The greatest 26inch hardtail ever made

I miss having a hardtail for messing about on locally. As I’m good at buying bikes but bad at selling them I still have two fully built 26ers + a load of other parts so would just need a frame.

Fork options are a 140mm fox 32 or a 170mm lyric.

I’m aware that the sensible option is to sell everything for whatever I can get and buy a more modern bike.

So that being said what is the pinnacle of 26er hardtails? xc bikes need not apply

Got to be one of Brants creations…

Bontrager Race OR.

Oops – I broke your rule already.

Muni Mula

I should have added that top of the list right now is a production privee shan. I’ve got no idea how they ride but I’ve always lusted after one because they look awesome!

Banshee Scirocco. Or Santa Cruz Chameleon.

Light enough to pedal all day, and strong enough to to take a pasting too.

My scirocco has been down world cup d.h and 4x tracks,  through many dirt jumps, round and round skate parks/bowls, plenty of local d.h/enduro-before it was called enduro type stuff and I probably did a good few thousand pedally/trail/xc type miles on it too. These days it’s just my jump/skate park bike but that bike was ace. My only bike for a few years and while I travelled around Australia in a campervan and it sucked up everything I could throw at it.

My old DB Alpine was kinda short and fun.

Rode it again after a couple of years on a more modern full sus with 27,5 and it felt so strange. Was expecting to fall in love with it all over again. Ended up selling it.

Curtis and BTR will still build you one if you ask them.

BTR is probably pinnacle, LLS before it was cool. Good luck finding one second hand though.

I have a 5th gen Santa Cruz Chameleon (last of the 26ers), an Orange P7 and 2 Dmr Trailstars (Mk1 BMX and Mk2 LT), the geometry is miles from current but I’ve thrashed the Trailstar LT on the Naughty Northumbrian and lived to tell the tale. Chameleon has better geo and a tapered headtube so could run an angleset.

I am open to possibly selling ilthe Chameleon. Maybe.

i hate to say this, but my most capable 26” hardtail was a Orange Sub Zero. fitted with Fox 36 fork when the first came out.  proper straightline downhill capable bike.  not comfy at all. very direct and fast.

it snapped……………

Spooky Metalhead

Would have to be Santa Cruz Chameleon for me  Won one on here back in 2007 along with a trip to Morzine

Both our girls had them. One was orange and the other neon green

Early Soul?

Agree with @scotroutes , i had a ragley blue pig x build, what a fun bike, slack for it`s time, and an absolute hoot downhill. I left the decals off ,gave it a more custom look, do miss it.

SC Chameleon for messing about on, if you don’t do long XC rides.

Santa Cruz Chameleon. The V1 I had was the poppiest, most fun bike I’ve ever owned.

Voodoo Wanga.
Next.

Had quite few good ones…

Identiti Mr. Hyde – bombproof and stupid fast downhill, but not a comfy bike!

Dialled Alpine – proper UK hardcore hardtail. Was hilarious with a 160 fork on it.

Dialled Prince Albert – less travel than the Alpine, but I actually preferred it for most of my riding. Very fast on technical singletrack (still have some strava KOMs I got on it from 12 years ago!)

Pace RC200 F8 – stiff as a stiff thing, and very fast XC bike. No more than 100mm forks though or the headtube would probably fall off 😆

Ever? KHS Montana Comp.

Now? Cotic Soul

Money no limit next option. Curtis AM (27.5).

can i have another go please.

i also had a couple of 456’s.  one in ‘that blue’ and one in ‘that green’.

both fitted with pike air forks.     just brilliant bikes for very little money.

I love my on-one 456 carbon. I’ll never sell it. More fun than all the full-sus trail and enduro bikes I’ve had and get get down all the steepest stuff. I haven’t ridden other agressive hardtails to compare though.

SC Chameleon or Cotic Soul.

Cy experimented for a short time with Reynolds 953 Soul and I test rode one, it was phenomenal.
I had a Cove Stiffee, bought in the days when if you wanted a hardcore hardtail it was a choice between Cove Stiffee and SC Chameleon.

