 frame weighs 11 pounds, and my medium SlopeStyle frame weighs 9 pounds.

 

Your demo9 is 51 lbs? Im not a weight weenie but....Damn.....
Surely you can trim that down at least 5 pounds without spending too much. Just curious, how slack is it? Whats teh HT angle, I am sure I can get your bike slacker.

 

Care to share your build specs for your M6? I'd love to see hwo you got it so light. I wonder how heavy the Demo9 frame is so I could compare.

Yeah, it is freakin ridiculous. I weighed it with my fish scale and it said error, because it maxes out at 45. Had to use my buddy's.

It's pretty slack, which is why I want to keep it like it is. 64 I believe in the low setting. 14" BB height. Handles pretty well. Just hard for me to do transitions because of the weight. It's only 1/3 of my weight. LOL.

 

i came off of 50ish lb. demo9 ('04) to a demo8 ('06) and built up a socom not too long ago. i could not get my demos to to turn well with my style coming from the lighter bikes with steeper HAs. I love this friggin bike... it comes in at sub 38lbs.

 

02, list your build spec, I am curioius, also what year is it??

 

It's pretty much a stock 04 DEMO 9 Pro

 

The Demo 9's were notorious for there outrageous weight out of the box. :lol:

 

I've been following that thread. As far as I understand- it's the machinist from Intense that is making the dropouts on his own time with the approval from Jeff. However these will not be sold through Intense but a third party.

 

Yeah I read through the stock specs last night, and all I can say is......DAMN......It would take about twenty minutes to drop 5 pounds.

 

word is that they are addressing the rear end issue for 09/10 along with some other revisions

 

I had my socom built up right at 37lb's and although a nice bike it was lacking something that I could not quite put a finger on. coming off a Yeti ASX I just did not find the bike to make me want to be a better rider, It was light, it was flickable but not confidence inspiring for me. It felt steep and almost felt like a long travel Nomad... Not sure if it was just this bike as we never really got off on the right foot. As a matter of fact I broke my foot the first time I took this bike out. I just never felt really comfortable on it and felt unstable in the air. Light: YES, 8 inches of butter smooth travel: YES Did it live up to My expectations for it's purpose: Not for me

So I chose to move on



Enter the M6 First and formost I LOVE THIS BIKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For me it is much more stable. confidence inspiring and forgiving of the errors that I tend to make.I have not had it on a scale but I would have to guess it is still under 40 but feels like a DH bike should and the first day out had me flying down and off things that I would never had even considered hitting on my socom. This bike amkes you want to be a better rider and provides the confidence to push yourself




And it is still flickable



The right choice for me is clear, although both are great bikes I love my M6 and yes it pedals, I passed 5 XC racers on the paved road at Funtuckey headed up from the gate to the top of the hill...:bang:

 

Not sure if I can add too much on what has already been said, but I own a Socom and have ridden an M6. The Socom is a great bike for the DH trails we have in SoCal, light, pedalable, and good in tight spaces and for jumping (flickable). It can still slam through rocks, but it isn't a plow bike like a Demo or an M6. The M6 is super low and slack, it also feels really long. That causes it to be really stable at high speeds, corners very well and makes it more of a plow bike (but you need to be careful with the super low BB.) To me the M6 is more of a big mountain bike where the Socom is more of a local shuttle DH type of bike. In the end both are great bikes and both can be built up to 38 or so lbs easily.

 

Well said, Mullarks!

J Sims, you rock on that M6! Nice pics!

 

Jsims just sealed the deal for me.

Dustin, what is the first few blatant things you would recommend I get to lighten it up?

 

Wheels and cranks to start. Depending on which tires you have now, possibly tires

 

got a recommendation for cranks?

 

I am running gravity Lights and as far as wheels Hope's with 5.1D's tubeless with a Michie 2.8 on ft and a Minnion DHR on the rear

Remembe that this frame is set for a 150 rear hub...

 

And thats where the fun begins. its still a 73MM bb so most all of the cranks out there that are made for the outboard bearings will give the wrong chainline for that bike, an issue also found on the Demo8's using the 135 offset wheel.

How hard do you ride 92? Trick on that bike, is to order yourself a crankset that is made for the 83mm frame, and get the spacers from Raceface to make it fit the 73, that way you get the right chainline. Im thinking the new SLX would be great. and maybe a set of single track wheels to go along with it, maybe tioga factory DH tires.

 

I'm easy on parts because of my weight. I'm not goign to mess with the cranks yet. I'm ditching the front shifter/der/granny gear and going wtih a gamut P30.

I have a rear WTB Double Duty wheel ready to go on, that is around 1100 grams. We'll see where I'm at then. I've been running Kenda Nevegal Single Ply tires. We'll see how that holds up. I'm also no longer running DH tubes. I'm kinda afraid of getting flats though. We'll see. I'll re-weigh it in a bit to see where I'm at. I'll be happy if it gets down to 45 lbs.