I’m looking for a hardtail for next years xc races, but am struggling to find anything suited to the job at hand!

on-one seem to be phasing out 26″ and kinesis seem quite short in the top tube… am I missing anything or ma I being squeezed out by the move to 29ers?

any recommendations?

thanks,

I didn’t find my Kinesis XCPro3 particularly short. If you are comparing to On-One, you might find that the length difference is because Inbreds and Scandals tend to be quite long.

A riding buddy has just put his Lynskey Ridgeline 26 Ti up for sale.
It’s almost brand new. He’s had it for a couple of months and ridden it only a couple of times and now declared it’s “too XC”.
I’ll ping him a link to this thread tonight.

on one whippet?

the kinesis will do the job.

I have a rocklobster sl frame,sids,tubless – quite light…does the job

build up yourself or collect parts and get lbs to build….you can get some good light xc kit for 26″ bikes now!

If you’re buying a full bike why not just go 650b? Most on here say it’s not noticably different to 26″ so you’ll be fine.

Quite a few older but new Merida carbon xc 26 frames around from Merida selling stock to the trade. Have a look on e bay or speak to a dealer. I got my 96 team carbon for a fraction of the price and the hts are cheaper.

I’ve used One One Inbred & Ti456. Great handling & geometry. If I wanted an pure XC race bike I’d try the Scandal or possibly the Whippet if I could get over being a complete luddite

26er, your so 2011.

Get with the programme 🙂

Check out the rockrider. Loads of carbon 26 race bikes still.

Not many companies will be doing new 26 XC race hardtails but there are dozens of Chinese frames approaching 1kg for £300, pretty much take your pick. That would be my approach, or to get a secondhand Scale/ Flash 26/ Merida FLX/ etc.

Scott Scale

Half price at Pauls if you can afford 2.5k!

Alternatively the lower end models are also 50% off

Got tp be a Whippet man.

wow…some deals there!