The Xtrada 6 could be the best budget hardtail, BUT.... 

One tier above is the xtrada 7 with thru axles, air fork, 30mm internal width rims and a 12 speed deore m6100 drivetrain for just $100 more

I love your videos! the quality gets better and better. Keep it up man

Great video, this is one of my favorite channels to watch.

I've been looking to buy a new bike lately and this is one of the options, this video helped alot thanks man!

I've subscribed to this channel because your contents are very wholesome, it's very informative and gives me ideas to what to put on my mtb, I wish good luck on your channel...

I have an Xtrada 5 & it has done great on the trails. I added a PNW Coast suspension dropper & it was money well spent!

Your been killing it lately man high quality content hopefully you can make this a job your view count is crazy for mtb content

I followed at 500 its amazing to see that your Is channel growing

Thanks for the review, Arizona too!

Before I was able to procure my Ragley Big Al, I was going to grab one of these BUT the 27.2 is a Deal breaker. I have been running droppers on all my bikes since 2014. I mentioned this to them in 2020 on their IG post and they said they would speak to Polygon about it. But now the new bikes are here and no change. Strange that the FS bikes have the bigger seat tube. Entry level shouldn't mean "dead end".The frame has so many other good things about it. A good frame can be upgraded over time. Same with the Xtrada 7. Even with the thru axle rear, it still suffers from 27.2 seat tube. Great Vid Evan!

Great to see the Rockbros pedals on show, such a bargain! I've got aluminium versions for my bike and they were about the same money! ridiculous!

Love your videos keep up the good work

Thanks Evan for another great video

Watched a few vids and I think this channel deserves a sub

i see the upsides/downsides. I had a qr axle break on my marlin 5 but i’m glad it comes with a nice drivetrain. seeing the nucleus go up so much in price, i think this is a great deal

Hey Evan, new subscriber after seeing you on the B1ker bar. Sounds like you really know your stuff. I’m gonna watch some more of your videos. Cheers!

Yess evan postedd letss goo great content love the vids

I've got an xtrada 5. I've ordered a 180mm front rotor. The grips come off easy with an air compressor and basketball needle. I've tried a couple of new grips. And I got flat alloy pedals, a bottle, underseat toolbag and a downtube protector. I'd like a higher rise bar too but decided to stop spending on it and save for a Siskiu T8.

i put a box four deraileur on my axum and i ahvent had the chain come off onec it is definitely the best bang for that buck and you are supporting an awesome company

I have xtrada 6, and everything has been really good, except wheels. Rear was coming untrue after every ride, but once i trued it and tensioned al spokes, it was all good. Oh, and also, rear freehub. I can't undo rear casette and freehub has play, but I'll be sending it back for a warranty replacement. I also broke my front wheel in a big crash, but i will be replacing it with more sturdy 30mm rims and dt swiss 350 hub that I'll be lacing together. So far, if you don't mind rear hub, bike has been really good. Been on to rocky trails, big drops to flat (1.5m - 4.5 feet) and also hard riding. It has survived everything, and I think it is great value!

For people considering this bike. You can buy the 2021 xtrada 6 in a sand color for 800 while this mint green 2022 is 900. Or you can spend 20 dollars more for the 2021 xtrada 7 which is orgse which has a 12 speed drivetrain, boost thru axles front and rear and a suntour xcr air fork. I would spend that extra 20 bucks and grt an xtrada 7

Great content! I'm on a gt aggressor pro that I've pretty much maxed out on upgrades at this point cant do too much more to a hardtail that's non tapered and qr. Rip. i don't see too many differences between the xtrada and my upgraded gt outside of me having a Judy (great fork for the money). Great buy and even better gear range on the xtrada. Cant wait to bite the bullet in a year or two and go for a decent full suspension. Great video!

Bought one of these for my wife last Christmas. I put a dropper on it from PNW. I put Maxxis tires on it because the Entity tires were junk. I upgraded her pedals and grips right away. I thought I would want to upgrade the fork but honestly the suntour coil fork is really fine. She ways about 100lbs so doesn't demand a lot from the fork. If I were riding this bike @ 220lbs I'd 100% put a different fork on it.

