Looking for a light upright aluminium relaxed geom pannier compatible hard tail to ride to Italy on. Upright cause I have neck issues. Slack geom and maybe 120 travel cause want to use as a mtb as well when not touring. Budget maybe 1500 but wriggle room. Ta
Would the Sonder Frontier work? I think that it's only designed for 100mm forks & I'm not sure if it has rack mounts, but as a bikepacking bike I'd be surprised if it didn't.
-- Edit --
If £1500 is for a frame rather than a full bike, the Mason Macro looks lovely!
https://masoncycles.cc/products/macro-frameset
I was also going to suggest the Sonder Frontier. It's designed for 100mm forks but I know one person who has put 120mm on his with no ill effects.
It has rack mounts but the top one is on the seat stay bridge rather than 2 mounts on the actual seat stays so you need to make sure your rack is capable of single point mounting.
Nor really slack though with a head angle of 68deg.
Seems like two very different use cases, is it really worth that level of compromise?
This looks quite interesting, no idea what it'd be like as a slack mtb, but tbh I wouldn't use a slack mtb for touring
https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m1b0s226p4999/SPA-CYCLES-Rove-725-2-x-10spd-Deore-Cable-Disc
Kona Unit X is a little off your specs but might be worth considering on the mountain bike end of the scale? Gets you the rigid fork for touring albiet you would have a buy a suspension fork later.
Second hand Solaris? Not what you asked for but would probably fit the bill
Second hand Solaris? Not what you asked for but would probably fit the bill
Indeed that is what I came to say.
Any hard tail with rack mounts would work.
Put slicker tyres on.
Hard to ignore the Frontier given your spec. I like mine; 59km/1500m climbing round my local Calderdale stuff today. Long enough chainstays that heel clearance with panniers isn't a problem. Neither is lack of seatstay mounts: seatclamp/rack mount for the win.
Karate monkey? Can buy an Anglesey if you want to slack it out a bit more. Not sure from memory what rack mounts they have, loads on the front. Can run 120 suss if needed
Pace rc429 or possibly rc629?
I use my rc529 for the uses you are after.
Rigid fork, panniers or bags + fast rolling tyres for touring. Or burlier tyres and a rockshox lyrik at 140mm for local trails. I can also build it single speed for the winter
It's a brilliantly versatile bike.
It replaced a cotic Solarismax which is also good for this type of thing, but I found the Solarismax less versatile due to lack of rack mounts and slidey dropouts.
Pipedream Sirius could be another option.
Thanks all would your recs change much if I said didn’t have to be slack and bikepacking instead of pannier. But deffo not gravel.
I've got a Frontier with a rigid fork. It works fine no frills just ride kind of bike.
Used it touring with smallish panniers (no tent) and with front rack / basket with bag and large seat pack for Traws Eryri. Worked fine for that and stable when loaded.
Rear rack mounted to the built in mounts at the bottom and a seat clamp with mounts at the top.
Rigid fork has lots of fixings on the sides for carriers of all sorts.
If you'd consider steel, Sonder now do a steel Broken Road (there's also the On-One Bootzipper).
There's also this, but only in XL.
would your recs change much if I said didn’t have to be slack and bikepacking instead of pannier. But deffo not gravel.
It'd still be a Frontier based on your initial post. Aluminium, slightly old fashioned geometry - probably one of the 'least slack' modern hardtails you'll find without veering into gravel bike territory.
Thanks all would your recs change much if I said didn’t have to be slack and bikepacking instead of pannier. But deffo not gravel.
I use my old Superfly for this, 'dated' geometry (whatever that means) so I think a 67 degree head angle. Still 2x with a range slightly wider than a 34 tooth 10-51 1x setup, and I use every gear on it (but I accept that's becoming virtually impossible to spec new now).
Set up with Rebas and Mezxal tyres. The only other concession to 'touring' is that I've fitted aero bars (required a new set of Salsa flat bars with extra area for clamping aero bars to). They're awesome a really comfortable place to tap away into the wind.
Then strap whatever bags you need to it. I've committed heresy and bought an 8l USWE backpack to put bulkier, lighter stuff in, it's brilliant, comfy and secure and means less crap strapped to my frame!
My son rode a Bird Zero 29 in New Zealand last year. He bikepacked it on the Aotearoa, self supported for the best part of 3000km - he also rated it for technical riding, managed a podium in an enduro on the same trip. He loved it. I rode it a few times before he went, and it was a revelation to me compared to my Stanton Sherpa. It is quite slack and long, but has a high stack, I found it comfortable and fast. It lacks a big triangle for a frame bag though.
I bike packed from Cheshire to Scotland last year on a hardcore hardtail (Ragley Marley with 140mm fork).
As others have alluded to, putting faster rolling tyres on makes a massive difference.
There's also loads of luggage solutions for all sorts of bikes.
I put SQ labs inner bar ends and Ergon grips on mine. The main thing that I did for comfort was to get the bike fitting me perfectly before I went away.
The main issue for me of using an "inappropriate" bike for a long bikepacking trip was that if I was to do them regularly, I'd probably go with a Rohloff set up for reliability.
I forgot to add. The main issue with longer lower slacker geometry is that it doesn't leave much room for a frame bag. I solved this by using a frame bag and one of the apidura long top tube bags that goes all the way along the top tube.
OP, depending on what spare parts you have lying around, have you considered buying a Stooge frame?
I have used my Frontier for trail riding, canal path rides, bike packing and commuting. It is a really good all-round bike and rides equally well with rigid forks or 100mmm suspension forks.
I bought the frame and rigid forks and built it up from spares I already had and bargain parts bought in sales.
Frontier frame is currently £339 on Alpkit/Sonder website, or £449 with rigid forks. Buy one of those and build up a bike to suit your needs?
There is a Mason Macro on eBay if the size is right and the budget can stretch a bit.
I keep staring at it like a kid in a toy shop.
The size is perfect for me too.....the price has been reduced once all ready.
I forgot to add. The main issue with longer lower slacker geometry is that it doesn't leave much room for a frame bag. I solved this by using a frame bag and one of the apidura long top tube bags that goes all the way along the top tube.
OP, depending on what spare parts you have lying around, have you considered buying a Stooge frame?
My son just did a 7 week NZ bike packing tour on a small FS enduro bke. Backpack, panniers and frame bags for the solution.
@matt_outandabout - absolutely, there are solutions out there, especially if you’re doing one off trips or similar and don’t want a specific bike.
Thanks everyone great suggestions frontier might just nose it 🙂
I'd do that trip on my Jones.
This would leave you some budget for bits if you chose wisely/ secondhandly
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/178221116583
And there's some wiggle room in that price, if you ask me. Frame might be 10 years old, and it's seen some action.
Came to suggest the Spa Rove - also available in Ti
If it helps expand the options I recently purchased an Aeroe Spider Rack which fits nicely on the chainstays of my Solaris/Big Bro and lets me have a setup of:
Large front Carradice style bar bag with my tent & sleep kit and odds'n'sods, two bottles and partial frame bag in the frame for tools/snacks (I'm on a fairly small/low frame so limited space) and then a drybag of whatever size I need on the Spider Rack for everything else.
Just means you can be less dependant on needing a frame with certain mounting points etc. as I could use this same setup on my gravel/road/mtb as well to suit the trip I'm planning.
If it helps expand the options I recently purchased an Aeroe Spider Rack which fits nicely on the chainstays of my Solaris/Big Bro and lets me have a setup of:
That's what I used for my big trip too. Only slight problem is that on longer lower slacker frames, the dry bag can sit in the way of the dropper post due to the shallower chainstay angles.
