Privateer 161 Gen 2 | Review & Impressions

Hear my (non scripted) thoughts about the Privateer 161 gen 2 after almost 2 months of owning it. Enjoy some riding footage from the dusty woods of Änggårdsbergen in Gothenburg.

Sorry about the wind noise, forgot to use the correct mic 😔

Privateer 161
@PrivateerBikes

00:00 Intro, numbers, specs and other info
07:01 Brake issues
08:12 Contacting Privateer
08:34 Fox X2 issues
10:27 Easy installation out of the box
11:00 Overall thoughts on riding the bike
12:26 Cracking, creaking and shot bearings
16:03 Thoughts on suspension
16:53 Thoughts on drivetrain
17:30 Thoughts on the dropper post
17:52 Thoughts on contact points
18:32 Thoughts on wheels
18:53 Thoughts on the Hayes Dominon A4
23:00 Closing thoughts on the bike
27:00 Enjoy some footage on the dusty trails!

#reviews
#impressions
#mtb
#mountainbike
#enduro
#downhillmtb
#biking
#privateerbikes

https://www.instagram.com/manneblask/

welcome to another video um this time it’s in English because I was thinking of making a a ride review of my Privateier 161 Gen 2 um I usually speak Swedish but uh since other people might come across this video um it might be useful to hear my thoughts about this bike um this is the Privateier 161 Gen 2 that was released uh last year I think 2024 um I got this bike in the beginning of May um since and right now it’s a killer deal i think it’s 40% off the price so I paid €2,600 something euros for it which is bonkers if you ask me um this is a P2 which is kind of like the medium size I guess um but it’s really big for medium time that was like the biggest thing for me moving from my typical medium bikes which is are like 450 reach something like that and this is 470 uh quite a long wheelbase as well decently long chain stays um and I got this bike just because I don’t know I like bikes i actually had two other bikes at the time um a propane spin drift which was 180 190 travel which was my park bike uh which I sold cuz this replaced that bike and my other trail bike the which are on my channel a lot the DV8 Highlander which unfortunately was stolen so um now I’m I only have this bike which is not a downside um since it works pretty well for uh trails bike parks everything well basically it’s 161 mm of travel in the back and 170 in the front 64 degrees head angle um 77 78 C2 tube angle something like that pretty st bo standard and euro numbers um and the reach is 470 which is kind of on the large side if you just look back a few years I think um oh flies here um so basically my impressions with this bike is it’s pretty damn good for a bike um it didn’t take long for me to get used to the size um and it’s not a downside I would say to size up um because I think it gives you a lot of confidence um and it also works pretty good on jumps and stuff so but basically if we start from the back uh I ordered the bike in May beginning of May it took about five six days for the bike to arrive which is pretty good in uh if you compare to other manufacturers like uh I had a propane that took like four months to get um and stuff like that and I don’t usually buy complete bikes i usually buy a frame um and this is a complete bike because the spec is pretty good um if you ask me so the front is a Fox 38 Performance Elite it has a Fox X2 Performance Elite uh in the back and um trimm GX drivetrain pretty good if you ask me uh Hunt Endure wide wheels Maxis tires Raceface cockpit oneup dropper pretty good uh if you ask me for the price since Fox Performance Elite is the same as Fox Factory but it’s black stands basically uh so the price is really good for what you get and the bike is set up in the 2niner pool um but there’s a flip ship so I I have a 27.5 back wheel that I haven’t tried yet um just because I hate like when you change wheels the the gears are always off and the brakes are always off so I have to adjust that every time and it’s so annoying um and I haven’t found that 29ers are holding me back or giving me troubles i’ve I’ve ridden 29iners for quite a while now so I’m not that tall i’m like 174 75 cm i don’t know what that is in feet 57 5’8 maybe um so and I was unsure about the size but my DV8 Highlander was 460 reach but it has had a longer effective top tube but a lower stack this has a higher stack uh shorter effective top tube but 470 reach i don’t know the wheelbase i’m not that bothered actually um so delivery was fast um and buying it on the website really good privateier is a UKadian brand I think um they have a warehouse in the EU so no taxes or any other unwanted fees that’s really good so I think the price landed on if you speak Swedish croners it was 30,000 Swedish Swedish croners which is really good for a bike this magnitude um with this spec and everything uh so uh and I also forgot to mention the the bike came with Haste Dominion A4 brakes which are pretty expensive uh and are pretty hyped um I don’t know if you can see it but they’re not on