Great info . Haven’t decided on bike but this helps

Quite a few wheel sets either come with or you purchase sepetatly, end caps to support QR axles. You can also get wheels built up. You don't need to buy off the shelf factory buoy wheels. Call around to a few of your local shops to see what they charge to lace up a wheel set.

I came across this channel on The Biker Bar podcast. Cheers (subbed)

I've had mine for about 4 months now, the bike was great though the rear hub bent within two weeks and the bottom bracket is super noisy. Overall, i have no other complaints and ive had a ton of fun with this bike!

Upgraded my 6 with a rock shox recon fork and some tubeless maxiss tires. Added a dropper and it’s the bees knees

The one thing I suggest is get the hubs looked at my polygon premier 5 had hubs that were way too tight

I've got the Xtrada 7 and I love it, but with only a $200 difference between the 6 and the 7, and you get thru axles, 30mm internal rims, and an air fork, it seems a little oddly spaced. At that price point to me being so close in price, for those three upgrade points it makes sense to choose the 7 every time over the 6. At this point though, I've upgraded a lot of the bike: - Versus Tires front and back - PNW Handlebar + Loam Grips - PNW Dropper Post + Lever - Stan's Flow MK4 Rim (Rear rim taco'd on me, and you can't buy a replacement entity rim) - Deity Deftrap Pedals One thing I'll say though is that the saddle is great!

sweet evan! seems like a great hard tail

The orbea laufy for its price is extremely good as a beginning / advanced user all round bike. It has room for future upgrades that won't outdate the bike, dropper , room for fork travel changes I think 140-160. Hydro brakes in a decent rotorvsize , decent wheels and drive train etc. Lookingbat it as a long term investment literally all it'd need is your choice of tyres and pedals on n it'd be more than enough for most people

nice..i forgot you have the nucleus vr,i have the vrs its 799 i think when i got it so if i compare it to this bike,the vrs has air fork with 120 travel,deore drivetrain but 1x10..hmmm but now the vrs price just went crazy high…nice ride man and video,cant wait for more videos of you riding this one..

Great video, as always! I have the Xtrada 7 and absolutely love it. Mine came with tubeless ready 2.35's and 30mm wide rims. I have since set it up tubeless, put an Manic dropper post on it (the 27.2 post diameter is less than ideal) and I also put a 130mm X-Fusion Trace RC34 fork on it too, which is a welcome upgrade from the factory Suntour, especially on the chunky rock sections. It's a fantastic fork that utilizes my stock 15x100 non-boost front wheel. A boost front wheel would be nice, but for the money I dont mind too much. The Entity branded wheels that came on mine feel very high quality and have taken all the abuse I've thrown at them, so I'm happy. The Xtrada 6 looks to be a solid bike, but for me I really wanted the thru axle of the 7.

Honestly really suprised with the weight of this bike especially with a coil fork as stock. Definitely a super solid bike, also most thru axle hubs can be converted to QR pretty easily and cheaply if the hubs are the correct width

Well the thinner rims and 27.2 post diameter is a con, this is a xc oriented bike according to polygons description on the website so those tradeoffs aren't the worst thing in the world. Also xc riders tend to run shorter droppers fully extended so it's not to big of a deal, but I have a 34 inch inseam so it's a big deal for me and many other riders out there.

👌nice rig for the price, I can't believe decent budget bikes are still coming stock with QR axles, had to upgrade my rear hub on the vitus nucleus, the free hub body is rubbish.

Every time I see a video like this, I appreciate my Voodoo Bizango more.

As always love it broo, Just send that to me here in Philippines if you dont want it anymore hahaha

I've got an xtrada 5 that I've been pretty happy with, so far just.some cockpit tweaks for fit. The tires that came on mine are Deli Mizt, which have the most flashing left over on them that I've ever seen. Looks like my tires have mohawks. I think the flashing might outlast the knobbies lol

I bought my son a 24" Polygon Relic Evo and was very impressed with the packing and overall quality of the bike/value. That is a bummer that the Xtrada has QR wheels as wheel upgrades offer some of the most impressive performance gains. If you did want to upgrade you'd probably have to do a custom wheelset, maybe lace new rims to the OEM hubs. Other than that, if you upgrade to a quality airfork that would be a killer starter hardtail. Under $1K is a great value.

