We’ve got a deluge of mountain bikes here at off.road.cc from the Go Outdoors brand Calibre Bikes, including this ladies version of the Bossnut V2. Alongside its brothers, the new Bossnut Evo and the hardtail the Two3 we will be putting this full suspension bike through its paces to find out just what £1,000 gets us women!
- Is the Calibre Bossnut Evo the best value bike you can buy?
- First Look: Calibre Two3 – a hardtail for £400
Calibre isn’t shy in saying the ladies version of the Bossnut V2 is an exact copy of the unisex or men’s Bossnut V2 just with some small spec alterations, suspension tweaks and availability in one size smaller. That means women get the same geometry and travel as the men and at the same price too. Mike at the brand said he thought long and hard about whether to alter the geometry for women but said he couldn’t see any good reason to do this, the bike is set up to be fun and capable for all sexes!
The ladies Bossnut V2 is equipped with most of the same kit as the men’s, for £1,000 (or less if you buy it now) you get 130mm of travel front and rear which is dealt with by air sprung Rockshox Sector Silver forks and a Rockshox Monarch R shock, which on the women’s bike gets a lighter tune compared to the men’s Bossnut. A lighter tune means that the shock is better set up for riders that weigh less and ones that might not ride as hard as their male counterparts.
The other parts to be altered for the ladies Bossnut are the handlebars and the saddle, women get 740mm wide bars compared to the 750mm ones found on the men’s bike. The saddle on the women’s Bossnut is a WTB Speed She which looks, er, chunky and uncomfortable, but we have yet to sit on it….
The rest of the spec is identical between the two bikes, there is a Shimano Deore 2 x 10 speed drivetrain with a SunRace cassette and Shimano Deore hydraulic disc brakes with 180mm/160mm rotors. The wheels are a WTB i25 rims and Formula hubs which are shod with WTB tyres; a nice and grippy 2.3″ Vigilante at the front and a faster rolling 2.2″ Bee Line at the rear. There is a 15mm bolt thru axle up front and a QR at rear plus Ritchey bars, Calibre stem and FSA headset.
The cockpit is a neat affair, the full complement of Shimano kit means that you get the benefits of their ISpec tech, integrating the brake levers and shifters nicely into one clamp on each end of the bars. Its great to see a relatively short stem (45mm) included too for better handling on the descents. Calibre has also thought one step ahead of the game and added extra cable routing bosses to the underside of the downtube ready for you to upgrade and add a dropper post to the mix if you choose.
The last difference worth mentioning is that the ladies bike is available in sizes ranging from small to a large with 15.5″, 17.5″ and 19.5″ seat tube lengths respectively. The men’s bike ditches the size small and adds an XL at the top end. Geometry wise the medium bike we have in for test has a 445mm seat tube length, a 429mm reach and a 66.8 degree head angle, pretty standard numbers for a trail bike of a more affordable nature.
We are looking forward to hitting the trails on this bike and seeing just how well this spec holds up to abuse and seeing how much fun we can have for under a grand, check back soon for a review!
