2011 will mark the 25th anniversary of me buying my first mountain bike, a Rockhopper, and I can think of no better excuse to buy a new bike, so it's time to think about which it should be. My current bike is a Thorn Catalyst and it will continue to take care of the off road commute and general foul weather riding but I want something faster and lighter to complement it. My riding is all on the South Downs and that is unlikely to change. I'm determined to finally get round to riding the SDW next year in a day so it has to be suitable for that.
At the moment top of my list is the new Ti456 XT build. A combination of Ti and full XT just seems "right" to mark such an anniversary. It's also a very versatile option, I'd probably start with putting my Rebas on it and SPD's but I'd also like to get on a skills course next year and finally learn how to ride off road properly, and if I do get better then It's a bike that will handle anything I might ever be brave enough to take on. It'll also run a hub gear without a tensioner and as a Rohloff user of 4 years that's another big selling point.
So given a budget of £2K what would you buy?