The neucleus vr is actually 1088 bucks with shipping taxes and everything to the USA so you might as well get the 2022 xtrada 7 for 1099 with better drivetrain brakes cranks or get the 2021 model for 920 dollars which is the same as the 2022 as mentioned above

Happy new year’s

Now that looks like our kinda bike👍.

Polygon does really box bikes up well. My Cascade came in a box that FedEx beat up but the bike inside was fine.

Nice, like I told @cure cycle, I've been putting my eye on this one, is the HT version of the D6 I had purchased for my wife. But need to sell a couple HT I have to make room for it

Yeah that is a nice bike... have a great day bro

I got one of these for my son when he was 10, and it's been great. The 7 wasn't available here. Straight away he got new alloy pedals and lock-on grips, and a comfier seat out of my spares bin. Went tubeless somewhere along the way. After a few months I got him some Judy forks and 180mm discs font and rear, and a wider Minion front tyre. There's honestly nothing on this bike that would let the average beginner down. I got it knowing there would be a few upgrades along the way, but nothing was unexpected or particularly expensive. He's absolutely ripping it up now and I can justify something better for him. Likely a T7, and I'll give him bits off my T8 as I continue to upgrade. There's no way we'll get rid of the Xtrada though, it's a brilliant wee bike, super light with smooth components and good brakes, perfect for ripping down the shops and running around town. He's also got heaps of stickers from the local bike shops to make it _way_ faster than stock. And quite a few bits of unnecessary but mandatory anodised bike bling, mostly acid green, and a few bits of gold. Pretty fancy.

hell yeah new upload >:)

I'm very sad that the Nucleus has gone up in price so much, plus thr extra shipping, it's almost double the original price not including shipping! The Nucleus was my first pick for my next, bigger bike, because of its good components and very attractive price. I really hope that the price will come down eventually. Now my second vest budget pick is the Giant Talon, the $680 one with the great MicroShift Advent (9 speed 1x), but the biggest, glaring flaw with that bike is the fork. Nowadays, companies are going longer and longer in travel, but in the XS and S frame sizes, you get an 80mm fork. Yes, I repeat, a freaking 80mm travel fork!! Thats 2/3 of the travel of the Nucleus and the above Polygon. But you know me, if I get that bike, it'll get a 10]mm air fork eventually. My current budget hardtail has a SR Suntor XCM, 100mm, so even after a fork upgrade the Giant still would have equal travel to my current bike and less than the 2 other mentioned bikes (going 120mm on the Giant would mess up the geometry and stress the frame too much). Great vid Evan!

Definately deserving 20k subs even 50k!

0:54 and 0:58 the d7 is just there chilling

I love your videos the quality is 5/5 bueno.

Dang a chromatic bike? Can’t wait to see the build I’ve always loved chromags. Can’t wait till you hit your mark :)

I have the xtrada 7. Nice frame but the air suntour fork was heavy and bad so I changed it for a Fox34. Changed the brakes to XT and the tires to 2.2 and 2.3 contis (cross king and mountain king). I also added a Rainer dropper post with 125mm of travel.

The fact you actually got the bike from bikes online is the biggest bonus...

I have the xtrada 7 and it has thru-axles and 30mm wheels. So far my only complaint is the the seat post diameter. I have the PNW Rainier which works great, but I’d prefer more travel.

Your vid’s are great

For little more cash it's the Xtrada 7 with thru axle and better specs. A good experiment could be to install a 140mm good quality fork... 🤩

Try a marin, I got one for £700 with internal routing good tyres a 1x 11 nx drivetrain and 120mm air fork rockshox, really good deal

I’m from New England with his tons of granite slabs rocks and crazy roots. It looks so weird to see dry desert with cactuses and she could fall on and be stabbed multiple times with.

I ride xtrada 6 2020. All doing greats.

