I live in Northants and work near Woburn Sands so I have a few different bikes. Road bike and bmx for local riding, 160mm “freeride” FS for Woburn and a hardtail for a bit of everything else. I never ride mtb locally, it’s so crap round here and I’d rather be on the road bike or at the skatepark/jumps on the bmx.

My corner of Leicestershire has all the hills for the whole County, so the majority of my riding is in a relatively small area. It consists of wooded singletrack with a few jumps/drops and a more open almost Moorland area (almost like a Mini-Peaks) which is steeper (climbs) and faster (descents)than the wooded bits.

I currently ride a 140mm 26er hardtail with a Slack HA, a Ragley Blue Pig.

Works reasonably well round here and in my preferred Away Day ride location of the Dark Peak.

However I’m considering either getting the same sort of bike but in 29in flavour or a rigid 29er next year.

The thought around a rigind 29er is that I could ride further afield from my door but on less technical terrain.

TBH honest I could do with more travel, not less.

trailofdesctruction – did a night ride round there a couple of weeks ago – love it. Not sure if the travel is the biggest factor or the 36mm stanchion Vans I have on it now but my bike feels brilliant on those bouldery Lakes descents.

I guess night riding there is fine… providing you know whats coming up. Going down there too fast and not being ready for that, is going to leave you with some interesting bruising.

I had a Cotic Soul, which was a lovely, lovely bike. However, it was built up with 100mm Sids, and lightweight wheels. Regretted selling it, but it was just completely unsuitable for where I ride.

Everything there is rideable on a hardtail, but FS bikes are much better.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/trailofdestruction/sets/72157634040351303/

I guess night riding there is fine… providing you know whats coming up. Going down there too fast and not being ready for that, is going to leave you with some interesting bruising.

First time on that trail I tried to jump off that slab and messed up the landing – went over the bars and hit my face on a bit of moss-covered rock. In a bit of a daze I wondered if the squidgy feeling was due to my cheek bone caving in before I realised it was the soft moss. Happy days. 🙂

Most of my ‘proper’ riding is on Dartmoor (plus quick blasts around Haldon) and my Soul with 120 Rebas does me poud. Not saying a FS wouldn’t be great fun as well but as a ‘one bike to do it all’, the Soul’s pretty damn close.

@grum – you see what happens kids when you get over confident, you end up like this man. 😆

That sounds like a lucky escape there. Non-moss covered rocks really hurt, m’kay.

Southern Hampshire — I own three singlespeeds.

……..oh, and a 140mm ful suss ‘holiday bike’ that gets ridden twice a year if it’s lucky.

Malvern Hills – Intense 6.6 Coil shock & forks

I could easily get away with a 100mm hardtail (used to ride a rigid) but, as I’m getting older, I’m enjoying the downs more than the ups so would rather have a bike equipped for that side of things and uplift days etc. Still keep up with my younger mates on the climbs too so maybe it is the right bike?

Ride mostly in the Highlands.

Currently on a Dialled Alpine hardtail with 140mm up front, running 1×9.

Probably unlikely to buy another full suss unless I move to Surrey.

The trails you ride pretty much entirley determine the type of bike that would be best suited. And the geology of the area determines how the trails end up. Chalk country down south for instance makes for very smooth trails, so a hardtail for instance would be great.

Where I live in South Wales there’s lots of sandstone which breaks up into big ish square edged rocks, so you get lots of rocky loose climbs and a FS works well. The hardness of the rock also means you get steep hillsides and hence steep trails both up and down. When I had a HT I found it much harder to clean some of the rocky climbs on it.

Currently ride mostly on an Orange 5 and a Patriot.

North Hertfordshire here. I have a totally unsuitable 150mm LT steel hardtail.

It does everything I could want. I do more riding at Woburn than anywhere else, I do the odd trail centre day, and when I do want to buzz round the relatively flat bridleways of Hertfordshire it does it fine.

So I guess wrong bike for where I live, right bike for the sort of riding I do.

I live in the Alps – an Orange Patriot for when the lifts are open, and a Yeti SB66 with Marz44s for everything else. But to be honest, I’d like something a bit lighter than the 66 as when the lifts are shut, the hills take a lot of time to climb 🙂 Some faster rolling tyres are on their way to ease that particular pain.

Main bike is a 100mm travel FS which suits riding in the south east but doesn’t get out of its depth in Wales or the Peaks (unlike the rider).

Tyneside – I reckon a tourer is probably the best thing for round here, assuming you mean riding from the door. Sure you can drive half an hour to first rate mountain biking but the access to some absolutely stunning cycle paths and long distance trails is second to none.

Living in Northants, for most of the year, anything less than one of these^^^ and you’re not going anywhere on the XC routes!

But i also have a 160mm AM, and a 140mm HT, and an 100mm XCR just in case…….. 😉

North Downs and Surrey Hills here; Dialled Alpine with 150mm Marzocchi Z1 ETA on the front seems to be my bike of choice at the moment.

Lakes and Scottish Border trails here:

180 FR / 140 AM / 120 XC FS’ers and a cheeky 100 HT pretty much covers all bases for me.

Malverns/FoD/Wales. Solaris is sometimes a bit too little and Rocket is probably a bit too much but love riding them both. I probably need a 29er FS then 🙂 Still alps in two weeks so glad to have the Rocket then.

New Mills end of the Peaks I use my inbred. For big days out in the Peaks proper, Calderdale or the Lakes I use the Turner Flux.