I am trying to refine my bikes.

Kind of made up mind that it should be a steel hard tail. Never had a full sus bike, never ridden one in fact.

In an effort to stay ahead of the curve, I’m the guy who bought a mini disc player just as the iPod was released. I’d like something future proof (for a while anyway).

In true STW what do you recommend?

Production Privee Shan GT.
That’s it… The search is over.
I’m sorry your thread is so short now…

I like that, alot. Too scared to check the price.:)

Edit; press fit bb, shame. I’m out.

Sun Microsystems’ version of the UNIX operating system.

I’ve had two PP frames, well over a year with cheap Deore bb’s in them and not had a single issue.
Away with your prejudice! 🙂

Without a budget it’s hard to have a view but £2k or so would get you a decent Cotic or Stooge (probably the two big wheel steel bikes I would most fancy if I was starting afresh) but if I only had one bike I think the Bird Zero would have to be on the possible list but not steel.

Iirc the magazine also reviewed
The Ritchey Timberwolf, an Onza something and a Chromag something a year or so back. If you like something rufty one of those might be an option.

That Shan is niice

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/singletrackworld.com/2017/05/review-production-prviee-shan-gt/amp/

Kind of made up mind that it should be a steel hard tail. Never had a full sus bike, never ridden one in fact.

Glad you have made your mind up…
What do you ride, where, how, fast, slow, loving the technical or enjoying the view?
All of that comes before what bike really, I’d also suggest trying a short travel full sus before writing them off.

Future proofing with mtb’s sounds like wishful thinking to me. I don’t know what budget your on. Mine is not much, at all, so I stay well back from the cutting edge.

I’ve got 456 evo with 4pot XTs and Hope/D521 wheels (both ancient), Z1 SL forks, 27 gears and a dropper that does nearly everything I need. I put the whole thing together for £350ish, it’s hard to work out as I had some bits, swapped others etc.

Yes my friends have full sus bikes that weigh less and are certainly more capable but the cost, the cost. Oh and I can usually keep up with them.

I also have a mini disc player..

lazlowoodbine – Member
Future proofing with mtb’s sounds like wishful thinking to me. I don’t know what budget your on. Mine is not much, at all, so I stay well back from the cutting edge.

As you have proved it’s damm easy… the only thing you will struggle with is some barnd new tyres/rims (carbon jobs) and straight steerer forks, apart from that you could probably find a brand new 3×9 drivetrain if you wanted.

For me I went 650b Boost & Metric shock, fairly confident I will still be able to get forks, wheels and tyres for years to come, they are very common now so lots of choice.

Indy Fab 29er steel deluxe – or upgrade to Ti.

Custom build so…..fully ‘customisable”; fully rigid, ss, geared, suspension fork, geometry, ebb, paint job – you name it, they do it.
Forget full sus unless your into real hardcore; hardtail or well designed fully rigid is more than enough for most riders.
Go to Boston (Mass not Lincoln) to see them.
I bought a full bike through STW – fully rigid with original dedicated IF fork and reba suspension fork; sold wheels and fork; kept some of the finishing kit so now have frame and original for fork at net cost of about £350 – to buy F&F today would be c£1500; intend to rebuild and get proper repaint through Cromaworks – no powder coating.
I’m guessing that the original owner is out there somewhere in the STW universe.
Vanilla white frame and fork; sterling silver head badge; green decals.

Forget full sus unless your into real hardcore; hardtail or well designed fully rigid is more than enough for most riders.

you had better define most…

The majority – much more than 50%.

I’d have something exactly like my Remedy 29 tbh. I just have it and the fatbike now and it’s nice to have both but the Remedy does all the hard work.

And I wouldn’t spend 2 seconds thinking about futureproofing because the bike industry now targets the best, most established parts and standards for replacement as a matter of course. You can’t second guess it, except by thinking “what’s the most annoying thing they could do today”.

(Pedal axles by 2020, I bet you one obsolete pound)

Based on? Most of my local stuff would be a bit/quite grim on a rigid in fact most of the riding I’ve done would be. Great for low tech or smooth but throw some rocks and roots in there and no thanks especially when a custom HT probably comes in way more expensive than a really solid full sus.

Probably depends on where you are in the world but suspension is actually a quite good and helps to make things more fun rather than an effort in survival.

I have done this and am very happy.

Mine is a 29er Chromag Surface. I bought a full bike, SRAM 1×11, boost, decent wheels, Pikes. Like you, I’m not a huge enthusiast for FS bikes and have (by and large) made having a fairly rough-play hardtail as my only bike work just fine. I am a giant tart, so I appreciated being able to do custom colours and have something fairly rare. It has been great fun, and has cut down my maintenance time, costs, faff etc a good deal. 🙂

If I was buying a new bike, and wanted to make it ‘future proof’, my checklist would be:

Tapered or 1.5″ headtube
Boost spacing for frame and forks
650b or 29″ wheels (not that you really get anyone making 26″ bikes anymore). With a 29er you can often put 650b+ wheels in.
31.6 seat tube

I’d also go with a threaded BB, though dunno if that’s quite future-proofing.

