So what were the ultimate 26ers then?

cookeaa – Member
Page 2 and no mention of a trailstar yet?…

Was thinking the same as I read through the thread. I know the Spooky Metalhead, etc. might have been a couple of years earlier, but I think DMR pretty much nailed the UK hardcore hardtail first time out.

Re. the chicken-and-egg thing about enduro races and bikes, it seems to me that racing has directed the development of some bikes to have more efficient suspension and lighter frames – often carbon.

So an awesome all mountain bike like an Orange Alpine or NP Mega might not be the absolute best enduro race bike (though still very competitive in the right hands), but would be excellent as Alps bikes or for the Lakes/Scotland big mountain rides.

+1 for the Specialized Pitch

As mentioned on previous page. One of the first long travel, slack head angle long top tube trail bikes that’ll ride all day. For me it is the for father of what most ride now. Some of the current bikes from other manufactures even look like it as well.

I’ve stil got mine and cannot find anything that is worth replacing it with. It’s battered and bruised but still going strong.

Long Live The Pitch 🙂

It makes me happy to see the 06 Rocky Ridge mentioned… ruddy awesome bike. I still have the frame and its getting rebuilt when I move back home again.

Mines hung up in the garage, one day…
As a connoisseur of bikes may I recommend the Bandit 26 to you, everything you love about the RR but with a bit of squish and even more playful!

Is there any bike that really only worked as a 26er?

I still have a 26 Giant Anthem, didnt Giant struggle at first struggle to get the frame to work with clown wheels?

Got to be the Trailstar surely?
Honorable mention for the Charge Blender as well, such a fun bike. Not quite the legendary status of the Trailstar though. Shame that Charge are an awful niche company now, they used to be cool!

Is there any bike that really only worked as a 26er?

In the tradition of recommend what you ride, I’m going to nominate the venerable 26″ Five (in it’s latest incarnation). I don’t know how it stacked up against all the other 26″ bikes (although I preferred it to the 26″ Trance X that was nominated earlier), but I do wonder whether Orange will ever make a better trail bike.

I’ve tried the (Mk1) 650B version and thought it was just a slightly heavier, slightly less fun version of the 26″ bike. Not much worse, but no better in my mind.

The Alpine Five may be great in the alps but is possibly too big to be a versatile trail bike. Not sure about the Segment yet, but I tend to think that the single pivot design with that swing arm works better with smaller wheels. The bigger they get, the longer and more flexible the swingarm has to get. So the Five may be a bike that only really worked (or at least worked best) as a 26″ bike.

FunkyDunc – Member

Is there any bike that really only worked as a 26er?

I still have a 26 Giant Anthem, didnt Giant struggle at first struggle to get the frame to work with clown wheels?

TBH I don’t think there’ll ever be a bike that only worked as 26, because 650b is so similiar. Whether the 650b versions will be as good or as popular is another question though.

I think Giant mostly struggled with longer travel maestro 29ers. The Anthem isn’t the prettiest but it’s bloomin brilliant. Giant decided that the best way to promote their 650b range was to slag off all their 29ers though, so it all went a bit weird after that.

I’m very pleased to see that both my Trailstar and Pitch are cropping up in this thread. The Pitch will be visiting the Alps with me next week. Ooh yeah.

Id be with the guys suggesting the ’97 Explosif (ooh Max Light OR tubing) if I hadn’t broken it an replaced it with a ’98 Hei Hei (ti hardtail variant) which remained the best hardtail I’d ridden until my first foray into 650bness. The Chameleon also has a place in my heart.

Bouncy bike wise, the Heckler was an amazing step forward in terms of functionality, as was the Blur.

Both the Mojo and SB66 set a new tone with regard to ride and aesthetics.

An honourable mention to the RC-200 for being the bike most likely to spur me on after overtaking me during racing in the 90s.

I’d go

Kona Hei-Hei / Cove Hummer
Giant Anthem
Spesh Pitch

I don’t get the Cotic Soul love fest, it didn’t really bring anything new to the party at all.

Dragon – hard tail ti variant Hei Hei, I presume.

Best Ive owned would be a Cotic Soul, although I think I wanted a De Kerf Team SL slightly more but could never get my hands on one.

Cove Handjob
Turner Flux & 5 Spot

I’d love another handjob………

My Titus/Hammerhead 100X is still my favourite bike despite that it is somewhat outdated for some of the modern trails. It is still stiff and creak free after 12 years (9 years in active duty) and really fun and engaging to ride even with 2nd hand kit from the main bike.

It is also sad that it has built-in self-destruction mechanism which will kill it someday. The seat tube is fairly short and many of them have cracked from top tube – seat tube junction.

Nearly forgot Breezer Storm

I don’t get the Cotic Soul love fest, it didn’t really bring anything new to the party at all.

