Rigid mountain bikes

Love mine. It has gravel wheels,29 wheels and plus. All the bikes you’ll ever need!

Tazzy, is that a Ti prototype of a Stooge Dirtbomb?

kinesis have a new version of the FF29 which sounds like meets most of the criteria e.g. alu, singlespeed dropouts and kinesis do their own rigid forks too:
https://www.kinesisbikes.co.uk/Catalogue/Models/Maxlight/FF29

Not too expensive and the sparkly black/brown looks nice. Saw some photos which I think were for the launch on instagram but then not much other information out there yet.

127mm head tube in the largest size? **** off. Next.

https://postimg.cc/mPdvqfGb

Loving my Solaris with 2.6 at each end. Been out on it for the last few months and so capable.
Bird Blank Rigid fork equivalent to a 130mm suss fork.
Loads of clearance and with a 2.6 tyre feels quite flexible. Definitely recommend 👍

The correct answer here is stooge.

Mk7 frames available this year.

The correct answer here is Stooge

Yes, but OP is against steel, so also no. Seriously limits options, unless you’re throwing money at Ti.

@Tazzy what are those bars in the ti Stooge? They look 🔥 ..

this stooge is a custom just for me called the motobastard (motorhead reference) with a very tweaked geometry. the bars are a special set of locked components media blasted by them to match the frame.

its a stonking little beastie as as much fun as the original ti speedball prototype it replaced for general riding and a total nutter on the downs

the bird 29 v2 is down to 410 quid. the trek 1120 fork has the longest a2c of any of the forks FWICS?

I have had an aluminium Sonder Frontier for two years and love it. I was not interested in having a gravel bike, and thought a rigid 29er mountain bike would suit me better and be more versatile. I bought it as a frame with rigid fork and built it up with own parts including a dropper. I really rate it very highly – it is great on forest road and all manner of off-road trails but also worth saying that it has been far more capable (and fun) on singletrack than I was expecting. So, it has been great to have as a cheap ‘spare’ bike for when I am not riding the full-sus (and it sees day to day use for shopping and commuting too).
Have run it with Schwalbe nobby nics (2.6), and currently on 2.35 Specialized fast track (r) and ground control (f) which have been surprisingly OK throughout the winter slop but absolutely fly on dry/damp trails.

I agree with this, but for the same reasons (and reasons of rolling resistance) there’s no way I would be fitting 2.6 inch tyres to such a bike!

Why? I’m no racer and I haven’t noticed I’m any slower with bigger tyres. Where I ride I need the extra traction over mud and muddy rocks etc and I appreciate the extra comfort.

@montgomery

I prefer a light stuff aluminium frame and currently have a rigid Scandal on the go myself.

What forks are on your scandal?

Bigger volume tyres can roll more efficiently off-road anyway, I’m more convinced of that from loaded riding.

Yes, I agree

I’d be wary of going down the fatbike route if your knees are an issue.

Yes, I’m not interested in this. Too many sets of wheels already, I need a bike they fit on, not introduce another standard.

I have 27.5 2.8 wheels on my Whippet if that helps.

I really like the whippet, keep the pictures coming.

Santa Cruz Chameleon and Salsa Timberjack Al. Difficult to get hold of either, but both adaptable and bikepacking friendly, but don’t think they’d really give you much over the Scandal, other than a few mounts and some branding!

I love my scandal, it’s awesome, not bothered about brands at all, just how it rides.

kinesis have a new version of the FF29

I once bought an ff29, convinced myself I’d fit on a large, they didn’t do XL. Worst bike I’ve ever owned. Only carbon forks I’ve seen crack with my own eyes were kinesis ones on my friends bike.

What is wrong with the Scandal and what are you looking to achieve with a new bike?

Nothing really, I’ve had it a while and I just fancied a change. I’d been reading an article on rigid bikepacking bikes and seen a few nice bikes with colour coded forks and got an itch.

I thought I’d post on here, you lot would link me loads of lovely looking bikes to drool over and Id go buy something.

I’ve realised to get this I need to compromise and go steel. Not really many ti options either unless your talking silly money.

