Diamondback’s street-riding, dirt-jumping, pumptrack-pumping Bandito arrived with us at the start of the year following a trip up to RaleighHQ. Since then it’s been up north with our buddy Joe from Thisisheffield…
We’ve just got the Bandito back from Joe and it seems as good a time as any for a quick mid-way look at how she’s holding up. First up, here’s a quick reminder of what the DB Bandito is all about:
Impressions so far from northern test-monkey Joe are good – it’s a simple, tough and uncomplicated bike that sports great angles for chucking over jumps, rollers and through berms. The super-low slung frame and compact back end make it perfect for pump-tracks, mini-BMX tracks and the like. She’s not super-light by any means but the pay off is that she’s crafted from bomb-proof double butted 4130 so will take a decent kicking.
The build is reasonable enough and matches the price … but you’ll definitely want to hop-up a few parts. The pedals aren’t great, the cable-discs are decent enough, the bar and stem are great but (as we’ve reported in the past) the Outland bar needs a bit more backsweep as it feels a bit ‘straight’. No grumbles otherwise really.
Super positive so far basically and for under £400 you’ve got yourself a great option for a hack about bike to take down the pumptrack or dirt jumps. Given the mountain of council built pump tracks that are popping up all over the UK a cheap, tough mess about bike like this makes loads of sense!
More at the end of the season!
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I should apologise for the terrible cable routing in the photo above – I’d just hastily boshed her together out of the box and got a bit twiddled up :)