A quick question if you guys don’t mind obliging me as I am new to singletrack. I got myself a giant anthem after getting into mountain biking recently. To be honest I have completely fallen in love with this side of cycling. I come from a TT/Triathlon background and had got so wrapped up in power meters and aerodynamics that it was incredibly refereshing to ditch it all and just have fun!
Me being me I went out and got myself a bike straight away and got good deal on an anthem X3. From my limited MTB experience it seems to ride well and do what I want it to do. But a mate says I would have a bit more fun on something with more travel, say 140mm compared to the anthems 100. He also has the luxury of having a carbon hardtail that he uses for races. As i’d also like to get into a bit of racing I like the idea of the light hardtail.
I also know my past history with bikes, a first purchase of a standard road bike was quickly followed by the purchase of a super light carbon bike AND a time trial bike. I know I am going to want a bike for racing AND a bike for bashing around the trail centers. Am I just lusting after new kit or am I better off selling the anthem and building up something bouncier and something racier?

Lighten up the Anthem and race that? Yes/no there meant to be a capable beast

To be honest if you are new to MTB The anthem is probably more capable than you are. Money would be better spent on a skills course finding the limits of the bike rather than splashing out on new kit.

The Anthem will do everything you’ve described – and do it very well.

At this stage (hell, at any stage) don’t worry about the kit, worry about whether you’re having fun.

I used to race on world cup downhill courses years ago on a bike with less travel than your Anthem, and V brakes instead of discs. It was slower, but it was still a hoot.

Enjoy the bike you’re riding.

Anthem X is a superb bike, well capable of the sort of thing that most people think you need a 160mm full suss for. There’s very few trail centres where one will struggle at all. But, it won’t make it as easy as some other bikes might, which can translate into less fun.

Don’t worry,
Be happy.

Money would be better spent on a skills course finding the limits of the bike rather than splashing out on new kit.

dont listen to this guy, skill on a bike is directly proportional to how much travel you have, why do you think downhillers have so much?

enough sarcasm, you dont need a bigger bike. get faster than your mate on your frame with ‘only’ 100mm travel, then ask him what hes doing with his extra 40mm 🙂 its a good feeling knowing your better than someone else.

Pfft don’t listen to the people who tell you what you’re allowed to ride and what you’re not. Buy what you want.

I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you can ride a bike reasonably competently, and with your background you may well be competitive in some XC races. I think you’re right, really, with your thoughts about the Anthem. It’s a good race bike for longer events (a lot of people ride them at 24 hour events like Mountain Mayhem) and some of the rougher / rockier XC races, but for a pure short course XC race bike you’ll probably be slightly better off on a lighter hardtail. Likewise, the Anthem might be a bit limited on some of the rockier parts of weekend social rides compared with a 150mm trail bike, although I can’t really think of anything in the UK that would be impossible on an Anthem.

I guess the question is – do you want to sell the Anthem and buy two other mountain bikes at huge expense, just to have something slightly better for whichever purpose you’re doing on a given day? That’s up to you.

It would be reasonable to try a 140-150mm bike as a demo and see if you like it, work out what the benefits are and how much they’re worthwhile.

The anthem is a bloody brilliant bike.

I’m going to go slightly against the grain here. I agree with every comment above although I should note I’ve never ridden an Anthem. From my experiance what you’re ridding will effect you’re confidence and speed of progress in the sport. I had an old Specialixed FSR with 80mm travel which was/is a brilliant bike. More XC than trail though. Recently bought a new trail bike with slack angles and 140mm travel and I’m riding faster and better than ever. The confidence it gives me is making me push my personal limits almost every ride.

Don’t get me wrong, most bikes are not the barrier to progress and I guess the Anthem will be more than enough for the time being as others here will testify, but if you have the financial flexibility, time to test a few bikes and really want to push your limits then IMO a bike selected for a specific role is likely to help a lot as well. Certainly did for me. 😀

Learn to pick your lines well.

I’d prefer to own two bikes (HT and bigger FS say) than one giant anthem, sure. Depends where you’re riding really – trail centres are pretty smooth, by and large, so anyone should be able to lash an anthem round nae bother and have fun with it. The bigger bike will be fun too, but it’s not really adding anything IME.
On some of the rougher trails in the Lakes or the Peaks, say, then you’d see a big difference.

Also depends how easy this MTB lark is to you – if you’re a bit hesitant on the descents at the trail centres for example. You can argue that one should stay on the short travel bike and improve skills; alternatively change to a bigger, more compensatory bike but enjoy the corresponding increase in confidence. Which will feed into improved skills (basically what ask1974 has said). Interesting question 🙂

Got an anthem xl and find it more than capable for most rides, golspie black,balblair,torridon mountains ,skye etc etc. My mate has a carbon xtc but is using my anthem for the sxc series as it is faster over a given.xc couirse up here. A bi
gger travel bike might be faster decending but it wil be a lot slower getting to the top,so on long ride or climb an anthem will always be faster imo

I have an 09 anthem and an 08 Nomad. I ride the nomad when I go to trail centres with my fat mates, and the anthem the rest of the time. Only thing bad about the anthem is if you like riding something a bit unique that will generate discussion, it isn’t an anthem! Every 4th or 5th person at an event will be on one – for good reason.

