Im 50 in a couple of weeks and i rather fancy treating myself to another bike.

I have decided that I would like to race in some of the marathon type events, im thinking of the Scott stuff, but also maybe others. Im pretty competitive with myself and would hate the feeling that the bike had slowed me down.

In the garage is a mint Trek elite 9.8. It has done v few miles in the 5+ yrs ive owned it. Its a carbon 26 and i have some Easton EC90 wheels for it too. Most of my riding is trail centre and a bit more extreme than i want to put it through, so in essence its a bike i bought out of lust, that has been superceded by all sorts of standard changes. However its still every bit as good as it was.

Also in the garage is my go to FS. Its an Orange Gyro 29 with some Hope enduro tech wheels. Its running tubeless and some Schwalbe NN tyres. Its x10 and has a pr of carbon bars and a reverb. It is a large heavy bike at about 30+ lb.

However i was thinking i may go faster with less fatigue on a carbon 29 HT. I have seen some decent Cannondale Flash carbons with Lefty and a Whyte c29 with the Whyte carbon wheelset and also the Cube Reaction GTC range.

There is a small part of me that considers i may just be a massive tart and i will be a hopeless midlife crisis muppet wobbling around at the back on whatever i ride, but id like to not unduly handicap myself if i can buy some speed.

I am braced for your input 🙂

Try a race with what you have first. I managed a second place overall in a local MTB orienteering series 2 years ago on a cobbled together 26″ Kona HT. I enjoyed it so much I upgraded to a lighter 29″ Kinesis with high end bits. Last year I came 2nd overall (to the same bloke) once again 🙂

Come and do the CYB Antifreeze in February.

I did the keilder 101 on my HT and if I were to do it again I would take a full suss just because my ass was ruined. It wasn’t hard riding as such but I know I would have been more comfortable on a full suss. Any full suss really.

If you are not used to long long rides take the most comfortable bike you can get away with.

I’m 44 and started 12 hour solos last year on a ’98 Kona Hei Hei. It’s the only bike I have and as such was the ideal bike for the task but if you want another bike why not go for it.
Having said that why not use what you have and go from there, I presume you’re not aiming for the win in your first race. If comfort is a consideration, I raised my bars and put some time into wearing in a Brooks saddle which felt like a favourite sofa for a full 12 hours.

Marathon XC 29er HT is a significant comfort boost to a 26er. The 29C is brilliant – I have one and love it. I do long rides on it but as I’ve got faster, train harder, do more in a season I’ve started to use a short travel FS (Spearfish) for stuff over about 8hrs.