Have you ever had a bike that just feels right from the first pedal turn.?

My Yeti Asr SL, best bike I will probably ever have, and some scrote relieved me of it in Wales 😡

1993/4 Dawes One Track. Loved it, rode it solid for 3 years till it died, literally.

2002 Orange P7, which I loved and missed when I sold it.

2014 Charge Cooker which out of all the bikes I’ve ridden is the best, personal opinion of course but it just works. I still have the frame and may well hold on to but for now I’m on a Stanton Sherpa which also goes into the same bracket. Always wanted one and feel right at home on it.

Oddly enough all steel bikes.

My Cannondale R1000 road bike drums it’s fingers and yawns when spinning but comes alive on downs and flies up hills.
My Superlight and my Bronson are just perfect and make me feel dead lucky every time I ride. All 3 are keepers don’t do n+1 any more

Every bike i’ve ever owned has been brilliant* with one exception. My first mtb was a 21″ framed Claude Butler thingy (early 90’s at a guess). It was twice the price of my BMX at the time and twice the size. I just couldn’t get used to the giant frame with no stand over and giant wheels. I rode it like a bmx but it wasn’t, so partly user error, but it broke in several places. Put me off mtbs for a while. I had to lay off the 20″ wheels for a year or two before committing to the large wheels again and it felt more natural second time round.

* My only ever test ride was for my first full-sus (Commie mini DH) and i thought it was crap but bought it anyway. Turned out it was ace once you got it away from the car park in into the mountains 😀

mtb: my Genesis io id felt perfect. But any well-handling steel HT might also
road: Defy Advanced SL. What a bike. Riding feels effortlessly smooth and comfortable.

I must be odd, almost all of my bikes have felt “right” I can only think of a couple that were a bit off…

Singular Hummingbird, rigid, singlespeed. Probably the most fun bike that I’ve ever owned, and the best handling too.
I’ve hardly ridden anything else for the last six or seven years and I never tire of it. People who I ride with say that I ride better on it than on anything else that I own or have owned.
Poised, agile when you want it to be and yet stable at speed. And, although I may be old, it doesn’t get minced about on either. I love it……

Can’t believe after all the riding I have done over the years, on bikes I thought were “right” for me, that I found a bike that “fits like a glove”…..doesn’t matter what the bike is, just to have that feeling for a bike, a piece of alloy, by a guy called “Brant”…smiles per miles….. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Orange P7 2011 in single speed guise – a little piece of me died when I discovered it had been nicked 🙁
The first incarnation of the NP Mega
On One Codiene – my current go to bike
One bike I thought would be love at first stroke was my long gone Evil Soverign – no matter how much changing of this and swapping that I did it never felt anything other than distinctly average

As Andy R Singular Hummingbird great loaded up flogged it as I fancied a Fat adventure bike which had to be a Singular Puffin
DSCF3439[1] by Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr
Untitled by Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr

Ti456. Had a steel one and swapped all the bits over so I didn’t have to mess around with set up. It was mis advertised as an 18″ but was actually a 16″ which has worked out really well as I probably would have tried a 16″ if I’d bought a new frame. It does everything the old frame did but faster.

Four spring to mind.

Early 90s, fully rigid Spesh Stumpjumper (the green one that they re-built as an anniversary piece a few years back). Bought it off a mate and rode it (incl a trip to Chamonix) until it got nicked in 2005.

My first FS bike, 2010 Turner 5.Spot. Regret selling it.

My two current bikes:

2Souls Quarterhorse. Lovely bike, sprightly and chuckable for a hardcore 29er and, slightly surprisingly

2015 Vitus Sommet. Good on the climbs, superb on the downs, loves to get air. Fastest bike I’ve owned. Incredible v4m considering it cost 1600 quid in the sales

26 inch wheeled Turner Flux.

My old stumpy far. Just worked, pretty much forgot it was there.

My Trek Session 88, felt right instantly, has allowed me to try things I really shouldn’t.

My codeine, built it semi fat and tried not to spend too much as I built it not long after the little dude was born.

My Schwinn homegrown USA c. 98
My 456
My Camber Evo

Never felt right is my **** Bianchi road bike. I want to love it but it is the only bike ever that I cannot get comfy on. Its worth sod all so I can’t sell and replace as i’d get less than a couple of hundred quid for it.

