Back to riding, new bike time, but what to get?

Singular Swift?
Brother Big Bro? For SS options

Cheers bud, I'll check them out!

I've got a Whyte 629 and it's a great bike, forks upgraded to Pikes so closer to that 905 you're looking at. As you're over 6 foot, I'd be looking for something in the larger wheel size though. 

Loving my Moxie as a singlespeed - they’re expensive frames new but I’ve seen some bargain secondhand builds around.

I’ve also seen people using BB or mech position tensioners to go singlespeed on bikes without built-in tensioning. The singlespeed crazy Andrew Major on nsmb is doing that on a Banshee at the moment and I’d trust his opinion!

Obviously go full 29 and the biggest size at your height (over 500mm reach), whatever you get. If there’s a Cotic in your price range, I can’t fault them as a company!

@tthew thanks for the advice. Hoping with 29" wheels, I can finally get a bike that doesn't just look like a farmers gate with tiny wheels on!

@chief I'll spend some time weighing up my options. I miss my dialled love/hate daily, and regret selling it, if I'm honest. Ideally I'd like a 29er, which can be ss or geared and take a decent travel fork and wide tyres.

Bikes look similar from 10+ years ago, but having been out of it for a while, it feels like a minefield!

Appreciate the responses so far, thanks all.

Kona Unit is SS and seems well liked. Not sure if only available as a rigid nowadays. Stanton can take sliding dropouts but will likely be over budget. The Sherpa always seems like a great all rounder.

Also the Surly Karate Monkey - I've not ridden one, but keen to give it a whirl.

Pipedream sirius?

Sirius appears to be out of stock, but the mx3 frame appeals to me. Might have to price up a build!

“Ideally I’d like a 29er, which can be ss or geared and take a decent travel fork and wide tyres”

All boxes ticked! You’d need the size up, this is a “long”, not a “longer”. Same length seat tube on both these bigger two sizes, they just get longer in reach and ETT. I’ve got 160mm on the front but they’re designed for 140-170mm, you’d just want higher rise bars with less fork travel and more human height.

Chain reaction have the Ragley Bigwig going cheap don’t they? Was my first 29er and I loved it. Finally felt like a bike for someone my height (which isn’t as tall as you).

@chiefgrooveguru It's certainly a contender! Shame they've run out of pink frames though. What gearing are you running as ss?

@cakeandcheese I'll be sure to have a look, thanks for the suggestion.

Planet X Scandal - £500 bargain.

Annoyingly, I had specced one in my basket, but had to go do a work survey. Looks like I missed it.

Radical All Mountain do two frames, I think the 130mm travel one looks really good and in the ballpark pricewise for a steel hardtail compared to their UK longer travel one but only the regular size in stock:

https://radicalbicycleco.com/products/grim-ripper

I have a Brother Big Bro which is ace and very versatile but sort of ride it more like a beefy gravel bike than a MTB (although you can fit suspension forks if you like).

Personally I don’t get the singlespeed thing - I’ve had a go on one and it just seems to worst of all worlds to me! I have a bmx which is obvious singlespeed and is fine but you don’t pedal that a lot.

That Moxie above always looks good to me - and it would give you an easy option of singlespeed, but with the ability to run proper gears too.

@joebristol ss for me was a mental and physical thing. Where I live, I don't have mountains to descend, but I used to pretty much live at Bedgebury, which has decent trails. I used to ride with others that had geared full sussers, and to keep up with them you had to learn to pump everything to keep the speed up, and take the corners that little bit faster knowing you'd spin out if you tried to peddle at faster speeds. So you'd be constantly looking for little wins to not be left behind. I was a fair bit, as ss is so slow in comparison, but come the climbs I'd just stomp my way up and wait for them at the top.

I'm also a bit weird, so that helps.

Personally I don’t get the singlespeed thing

You do have to 'get' SS thing, to get the SS thing ... if you see what I mean! And you probably have to give it more than one go. Also, I don't think they work as well on certain terrain, to me it's a bit pointless on steep prolonged stuff as when climbing, you either have to run a very low gear or walk, and then you're spinning out going downhill.  SS works best on undulating (or flat) terrain.

But, the lightness, the directness of the drivetrain, and the reduced grinding of the chain in the slop does make it noticeably different to ride,  and quite compelling ... if you 'get' it!

OP, any HT you like the look of / within budget can be easily run SS with a tensioner (rear or BB mounted, mine is the latter) with zero bother at all, so no real need to spend a premium on a fancy frame/dropouts (unless you want to/have the budget)

Edit: Oh ... and 40 year old knees?? Mine are 56 tomorrow, so your knees have plenty of SS life in them yet!

I agree with Tom & HardtailOnly!

I’m a relative latecomer to singlespeed, had my hardtail like that for almost two years and I’m 45 now. It actually helps my problematic right knee because I do far more pedalling standing up. When my knee is being annoying it’s usually because I haven’t had enough bike time, especially on the singlespeed.

The other thing I like about it is my other MTB is an ebike and OMFG twiddling geared bikes uphill in low gears feels SO SLOW when you’re used to having a motor. With the singlespeed you just get on with it, no decisions to make other than whether to give up or not (usually only stalling or spinning out beats me).

It’s definitely not the best way to go fast but keeping up with other riders on geared bikes is a fun challenge, as is just messing with the trail to generate and carry maximum speed. Or just playing rather than hurrying, “jibbing” I could call it if I had more style and a northern accent!

It’s a bit like the fun of keeping up with full-sus bikes on a hardtail but with another thing to make it harder! We don’t have many tech climbs locally so a singlespeed creates uphill challenges, which I enjoy.

I thought it was going to be much more brutal and much less fun but I’ve been pleasantly surprised! However I haven’t gone anywhere with big hills yet - steep hills, yes, but none that go on for ages. I’m running 30:18 with 165mm cranks on 29” tyres. If there’s enough grip then steep climbs are like doing single leg deadlifts with track stands in between!

Right, plans are in motion! Ordered the last ragley blue pig race that crc had on offer for a grand. (Unless their stocks were wrong and I'll be gutted) Seems a lot of bike for the money. Then waiting to hear back about restocks of the mx3 and a few other posh frames that were recommended here to swap everything over to and run ss.

Thanks everyone for your advice, really appreciate it.

Cool! But you do know the Blue Pig is a 27.5 don’t you?

Son of a! That'll teach me to look at bikes at 5am lol. Searched for 29er steel frames , this came up. Scanned the description and saw 29", looking now post coffee, under top features. It does say 29" next to frame, but everything else says 27.5.

Such a prick sometimes.

I dunno, a singlespeed 27.5 sounds like a lot of fun. Like an overgrown BMX.

My blue pig arrived today. Happy with my mishap ordering! The cassette is huge compared to my anthem, amazed at the difference. (14 years apart to be fair)

I may also have a Pace 627 frame sat in the front room to single speed once I've got my fitness up a bit. Exciting times.