currently got a caad f29 which i ride local pennine trails and race xc on. its ace.

however if i take it to the lakes or a trail centre it takes a reet battering and is hard work.especilly with the seatpost and a 70 degree head angle

i know ideally a full susser is the way but im not keen on a 2.5k bill for what could only be used 12 times a year.

so i thought something like a stanton switchback, dropper, wide bars and big volume tyres could be an alternative that would do the job?

i have only ever had and rode xc bikes with steep angles.

would a aggro ht be a lot different and good for the job or just similar to what i have (and a waste of money)?

I started with a Trek 6500 which was a short travel xc and went to a Cotic Bfe. There was a marked difference in the way they rode and a huge boost to my confidence when riding steep or technical terrain.

I’ve pretty much stuck with what would be described as aggro steel hardtails ever since. Stanton are pretty much my dream bikes and therefore I would say go for it and then post plenty of pictures on here.

Replacing the xc bike, or as well as?

Mostly long rides on the new bike in places like the lakes, or mostly short outings round a trail centre?

aswel as. long days in the lakes and trail centres.

would still use the caad for local stuf

Hmm tough choice then! I guess the risk is spending 75% of what you would have spent on a full sus bike but still taking the bit of a battering on your long lake days…

No question it would be more fun / confident on the downs, but may overlap with the xc bike a bit. Classic STW style, I vote for the not-an-option full sus option 😉

i was hoping to be careful and build it for 1.5k maue so e used parts

for £1300 you can have a jeffsy – put a dropper on it and you’re still within budget for a brand new bike

Build up a cheap Parkwood

Or get the 2Souls quarter horse someone is selling

being a tart it has to look the part (to me) i like the look of skinny steel tubes. also 1×11.

I’ve had no issues on long days out on any of the steel hardtails I’ve owned. Peaks, lakes or just pootling down the trans-pennine it’s all been good. Can you not throw a leg over a few see what you think?

I have a Stanton Sherpa; it’s a lot more fun to ride down bumpy stuff than previous steeper-angled bikes I’ve had (replaced a Singular Swift, which I think was 70 or 72 degress and was designed around forks with shorter offset). It also seems to be better than the Swift for going up hill.

I really like it, it’s a nice green colour, and I haven’t had to spend a huge amount of money (although it shows up my cheap forks annoyingly). But I’m also still tempted by a F.S.

It will be going around Afan in the fog tomorrow….

It’s an enormous difference tbh- I raced downhill and enduro on my old Ragley hardtail, bounced it down fort william, I’d have happily taken it out to the alps or whatever, and also raced XC and cyclocross on it 😆 Not the case with my Scandals or the xc bike I’m building just now, no chance.

But it’s a basic capability thing; some jobs are easy to do badly. I did a 7 hour endurance race on a fatbike, it did the job no bother but compared to an XC bike it was absolutely shite at it. But it could still do it because the basic job- ride an easy course for ages- wasn’t hard to do badly, it was just hard to do well. So the question is, are you happy to do that job badly- just doing it at all isn’t necessarily your requirement.

what travel have you got on that sherpa?

Much as I’ve loved my gnarly hardtails they can’t compare to an equally good full-sus for big days out on rough terrain riding descents at speed.

Here’s my current two:

Does it have to be a new bike?

I think the “aggro HT” itch would be easier (cheaper) to scratch, especially if you would consider trying out a (gulp) 2nd hand 26er, just to see how you can get along with slack HAs, wide bars and longer forks. If you like it, flip it on and buy something shiny and new with bigger wheels, if you don’t you still flip it on and you’ll have wasted far less cash and learned something…

Same strategy could probably be applied to bouncers too…

I’ve no doubt I could chuck my SIR.9 down Willy Waver, Terry’s Belly et al. And every few months I question why there’s a £2.6k FS bike sitting in the garage, ridden half a dozen times a year. The head numskull tells me to flog it & spend £60 hiring a FS whenever I go to a trail centre. The heart numskull tells me to keep it. I’ve always wanted one, it’s mine, it’s bought & paid for.
I don’t ride trail centres all the time, I don’t like them that much, I’m happy to get my fix a few times a year; & the FS is absolutely the best tool for the job.
The Niner isn’t an XC machine these days, more a plus wheeled bimbling – ambling machine who’s supple skinny steel ride suits these old bones.

@Sefton – 120mm.

I will add that I’ll ride that hardtail happily down pretty much anything I’m comfortable on on the full-sus, which would certainly not be the case with an XC bike.

what are they?

Personally juat keep one bike. I would get a 275 “do-it-all / long travel” HT with adjustable forks and run them at say 110/120 for xc duties and opened up to 140/150 for the DH stuff at trail centres or Lakes (you can pedal up in the lower setting). I have a 26 Cotic BFe setup that way. You can change the tyres for the DH days and spec wheels for the tougher rides and take the weight penalty for xc. I also have a lovely full suss for big days out / Alps but most of the time it sits unused 😐

Just swapped my 29″ scandal for a Solaris, same 100mm fork, finished (99%) building it this morning, full sus was making some odd noises, so took the solaris to the 417 project for an uplift day. Wasn’t ideal, but I wouldn’t have even considered it on the scandal. 72° v 68.5°, it showed.

what are they?

Bird Zero AM (with 140mm Pike and Cane Creek Angleset @ -0.5 deg)
Banshee Spitfire (with 160mm Pike and the shorter dropouts in the high/steep position)

As pictured the Zero AM geometry (@20% sag) is:

HA = 66.2 deg
SA = 75.4 deg
BB height = 303mm
Reach = 450mm
Wheelbase = 1159mm

Spitfire in this configuration (also sagged):

HA = 66.7? deg
SA = 74.2? deg
BB height = 319mm
Reach = 429mm
Wheelbase ~ 1154mm

The Spitfire has mostly been used in the neutral or low/slack settings which take 0.5 or 1 deg off the angles and add 5 or 10mm or so to the wheelbase. More recently it’s has a -2 deg headset fitted and the fork shortened to 150mm giving the following sagged geometry:

HA = 64.1? deg
SA = 74.1? deg
BB height ~ 300mm
Reach = 425mm
Wheelbase ~ 1175mm

Bike is now way more capable downhill than rider! 😉

Why don’t you sell the HT and get a new 29’er XC FS, it’ll be just as fast on flat xc courses, faster on the increasingly techy ones, more comfortable and therefore faster on marathons and will be more capable on the xc gnar you describe. You could even get a dropper on it too

@Sefton – X-Fusion slide RL2.