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On the Santa Cruz theme, i'm amazed no-one has mentioned the Nomad. Awesome bike, I had one of these and now have a Heckler. The main gripe with the initial Nomad was the bottom pivot wearing fairly quickly. This it seems has now been sorted. You can't go wrong with Santa Cruz
mmmmm, does 3.5k get you into a Foes? if you really have to spend it all. 🙂
If you want to spend £3.5k, I'd go for a custom build and spec everything you want. For a do it all bike, maybe start with an Intense Tracer frame and U-turn Lyriks and take it from there. (hope hoops with flows, xt drive train, saint or hope brakes etc..)
gardino71 - MemberOn the Santa Cruz theme, i'm amazed no-one has mentioned the Nomad. Awesome bike, I had one of these and now have a Heckler. The main gripe with the initial Nomad was the bottom pivot wearing fairly quickly. This it seems has now been sorted. You can't go wrong with Santa Cruz
I'm amazed I forgot about it...
Defo. I have a mate with one of these and she is very rapid.
Cannondale Rize 140 carbon. Best do it all bike ever. And that's not my option, that's fact that is... 😆
buy a £2k bike and go for a proper good holiday!!!
By the time you spec out a full build from brand new parts it is surprisingly easy to get to £3k.
Santa Cruz are about to release a Carbon Nomad, if you really want to push that budget.
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I would buy this;
http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/trek-remedy-8-item130186.html
And spend the rest on a fizik gobi, some skills training and a nice 2 week trip to spain for some well deserved sun. 😀
Zesty 714. Just back from Cwmcarn mmmm so fast. If you have to take one weapon to a fight?
Anyone who tells you that a hard tail is best for trail centers are bonkers. Yes they are perfectly capable but 140mm FS is just so much faster and loads more fun. Fun is after all what we want?
<digs trench awaiting incoming flames from the STW Al-Qaeda hard tails users no fun sect>
😆
Thanks again for all the replies.
To reiterate, I shan't be buying a hardtail or multiple bikes.
And I'll have plenty left over for fun trips.
And I live in Scotland, where the trails are amazing.
Bit biased this
But checkout www.mscbikes.co.uk and look at the Aluminium Zion RR, comes in under budget at £3,379
It's a 5 or 6 inch travel trail bike, Elixer CR's, RS Revelations, Fox RP23 rear shock, KS seat post,XO and Noir throughout and weight wise it comes in at a helthy 27lbs (without pedals). What MTB have just done a test on this bike, so if you need an independant view speak to Justin Loretz.
We have a demo bike available for test at Inners on weekend of 17th 18th April or at The Ae Avalanche event 8th 9th May
Cheers
Steve
has anyone mentioned Nikolai yet?
(Helius AM as a suggestion)
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get yourself a 5 spot. Its a do everything bike ( part from xc racing).
Its comfy, handles well and with that cash you could build it up nicely
Hope hoops
xtr drivetrain, carbon bars etc
set of rev's or pikes
prob build up to a 28-29lb all day bike.
If you wanna demo a built up (Horstlink) 5 spot i'm motherwell area, your welcome to try mine for a while. Its a medium , 17.5 ins
Its quite beefy n heavy ( 32.5lbs), but you'll get the general idea of how it feels
I read half way down the first page of this thread and couldn't believe the number of anal geeks going on about diminishing returns and buy a hardtail and you wanna test some bikes, you do (despite saying that he'd test bikes), etc. etc.
You don't wanna do it like that, you wanna do it like this...
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I say go for it. Spend £3500 on a right tasty bike that will make you feel great. You've probably got a good list by now, so I won't add any more, but the speculation over choosing a bike is great fun so enjoy it!
I'll add a Rocky Mountain Slayer SXC to the pot.....
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Zesty 514.....Goes like a rocket up and down. Makes my old Orange 5 seem pretty crap in comparison.
Lapierre all the way....
I doubt you would be able to build a Nicolai AM for 3.5k, the budget for mine is around 5-6k.....
The chumbas look excellent
cove hustler works for me, surprised no one else has mentioned them.
the chumba deal sounds like a real bargain, I have the hardtail and it's great.
5 Spot. Bosh. In Edinburger if you want to throw a leg over it.
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That's my chumba Si posted, £2500ish built with SLX, before Si's excellent rolling chassis deal. Very pleased, very efficient pedaller, not heavy (mines 28lb with no thought to lightweight bits), very confidence inspiring. I went from my first hardtail to the VF2 and have no regrets. However, worth knowing what it is you want, I demo'd a few, and some of those mentioned so far are very different to each other. Chumba VF2 has been great for me as an all day lake district bike, I'm sure others would suit other people better.
Had a few top end bikes in the last few years and am presently riding a SC Heckler and really rate it as a do it all type bike.Peddles very nicely,gives a lot of confidence and best of all nearly zero maintenance
Custom built steel from Vanilla cycles .There is about a five year waiting list.The frame alone will do half your budget but it will be gert lush!
