The original steel Ragley Piglet impressed us last year and after a decent stint aboard the little green beast, we were keen to see just how the new titanium version compared. It doesn't disappoint.
Ride and handling: Shines in technical terrain; sharp under power but not harsh
Price can be a sticking point with titanium frames, so before buying you need to be sure you’ll be getting the right amount of bang for your buck when you’re out in the hills. Luckily the Piglet Ti doesn’t disappoint and lets you attack the trail with just about everything you can muster.
The head angle is slack enough and the wheelbase long enough to really let you drop the hammer on the descents. Heading into the more technical, rougher trails really lets you unleash the Piglet’s true potential and the more aggressively you ride, the more it shines.
Thanks to the titanium construction, there’s enough give in the frame to prevent you from getting too rattled, yet it’s stiff enough for sharp bursts of power to be delivered effectively when momentum dwindles.
Like the other bikes in the Ragley range, the Piglet Ti is designed to use a shorter stem than usual thanks to the lengthier top tube. This means the cockpit isn’t cramped, climbing was never a problem and the handling is still reactive and lively. Although the build of our test bike isn’t the lightest, the well balanced geometry and good mix of strength, stability and dynamism means you can’t help but ride this bike at full throttle on every outing.
Frame and equipment: Beautiful balance of functionality and aesthetics
This collaboration between Brant Richards and Mark Lynskey has produced a beautiful balance of functionality and aesthetics. The welds are textbook neat and the graphics suitably simple. The Ragely staple Three Finger Bridge on the driveside chainstay helps improve stiffness and ensure there’s adequate tyre clearance for mud-plugging. Up front there’s a 44mm head tube, so you have the options of running a straight 1.125in, tapered or 1.5in steered fork.
As with the steel version, the Piglet Ti is designed around a 120mm-travel (4.7in) fork and offers up a 67.5-degree head angle when static. Out back you’ll find sliding dropouts, which make the bike singlespeed-friendly as well as creating a tweakable wheelbase. There’s approximately 15mm of adjustment should you be looking to fine-tune the ride. If you’re keen to get the most out of the Piglet, you’ll be pleased to hear it has a 30.9mm seat tube, which makes slotting a dropper post in easy.
The Piglet Ti comes as a frame only. UK distributors Hotlines specced our test bike with some high-end kit to match the quality and price of the chassis. This includes a mix of Shimano Deore XT and XTR transmission, and Hayes' top-of-the-pile Prime Pro brakes. The combination of the short Spank Oozy stem and wide Spank Spike 777 bar really help set the tone for what this bike is truly about too.
This article was originally published in Mountain Biking UK magazine, available on Apple Newsstand and Zinio.
