Moving to a new house soon that looks like it’s got plenty of riding nearby, albeit relatively flat and XC-ish.

At the mo I have a 130mm FS MTB and a ‘gravelised’ CX bike. Thinking about flogging both and just picking up a mile munching hardtail.

The current shortlist is;

Sonder Dial alu. 29er – https://alpkit.com/collections/sonder-dial-xc-bike

Decathlon Rockrider XC 900 carbon 29er – https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/xc-900-29-carbon-mountain-bike/_/R-p-300807

Any other options I should be considering?

Budget is around £1750. I want things to be light as I can get get for the money and don’t mind sacrificing a bit of trail capability as I’m not likely to be riding anything too tech locally.

Sensible suggestions, advice based on hard-won experience and downright heckling from the STW hive mind are more than welcome!

What is in stock will be the issue….

Mrs_OAB had a Trek Superfly – it was billed as an XC machine, but in fact made a great all-round, not too hardcore ride. I think it has been replaced with a ProCaliber or X-Calibre now.

Trek procaliber 9.5 is a good option I reckon.

Scott Scale would have been my suggestion, but after a quick search will now revise that to whatever you can find in stock that fits.

Or just make do with the bikes you have for now until supply improves.

I bought a Scandal for this purpose, I did a 80km off road yesterday and it was pretty comfy and motored along happily. You’ll need to change the tyres, and with the extra cash in your budget you could loose considerable weight from it. The other option was the Whippet, but TBH the stock build from One One isn’t that light, so I didn’t think it was worth the extra over the Scandal.

Mrs B has a Specialized Chisel for just such rides. She is very pleased with it and it went well on Turino Nice rally etc.

I have a Cube Reaction Carbon 29 for just such rides. I have a carbon Travers Prong fork and some fast rolling tyres. Again it is fas and fun.

Ian