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I had a moment of clarity on Saturday as I made a pigs ear of the red route at Whinlatter. I've been thinking for a while of jumping on the full suss bandwagon then I realised that actually I don't need one. I spend most of my time trawling the moors around Huddersfield, long climbs and nothing really technical. Maybe 5% of my riding is trail centre.
I thought '...hold on here, I can get a seriously good hard tail for full suss money.'
Now I just need some advice, what should I get?
You might want to tell people your budget and what you want to do with it. Sounds like ton might have a Cove coming up for sale.
£1.5K
I had go on me mates' P7 t'other night.I liked it,a lot . So much so,that I will be building one up for the winter. I felt confident and fast(relatively) immediately.
stiffee
£1.5k will buy you quite a range of hardtails. Do you want to build it yourself or go off the peg.
You could go down the steal route and go with the ones that are always mentioned on here.
You need to decide if you want racy, or burly. How much travel...
I wouldn't steal one.
The ste[b]a[/b]l route?!
Are you suggesting he go pinching a bike?
Pretty much any hardtail sounds like it will suit what you are wanting it to do tbh.
Longer travel, shorter length, beefier ones will make pedalling more difficult and generally harsher as far as ride comfort goes (especially on longer rides)
As a sweeping generalisation most hardtails (80/100mm) for that money from the big manufacturers are generally designed for XC racing and can be quite harsh for riding comfort, long in length, steep and forward making descents that bit harder
Something with adjustable travel may give you a bit more to play with at trail centres but of course isn't essential
For the money you could build up (or have built up) loads of frame only frames
Alternatively you don't have to spend that much and still have something really quite nice
Get a steel frame and spec it up and build it yourself.
mucho fun
a 456 will enable you to get tons of bling on there, nice ride too.
I was looking at something off the peg.
A mate at work is letting me out on his P7 soon so I'm looking forward to that.
I don't want something too stiff as I want some comfort for the longer rides.
Soul.
p7's are a nice ride. cracking geometry. You'd be able to get a [url= http://www.sunsetmtb.co.uk/shop/index.php?product_id=1173&category_id=81 ]P7 Pro[/url] for the money.
There's a brand new Charge Duster XT just gone onto ebay (Ahem).
Will let it go for less than the BIN price if we deal direct.
Genesis Altitude 30?
If you aren't racing, then maybe steel with an adjustable fork will be able to do most things you're after. I would see what Genesis, Orange, Cotic and On-One have available.
Rocky Mountain Vertex 50
Genesis Altitude 30
Merida Matts 2000D
I will be selling my Charge Duster ti Medium in a couple of weeks, it will be with RS Sid races and XT wheels and chainset & shifters. Or i migt split & just sell frame. frame, forks, chainset all less than 6 months old.
Giant XTC
What the fudge is it with you blokes and steel, why do you want to build a hartail that weighs as much as a full sus? (ok, well 1lb more than an alloy frame)
1.5k is massive budget, go ride as many bikes as you can get a test on, see what you like and what you dont whittle it down from there.
I understand you dont fancy building one up, BUT, for that money you could build a Ti hardtail with nice spec if you bought the frame 2nd hand.
OR
[url] http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/?fn=product&productId=21&categoryId=38 [/url]
or
[url] http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/?fn=product&productId=37&categoryId=38 [/url]
Leaving you £500 to take it away riding.....
tinsy - because if you aren't racing 1lb of weight probably doesn't make that much difference to a 150lb rider on a 26lb bike?
whatever floats your boat... Ti must be the best of both worlds, and looks that last too.
Off the peg for 1.5k?
If you get Ti make sure you get a lifetime guarantee, I've had three Hummers fail on me.
Whyte 905 or save a ton of money and buy a better specced,bike like the Boardman Pro HT for £1k.
Hell for that money you could buy the bike and buy a steel frame for a swap with the change if thats your fancy!
What about a Cove HJ? Mines great.
Whyte 905?
That looks pretty good actually.
Thanks Fella's lots to ponder...........
What the fudge is it with you blokes and steel, why do you want to build a hartail that weighs as much as a full sus? (ok, well 1lb more than an alloy frame)
Depends very much on your choice of frame, my medium Soul is 4.2lbs, my Scandal was I think 3.6lbs, so it doesn't have to be a dramatic difference.
stumpjumper
Charge Duster and as others, build it up yourself.
I got mine with revelation forks, so you can adjust for trails, Formula brakes and xt kit and its a great bike... I agree I just went to North Downs on Saturday and there was some really cool flowing singletrack and full susser wouldnt have been half as much fun...