I don’t ride off road much these days, but I could do with a new bike.
But in the last few months I’ve just had to buy;
2 x Racing Ralph
XT cassette
KMC chain
XT rear mech
Hanger
Inner ring
Middle ring
New cables
And after an all day long ride yesterday the freehub went, and I can’t find a replacement.
And the SIDs don’t look too healthy either 😐
So I’ve been continuing my new bike search, and that’s just pee’d me off even more.
26″/29er/fully rigid/hardtail/full suss?

Right now I’m thinking of doing away with an MTB and just buy another ‘trail’ crosser

SS Rigid 29er with some bombproof tyres should be alright.

what freehub is it?

Wot Sambob said.

Give all that nonsense about gear’idge and boing forks a rest and go pure and simple. Your legs would choose SS29er.

I did that just shy of two years ago I sold up and kept a crosscheck I’ve only in the last few weeks bought another mountain bike and its like a new hobby all over again 😉

While raking through some draws [****] I found the receipt for my road bike which reminded me it was 7 years old. In that time I have bought tyres, brake pads and a set of wheels only because the originals were heavy. In the same period I have spent a fortune on mtb bits just to keep the damn things rideable. However I still think I have had a lot more fun per pound out of the mtbs even at the current rate of £20 to £1 mtb to road

Give all that nonsense about gear’idge and boing forks a rest and go pure and simple. Your legs would choose SS29er.

I was thinking this. I did want gears so I could race XC though, but I race hardly any XC and lots of road and cross. So I thought a cross frame with MTB gearing might suit me down to the ground.
Shame the MTB world isn’t inclusive like cyclocross and allow us to race XC on our cross bikes.

Right now I’m thinking of doing away with an MTB and just buy another ‘trail’ crosser

…a what now? Genuine question.

.a what now? Genuine question.

Dunno
I love riding my crosser around the local trails, but I like to keep that race ready.
I built up a s/h Croix De Fer with hydros and engineered levers to use in the drops, but mud clearance was diabolical on that.
Looking at a cotic X, and using my 2×9 XT stuff on it.
Or waiting to see if a disc Crosscheck comes out. Not that I’m too hung up on discs. price and clearance are the main issues.

Try enduro seals on your forks, I put some on my f29’s and while they were sticky for a few rides they’ve bedded in and feel nice now, and after some seriously sloppy rides they’re still spotless inside.
And singlespeed…

Right now I’m thinking of doing away with an MTB and just buy another ‘trail’ crosser

Didn’t you give up mountain bikes last year. And the year before. And the year before that too? You’re always giving up mountain bikes and building another cross/road bike with odd brakes with some quirk to it that worries you. I think next time you decided to give up mountain bikes you should count to 9,999,999 and then see if you still want to. Or just keep the mountain bike and not ride it until the next time you decide to give up mountain biking again. It’ll save money and threads…

Yeah I am the master of inappropriate bikes, thing is now the manufacturers make all sorts of inappropriate bikes so I’m at a bit of a loss as what to do.
Then there’s the old case of want over need.
And I like new stuff, but I like old stuff just as much.
It’s proper hard.
Chris would say fix the MTB so it can be used, and of course he’d be right.
So after Googling new stuff I’ve come up with these.
a) Canondale Flash 29er
b) Steel 26″ hardtail
c) Robust steel crosser
You can see a theme there can’t you.

Buy them all.

Why not stick rigid forks on the mtb.

Turning it on its head – what sort of riding do you do most / or enjoy most and do most often?

Rigid singlespeed 29er, with WI frewwheel & King BB here.
I bought a tyre the other day. I was ever so excited.

I keep looking at a Salsa Fargo & wondering… 🙂

Turning it on its head – what sort of riding do you do most / or enjoy most and do most often?

Road, I race and do a full season.
Come winter I do a cross season.

In 2012 I’ve done two XC races on the MTB and about ten if that rides.
When I do ride it tends to be long fast xc, typical roadie stuff. I do night rides on the crosser, and turbos in between.

Why not stick rigid forks on the mtb.

If I do just hang onto it that’s what I’ll do

Lose the MTB and see if you miss it after a season.

Buy cheap consumables. For my ‘winter’ HT just ordered new middle ring (deore steel for longevity), Sram chain and HG50 cassette. About £38 in total from CRC, be surprised if it lasts less than a year?

Give all that nonsense about gear’idge and boing forks a rest and go pure and simple. Your legs would choose SS29er.

For riding in this area I’d agree. Woburn sand kills gears and the Chilterns don’t need sus. There’s a cross-over point between a burly CX bike and a light rigid 29er and it’s an ideal faff-free XC ride, esp as a SS.
Chat to Singular Sam, he’s only up the road. Gryphons look nice ) Not an xc-race bike but could be good for a lot of the endurace events.

Two years riding my rigid SS 29er, ad I have just replaced the Shimano freewheel and chain witha a nice shiny WI and SRAM. Tyres are still fine. And I have raced it XC. What’s maintenance?

Hang on I thought MTBs were cheap?

