[Closed] Build the ideal UK bike...................go on...

orange 5 for a susser..........designed for british conditions
(and you do not know how much it hurt me to say that)

and a hardtail by brant.........for the same reasons...

a)Spinning blades on the hubs to kneecap bike theft attempts in "vibrant" East London.

b)A valve on brake levers to squirt dot fluid directly into the eyes of murderous car drivers

and

c)Some sort of hydraulic bolt system in the handlebars to facilitate a)

...and something to sort out teenage single mothers in the saddle.

i'd say a turner 5 spot apart from greasing mine which takes a minute, you never need touch it

ohhhhhhhhhhh good question

custom built full susser 🙂 one of these days i'll inherit a small fortune from some long forgtten uncle and get curtis to build it.

HA: 67
SA: 71
TT: 23
CS: 17
BB: 14 (static)
Travel : 140mm

Perfect UK bike. And I'd get two, one built to arround 6.5lb for the UK and a 8.5lb moster for taking abroad with bigger forks and wheels.

TIANS, which rear suspension configuration would you choose?
Single pivot for simplicity, VPP or DW for low pedal feedback and performance under braking? FSR for whatever?

this is it
maybe with some 140mm air forks
which it will have fairly soon!

[img] [/img]

I'm not sure one exists but the Intense spider 2 is currently looking facorite for me with TALAS 32s, XT drivetrain (with bash), Tech M4s and pro11 w/355s. Light but sturdy.

Brakes surely too heavy for uk??????
Suspension HL or VPP or maverick

My current hardtail, and indeed one that I can't fault, is as follows.

Specialized P. All Mountain
Marzocchi Z1 Sport 150mm
Shimano LX cranks with 36/22/e13 bash
Shimano XT Shifters and Rear Deraileur, LX front
Crank Bros 50/50XX
Hayes HFX9 203 / 160
Titec Ringleader Bars and Blockhead stem
ODI Grips
NC-19 post with SDG Bel Air
Singletrack rims on Formula hubs with Maxxis High Roller

[img] [/img]

Not the most niche but I really do love this bike.

Suited to that grey area between XC and DH that we like to ride. Must be a decent climber.
Probably a HT with a comfy ride feel
Can take a 5-6" adjustable fork with bolt-thru - an RS
2 ring + bash
Really well sealed hubs and BB
hard-as-nails frame finish
around 27lb

Sorted....Ragley Blue Pig

[IMG] [/IMG]

Steel or Ti frame, massive mud clearance, cheap, strong, pedals well, built for UK trails, takes a big fork....mmmm comes in ninja black...:-)

I'd go for a Cannondale Rush with 140mm QR15 fork (and an internal headset).

phildowling
raise you two

blue pig......for distance
[IMG] [/IMG]

mm bop...........for laking about
[IMG] [/IMG]

I know everybody likes what they have. And I really like what I have:
2009 orange 5 am (maxle/36's etc & saint groupset) so 30lbs and it will handle pretty much anything I throw at it.
&
2008 chameleon built with pike uturn airs, oro's and trusty xt groupset.

I have been through 6 bikes since Xmas and feel I've now (finally) got the two bikes I'll be keeping for a few years.

Plus my gf has a ibis mojo which is full x0,xtr and float 140's and only weighs 26lbs (on a recent mtbt trip a friend commented " can't we fill her frame with sand as she makes us all look so slow on the hills!") so she is currently in love again and prob would say she has the perfect bike. Horses for courses eh!

I have been through 6 bikes since Xmas

Ben: why the "internal headset"? I confess don't really understand what the fuss about them is. I just ended up up with a load of extra spacers to get the bar height OK.

Buzz- I'm going red saying this. But Sarah has just reminded me that the chameleon I built is my seventh this year! 😳

funnny enough i do not own a blur....................just think it is up there as a great UK bike. right travel and weight

oxnop: it's good to have a hobby and bike building is satisfying. So I kind of understand.

british designed hardtail - preferably made from british steel tubing
brookes saddle
decent set of forks
decent wheels
decent brakes
utilising as many uk companies as possible

alternatively - pashley guv'nor - reet proper blokes bike
[img] [/img]
upgrade the pedals tho'

Five pro with 15qr vanillas

probably a high single pivot/idler as I'd like to keep the chainstay super short (wo would need the rear wheel to folow the line of the seatube as a result) The oange 5 has a 17" chainstay and just about squeezes 140mm in before you reach a point where the wheel gets pretty dam close to the seatube.

To get any more travel out of a single pivot you need longer chainstays (trek, kona etc) or a longer swingarm (the 224) or move the pivot somewhere different (trek session 10/diesle, blafa BB7 and Empire DH)

Would quite like to build a bike that pedaled like a DW/maestro but with the braking performance of a horst link. I havent tried the new VPP bikes but am lead to believe that they've come some way to getting rid of the whole trapdoor sensation and sorted out the braking problems of the original bikes.

Cant say I've noticed "brake jack" with my maestro. But all those links are a swine to clean.

I'm sticking with a HT.

Buzz Lightyear - it's a (not perfect) way of running a fork that has more travel than the frame was designed for (the Rush was designed for a 100mm fork).

Already built that, my Soul. 130mm u-turn revs, roval traversee wheels, X9 and SLX drivetrain, gravity dropper... Pretty simple build but it's done endless local XC miles, and it's done bits of the Fort William world cup DH track, and everything inbetween. If I could actually ride, it'd do a lot more.

I suppose if UK riders had not built bikes to suit the UK, this thread wouyld be pretty quiet

oh how I laughed!