+1 for Genesis Fortitude. Rode it once round the car park at Bothy Bikes, and knew that it was perfect for me. There’s something about the way it rides that makes me smile more than my other bikes. Oh, it’s a Race, 20.5….

just two, the Inbred SS I rode for a couple of year was just….And weirdly my current bike, which is about as far from that as you can get, a Yeti ARS5c. Just amazing, fits perfectly, rides beautifully.

Bikes are **** ace. 😆

My two week old Genesis Datum. I’m not normally a roadie but work hours mean I largely don’t have a huge amount of time for the mtbs at present so commuting to work and a few short blasts on the road keep the legs ticking over so decided to treat myself to a Datum. I’ve ridden a few road bikes briefly before and had longer periods on one or two but the Datum blows them all out of the water, feels spot on from the off and is the first bike I’ve bought in 10 years I feel no need to tinker with at all. Top notch. My Mojo HD also felt pretty good from the off and just got better with time, still a little sad I sold it really, my Foxy also felt awesome to start with but now thinking it’s almost too good for its own sake. Ruddy fast bike but can feel a little underwhelming on lesser trails sometimes.

My Love/Hate singlespeed. Built up from an old,scratched frame to something I’ll never part with. About to try (against all wisdom) an alfine 11 set up.

Oh, and a Calibre Dune. Much, much, more fun that I could imagine from such a bargain purchase.

Stanton Slackline.
It makes me think I could do that faster in a good way.

Pretty much all of them. Which is weird because I’m quite fussy – but maybe slow to make up my mind…

My old Ironhorse Sunday. Felt like you were in it rather than on it!

On-One inbred
Commencal SL
Specialized Stumpjumper

Also my road bike Cannondale Supersix, all felt right from the off.

codeine

oddly enough the voodoo I ride felt great from the off but now it feels kinda small – not like “I NEED MOAR GNARR” but more that I could go half a size up, but not so much I’m going to chop it in…

When I demoed a 5010, i proclaimed that all the bike manufacturers should stop trying and raise the White flag, as this was the perfect 140mm travel trail bike. I was then told it’s 125mm. 😆

2005 Demo 8. loved that bike, still miss it, 8 years after it was stolen 😥

My 2006 Super Light. Could do with a slightly slacker head angle but so much fun to ride.

Second MTB I owned was an Outland, a full sus that had the original Virtual Pivot Point suspension design, that they later sold the licensing to another company (Santa Cruz I think) when they went out of business. Second bike that just felt right from the beginning was my Ibis Mojo.

I built a Turner Czar up its one of the best bikes ive ever had , there was an open day at Llandegla and the Silverfish guys were building one up and i thought it looked perfect so bought one blind never ridden its just amazing so comfortable climbs well has loads of grip and flies downhill for a 100mm travel it feels so much more.

I’ve bought most of my bikes second-hand so most of them have been specced up by someone else to their own specifications. So it’s pure chance if it suits me the way it is when I first take ownership of it.

The one that required the least amount of fannying about with to get it how I liked it was my Cotic Roadrat. It was so comfortable and the perfect size and shape for me, right from the word go.

All I changed on it was the grips and the saddle.

Mountain bike-wise, I’ve probably had more smiles per mile out of my Salsa Selma than anything else – but that was bought as just a frame and built up through various trial-and-error modifications to become the bike I’m now so fond of.

Twice so far: a now retired Dekerf Team SL, and a still with me 2007 Orange P7 s/s.

Whyte 29-CS – from the very first ride it was instantly familiar and felt ‘right’ straight away, like I’d been riding it for years.

For ages it was my Marin Rocky Ridge but then that was improved upon (not by as much as you might expect) by my Bandit 26. My Cervelo S1 is also really good for me such that I can’t imagine replacing it. Most disappointing bike has got to be the C456, just couldn’t get it to ride right.

Marin wildcat trail / Rocky Ridge hardtail. Ruddy wonderful bike and the frames still in the parents garage awaiting another rebuild. Although in a different way the older charge duster i built up last year just clicked as well.