Thank you so much for all the replies, its made me think about what I’m wanting it for.
I think part of the reason I am asking is because I’ve run out of road bikes to spend money on! I have gradually upgraded my road and TT bike until they are upgradable no more! I guess I just have a bit of an obsession with buying bike bits, unfortunately I am just about to loose my disposable income and take a massive paycut for at least 3 years so maybe I need to be a bit more sensible!

oh and the other factor that may be important is I am moving house in a few months to the edge of the peak district, I am also only going to be work 2 days a week for the next 3 years.
I recently went to the peaks and on some of the rougher stuff I definitely lost out my said mate on his longer travel bike.

Don’t listen to people who tell you not to listen to people.

Your bike is fine unless you are racing DH on it.

You lost out on your mate because he is technically better than you or because he has more travel? I’d guess given your past experience with road bikes you’ll be fit. That’s the easy bit.

I’ve got an Anthem x3, its brilliant. Fine for 95 % of what I ride. Bung a better set of wheels on it and it would be fine for racing.

I have a bigger bike as well, its fine for about 20% of what I ride….

You’ll learn a lot more about how to ride a bike properly on an Anthem than on a 140mm skillz cushion.

It’ll take 120mm forks at a later date if you find yourself using it for more play than race, and it’s very upgradable. Then, if it starts to get too expensive for day to day trashing, get yourself a singlespeed and refine your skillz some more!

Your bike is fine unless you are racing DH on it.

actually, a nicely setup Anthem flies down the normal tracks at places like Innerleithen! Much easier to get through the twisty sections and accelerate out of corners.

I love mine, seems to be quite happy to take a beating and come back for more (probably have more fun riding it than my DH bike these days)

http://www.rootsandrain.com/photos/229762 🙂

I ride a 120mm FS in the Peak District and cope just fine, you’ll love your Anthem. Whereabouts are you moving to?

I’m moving to north west sheffield, should be about 6-7 miles from the hope valley.
I will be very new there, I won’t know anyone and my 2 days a week will be in loughborough, so if anyone whats to be friendly and let me join them for some mtbing I would very much appreciate it!

Legend what forks are you running on the front of your anthem? I was considering putting a 120mm set on, but will 20mm really make any difference and will it unbalance the anthem?

I’ve you’re looking for riding near Loughborough, there’s a lot of nice stuff actually. Up around Cademan woods round Whitwich is superb.

oooo, well i live in north leicester at the moment, so I may check that out. I’ve been looking for something a bit more local so I don’t need to trek to cannock.

Those are 120mm Rebas mate. Did have 100s on at first but the 120 does seem to be quite a lot more fun. The higher front end (good for control/steeper stuff) plus the shorter back end (good for climbing/acceleration) seems to work very nicely together

id second tprider, a light set of wheels will transform the ride. i put a set of pro 3 s on my x2 and it feels much more responsive. Anthems end up on many podiums at races the bike is very capable and with a bit of cash pretty easy to get sub 24lb . keep it!

It’s not about the bike. I have raced (and won) on a 140mm full suss and ridden easy downhill courses (slowly) on a 100mm hardtail.

Having ridden a variety of bikes over the last 8 years (not as many as Hora or Ton!) I have found the following.

More travel does not make a massive difference, certainly not 20mm. Position and angles do make a difference. Wider bar, shorter stem and slacker head angle was noticeable. I can ride faster than some of our club riders on my rigid singlespeed. Others leave me behind regardless of the bike when it gets really hard because they are better riders.

certainly not 20mm. Position and angles do make a difference

which when you’re talking fork travel (assuming same chassis) is directly linked, so 20mm does make a difference

I had an (older) trance, which has 4 inch travel and was fantastic – I imagine the angles of the anthem x are similarish. My trance improved as a fun bike when I put a 130mm fork on it

So for “best” of both worlds, sell the wheels and buy a blingy set of racerboy ones to swap over with, say, some hope hoops with flows for having fun on

If you feel very rich, flog the fork too and get a superlight 100mm race one plus a longer, heavier one for fun

vdubber, can you tell me where to go up in cademan woods I’d like to check it out sometime.

Tom you’ve certainly found the right time to take up mountain biking given your move. I’d suggest you just get out there and ride, there is so much on your doorstep. Then you can try some other venues, trail centres etc and see what grabs you. Likewise there are many different race disciplines, trying to judge now which you want to go for and thus pick an optimal bike at this stage is impossible. The Anthem is a good bike on which you can race and if you wish and you can always upgrade components if you want to tinker.