Kind of made up mind that it should be a steel hard tail. Never had a full sus bike, never ridden one in fact.

If I could keep only one bike out of all mine, and that covers long travel fun hardtail, rigid ss, short travel racy hardtail etc… Then I would keep the short travel 29er FS.

Used to have 4 or 5 bikes, now only have one.

I used to think that I only wanted to ride steel hardtails. Then I bought my Bird Zero AM. It’s way more comfortable than I expected, probably down to the wider rim/tubeless setup I’m riding now. I wouldn’t focus too much on the material, look at the geometry and sizing and get a bike based on the riding you do.

IME steel hardtails lost any of the comfort value they had over alu when CEN and dropper posts came about, stiffened the rear up no end.

YMMV.

In true STW what do you recommend?

Well, this idea you have

Only one mountain bike..

Forget it, it’s a stupid idea 😀

IME steel hardtails lost any of the comfort value they had over alu when CEN and dropper posts came about, stiffened the rear up no end.

YMMV.

Myth, largely, or misplaced blame perhaps – partly since an old 1990s steel MTB could pass CEN as far as the rear end is concerned. There’s so little flex/comfort in the rear end anyway, it’s the main frame that twists and flexes most. CEN changed front end dimensions yes, but not really in a way that stiffens them any more than a 120+mm fork, 750mm bar and short stem would demand.
Seat tubes, they did get stiffer for dropper posts. If you value flexand comfort to the extent that larger ST ois spoiling things I’m not sure why you truly need a dropper post (w/o getting into a pro-con debate on those, just balancing out the need for a flexy frame vs how you ride etc)

OP – staying ahead of curves / standards is about good bearings (hubs and BB) and care with fork choice. After those are sorted you should be able to keep most MTBs running for a decade or more.

If I could only have one MTB, I’d at least get one that could take two sets of wheels (B+ and 29in).

I’d probably go for something a bit more aggressive than my Cotic Solaris, but if you just want to do XC and trail centre kind-of riding then a SolarisMax should be on the list.

The majority – much more than 50%.
i.e.51.9%

Myth, largely, or misplaced blame perhaps

Possibly misplaced, I’m going by my experience of going form a mk1 Soul to a CEN, dropper post enabled one, Just wasn’t as good at all.

Have you tried commuting on a fully rigid 26 off road 5 days a week? Not so much fun then. Too much stress on arms. Definitely want at least front suspension.

If I could keep only one bike out of all mine, and that covers long travel fun hardtail, rigid ss, short travel racy hardtail etc… Then I would keep the short travel 29er FS.

Depends on what and where (and how) you ride though.

Something like the PP Shan will be strong enough to deal with whatever you can throw at it including big drops etc. Whilst being a hardtail it’ll be as efficient as any other hardtail so you could race it round an XC course.

If you’re not hard on bikes then you could ride an XC biassed bike down a DH track and avoid the toughest parts.

It just depends whether you want a bike (hardcore HT) that will survive anything that could be done (with compromises in terms of speed). Or a bike that could be minced down anything with you holding it back because it simply wouldn’t survive a full day of uplifted riding. Somewhere in the middle you’ve got Enduro style bikes which should be tough enough for an uplift, and efficient enough for a longer pedally ride, but IME they suck the fun out of more normal XC/trail riding i.e. good for the weekend away, not so great for the majority of peoples local night riding.

I’ve always enjoyed the bikes that are tough enough to be ridden as fast as I can, which is usually either ‘hardcore hardtails’ or fully rigid bikes (steel XC or Fat). A FS bike would be faster on the down’s, but wouldn’t be as fun overall, and I appreciate being able to run bikes singlespeed to remove the worry about maintenance over the winter.

I really want a Last Fastforward!

Have you tried commuting on a fully rigid 26 off road 5 days a week? Not so much fun then. Too much stress on arms. Definitely want at least front suspension.

I’ve barely ridden with suspension for years, toughen up.

I also have FUBAR’d ligaments in my right thumb and a bad knee so my advice on singlespeeding and rigid bikes may be to blame!

One bike, hardtail? – there was an article on these Olsen bikes in Cranked a while back, would def look if I was 1 biking it…
And I had the cash…

Stanton now do different dropouts (142mm – boost) for their frames.

Depends on your height/preference of course, but a Sherpa can run 650b or 29″ wheels, forks from 100-120mm, threaded bb, stealth dropper routing, front mech capability. 44mm head tube so you can run almost any fork/headset and angle adjust if you want.