the bike right now so basically delivery was fast um but straight away packing it up from the box I noticed that the first issue was that the front brake hose uh basically the handlebar was off uh and it was dangling in the box and they had uh fastened the the screw on the on the fork so the brake hose had was like dangling from the the point and it was really kinkedked i can insert some pictures of that um which didn’t seem to affect brake performance but if it wasn’t if it like would have been that way for a longer time the the brake cable would have snapped eventually and fluid everywhere um so the brakes worked and they kind of straightened themselves out when I like straightened the hose and uh but Privateier was pretty good they gave me um I actually ordered a new hose for the front brake and they um paid me back the amount it was like €42 for the haze brake line so it was good i liked it um so getting in touch with Privateier is pretty fast you email them or chat with them takes maybe one one day before they answer which is pretty decent um I’m guessing they have a lot of volumes right now since the discount is crazy for both the 161 and the 141 um other issue uh straight away from the box was that the Fox X2 was uh cavitated so it made the the sloohing sound that’s pretty common on X2s but I know it’s a common issue and it’s not Privateier’s fault because they buy the shocks and they just put them on the bike but I think they would have noticed it if they would have cycled the suspension because straight away you hear this the swooshing sound uh it goes away after like a few cycles and it worked but anyways I was I contacted them uh I told him I will give this to my local suspension technician who has a deal with Fox and uh he will make a warranty issue of it and they were fine with that and it took maybe two weeks and I got the shock back this is actually not the shock this is a Fox X2 performance without highspeed rebound uh basically I didn’t want to be without a shock so I bought this shock really cheap from biked discount.de i think it cost me like 120 euros for a Fox X2 which is crazy they have a lot of cheap stuff suspension so check it out if you if you’re looking um so it’s still on the bike i haven’t um I haven’t reinstalled the the Performance Elite one because it’s freshly serviced i can just use it when this needs service cuz highspeed rebound isn’t a big issue for me to be honest it is it isn’t the same tune this is coming off a cube bike I think but I don’t mind um but basically that was the the first two two issues of the bike other other than that was just installing the wheels installing the handlebar and out and to go out and bike pretty good if you ask me um and pretty nice uh the gears were perfectly still perfect and I really like that cuz in the past when I’ve ordered complete bikes um the gears are always off and the brakes are rubbing and everything here everything was perfect brakes weren’t rubbing um so basically that’s good um so basically what what do I think after like one and a half month of using the bike well I think it’s a pretty awesome bike um I really like it it gives me a lot of confidence it replaced my spin drift which was 180 190 because this is much much better i think it has to do with the geometry the spin drift is the old generation and the reach is pretty short uh for me i and this just plows much better um so that’s really good because it’s 161 178 it’s enough for bike park for me at least and enough for my local trails uh I haven’t taken the bike on like an XC ride because that seems pointless if you ask me um and that’s not not my riding style i like enduro downhill so basically the last one and a half months I’ve been exclusively doing bike park first yu uh in uh late May and then I’ve been to Ulerah Sky ski bike hike bike park for a few times since that’s my like nearest big local bike park like an hour away from where I live uh and it’s been pretty been pretty awesome what I’ve noticed though is I’ve like maybe after maybe two weeks I had some really excessive cracking coming from the bike um and which it’s common if you go bike parking um but I couldn’t find the source of it um and basically I stripped the bike all the bolts and the linkage and everything was bone dry they haven’t put a single blob of grease on any of the bolts so it’s not that strange that the bike was creaking a lot same with the headset not a single drop of grease um the dropper nothing there um they had some Loctite on the balls which is good they still unwindered themselves though um which is it’s common it happens um so basically I’m usually pretty meticulous with checking linkage bolts but this time I was like it’s I I’m not going to do it maybe because I’m lazy I don’t know um but basically I found that one of the bearings in the seat stay where it connects to the the rocker link the bearing is completely shot after two weeks so it’s like makes