From: www.hammooncycles.com
Tested: Two months
RRP: £1240.00 for frame
Hammoon is a few guys trying to make their dream come true and – if you’re in the market for a handmade-in-the-UK hardtail – yours as well. We interviewed Will from Hammoon a while back and we’ve finally got some riding time on their trail hardtail, the Longhorn.
The Longhorn is their interpretation of a “hardcore hardtail” as well as a showcase of what they can do.
The Detail
Hammoon describe this bike as a “ride everywhere trail bike”. It came equipped with travel adjustable RockShox Revelations to flick between 120mm for the flats and climbs or popped up to 150mm for going down the steep stuff.
It comes with a 68 degree head angle, a relatively high 13in BB (measured with fork at full extension) and a 22.5in effective top tube.
In terms of construction there’s a lot going on for a “simple” steel hardtail.
It’s one of the first of the “new generation” 44mm headtubes that we’ve seen. Depending on headsets you can run 1 1/8th, tapered or 1.5in steerer forks.
Bottom bracket is the BB30 standard. As such it can accommodate all of the vagaries of BB sizes. It also comes with an ISCG-05 mount.
Dropouts are interchangeable between QR/12mm thru and even 142 mm.
It’s a slightly surprising frame considering some of the stereotypes that there are of steel bikes (retro, luddite, hair-lice-hessian sack). The Hammoon is in many ways just as up-to-date as a lot of full suspension bikes. The seat tube for instance is actually a Reynolds top tube from a road bike. Why? It’s 31.6 and it means you can run a modern uppy-downy seatpost inside it.
There’s load of lovely attention to detail from massive mud clearance…
Hamoon “H” reinforced seat tube split for the clamp…
Nicely OTT but pretty bottle boss reinforcements (using the “H” motif as well)…
The Ride
First things first, I’ve been riding a full susser a lot. I haven’t really ridden a hardtail in anger for a while.
Uphill it certainly felt light and springy, especially up fireroad climbs. But it did feel quite high and upright though. That may be due to me being usually mostly squelching uphill, most of the time ensconced in the first 30% of sag on my full suspension bike.
Downhill it was the cliche’d “pick a line give it a squirt of power”. It was nice having absolutely instant power. Off you go! More cliches: it’s more of a paring knife than a meat cleaver.
It is a blast on smooth singletrack. Great for covering miles on such stuff as well.
In many ways, though, a review of how the “build-it-how-you-want-it” Hammoon rides is sort of pointless(!)
If I was ordering one I’d have a longer top-tube, a slacker head-angle and a lower BB. This customisation is kind of the point – Hammoon can make the bike that you want.
Video funtimes here yes – http://www.vimeo.com/21033312
Overall: The Longhorn is in many ways a showcase of what these guys can do. And they can clearly make beautiful steel bikes.
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