Look at it in terms of when it first came out in 2002 through rather than when it hit it’s peak popularity 10 years later. OK a 100mm hardtail wasn’t anything new, but it wasn’t an XC bike whereas at the time everything else was either built for XC racing or was built much tougher (DMR trailster, Spooky Metalhead).

2005 specialized enduro – the bike that was #enduro before #enduro existed

Specialized Pitch. Suddenly we could buy a 6 inch trail bike that would climb well, descend like a dh bike, you could do all day rides on it then take it to the Alps

The 2005 enduro beat the pitch to that trick by a good few years.

Yes, but the Pitch was brown. Brown!

loved my demo9, loved my bottlerocket and now loving the saracen 16x i bought soooooo cheap as noone seems to want them but me. happy days #26forever

For me it was these, all hardtails as I never got on with full-sus. Also the steel Kona Lava Dome/Cinder Cone with rigid forks was bags and bags of fun and always felt sprightly/inspiring and took mad abuse for the weight.

Funny, since I started this thread I’ve been really enjoying my 26er. Hope I’ll be riding it for a good few years yet. It’s a slightly overbuilt 180mm “Alps bike”, but also works great as a pedal/push-up mini DH shred sled.

I can see the appeal of the Soul for the riding a lot of people do. I sort of regret not having owned one myself TBH.

I’m going to say Orange Patriot.

Ragley Blue Pig. Geometry that feels so weird at first but works so well once you’ve got your head round it.

I regularly trawl e bay for a ti version, but sadly in vain so far.

Blue pig 16 inch frame for sale near me . Tempted . Probably too small though…

Another vote for the Orange p7 I loved mine, still wished I hadn’t sold it but what’s done is done. Mine was a 2010 one classic black with white decals great bike.

My other vote as an xc trail bike, the Speshi Camber Expert 2012, 10/10 mbr, pretty sure it got Bike of the year in one of the mags, I’ve still got mine and its an awesome bike.

Even though im trying to sell it, will be sad to see it go to the point I probably won’t sell it.

I’ve only ever ridden 26″ and would go with all three of my bikes, all cobbled together through bits bought on the classifieds on here over the the last 10 or so years:
– Tinbred
– Heckler
– Superlight
I’m well aware they’re all utterly obsolete but somehow I manage to keep riding them. Just modernised the Tinbred with new forks and 1×10 and I absolutely love it!

(and I do still have a huge soft spot for my 1986 Hoo Koo e Koo and 1993 P7…)

Funny you say that molgrips, look what I was riding again today…

The last 2 models of patriot were awesome. Though I did lol when one of the first complete production models lasted about 4 hours of riding before the swingarm fell apart. I could make a space for either of those in the garage, right now. And imo they’re only going to get to be better buys as lyriks and 55s and chunky wheels drop in price

I hope people don’t seriously think it’s hard to get 26” rims…

We have plenty on stock in the ware house, ready to be shipped to any good LBS (albeit not in the UK) so I am damn sure any LBS can have one in no time

The idea it is hard to get 26″ stuff is ridiculous. What it is easy to do is to get top notch 26″ stuff for silly money, I’m still buying 26″ stuff – like an EC70 wheel set new for £300. Yummy. And forks for 1/3 the RRP. For now I’d far rather top level carbon 26″ stuff for less money than average 650b stuff.

Obviously everyone is naming stuff they have had, so I’m going to do the same and nominate the Blur XC Carbon. I also had an original Heclkler, Superlight, and Blur Classic and they were all great bikes, ahead of their time.

That said, I agree with the person that said long travel, light fullsussers that still pedal well are the ultimate improvement in recent years. The short travel stuff was well sorted back in the day of the original 4″ Heckler. As a classic design, the Mojo has to be in the mix.

575.
Obviously.

What came first – the Heckler or the five? I think the idea that a bike could be reasonably light, have a good amount of travel and a serious amount of longevity makes these bikes so important in the development of real all mountain riding.

I’d say the Iron Horse Sunday was the ultimate 26″ DH bike – but only because the Session and the V10 have gone for 27.5

Hmmm. I had a Sunday and then a summum.

The latter seemed a lot faster and even easier to ride on steep terrain.

oliverd1981 – Member

I’d say the Iron Horse Sunday was the ultimate 26″ DH bike

Really? Great in its time but that time was a while ago.

The summum is avialable in 27.5 now too – so it’s disqualified. I guess the 5 is too.

That would rule out way too many bikes, sorry.

Another vote for the Cinder Cone (mid 90’s & steel); the Heckler / Five design.

Gt Zaskar

The do anything hardtail?

Or the first of the whyte designed marins?

That would rule out way too many bikes, sorry

In that case 27.5 must be a backward step, as the question states 26″ version has to be it’s ultimate incarnation…