I’m a bit out of the loop when it comes to MTB technology these days being mainly focused on the road but I still dabble and find kit interesting. So for no other reason than pure interest I’d like to hear your opinions on what a bike should have for riding up & down big hills in the UK.

Lets use something like the Tour de Ben Nevis as an example, where climbing ability is pretty important but the terrain is pretty challenging in places. The rider is fairly fit and likes riding bikes uphill but is fairly average in the skillz department. As this is a thought exercise, let’s not worry too much about cost.

What are your thoughts STW?

everything is a compromise somewhere. run what you have.

I think I’d go for a SC Tallboy Carbon for that.

I just bought a Transition Smuggler with exactly that sort of riding in mind. Too early to say whether it was the right choice though.

SC Tallboy Carbon for me as well. Test rode one the other day at Afan. Amazing bike.

Tour of the Ben is not a mountain day, it goes round a mountain or two not up + down it. If you are planning big descents off mountains on techy trails then you want a 160mm travel mince tank; nowadays they pedal as well a 100mm travel bike from 10years ago did and you get a big safety margin for when you get tired and make mistakes. Money no object get a Liteville 301.

Ok, thanks for the suggestions so far. What is it about these bikes that makes them so good? Bear in mind the most modern thing I have on either of my MTBs is tubeless tyres. Has suspension changed much in the last 5 years? What else is going on?

All of my ‘big days out’ & ‘epics’ have been done on my trusty rusty HT with 130 forks. Glen Etive loop from Glencoe. 64 mile Corryairack loop from Laggan hostel. Tour de Ben Nevis & bothying at Meannach, Glen Tilt, along with some big Lakes rides.
Run what ya brung!

Latest Orange Five (the Mk2) is superb – 140mm travel but feels more. Climbs well and descends like a mini DH bike thanks to slack angles, longish wheelbase and low bb. Fun and agile, too. It’s also super-reliable, which makes it perfect for year-round UK riding in remote places. I’ve heard of lightweight builds coming in at around 27-28lbs. For me, anything around 30lbs is acceptable for big mountain trips – including dropper, sensible tyres etc.

Good question and something I was mulling over this time last year having entered BC bike race.

My conclusion was Specialized Camber Carbon Evo – with a couple of tasty upgrades – wheels, bars and some xtr it has seen me through: Selkirk mtb marathon, BC, Wales,Scotland, Bike Park Wales, a couple of enduros, some xc races, a weekend of uplifts in Italy and is now needing some new bearing.

Other than that all is good!

OP the most obvious thing that’s changed has been the wheel size. It’s pretty hard to buy a new 26 bike these days, it’s all either 27.5 (650B) or 29. For what you describe IMO it would be a 140 or 160mm travel 27.5. Most of us are still riding 26 and IMO bikes haven’t moved on enough for even to consider changing mine from 2012 and my 8 year old 150mm forks are still getting me up and down the trails in the Alps and my riding buddy was as happy as ever on his 10 year old Orange Five. All tyres with inner tubes. Brakes have got better I’d say and chainsets/cassettes have evolved with more people running a single ring upfront.

Keeping this bookmarked with a view to updating my pre-2000 hard tail. Your given example of the TdB is intersting – as above it’s a big day out in the hills but not hugely technical. I was grateful for front suspension on the KLL descent, and for the rough (though not hugely rocky) descent off the hill after the river crossing. Hard tail is probably not ideal for that but doable if the rest of the time you’re content with hard tail trails..

I’ve done some big mountain loops in the Ciarngorms on my hardtail 29er and it’s brill. Okay with 100 mm up front and XC geometry I stay away from the super tech, rocky descents, but for most ‘normal’ paths its perfect and can be ridden for 30-40 miles no issues. 29er helps with getting over the dreaded drainage ditches as well. Equally I’m sure a modern day Enduro bike would be better for the downs and still climb acceptably.

I’m probably more out of date than you OP but I’d say the most important/significant thing these days is the big tyres, when I spent a lot of time exploring the highlands I would have given anything for the fat or semi-fat tyre sizes that exist now, the amount of perfectly good climbs left unclimbed because they were just too loose or wet, or the slightly boggy/grassy trails that were just pointlessly slow and difficult because my tyres were still sinking in too much (I typically ran the fattest available at the time, typically between 2.2″ and 2.4″).

Ideally I’d go for a short/mid travel fat tyred bike, something like the FAT Stumpjumpers that Specialized are apparently doing now

something like this

Or a Genesis Longitude style bike, although I still fancy some front suspension at least.

Just a lot of gradual evolution really.

tyres are bigger & better
suspension is better
shocks are a bit better
suspensions systems are a bit better
brakes are maybe a bit better
gears have gone more at the back & fewer at the front
weights have come down

the result is a bike you can comfortably carry up to the top of your local mountain and hoon it back down.

Dropper posts are a ‘game changer’ for undulating riding, so that you can drop your seat and attack everything like it’s a downhill run. then pop it back up to continue pedalling.

Wheel size is a red herring, it was just a move to make everyone buy a whole new bike next time you want to do some upgrading.

Now they’ve done that, the wider hub standards will for everyone to buy a whole new bike.

What did you have, a stumpjumper? Hardly inadequate or particularly out of date. You’ll find it harder to get shiny new forks to fit, but nothing too wrong with putting a 650b fork in if that increases your options (with all the usual effects of a longer fork in your frame).

Welcome back to the light side Stevious 😉

I’d suggest a modern short travel 29er, the big wheels roll over baby head rocks and general mountain terrain loose rock/stone/drainage bars/ditches/boggy bits really nicely compared to smaller wheels.

Gears are leaning towards 1×10 or 1×11 these days, with your fitness this wouldn’t be a problem though if you are dead set on winching up the absolute steepest climbs then you might still want a double chainring setup until the larger range cassettes that are on the horizon come out.

As has been mentioned above the new wider-tyred bikes may be interesting for this kind of riding, I saw the new Trek Stache 29+ at the weekend and it was pretty interesting, remarkably light and fast. I wonder if the extra traction/friction from the bigger tyres would get a bit tyresome (!) over a long day though, but they would be even better than normal 29ers over really boggy or loose paths. It would be lighter than a short travel full susser though. Gotta say I would probably look at one of these first, but would also test ride a ‘normal’ 29 full susser if I were you.

I have a Transition Smuggler which is great, but it is too big for you to have a decent shot on really, it’s an XL.

Something like the bargain Cannondale Trigger (as featured is STW PSA) has to be a nominee for this – 140mm travel, light enough, shock can switch to 85mm mode, forks have various modes, potentially one bike for all things.

As much as I like the idea of a five, they never look great for xc type stuff to me.

I have had a few good big mountain days (Actually Cadair and Snowdon in a day) on my Whyte T129 SCR. It was simply an excellent tool for the job, climbs better than my old hardtail and excellent pointing the other way.

I imagine any modern bike of a similar nature would be superb.

Glowing review of that new Orange Five in this month’s mag, as it happens.

I prefer something with 125mm-ish travel at the back with 140-150mm at the front. Such a bike would be capable of handling more than my skill/fitness will allow, but still tends to be lighter and more spritely than a 160mm bike. That means that on my normal, every-day trails it doesn’t feel like I have to drag it round.

In my opinion, relaxed head tube angle and bigger tyres count for a lot, rather than just having to have 160mm travel.

I agree that there shouldn’t be a problem riding a long travel hard tail on pretty much anything, but full suss does compensate for lack of skill, or lack of fitness later in a tiring, long, technical ride.