Sunn Prim S2 Hardtail Review by Stuart McGregor

– Follow Stuart on Twitter @StuartMc1 –

To cut a long boring story short I needed a new frame quickly.

I wanted a lightweight hardtail for Cross Country rides: last year had taught me that what I enjoyed the most was taking myself off for 2-3 hours and exploring the countryside, often trusting my phone and sense of direction to find my way back to familiar trails!

Thanks to suddenly being faced with no Mountain bike due to a snapped rear frame I needed something. I also didn’t really have the budget for something expensive (or even modest) due to buying a road bike the week before!

It appeared about £300 would buy something like a Cove Stiffee, a little more would get a Giant Xtc, but these were both out of my non existent budget.

2nd hand didn’t appeal so it was onto the unknown stuff…Gulp!

After some looking around I decided to go for a Sunn Prim S2 from Chain Reaction Cycles for the princely sum of £134 !

What little I could find about it seemed positive so I paid my money and crossed my fingers.

The frame arrived in the usual super quick time (2 days) and I set off to my garage with my new frame to build it…

Two evenings later I swung my leg over it for the first time……I was impressed!

So, what is it like?

Finish is good, a nice paint finish with a metallic black that looks decent, the graphics are a bit over the top for me, but at least they are properly done and under the top coat of lacquer.

It’s light, I weighed it at around 1kg. The frame has solid looking welds and came with some chunky looking hangers. It took standard size bottom bracket bearings and head bearings.

: Sunn Prim S2 Ready To Ride

: Sunn Prim S2 Frame – Out Of The Box

: Prim S2 Front End – Chunky Welds

: Sunn Seat Tube Joints

: Solid Rear Triangle

How does it ride?

Well I have ridden it three times now – about 50 miles (Hey, I’ve got a cold!) and it feels great, certainly quicker than my old Orange Sub 5 and for me the geometry is better than both the 5 and the Orange G3 I broke. It seems to climb well, lumps along the flats nicely and so far bounces down the downhill bits ok- I do miss having that rear suspension for the downhills though!

Am I glad I bought one?

Yes, so far I’ve been very impressed it’s light and is perfect for XC riding, the bonus being it feels like a much better quality frame that the price suggests, certainly it’s nicer overall than the Orange G3 frame.

So, need a Hardtail frame? Limited budget? You’ll do a lot worse than trying the Sunn Prim S2.

(Apologies for the slightly grubby bike and all the guff attached to it in the pics)

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