a grinding noise and I think it’s a bit side to side play which is pretty bad if you ask me and this is these are enduro bearings um I don’t know why that’s maybe it’s like they pressed the bearing in and it got damaged it’s still in there though uh I I removed it well not the bearing but the bolt i cleaned it i greased like greased it like hell and now it’s pretty good i have I contacted Privateeer about this and it took maybe 3 weeks but they sent me like two new flip ships bolts bearings so I will change the bearings um in a while because well I’m I can’t bother right now it it doesn’t affect the performance actually um and it’s quite frustrating to be I that I have to change a bearing after two weeks of using the bike and it’s enduro bearings as well which are pretty good and hyped um at least I I don’t believe in the hype of bearings because I’ve used a lot of premium bearings and they are just as bad as medium priced ones if you ask me um so basically that’s it so and I’ve have a I had a lot of cracking noises and I’ve just removed everything greased cleaned it and greased them and I think most of the cracking noises are gone right now i haven’t checked if the play is still in the seat stay but I think it’s it’s pretty good now so that’s quite of a bummer um it happens but I think I expected more from a brand that it’s more suited towards racers and maintenance and it’s not a premium brand but it’s not a budget brand at all um otherwise the bike is really easy to work with external cable routting everywhere which is a blessing um so easy to work with uh Fox 38 is really good fork um nothing to complain about x2 I haven’t used the X2 before and I really like it it’s kind of more linear than other shocks so it’s more coil like the bike is really progressive which I haven’t really noticed because I bottom up bottom out shock a lot and um I use more than uh recommended PSI in the shock with this shock and the original shock as well so I don’t know what’s up there anyways I just dial in the compression a bit more and it’s good uh and it’s fine it’s fine the fork seems impossible to bottom out I think but still it feels pretty plush and supportive and good um so that’s good um otherwise from GX drivetrain really I like Sh GX i like the GX derailure uh it has the the lockout on the derailer when you remove the wheel which is so good that’s the only way why only only why I prefer Stram derailers um so that’s pretty good and it’s a decent drivetrain nothing wrong with it um it’s a GX cassette as well so the back wheel is XT driver all my other wheels are microspine which isn’t a problem because you can you can uh mix cassettes no problem at all 180 dropper i have a bit of a well I think I could fit like a 210 dropper there but I don’t have any problems with like stand over height or seat seat clearance uh so that’s pretty good if you ask me um what else um I put my own seat it’s an urggon SM enduro saddle i can only use Aragon saddles because otherwise my balls will hurt like hell um that’s changed pedals DMR Volt which are my go-to pedal i’ve used them for I don’t know over 10 years maybe not these ones but the model um my I changed the grips because that’s a personal preference as well that these are the PDS Monarch mushroom grips which are pretty good i like them um the wheels Hunt Enduro wheels I’ve used Hunt before and the quality haven’t been that good but these seems to hold up really good still straight still spinning good uh haven’t had to tighten spokes so that’s good um bike came with Haze Dominion A4 brakes uh I’ve used the brakes for a month um and the brakes are powerful really powerful of course uh but in my opinion the max power of the brakes is still is on par with Shimano XT or Saint or SLX for pot of course i’ve been using Shimano for like almost my whole whole riding career apart for some some like other brands that I’ve used for a short while so I like Shimano brakes never had any issues with them um so I used them for a month good power um not that like blown away by the power the the Dominion A4s are really hyped because you see the big riders ride with them uh and I’m not saying that they’re bad and they’re not like it’s just marketing it they’re good brakes um like the slight advantage over like Shimano XDS or something like that is uh there’s slight better modulation um especially if you want to creep down stuff uh it’s harder to lock the back wheel which I don’t know if if it’s a positive um so they’re good um and the ergonomics are pretty good um don’t like the lever clamp though um but the like the lever is really light that’s good um but the biggest issue for me is that I didn’t get used to the brakes i came into situations where I where I would break and I would always ram a tree because the power wasn’t coming at the point where I was expecting it uh and I tried some different pads different settings didn’t help for me uh so I had to think a lot about