Polygon is nailing it

I've never had a quick release skewer come loose but I tightened mine correctly bu tive worked on other people's bikes, I've seen spring son one side mad eibto a spagetti jammed into the dropout, qr on wrong side, and loose. So defenitly not fool proof. Some also lose the springs. A common mistake is to just spin the qr lever until it stops. But tru axle is easier to get right. For me both are quite easy. But issue sive experienced on bad hubs were loose cones, bearings wear hub axle bends, so you might think wheel is going to fall off, off even if it's not, not cus it's secured properly with the skewer lever. But the hub was a really ba dhub, it was FH-M475 they don't even have seals. So I wish that hub was gone from the market, but I see alot of bikes with these hubs, it's a very common hub, very common compromise. But that's for 135mm drop out bikes. A compromise many bikes have is the hub, but hub engagement is important, many low budget bikes have so bad engagement it's annoying. But the Nukeproof wheels you got have good engagement.

The xtrada 6 has boost hub spacing so you can use a through axle wheel converted to quick release

I've had a pretty bad crash because a quick release axle came loose during a ride (it was tight when i left that day), the wheel flew out if the frame in a fast berm, did not end wel

Yhe nice things: Nice shifting Deore cassette, a Deore Rd with clutch tha tcan be disabled, The nic etching with these brakes is the reach adjustment won't effect the power/how far the piston is pressed, so does not matter if you have short or long fingers you have the same power unline Deore with servoeave if it was you would have usless brakes if you had short fingers and powerful brakes with long fingers, cus piston can't be pressed as far cus there is no freestroke to counter act the servo wave mechanism. I too would prefer tru axle.

Your video are so great keep it up and you will be the new seth bike hack

Vitus , nukeproof , and a couple others are all pretty much owned by Chain reaction / wiggle and Hotlines Europe (all 3 company's owned by being the same company pretty much) they put a lot of prices up due to imports or brexit etc at silly rates like £400-500 per bikes on some ones.

No hablo mucho el inglés pero es entretenido ver tus videos :)

I have this bike and have had problems with a loose cassette I am also trying to install a dropper post I’m not to sure what to do about the rubber ends on the frame I think they are called grommets I need to get new ones jus above the bottom bracket to route the cable and also a 2 way one so I can route the rear brake cable through the same way any help would be so much appreciated

Love it

See you riding down Estrella Mountain Competitive Track. But wondering what trail exactly is the Saga Test Loop. Looks fun

I have an Xtrada 6 2021 and I didn't know that the wheels are tubeless ready, I must try run tubeless. Also the wheels are very weak I already have some dents.

i keep thinking on what frame to look for but i saw a frame that has changable dropouts you can change it from qr to thru axle its mountainpeak ninja 2 i think

My buddy wanted to get into mtb but the nucleus's were all sold out. Biggest issue I saw with the polygon was the 27.2mm seat post. I had the same thing on my 2017 Marin. It just limits you so much on droppers. I can't imagine doing less than 150mm these days. Man last year the nucleus had a 120mm fork, front thru axle, and lower price. The bike shortage sucks. Shit $950 right now vs $650 last summer. Almost a 50% price increase. Bro $150 shipping?? It used to be $60 and they always had a $20 off code for new customers. That sucks to hear. I love my Mythique and someone in my family has last years nucleus and loves it. The qr doesn't suck from wheels falling out. It just feels janky. Also if you don't get it to a really similar tension, I've had brake pad rub then you need to re center the rotor. It's like dropper vs standard seat. It's not that the old was bad or didn't work, the new is just all around better and you wouldn't want to go back.

I'm thinking to buy the Xtrada 7 this month...

I want a nice fat tire both in the back and front so there's some cushioning. Do you think I can buy a 2.3 or 2.4 in tire for this bike. I am little worried these tires might be too big for the rims.