Alpine 160
Orange 5 AM
Lappiere with 160 travel
Yeti ASR7 is something else to throw into the pot.
i think i'd get a 4 rather than 5 or 6 inch full susser, i would have said a blur but that is carbon (dream bike) so maybe a turner flux, they are soooo nice. maybe two sets of seriously nice wheels, bolt through forks, ceramic everything, the best goretex cables, then xt/slx gears and spares for trips, xtr brakes and a sensible cockpit: raceface deus? on one? (i don't like thomson layback posts, but need layback)
Run an older SC Heckler, now in its Xth build, excelled in all of them from lightweight XC to Alps DH, one of the finer single pivot bikes I think.
Other things that tempt me (but not enough)
Horst 5 Spot
Rocky Mountain Switch
Foes
Impressed with a friends Zesty too.
Ok, so you've only got £3.5k...
Boutique bikes with bling specs are out, you'll never build something for that little. You need to buy an off the shelf bike and then change bits as and when.
For comparison my Ti HT would cost you £3.5k to build from scratch.
I demo'ed an Orange ST4 on Sunday, for a 120mm FS it felt 'bottomless' - very impressed. I'd look at that and then pay for the extra finishing kit plus Talas upgrade and some decent tyres. plus wider bar.
BMC 4stroke, Titus look lovely in the flesh, test rode an orange 5 pro with all the upgrades which was great.
If you're a bike snob/enthusiast like most, it's the ideal chance to get something unique and special built. If not, then you're spoilt for choice with off the peg completes.
Lucky boy 🙂
if it was my money it'd be a 5 spot or a heckler.
Boutique bikes with bling specs are out, you'll never build something for that little. You need to buy an off the shelf bike and then change bits as and when.
No you don't. Nice frame and solid parts/classifieds, unless you HAVE to waste money on XTR and the like...
Transition covert
+1 for shunning the naysayers who are telling you to do something else with your money. I don't have a wishlist at the moment, but if I had £3.5k to spend on a bike, then I bloody well would.
And jeezus, if I see another frikkin Chumba shoehorned into a thread I might do something I regret.........
Oh, maybe I do have a wishlist, well not as such, but more a suggestion from another thread.........
Oh, and did I really see a Giant further up the page?
😆
Has anybody advised the OP to decide what riding characteristics he wants from the bike before settling upon one? Or is that not the Singletrack way?
Scruff bought a Yeti 575 and couldn't get on with it at all because it wouldn't "pop" off the jumps like he wanted it to, so he went back to a Heckler which didn't soak up the miles the same, but was nice and lively when he wanted it to be.
Another mate of mine has got a Titus Motolite. He loves it for big rocky all-day rides in the mountains because it stops the trail beating him up. But for whizzing round the tight twisty stuff and having a 2 hour blast he chooses the Voodoo every time. However for 24 hr races he goes back to his short travel Rocky Mountain Carve because it behaves like a hardtail but with a bit more give.
You can afford to try quite a few £50 test rides to get the bike that suits you on that budget. Unless you prefer the idea of having a trophy bike, rather than riding it.
Edit - oops, Hicksville said "decide on the ride", and others too may have.
Thanks BigJohn.
I fully intend to decide on the bike that rides best, and will certainly not be buying anything I haven't demo'd first.
Forgot about Transition Covert that AJ has mentioned. That'd be nice, maybe overkill but that's for you to decide. WhatMTB tested one a couple of months ago and liked it.
Fair play to ya Stevious for stickin to your guns, Hardtails or cheaper bikes, wtf? +2 for Ricko's comments about the posts above.
Some good choices above & a lot of gash, like you I have some money (bonus) coming and have taken a look at the bikes available and really none of them really float my boat, so I'll be sticking with my c'dale for now...
But I would say stick with the 5" travel idea and ignore the 4 & 6" suggestions - found this to be the best of all worlds (having owned a 4, 5 & 6 inch travel FS), especially as your scotland based.
My suggestion would be to also consider the option available from Ventana, might be more difficult to obtain a test ride but take a look.
http://www.ventanausa.com/
Haven't time to read the whole thread, but the answer is a Blur LT2. It's my only only bike and perfect for long days, trail centres, or big Scottish stuff like Torridon etc. Pretty indestructible and a bit of a hooligan to ride
When I was looking at doing something similar I demoed a few bikes and then bought the one that brought the biggest smile to my face and that's what I suggest you do. I ended up with a RM slayer although it was the older version not the one that was previously posted. I bought the frame with the HotRod paint job and got it custom built. Nothing too flash but solid Hope/XT/Thompson stuff. It cost me between £3-3.5k, but I had the money and I don't regret the purchase for a minute.
Well I do actually regret getting Fox Vannila forks as they didn't last but that's an entirely different matter.
a bit of a hooligan to ride
If I do get one I might have to fit it with a backwards cap then. 🙂