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Wish there was a no frills/curls option.
https://singularcycles.com/products/swift-steel
That + a slackset?
That + a slackset?
That's lovely.
It looks hideous. So.....why do I want one?!
There is something pleasing about how wrong the top tube and fork look.. Argh it's messing with me!
Only thing that holds me back is those size restrictions as others have mentioned. Just waiting for XL’s one day…..
I have a mk5 as they came in 18 or 20 inch seattube. A few of the models have had two size options.
I’m glad the second hand bike market isn’t great at the moment. The more I look, the more I’m tempted to sell my current bike to build one of these.
If you aren't old enough to remember the constant club hammer bashing of cotter pins to try and take up play you might think that bike really needs a cotter pin crank 😉
Similarly centre pull rim brakes 🙄 mid 60s bikes for dirt tracking consisted of 5 speed racers ditching drops for cow horns or ape hangers if you could find them , tin can shim to make them fit the stem and tacoed road wheels that were never designed to be ridden in the woods 😁 Not forgetting the playing card on the seat stay for that authentic scramble bike sound 👍Grandstand Saturday afternoon, live scrambling, in between races back out on the bikes pretending you were Badger Goss or Dave Bickers 👌👌👌👌
Sorry got a bit carried away there 😁
I’m glad the second hand bike market isn’t great at the moment. The more I look, the more I’m tempted to sell my current bike to build one of these.
That's what's stopping me, I'd have to sell something to make space, and the only obvious ones are the singlespeed'ed Scandal and my commuter, neither of which are going to fetch a worthwhile amount in the current market. Might hold off and see if CRC do any more daft offers on full bikes, those £400 Sentiers would have made a great donor, sell the fork, use the rest, if the frame sells for anything it's a bonus. Doesn't solve the space problem but at least offsets the pain a bit 😂
I have been pondering this and was chatting to a fellow rider who swaps between rigid, hardtail and full-sus when we were out on Sunday:
“Weirdly I find rigid bikes closer to FS bikes than HT’s. On a HT you use the asymmetry between being able to absorb rough section through the fork and pump/pedal efficiently with the rear so you’re adjusting your weight for different reasons. Rigid bikes (and FS bikes) you rid much more evenly. So it’s like a FS bike, but you take HT line choices, and obviously (a bit) slower (but not slow unless you’re insisting on comparing against a track bike on a road).”
Now I don’t ride rigid MTBs but I do swap between hardtail and full-sus and the only real change in how I ride is that I preload earlier on the full-sus for hops/jumps/drops or corners/pumping. I stay pretty central and tend to straight line (laterally) through the rough although on either bike I try to unload or hop or pump to carry/generate more speed more smoothly.
My mate was saying that he tends to do as you’ve said, using the fork more on the hardtail, literally trying to land jumps on the front etc, so I think it’s a very personal thing. I am running a 160mm fork so I’ve got about 50mm of travel at my feet if I huck it to flat rear wheel heavy, which could make quite a difference.
I also noticed when following a friend on a Privateer 141 that he tended to flick around the rough as I pumped over it on my hardtail so if anything he was taking “the hardtail line” whilst I was doing the opposite. Uphill I think I’m too prone to taking the hardtail line because of years riding hardtails! Downhill I’ve always liked riding hardtails through rough sections because it seems like it shouldn’t work but it does!