I think I’ll just swop my genesis tarn fork out for another carbon fork with cage mounts and keep riding it. Scandal frame is black so at least they will be colour coded 🤣

I guess I wanted a scandal frame with more mounts on it including the fork. Something that took a rack maybe? More bottle cages. Maybe a few bolts on the top tube for bags? I might just drill it and get the rivet gun out. 🤔

Currently using an old man mountain rack and Robert axle hub mounts so technically dont need rack mounts but……..

the trek 1120 fork has the longest a2c of any of the forks FWICS?

When I emailed planet x asking about their fork for my scandal (500 a2c) they sent this reply

The fork is meant to be replicated to match the length of a 100mm fork, so it would drop your head tube a little and would also steepen the head angle considerably and drop the bottom bracket height too. I’m not sure of any rigid forks that replicate the length of a 130mm fork I’m afraid.

So out of all the forks available I think the trek 1120 is at the top of my list

Although px blub states

A full-carbon monocoque rigid fork with tapered steerer for 27.5″ and 29er bikes. it’s long, light and geometry corrected to replace 100mm-120mm suspension forks.

Not sure what the official a2c is on a genesis tarn fork, anyone know it and save me measuring it? It’s all I’ve ever used on the scandal and it’s fine for me, regardless if its officially too short or not. Thanks

Just seen this video on Hardtail Party:

He’s built his up with a suspension fork but RSD also do an ‘adventure build’ with their own rigid fork which has plenty of bike packing mounts:

Sergeant V5 Aluminum

Probably not cheap getting one from Canada but maybe this ticks all your boxes?

Depending on headset, you can always extend effective axle to crown by 10mm with an adaptor, such as.

Wolf Tooth ZS56/40 Lower Headset Extended 10mm

I get it’s disappointing for you not to have many options, but the no steel rule and niche market means it’s not that surprising?

What forks are on your scandal?

Some Ridefarr forks, AC 483mm, that I bought a couple of years ago. Don’t seem to be available anymore, although I see they are knocking out some cheap steel frames (lots of mounts, not convinced by the geo and weight, though).

I wasn’t sure how the forks would work with the Scandal frame but am happy enough – ended up with a slightly slacker front end and a slightly higher BB, relative to the 26″ bike that preceded it.

I have tarn and 1120 forks here…
They’re basically identical lengths.

Genesis Tarn fork is 495mm A-C x 51mm offset

re: tyres
I have some 2.6 icons on my xc bike. very fast rolling from both feel and very unscientific rolldown tests conducted in xc races (where presumably my rivals also have similarly quick tyres).

the trek 1120 fork has the longest a2c of any of the forks FWICS?

When I emailed planet x asking about their fork for my scandal (500 a2c) they sent this reply

The fork is meant to be replicated to match the length of a 100mm fork, so it would drop your head tube a little and would also steepen the head angle considerably and drop the bottom bracket height too. I’m not sure of any rigid forks that replicate the length of a 130mm fork I’m afraid.

That’s not right, 500 a2c is not far short of an unsagged 100mm 29er fork, and about the same as a sagged 120mm 29er fork.

Rigid 100mm corrected 29er forks are normally more like 483mm — see Surly, Salsa, Pipedream, Cotic, etc.

This is a good list for forks:

Complete List of Forks with Bottle Cage Mounts (Utility Forks)

When I emailed planet x asking about their fork for my scandal (500 a2c) they sent this reply

The fork is meant to be replicated to match the length of a 100mm fork, so it would drop your head tube a little and would also steepen the head angle considerably and drop the bottom bracket height too. I’m not sure of any rigid forks that replicate the length of a 130mm fork I’m afraid.

Legometeorology’s right, 500mm A-C is the approx length of a 29er 120-130mm XC fork with ~25% sag. I think rigid forks work better on most bikes when they’re accounting for more like 35% sag but it doesn’t really matter.

Trek 1120 fork is 510mm a/c and also also has bosses for the Trek specific rack.

Also Whisky do a 500mm A/C. I used one on a Bird Zero29 and worked great.

