Being a (motor)biker it’s pretty well known in the biking world that there are only 2 makes of chain you should trust, that cheap Oxford chain can be bolt cropped in seconds.

If you’ve got expensive bikes and are serious about home security, get either an Almax or a pragmasis chain, 19mm minimum and the lock they supply and a decent ground/wall anchor. The only thing that will get through is a grinder, and even then it’ll take a good few minutes.

Both cannot be bolt cropped, they’ll cost you £100+ but if you want the best then they’re your best option.

This is an Oxford monster chain which is a £125 14.5mm chain being bolt cropped in 15 seconds.

The £25 one is 8mm, doesn’t take much to calculate how long it’ll last :lol:

They’re on the Commencal site, £977 for the Origin model

https://www.commencal-store.co.uk/PBSCProduct.asp?ItmID=22592102

and £1421 for the Essential model

https://www.commencal-store.co.uk/meta-ht-am-essential-650b-shiny-gun-metal-2018-c2x22592114

Presumably these will be for sale through CRC so 10% off with the british cycling discount?

Currency in the top left if it’s in Euros.

Hmm, the new Commencal Meta HT AM has just been added to the list, should be available through CRC so £880 with the british cycling discount.

Frame looks very nice and has boost, 27.5+ (29 compatible), Sram NX, 150mm Recon.

8)

For the money you’re looking to spend I’d forget the FS upgrade path for now. The components Oma. Sub £1k hardtail are likely not what you’ll want on a more burly FS bike in a year or so’s time.

I’m not actually looking to take the hardtail stuff onto the new FS bike, more the opposite – if I kept the hardtail I could upgrade bits of it with hand-me-down bits from the FS bike. Because N+1 right? :mrgreen: I’ve got 2 motorbikes so 2 MTBs would go nicely!

For instance the 2018 Focus JAM c-lite has a KS e30i dropper post with short travel, I’d prefer a RS reverb so the other post would go on the hardtail. Same with the wheels, it’s got Mavic XA and would fancy a better wheelset at some point, the wheels could get donated to the 29er hardtail.

Yeah I’m keeping an eye out for a used bike, I’m 6ft 3in though so need an XL/20″ frame so there’s not many about at that size.

Joemmo – 90% the first bit and 10% the second.

The budget doesn’t stretch to a FS at the moment, I’m going to hire a few times at bedgebury/swinley forest to start but would like to be able to do some local riding over winter rather than having to rely on hiring at £30 a time for the next 6 months…

TBH the plan is to buy a cheap (but semi decent) hardtail in the next couple of months to get me back into mountain biking (last did it about 15 years ago) and then in 8-12 months time I’d probably be looking to to get a FS 130-150mm travel trail bike (Vitus Escarpe VRX, Focus Jam C-Lite and Whyte S-150S are on the list) once I’ve moved on to riding stuff a bit more serious in the UK and possibly trips to the alps.

I can pick up a 2016/17 Vitus Sentier 29 for under £700, or the newer 2018 model should be £765 with discount so that would do me fine as a starter bike.

I’ve priced up a Nukeproof Scout custom build and it comes in around £1300 with a decent spec, the limitation is finding a 29er Boost fork for under £300.

Edit: The transmitter is nice, might be an option.

And boost isn’t a must but would make life a lot easier – if I went for the Focus Jam C-lite in 12 months from now, I could see me wanting to upgrade the wheels not that long after having it, being able to pass them straight down to the hardtail would be a very decent option to have.

Canyon Neuron might be worth a look too, the 2018 AL 8.0 looks decent.

https://www.canyon.com/en-gb/mtb/neuron/2018/neuron-al-8-0.html