Having hired a couple of Trek Rail emtb's from the Bike Garage in Bamford (heartily recommended) when @porter_jamie had ventured up here for visits I was taken with 29" wheels.
I knew I wanted a Bosch motor and 170mm suspension travel, at a minimum, front and back.
The only bike I could find that ticked all of those boxes was the Focus Sam2; a bike that all reviewers had spoken well of in terms of being a big hit, nigh on DH, bike that climbed well to get you to the top. Pinkbike described it as "The Lively Monster Truck" (https://www.pinkbike.com/news/first-rid ... -down.html) so it seemed a match made in heaven...
A 2020 Sam2 6.8, in the needed XL size, appeared on ebay from a local seller last week. There are two models of Sam2, a 6.9 with fancy dan Fox factory coil spring suspension and Shimano components and the 6.8 which has the cheaper Rockshox Zeb fork and a "Super Deluxe Select +" (who thinks up these ridiculous names?) shock and SRAM components. Frame, motor, battery and other components are the same across the 2 models.
The seller was hard work, without going into the painful details I thought I had bought it and then he wouldn't complete the sale through ebay because of the fees (yeah, because ebay keep them secret and he didn't have the smarts to figure out you list things on ebay at a higher price than fb/pinkbike/etc. to cover the fees...) and gave me my deposit back and then it appeared back on ebay so with @Couchy's invaluable assistance we bought it on Saturday, paying the same as I was prepared to pay him the first time round, without him knowing he'd sold it to me....
First impressions were that it is a beast of a bike, bloody huge whichever way you look at it.
There were a few niggles that needed sorting; the back brake was woeful, the rear mech cable was shredded and the end looked like a witches broom. But it fitted me like a glove, was in really good nick generally and everything else was working as it should. Took it for a brief spin over at Black Rock's on Sunday morning to get the saddle and controls in the right position and have a first stab at the suspension sag/air pressure, but the piss poor back brake put an end to any serious fun.
Bleeding the back brake, new sintered pads front and rear and a good clean of the discs with scotchbrite and Isopropyl Alcohol soon got everything A1 and it stopping like you threw an anchor out, not surprising when you realise it's got 220mm discs as standard. Rear mech inner replaced and general clean and lube and check over and we're ready for a proper ride. Oh, and fitted a bell. Because it totally disarms walkers up in the hills if you give them a cheery "ting ting" to let them know you're heading their way....
So I headed off to the High Peak this afternoon for a spin round the Ladybower loop to see how it held up compared to the Trek Rail I rode round the same loop a couple of weeks ago...
Personally, I'm a fruit cake man. 