@rootes1

Did you post about your bike a while ago? Did you also try drop bars on the bike? Bike looks great

Are they custom painted forks?

See, that’s what I’m after, some style!

Legometeorology’s right, 500mm A-C is the approx length of a 29er 120-130mm XC fork with ~25% sag. I think rigid forks work better on most bikes when they’re accounting for more like 35% sag but it doesn’t really matter.

It was the px email that’s been putting me off, making me think I couldn’t get a fork big enough for the scandal.

I think I just need to buy the trek 1120 fork and get on with it.

Thanks everyone.

@Damascus

Yer was on drops for a bit as was testing options out before getting a custom frame built.

The Zero is now back as a proper hardtail – The Zero29 is a lovely frame a quite light, Bird has them on offer at the moment – they also have some matching rigid forks, though not sure if they still have any and also they did not feature pack mounts. might be worth an ask?

The bird rigid forks are 505 A2C so within a smidge of those trek forks. Rootes that bird looks lovely.

@superstu

ta!

yer i used Whisky fork with custom paint – they now sit in the shed on the wall as a reminder not to waste money!

More of a test to see if I could add an image, but just finished building this up as my off-road touring/bikepacking rig.

Selcof carbon forks with the pack mounts, think they’re about 510mm a to c.
Front tyre is 2.6, rear 2.1 but could fit a 2.3 when/if I go 1x at some point. Has rack mounts on frame, which is something I’ve been after that a lot of modern hardtails don’t have.

@dufresneorama

Your image doesn’t work for me. Whats the frame?

I use https://postimages.org/ to post images. Would love to see more pictures of rigid 29ers.

Thanks

Rockhopper expert 2018 frame, pic shows with Geoff bars with 35° stem, but since swapped to 50mm stem with some 76mm riser bars.

Edit… Cheers Damascus. Photo link works a treat 👍

Another financial casualty of this thread: my new build

Bit late to the party but that’s my Scandal with bird blanks. Really liked it, although it’s back to having suspension again now.

Hi,

Just thought I’d update this thread.

After looking for a rigid bikepacking bike that wasn’t steel I gave up and bought one of these instead and fitted it to my scandal.

https://www.tritoncycles.co.uk/frames-forks-c6/rigid-forks-c51/trek-1120-adventure-touring-fork-p20815/s99845?utm_medium=ppc&utm_term=trek-1120-adventure-touring-fork-colours-nautical-navy-colours-nautical-navy-5257709&utm_campaign=froogle&cid=GBP&glCurrency=GBP&glCountry=GB

Combined with an old man mountain rack and Robert axle project axle it can now fit a rear pannier rack.

Really impressed with the fork. It weighs 844g. The front rack that fits the fork is 447g.

I fitted a new hope headset and crown race. This fork has a metal steerer so fitted a star nut so I’m hoping no more headset wobble after a hard ride that I got on the genesis tarn fork with the fork bung.

Photo taken outside my local bike shop before putting in my van. Apologies for not aligning the cranks and wheels.

Looks good 👍

Looks good 👍

Thanks @superstu. It actually looks exactly like it did before with the genesis tarn forks but it has the extra mounting points.

Its a lot of money for 6 bolts on the side of the forks and 4 on the top for the rack 🤣

Its a lot of money for 6 bolts on the side of the forks and 4 on the top for the rack

I know, but changing to a frame with a different label but not necessarily any better would have been a load more ☺️

changing to a frame with a different label but not necessarily any better would have been a load more

I pre ordered the scandal so I think it cost me £150 plus £20 shipping. It’s been one of my favourite bikes I’ve ever owned and gets ridden far more than my other fancy bikes.

If I could only have one bike, it would be my scandal. Now it can fit a rack and has mounting points it’s pretty much perfect. Just need to get another trip booked in and test it.

My favourite toy of the moment, would only upgrade to a 3+. Got some ZTR’s on Pro 2 Evo’s for it at the weekend, once they have the right caps and freehub I’ll put the X kings on them and the Grifters on these ones.