Naaa… I know what you mean matey. I used to live down south – until I was 30 years old, and grew up riding all that lovely snakey woodlands singletrack, which is about as XC as you can get.
As a result, I became completely fixated on that southern XC ‘singletrack’ riding style and the sort of light, fast, short travel bikes that really are best to appreciate this area.
Over the past few years, though, I’ve lived in Tasmania, Sheffield and now Aberystwyth – all quite gnarly, which has helped re-shape my ideas somewhat! In fact, I went for a blast around Coed y Brenin yesterday and actually had to reluctantly admit to myself that my recently purchased 140mm Orange 5 is probably a great deal quicker overall round CyB than my 89mm Giant Anthem – even going uphill, bizarely!
I used to be convinced for years and years that all you’d ever need for anything is a light 100mm XC hardtail. I’m not so sure now!
So I guess, what I’m saying is that it’s horses for courses, adapt your approach (both equipment-wise and metally) to riding these sorts of places and you might find you enjoy them a lot more.
Alternatively, just carry on enjoying all that lovely southern swoopy woodland singletrack! It’s ace. There’s no need to feel pressured into riding anything else if that’s not your bag, despite the endless (willy-waving etc.) nonsense that gets talked about on STW 😀