You shod check out the 2022 Rock rider AM HARDTAIL, as it is £800 and has roxshox forks, 11 speed deore, thru axle front + back, dropper post, and sunringlé wheels. 100% the best budget hardtail

Picked up this bike for my son on first ride realized there's significant amount of travel before engagement from The hub so we're looking for an upgrade that would work with this bike? Or even maybe a new wheel set with a more responsive hub

I have a box 4 8spd and I have never had any problems with it

A ghost nirvana tour base is also an incredible deal, 800$ new, comes with a full sx eagle 12s drivetrain, 120mm xcr air fork, mt200 brakes, a pretty nice frame, mt400 hub..

i have another color of the xtrada 6 but i'm not sure that the wheels are compatible for tubeless ready but the model of the bike is 2022 and have the maxxis like your bike. do you know something about it?

i have been dying because i had no more videos to watch because i watched them all

24mm should work well with 2.30 and 2.40 don't go higher than that. I had it on 23mm rims. But now I have 30mm with 2.40 tyres. It's winte rnoe so I have 45nrth Nicotine 2.35 which measures at 2.40 on 30mm rim and have Warthchild 2.6 which does the same. Bu ton my all all seasons apart from icy, I use Michelin Wild Enduro 2.40, I've tested them on 23mm rim it worked well, but on 30mm it was great, it turned smoother, fakirs were smoother too. But I notice the tyres being too soft easier on 30 mm rim. The Maxxis highroller2 exo 3c maxxterra is not as stable at more extrme angle, Michelin wind Enduro have more stable side knobs and different thread pattern, they transition better. I have magix-2 front, gumx3d rear. Love how these tyres handle. Great mud clearances on the side, it slike a mud tyre on the sides, but mid thread is faster rolling than highroller2. Front has very sticky rubber yet firm enough but not too firm. Easy to install too. Textured sidewall make sit easier to push tyre into centre of the rim if you have inserts. The 45nrth Warthchild 2.60 was was too tall on 23mm rim. It was on the limit, hairs on the tyre hit the mudguard. Bu Ton 30mm their eis more clearance as the tyre is not as tall. But still quite similar width. I don't know which rim width these will measure 2.6 at. But don't put tyres larger than 2.6 on 400mm rim and no larger than 2.40 on 23 or 24 rim.

somthing confused me you said you were going to get the 2022 version when you replied to me. are you talking about the 2022 version of the vitus neucleus

FIY Xtrada 7 2021 comes with 30mm rims front n back.

Nice video Evan but I’m sad because this isn’t a D7 video. I guess there isn’t much more you can do with the D7 upgrade wise. You should do a hub comparison. Get like 6 hubs and test them out on the nuke proof wheels. You like spoke lacing right?

Could you please review the Rocky mountain Soul 10? I would like to know your thoughts. Thank you :) Or the Soul 20. I think they are the same frame and almost the same parts

What Specialized or Trek model is the Xtrada 6 comparable too? I am trying to understand how good a deal this bike is at $900.

I can’t believe my 2021 $2,500 full sus comes with an entry level drivetrain

They make adapters kn amazong to make upgraded wheels quick release, for $20 you can get an adapter and scewer and run any higher end wheels you want

Great video. I'm looking at the xtrada 7 which also has an air fork but I've read that it's not great. Is it going to be an issue upgrading forks on these bikes and wheels?

The Vitus Nucleus only has 100mm of travel if you get the 29in version. the 27.5in version has 120mm of travel

Hello friend, can you tell the Dimension of the Box??, I am going to ship from Florida to Latin America by Ship, but I need the Box Dimension to calculate that Shipping Cost.

If you build your own wheels, QR is not a problem. You can still buy XT m8000 QR hubs for $75 a set. I still ride two 26" QR bikes. Most of the standards changes benefit bike companies more than riders.

Berm peak and ur vid same day let's go. Is this replacing the nucleus?

I don't understand why any manufacturer isn't making all frames boost. The 7 is boost... seems like it would cost more to make 2 different frames. They could still use the cheaper components just adapt it back to QR stuff for the budget models. Then offer nicer wheels and thru axel as an upgrade down the road. Get some of that sweet sweet aftermarket cash. It should also be a law that all 27.5 wheels start at no less than 30mm internal.

great vid! ur tunes are always cool too . Can you say the tune ur playing at :56 plz? 🎶

I once had my quick release wheel fall out twice on the same run on the same trail, they are just not strong enough for proper riding imo