ED’SYTJEFFSY + shipping CORE329£3,599

A handful of upgrades further improve what was already a great bike

A few months in and the Jeffsy is living up to my hopes of onebike-does-it-all versatility, with big-mountain days in the Brecon Beacons (p122), steep hand-cut enduro trails in the Quantocks and Welsh bike park laps (p124) all tackled with exactly the same set-up. It’s taken a few tweaks for me to arrive here, because although the frame and kit are superb out of the box, there were a couple of aspects I wanted to improve.

The first of these was the somewhat steep 66-degree head angle that I mentioned in my first report. Thanks to the guys at Offset Bushings, I’ve now fitted concentric hardware at both ends of the Fox DPX2 Performance Elite shock, which has slackened out the head angle to a much more aggressive 64 degrees. This has simultaneously dropped the BB, of course – perhaps into the pedal-catching danger zone. But for the steep, techy stuff I like riding, it’s been a noticeable improvement.

Second on the list for upgrading was YT’s Postman dropper post. Although a flawless performer for the time I used it, its 150mm of drop wasn’t quite enough for my long legs, and considering I’ve just completed a dropper grouptest for the mag (p96), I had my pick of 12 posts to replace it with. I settled on the superlong, 213mm-travel BikeYoke REVIVE 2.0, which, as well as giving me optimum climbing and descending heights, has a beautifully slick action.

The final thing I’ve switched out is the front tyre. I’m a big fan of the tread pattern on the Maxxis Minion DHR II but the harder dual-compound rubber specced here wasn’t giving me as much compliance or grip as I’d like on the front wheel. It works great on the back for durability, though, so I’ve left the rear tyre as stock and upgraded the front to a Maxxis Assegai in the softer but pricier 3C MaxxTerra compound. Since trying this tyre out for the first time last year, it’s become one of my favourite all-rounders. www.yt-industries.com