A friend had a Cotic BFe when they came out and I tried that too but it was brutally stiff, too much bike for an XC mincer like me!😂

The Mk1 Soul in my garage.

Stanton Slackline is still on my lust list.

Had a Cotic Soul (snapped) and an Inbred – both grintastic bikes (I still use a singlespeed Inbred for dog running). As was the Airborne Lancaster (snapped)

Pipedream Scon felt like it was dead, as did the Production Privee Oka (27.5).  

I do regret selling the Gary Fisher Big Sur but it was probably bland rather than zingy. Didn’t miss the Dawes hardtail that followed the Rockhopper.

Sub zero was good, rode one, should have bought one.

Rode my MK2 inbred till it broke. Not done that with any other frame, admittedly holes in the chainstay were a bit of a feature on them. but again, it’s not your criteria.

But I bet both of those sold nothing outside the UK.

You need to widen it up a bit and say what ‘greatest’ means

I should have added that top of the list right now is a production privee shan. I’ve got no idea how they ride but I’ve always lusted after one because they look awesome!

Fab bike

20230601_121331 by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

Undergoing a transformation into a bikepacking/shop/gym run bike now as I’ve gone to a 29’er HT for my main fun bike. The Shan felt great for years, but with me riding bigger bikes, started to feel small

I’m jealous!

Someone on here must have that frame sat in a shed, we can negotiate

Cove Stiffee, awesome bike from 2002. Originally with Z1 bombers and then later with 140mm Pikes. Got me into and out of so much trouble.

My best ever – Ragley Ti.

IMAG0055 by Colin Cadden[/url], on Flickr

Of course, I still ride two 26 hardtails.

My pub bike

PXL_20240307_162014879 by Colin Cadden[/url], on Flickr

and my fatbike

PXL_20240118_151523534 by Colin Cadden[/url], on Flickr

Also .243 DH frame was fun  used to run it with a 24″ x 3″ rear and 170mm Super T’s. Still got it too.

Original 456 Ti is the best bike I’ve owned. Still got it and mean to resurrect it as ive been a lazy former mtber since parenthood.

My pub bike

Bloody nice for a pub bike that

I’m jealous!

Bought the frame years ago for £250 and swapped a load of bits over/bought a few new bits. The forks are 170mm – rides fine at 170. 140mm would probably not get the best out of it

Not one such frame.

26″ covered a long period of time. You had early Spooky Metalheads and Mk1 Chameleons that were an overspill of BMX into MTB and the first ‘hardcore hardtail’ frames thru to Evil Sovereigns and their short rear triangle’s that rode like big bmxes. Brants Ragley MK1 Blue pigs were great frames.

But as much as I loved riding them at the time they were ultimately shit compared to modern low mega slack 29ers. My HelloDave would wipe the floor with any of the 26ers

Litespeed Kitsuma ti……. precursor of all the hardcore hardtails. I regret selling mine

Kona kileau…..just lovely.

The 456 Ti was a pretty good bike.  I guess it was superseded by more radical bikes but I still think it was one of the best bikes I have had and def the best 26er

H

Cove Hummer time , can’t touch this 🔥🔥🔥

There’s a third option which is to resurrect my 456c which I very much enjoyed. The problem is that it felt on the small side then compared to my main bike, which now feels small compared to my current bike. The 456 will probably feel like a bmx.

While typing that I think I talked myself into it, sounds fun.

Greatest ever?

Klein Adroit just before the Trek purchase. So far ahead of its time that it wouldn’t look out of place today.

Integrated press fit bearings, incredible paint, boron wrapped tubes, one piece cockpit, incredible build and ride quality.

Back in the day when it wasn’t XC, it was just mountain biking.

Now to answer your question, a De Kerf would be high up the list, as would a Ritchey. A Cove Ti would be pretty good as lots of people have said, or a Kona Hei Hei.

I was going to suggest the O-O Ti456. Mine was a hoot but it was a good generation out of date by the time I got my first full sus in 2013, which was early 650b days. Was the Ragley Ti the (then) up-to-date spiritual successor? Either of those as a mullet would be ace but they’d still feel short compared to something newer.