Raleigh Chopper!

thisisnotaspoon - you talk some Bollox!! 😕

Inbred 853 with revs in pink

I loves it I do

So this is a one bike to rule all UK riding I think a good amount of suspension is needed for doing proper DH runs.

As a budget build I would say my Pitch isnt far from spot on I can lockout my forks and turn up the propedal when I need to go up big hills or I can run it fully open so I can hammer the DHs. I could do with some Stans Flow on Pro2s but other than that its pretty spot on.

For a more expensive build I think a carbon 09 Enduro with a Fox Shock and some 2010 Rev 150s double and bash with the above wheels a 680mm bar with a lot of sweep and a command post.

I would be tempted by a bottlerocket but they are just to heavy.

It kinda depends on what your slant on riding is really, if your preference is DH, and more aggressive stuff like Andy m for example then your ideal build would heavier duty.

I just sold a 5 inch travel XC bike (stumpy) and with very small changes to it, it was comfy at anything from an XC race to a day doing the Plenny run until my hands fell off. So recon that was the ideal bike for me at the time, now I have less time to get away to bigger hills I have built up my Scandal, which with the build I have will do all the riding I want, local loop, commuting, the odd XC race, or still be pretty happy at a trail centre.

I call it a colonial build, as appart from the drivetrain thats all Shimano, every other part on it is either UK designed, or US designed and made. On One. Hope,USE, Thompson, Maverick. (and a random Scott saddle until charge spoons are back in stock)

[url] http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fed-up-waiting-for-a-suitable-thread-to-show-off-my-new-graphics [/url]

sorry I think a UK bike has to have a triple crankset for all round riding, bash rings gosh anyone would think we are Canadians!

TBH I thought there would be more single pivots mentioned and Cotics

I never used to use my big ring and a 36 tooth chainring is more than big enough for me I think 34 would probably be best. And I use my granny ring so little that I'm starting to wonder if I should go 1x9 with a 32 at the front. Yes I do ride up most of the hills I come across.

Oh and the whole multi pivot v single pivot doesn't even come into consideration for me when buying a bike I simply don't care.

Yeah I've said my Five, and I understand the original poster's brief, but I reckon my Genesis iO is probably more perfect UK bike due to the weather alone!

cannondale prophet. simples.

GW - Member
thisisnotaspoon - you talk some Bollox!!

Which bit?

Oranges are usualy limited in tire clearance by the seatube - yup

Older VPP's were rubbish (IMO) I test rode the original blur and felt like it were bottoming out at random and finding huge bumps in the trail that just weren't there. And braking was woefull, felt all over the place. Haven't ridden the new ones but apparently the axel path and swingarm rotation have been calmed down so maybe they've solved it.

I just prefer maestro/DW bikes and specialized bikes, if you like VPP or longer swingarm bikes, good for you, horses for courses and all that.

do not get me wrong I see the need for certain times when you need a bash ring but given that most UK rides involve some road work or flatter bits then the larger ring is needed imho for a true all round UK mountain bike.

oh no mention of carbon fibre bikes like the Mojo................... 😕

If it is one bike for everything, has to be a hardtail. It might not be the downright quickest or comfiest, but definitely the most versatile.

How is a hardtail more versatile than a full sus?

I fail to see how a hardtail is any more versatile than an FS!

vondally. I see your point there maybe I'm just too slow to need a big ring.

"larger ring is needed"

It's a fair point. I was looking at my big rings in the spares box last night (clear-out time) and some of the poor teeth look like they've been filed down. On flatter rides, esp. with road sections, I have missed the big ring - but not enough to make me want it back on.

Which bit?

pretty much all of it!

it's all very well quoting what a particular Orange frame is capable of.. but don't generalise about stuff you know nothing about! I managed fairly easily to get 13" of rear wheel travel out of a single pivot bike with 17" seatstays and that was with a 2.5" tyre. (I rode DH on this set-up with around 5.5" of sag while injured)
also from what you've said, you don't even know what the braking performance is like on a D-W bike nevermind being able to compare it to an FSR. if a bike has a horst link it does not automatically have great braking performance nor does it automatically pedal a certain way.

your first post is a load of pish too.

I managed fairly easily to get 13" of rear wheel travel out of a single pivot bike with 17" seatstays and that was with a 2.5" tyre.

223 with a longer shock in the slackest setting? fits quite well with my argument, the swingarm is loooooonnng to flatten out the axel path and avoid the seat-tube.

It's vertical position (well above the chainline) is the point at which the wheel starts to move forewards (so below this point it is moving backwards to stop pedal bob), so in fact the 5's swingarm actualy has a foreward axel path, hence travel is limited by a combination of chainstay length and tire/wheel size.

Did you see the MOJO prototype/one-off ornages at fort bill a few years ago, S-shaped DT to get the pivot lower, but with a long swingarm to flatten out the axel path. Essentialy a 223's pedaling performance with a better axel path.

As for braking performance of maestro, i never said it was bad, just that spesh bikes i've tried were better (IMO).

I think I'd now go for a full-susser as my do-it-all. If you get a good one - and know how to set it up - they can ride with all the feedback of a hardtail but also have a bit more fun. IMHO.

Benji I think that is the key point about setting up the full suss correctly....god I still am trying..and this is what gets a lot of designs a bad rep, Maverick may have got it right not a lot to fiddle around with more or less stock settings, like graphic equalizers just too many things to mess around with!...but for an all UK bike it has to be full suss just more versatlity.

maybe I wasn't quite clear in my last post but I honestly couldn't care less about Orange's simple, dated frame designs 😛