I did much the same thing, rode a few demos and then just closed my eyes and bought what took my fancy. It’s 5yrs on and I’m only now considering a change, ride what ya got !

I know, I can’t wait to move. I’m also a bit of a fell runner so having the peaks next door is going to be awesome. Especially with only having to work 2 days a week if that. Shame I’ll be taking a massive pay cut (about 1/4 of my current income) but its what it takes to make me happy, my current job is killing me!
Thanks for all the advice, I’m gonna stick with the anthem.
And again, if anyone who lives in the hope valley/sheffield area wants to be my guide for some mtbing come july please let me know!

If you’re ever stuck for rides, there’s a couple of shops (the bike tree, weds nights, maybe sat evenings too in the future, sign up to their facebook page for full details, eighteen bikes do rides too) that do rides and http://www.ridesheffield.org.uk/ is good for getting some info on places to ride and planned rides.

I’ve had an Anthem x2 about 6 months now, it replaced a 130mm travel FS.

The differences I notice are that the Anthem is quicker, much quicker on the flat and climbs. On most decents the rear suspension is still better than the old 130mm, however the front is a little harsher, but copes with the terrain just as well.

Maybe on some thing like the Garburn Pass it may be fractionally slower down, but as has been said above decents are only a fraction of a ride and the Anthem will pee all over any 140mm travel bike any where else on the ride. IMO 130mm + bikes for most people make the ride plusher and easier, and at the extreme you may be able to ride some thing on them that you may struggle with on the Anthem, but for most rides thats not an issue.

Suspension travel also depends on your point of view. 140mm of travel may allow an average rider to ride an extra 2% of stuff, but IMO they make most other stuff a little more boring to ride, where as on Anthem you still have fun.

Then theres the marketing hype, as highlighted above that you need a 100-120mm bike for ‘XC’ riding then you need a 130-160mm for ‘trail riding’ not too sure what the difference between the 2 is personally.. I think its just 2 things. 1 COmapnies trying to get more people to buy more than 1 bike, and 2 people feel more Gnarr if they ride a 150mm travel bike and can take on the world…
End of the day its personal choice, but for me I’d prefer to be efficient on the flat and climbs that make up most of a ride, and then be able to keep up or still be even quicker on decents.

I work in the Hope valley and live just on the edge of Sheffield so would be more than happy to show you round

Thats very kind of you. I will be moving in July so I be in touch closer to the time!

I had one of the original Anthems (80mm F and 90mm R)and rode it everywhere from Aviemore and Glentress to Dartmoor and the Alps as well as racing it at Mayhem, 24/12 and others and I loved it! I sold it because I was going to be off the bike for a while, had a great price from the buyer and wanted something with a bit more bounce.

I now own a Trek EX8 (120mm) and have had some issues getting to like the bike due to its more laid back angles. It’s only with the addition of a Reverb post that I’m beginning to get the most out of it. I’m still not sure I did the right thing going for the Trek but I’m sticking with it. As for the Anthem, it will go up and down more than you can imagine and you’ll have fun showing off riding rough things on the supposedly wrong bike!

My Anthem spends lots of time on the road – I tend to ride from home. I sometimes think that this is overlooked. I too live on the edge of the Peaks, but I don’t want to get the car out for every ride. It’s ok on the Tarmac too. Slower than a road bike but still tolerable. I tried a fuel ex9 and a trance and didn’t like the softer feel moving from a racy hard tail. If I were you I’d follow the advice of many other posts and just enjoy the ride!

Ps I lived in sheffield for a few years – it’s a great city.

I’ve got 120mm on my anthem x1. I had an older anthem 0 100 mm front travel which the frame cracked on and got the x1 frame as a warranty replacement. The slightly longer travel at the back and extra 20 mm at the front make it much better for me, and definatly let me go faster with more confindence, especially on the descents, and doesn’t really slow me on the climbs. They really compensate for my lack of skills/confidence on the downhill bits.

I built an Anthem up because of the hype of them being such great XC bikes and it is a quick bike that can hustle along at as rapid a rate as your legs can pedal it. The draw back I have found is with big rock gardens and baby heads it gets out of its depth and feels a bit twangy at the back end. But cycling is a compromise and the Anthem is light and fast so you shouldn’t expect it to be beefy and brawny.

I am not keen on running the Anthem with longer forks for anything other than big downhills as the extra height makes it an awful climber on steep technical trails.

If I try really hard I know that there is always going to be someone better than me on a different bike and the answer for me is not to buy a different bike! It is very easy to look at everything else to do with cycling other than the main component – the cyclist!

If you want to try other bikes out see if you can get yourself at to one of the big try out days at trail centre that some of the big shops and manufacturers have – much cheaper than a test ride and you get to try a few.