that i think they made me skid less though so maybe that’s good um another bad point is there are really noisy brakes there are really really noisy brakes um kind of like Shramm brakes which are I mean the old codes and stuff are really noisy brakes um I’ve they’re not contaminated i’ve cleaned them i’ve changed to different pads and they are so noisy uh and I’ve confirmed this as well from talking to other people who have them and also when I watch like other YouTubers who use the Minion A4s I can I can hear they’re noisy as uh not all of the time but most often often it was the biggest problem of the back brake um so not contaminated nothing leaking nothing like that the power was there so basically after a month I felt like no I want to go back to my Shimano brakes so I went back to Shimano XTS um and sold the Dominion A4s um for a decent price i think they’re not that used and um so basically I’m back on Shimano XTS not the new one um since well I don’t believe in marketing hype they look pretty good but the old ones are pretty good um a lot of people talk about wandering bike points um the solution to that is using proline oil fork oil instead in the brakes and the wandering bite point will disappear and they will work pretty awesome in the cold as well um it’s a 220 rotor in the front and 203 in the back which are pretty massive if you ask me uh I thought the bike was it was speced with 180 203 but I I got in with this so I I’m not to complain haze rollers nothing wrong with them pretty good it’s pretty straight still um it’s really good um downhill performance of course it’s It’s an enduro bike um works pretty good in the in the bike park i I think it’s surprisingly really good at jumps even in 29er mode and the long like it’s longer than I’m used to and I think it’s really confidence inspiring in the jumps big black rock jumps like dirt jumps of course it’s not that good it works but so that’s pretty good I’ve um it’s it’s a bit harder to turn in tight twisty trails of course since it’s longer maybe that will help if I changed to a 27.5 wheel uh but the trails around here where I live in Goththingberg uh are pretty straight and chunky and enduro big drops jumps um so that’s that’s good um so yeah I like the bike i will continue to like review it and give my maybe give more thoughts later on when I do more stuff i’ve done a lot of maintenance on the bike already after one and a half months which is pretty bummer but um that’s that’s how it goes sometimes uh the the Maxis tires is a guy in the front DHR2 in the back double down casing AXO plus in the front um double down casing it’s It’s pretty decent um I still feel like I get a lot of rim strikes if I don’t go up really up in pressures maybe 32 PSI something like that um but they’ve held on pretty good for the this this period um but I will probably be changing to a DH casing tire or something else depends on if I change the wheel as well really nice to pedal with um if you go at a at a steady pace not an XC bike at all it’s pretty heavy i don’t know i haven’t weighed this one but maybe 16 kilos maybe don’t know don’t care um but basically that’s it like pedaling around like going fire roads like going off asphalt road transporting myself it’s no no issue at all um if you’re going to do a lot of technical climbing it will probably get exhausting after a while but it works it depends on like who you’re riding with and what kind of ride you’re on uh but I haven’t seen any like for me this is the perfect like all-around bike um cuz with my Highlander I felt like it was really underbiked especially 140 travel in the back and so I bottom out a lot and it was pretty harsh on doing bike park or big drops with it but the G was good on that bike and it was pretty good um I will continue to ride the bike of course and I will give you an update maybe in the future what happens i don’t have any plans of changing anything else i like the spec a lot i really wanted to like the brakes and keep them but like the noise was the selling point for me i I couldn’t stand the noise so noisy brakes um maybe I did something wrong i don’t know but I sold them and I have pair of Shimano XTs for pot pretty good um so that’s it basically u just good bike good solid bike if you’re watching this and there’s still a discount and you’re looking for an enduro bike I will um add a link in the description as well with all the bike and the specs also insert some pictures and videos of the problems I’ve had um so that’s it basically um I’m going to go for a short ride now so tag along okay time for some shredder jump see if I don’t destroy my wheel again oh wow what happened to my brakes nice fabulous oh fabulous favorite trail oh this is loose right carantana quarantine oh so many pine cones oh it’s so overgrown oh forget this way where am I going again owl trail see if it works it’s pretty dry there’s no drip it’s like ice that’s it for today back to work