Looking at the spares in the garage, I think, with the addition of an Anthem X 29’er frame, may end up with the ideal bike for the type of riding I enjoy…more xc and swoopy singletrack than rocky and rad.

So…who here has ridden and enjoyed an Anthem x 29’er?

I have both 100mm and 130mm travel forks…wonder how it would be with the 130’s?

Thanks.

Rode it with 120 and it was great fun. Always felt a little short for my gorilla arms but the frame was brill. Run it at 130 I’d say.

I had one with 100mm front and rear, it’s good but they don’t half munch through frame bearings

Run mine with 100mm forks. It’s great fun, really well sorted suspension (and I’m a hard tail man really – but my back suffers on them). No problems at all on the anthem, despite riding it down stuff in the peaks you’d think an xc bike might struggle with. It just gets on with it.

Mine’s 2013 and still on original bearings – no sign of wear yet.

Hi
I had one and ran it on 130 forks and loved it.
Built up nice and light for a “trail” bike with decent tyres and a dropper-about 27lbs.
Only got rid as I felt the 100mm rear was a bit too little for some of the riding I was doing in the Dales and ended up swapping the bits onto a Santa Cruz Tallboy LTc that I picked up off here for a good price otherwise I might still have it.
For xc you won’t go far wrong.
Cheers
Steve

I have one, bought to do fast cross country stuff.

Did the west highland way on it, rode most of devils staircase.

Competent but wheels are a wobble fest, too cheap & light and just flex, so budget for that.

Depends whether swaying more to xc than trail… personally think the current one is more xc than trail (and 27.2 seatpost doesn’t help). After a xc/trail bike myself but i thought think fatgit has it right with the Tallboy …budget permitting

Run mine with 100mm forks. It’s great fun, really well sorted suspension (and I’m a hard tail man really – but my back suffers on them). No problems at all on the anthem, despite riding it down stuff in the peaks you’d think an xc bike might struggle with. It just gets on with it.

Mine’s 2013 and still on original bearings – no sign of wear yet.

Your bearings are likely massacred cp (and you must have done the shock bushing? infamous for wearing fast on this bike) after 6 years in the Peak. Ten bearings in the linkage spreads the load and just riding round you don’t see huge play in the bike when they are worn. If you were to strip down the swingarm you’d see a lot of movement.
Worth changing as you’ll get an improved ride.

I’m running a 2015 frame that had been butchered but I picked up for peanuts, with 120mm Reba’s and an offset bushing. Can handle most things I throw at it and I live in the Southern Peaks. I’ve swapped the lower bearings once and they seem to be holding out OK, the top ones are still rotating smoothly. The maestro is nice and smooth under pressure but can get a little over excited under faster spinning situations however, I do keep the shock fully open all the time. The dodgy respray is scraping off now so I’m thinking of getting it powder coated, unless someone gives me a new frame I’ll be sticking with it.

Your bearings are likely massacred cp

They’re really not!

Been trying to work out what this “X” anthem is since you first posted….

Assumed it was some new edition of the anthem ….

Then thought maybe you mean curly X. Or 1,2,3…. Is that correct?

If so….
Gotta anthem advanced last year. Great at gravel riding and easy xc but limited at more difficult stuff. Going up Cadair Idris was great, coming down the top bit was a bit pisch.

Only buy if you’re after an XC Speed machine.

And as for that **** stupid wedge adjuster seatpost. Absolutel **** abomination. They need shooting for that.

The Anthem was called Anthem X for a number of years, I believe the X denoted the 10cm of travel when it changed from the 80 and 90mm of the earlier Anthems, and maybe why the current 29er does not have the X attached to it. The Anthem has always been an XC bike though MBR placed it high in their “Trail bike of the year” competition.