I’m sure the cheapest options is buy a bike, look after, fix it when its bust. Chopping and changing can’t actually save money can it?

Rigid salsa fargo here, dont own an mtb anymore and dont miss one.

I’m sure the cheapest options is buy a bike, look after, fix it when its bust. Chopping and changing can’t actually save money can it?

To be fair most of the stuff dates back to 2004/5

Fat Bike

+++++END OF THREAD+++++

Anything more hi-tech than this hand-made, bespoke framed, singlespeed, rigid, 96ish-er,no brake-er with hand made tubeless wheels..

is going to need a bit of work now and then.

If you ride it hard oldgit, as i’m sure you do, and clearly enjoy it, you will need to accept that your fun has a price.

Thank God Progress for gears and rubber tyres

Things have progressed quite a bit looking at that – well in certain areas.

I’m sure the cheapest options is buy a bike, look after, fix it when its bust. Chopping and changing can’t actually save money can it?

To be fair most of the stuff dates back to 2004/5

Fair enough I thought we’d had a declaration of no MTB a couple of years back

It’s all very personal but I have a real soft soft for suspension, certainly at the front. Back in the day I use to hate bits of woburn where you got bumped around enough for it to hurt. So some sort of light effiecent race MTB…

I know the feeling oldgit, I always find there’s something going wrong on my mtb and it’s usually expensive or fiddly to fix! I think a short travel SS hardtail is the way forwards tbh, will probably end up doing that with mine soon as I’m once again having gear problems!

It’s all very personal but I have a real soft soft for suspension, certainly at the front. Back in the day I use to hate bits of woburn where you got bumped around enough for it to hurt. So some sort of light effiecent race MTB.

TBH I’ve ridden all sorts around here, SS 26 and 29er, hardtails, race hardtails, full sussers even 69ers oh and crossers.
My view and contrary to popular belief is that SS’s are out of their depth on the clay were you have to sit and twiddle to keep traction. Though I stuck with a SS for 9 years. Light simple hardtails with bags of clearance seem to work well, so that’s what I went over to and have stuck with.
However I’ve ridden cross all over Woburn and there’s not much a hardtail can do that a crosser can’t. And the crosser adds a shed load of fun all over again, rather like my first SS felt.

I’ve stuck an old back wheel on for now to see me through winter. That gives me time to see what I want to do.

Here we go again eh Carl?

TBH I’ve ridden all sorts around here, SS 26 and 29er, hardtails, race hardtails, full sussers even 69ers oh and crossers.

I guess you should know by now what you want to ride… If you have been riding the same old patch of woodland without variation for the last 15 years and still don’t know what bike you want to ride, I don’t think anyone here can help :o)

I don’t think the crap summer has helped, it’s been not far off 12 months of wet conditions so the amount of bike maintenance has gone up.

I struggle to fit riding time in around family and work, I certainly don’t have time for spending hours in the garage every week keeping bikes going. As such, I’ve been doing far more road than MTB over the past few months just cos it’s less hassle.

Oldgit, your purchase list, where do you live?

Why on earth would someone of your experience be buying racing ralphs & new drivetrain stuff this time of year?

Surely its mud tyres & mend & make do bodge ups, 2nd hand bits if really not working for drivetrain until the next year?

Then all this going rigid stuff, yeah its OK, you can do everything blah, blah, blah, but then doesnt it just make your MTB a bit more like your cross bike?

edit… if I was looking at new bikes it would be a 29’r, just to try it out.

It’s not just the attrition rate on the bike, it’s the constant filth, the wear and tear on kit and the shower trap blocked with muck. Coming home late at night freezing, soaked, filthy and having to wash the bike then undress in a cold garage didn’t increase the allure.

After 22 years of it I was beginning to lose interest so when the road bike came along I took it up with pleasure.

OG – do you want to give up racing XC/enduro altogether?

Bit of an extravagance having an MTB in the shed/garage just in case you fancy the FNSS blast, but not having one would mean you wouldn’t be able to have that as a choice.

While raking through some draws [****] I found the receipt for my road bike which reminded me it was 7 years old. In that time I have bought tyres, brake pads and a set of wheels only because the originals were heavy. In the same period I have spent a fortune on mtb bits just to keep the damn things rideable.

This sounds familiar. PhD and associated lack of time/money basically killed MTBing for me about a year ago, and since then I’ve been on CRC/Wiggle about 5 times I think. It used to be a couple of times a month to keep the MTB going, and there was always something.

I’ve had my road bike a few years now, and it’s had a few new tires, some bar tape, a few sets of brake blocks, and a bottom bracket in that time. Same for the commuter.

That said I’m keen to get back onto the MTB now PhD is submitted, but my bike needs an absolute shedload doing to it first!

Bit of an extravagance having an MTB in the shed/garage just in case you fancy the FNSS blast, but not having one would mean you wouldn’t be able to have that as a choice.

This is the biggy, no MTB no XC races. The MTB is there just in case I want to race.

Why on earth would someone of your experience be buying racing ralphs & new drivetrain stuff this time of year?

I find RR’s okay all year round, and the rest was waaaaay past any repair.