Who makes the best full sus bikes that you can ride all through a uk winter and not have to have a major service afterwards or have to replace loads of bearing and bushes etc. etc. or you can service yourself cheaply with good availability of parts.

Cheers

ORANGE!

Santa Cruz most bike though if you look after them

The reason I say Orange – huge mud clearance and just two big bearings that a) last years b) are really easy to change yourself and c) cost £10.

Ventana. Double bearings on each pivot, polished alloy rear that polishes up, nice thick paint on the front end that you just peel the decals off, t-cut & replace to look as good as new come spring.

Orange I ride my 5AM in all shite and always puts a smile on me face
Reliability worth every penny

for once Orange actualy is the answer. 1 pivot and no traps trumps any multi-pivot design when it comes to putting up with crap

or once Orange actualy is the answer. 1 pivot and no traps trumps any multi-pivot design when it comes to putting up with crap

One of the answers…

Swap 5 for Heckler or a Superlight or a Bullit and you have similar design all the plus points of mud clearance and 1 pivot and easy to change bearings and loads cheaper 🙂

Or a Prophet or a Rush.

I don’t ride my Tallboy that much during winter but I think it is well up to it though.

Bottom two links have grease nipples so they can be kept nice and fresh easily (2 min job after a wet ride), upper bearings now have lifetime warranty and are adjustable.
The lower shock bush is rumored to go quickly but can be replaced easily with a BETD heavy duty one which is meant to last well.

Saracen also, single pivot design running on bushes rather than bearings.

Interestingly I have had 3 multilink sus bikes since 2001 and have replaced the bearings once on one of them.

The complaints around bearing wear and buying single pivots to avoid etc are a complete mystery to me!

2001 stumpjumper fsr, 2003 Titus racer x (one new bearing kit when I snapped the main pivot axle, and 2009 mojo sl

And yes they were ridden all year (although I’m skinny)

Don’t know about the DW-Link versions but the older Turners are designed for easy routine maintenance with grease ports at the pivots and all parts available off the shelf, and straightforward to work on, though by regularly purging with fresh grease, don’t need much actual spannering.

My Zesty has only had one pivot bearing change in the 3 years I’ve had it and it’s only this winter I’m planning on mostly riding another bike. That said I tend to road ride if the trails are very muddy.

I ride all year round and occasionally the bike ends up submerged to varying depths. I’d say the bearings (bushes) on my flux outlast those on my 5 or super light. Obviously it’s more of a job though on the flux as there is more of em. YMMV and all that

Don’t know about the DW-Link versions but the older Turners are designed for easy routine

The DW link ones are too, all the same features and after two years of use all year round including lots of mud and wet rides, I stripped the pivots on mine for the first time at the weekend. Still like new, no visible wear, no dirt in the grease, absolutely no play or problems.
So in answer to the OP, Turners will tolerate that use no problem.

My Rize/RZ is pretty good now.

Initially it had been assembled with no grease or lube and chewed through the main pivot and a couple of minor linkages pretty quickly (3 months Autumn use)

A new pivot was £17 and the other bits were £22. The bearings are all glued in place with Loctite 638 and are easy to remove with the assistance of the mrs best hairdryer.

Since refitting the bearings it has been as smooth as silk and trouble free. This will be its fourth winter.

The complaints around bearing wear and buying single pivots to avoid etc are a complete mystery to me!

My mate is small and skinny and used to run multi-pivot fs bikes year round. He got so fed up with annual £90 half day bearing changes that he got rid of them all and now only rides rigid.

I never understand the comments about FS bikes in the winter.

Ive had several, ridden them all winter, jetwashed them, used MucOff and done all the things people say you should not do.

Only replaced bearings after about 3 years of abuse at very little cost.

GT I-Drive. Dead easy to maintain the pivots as they use 2 sets of pivots but both are standard sealed headset bearings and are easily accessed with a couple of allen keys.

TBH I’ve only needed to replace mine once in about 6 years of ragging through just about every UK weather condition known to man.

Trance mate!

I’ve a slot dropout inbred that i converted from SS to Alfine to use as a winter bike but dont use it as I prefer to ride my FS.

Most FS bikes are OK and not a PITA in the winter – it’d be good to know what bike your mate had molgrips, cos my multi pivoted DW linked Turner’s bearings are in better shape than my 5’s were. I think it depends a lot on the bike and how the bearings/bushings are implemented rather than how many pivots. That’s only a factor when the buggers need changing.

To answer to Turner Q above re the DW v non DW bikes – I think they both use zerts but on the later bikes they are screw in rather than press fit.

i reckon the argument for single pivot points only really applies when you are actually changng the bearings.
much more important than that imo woud be making sure every bearing has plenty of grease in it, if done when the bearing is new it will extend the life of the bearing many times over.
(compared to just having a smear of grease in there)

Single pivot Marin.

if done when the bearing is new it will extend the life of the bearing many times over.

+1
pop the seals off clean and regrease, job done.

Check out this website: http://mbbearings.co.uk/catalog/

Brilliant service, good price and great website.

much more important than that imo woud be making sure every bearing has plenty of grease in it, if done when the bearing is new it will extend the life of the bearing many times over.

Yes but greasing 12 bearings is more trouble than two.

Great thanks everyone, i already ride a Superlight but am looking to go to a 29er full sus and do like to ride it all year round on and off. My friend has a cannondale and has nothing but problems with it in the bad weather so basically does not use it unless its dry!

I would like the tallboy but not sure I will be able to find the funds to stretch to that.

I do also have SS for when its really bad but like to ride all weather on the full sus.

Cheers all

Pretty much anything will be fine, as long as it’s got half decent bearings in it.