[Closed] Is my Swift all I need? Anyone sold their bouncy bikes & gone back to basics?

Its something I've often thought about but funnily enough, its trails like the off piste stuff at Inners which would make me keep a full sus. Had a quick ride out one lunchtime last week on my Five and it felt really nice, slipping through the trees and then hitting rock gardens and stuff. Horses for courses - I love my fully rigid bike as much as my full sus but they offer completely different riding experiences. If I was to go down to one bike, it'd more likely be a full sus than a fully rigid I think...

Yep I got a rigid 29er 9 months ago and the full sus hasn't had a look in, also thinking of selling it. I'm thinking of adding a dropper to the rigid bike as I find that more limiting than the lack of suspension.

Yeah, I did it almost 2 years ago. Sold my FS bike and built up a Yeti Big Top 29r. I love it. But I'm buying a FS bike next Spring...

I'm getting rid of my 5 for a rigid steel bike (please by my 5 frame it's on the classifieds) but then, I still have a Patriot 🙂

it's a bit dull to ride on less technical stuff as it kind of makes everything a little too easy

Well go faster then!

Yep. My "trail" bike is a Surly Karate Monkey with big rubber.

I live on Dartmoor so not short of rocks and techy stuff but it covers all I need for the type and pace of riding I do - I like to call it Bimblecore.

Other bikes are a Surly 1x1 and a 'cross bike so haven't owned a bike with suspension for 4 years or more.

I just prefer the simplicity but appreciate it's not for everyone.

I sold my Five cos I don't get to ride too much nowadays. Bought a ragley blue pig as a do it all and it might even be better than the Five!!

If I got out riding more and rode big stuff fairly often i would buy another FS 160/170mm ish sort of thing but i'll just hire a bike when i go to the Pyrenees in the summer.

Rigid singlespeed = bugger all maintenance.

Therefore you can have several more bikes before even approaching half the maintenance regime for a bouncy gearie.

N+1 becomes a happy reality 🙂

I rode rigid for the first 60 years. I still enjoy it and ride one in winter when it is that slushy that you just want to get the miles in.

I got rid of my 6" full suspension bike and bought a hardtail 29'er with short travel fork and 1 x 10 gearing

very simple to wash even after a mud bath, very easy to maintain, and I found having the suspension fork and gearing range still made it very viable for "mountain" biking.

Sold my FS a few years ago, when I bought my SIR.9.
Now runs a 29+ front & its great.
Stick a 29+ wheel on the Swift & you'll never look back.

Local for me is Cannock. SS rigid 29er isn't really really the tool for the Monkey Trail but I rarely ride that, preferring the Follow the Dog & the off-piste stuff.

You say you love both your bikes so keep them both, they are very different.

Alternatively if you're going to flip, flip them both for a trailsy long travel 29er HT, a bike that can handle everything and is fun to boot. By another route, that's what I've done.

I mainly ride my Pace RC129, singlespeed fully rigid, but do have an Anthem with gears for when I want to go somewhere like the peak district. Trail centres in the main are singlespeedable as they are designed to be ridable by the masses.

I've just gone the other way.

I have a Swift and it's lovely to ride.

But I went to Cannock a few weeks back and the bumps really were very unpleasant.

Ordered some 29er 100mm forks pretty much as soon as I got back home and feeling had returned to my hands.

Went to Afan last weekend where it was a _lot_ of fun!

I've had a few rigid SS's including a swift. They're great, mainly because they always work, setup tubeless I've gone 12 months at a time with zero maintenance beyond a drop of oil on the chain.

Which means you can ride at every oppertunity, no waiting in for a CRC parcel, nadda excuses.

Also good not having 101 lockouts, dropper posts, rebound, compression, threshold, spring settings, or even gears. The bike is exactly the same every time you ride it on the trail, going faster is purely a matter of skil/balls.

I'm thinking of putting gears on my Swift. That climb out of Afan is a bit brutal riding SS (doable the first few times, but eventually my legs just packed in). And trying to race at Thetford is a bit distressing.

Maybe I'm just too old for SS?

Different bikes = options. Keep them both.

esher shore - Member
I got rid of my 6" full suspension bike and bought a hardtail 29'er with short travel fork and 1 x 10 gearing

What travel forks?

Got to admit since buying a 29er ht with 100mm forks I haven't used my fs much at all.

If I had to put time / a figure on it, then in approx 18 months I've ridden the FS at best 5 times. On one of those occasions it was because I was waiting on a replacement part for the HT!

oldnpastit - what 100mm forks did you get?
Have a steel frame & standard steerer & wondering whats out there?

oldnpastit - what 100mm forks did you get?

Went for X-fusion Slide RL29er forks (15mm bolt-through, 1-1/8th straight steerer). They have internal travel adjust for 80mm, 100mm and 120mm.

I spent a long time trying to find some old-skool QR dropout forks but they just don't seem to exist anymore except in really nasty low-end things. But actually the 15mm bolt-through really does seem to be a step up from QR.

Not ridden my FS for six months, rigid 29er or fatbike atm, I did get a battering at a trail centre on Saturday & could have done with some squish but bizarrely got 3 PR's uphill & downhill on the Fatty!

Still no rush to ride a bouncy 2 ender though

Sorry if this is OT but @ oldnpastit

Do you find the Slides 'stick' when left overnight for eg?
Every time I go to ride my HT I have push on the bars a few times to get them moving. I was told 'they all do that' but wanted to ask a fellow user of them.

Done exactly that. Orange 5 to hardtail (yelli screamy) to Jones. I have more fun on the Jones than either of the other two for a number of reasons. Sometimes you hit a load of brake bumps at speed, your teeth are chattering and arms are shaking and there is a short desire for some suspension but its short lived.

It's personal but having owned a swift I wouldn't have one for my do it all bike. Nothing against the frame as I enjoyed mine but when using it for general dicking around I found the angles worked against you a bit. In that respect the Jones is a LOT better. The Stooge seems to be held in similar esteem by those that ride them as well having been designed in the same vein.

Yip! Bought my Orange P7 about two years ago, and since then the full suss never got a look in. I sold it about a month back, as I'd used it about 3 times all year, while the P7 has been out all the time, enjoying the great summer.

Every time I got on the Intense it felt like riding a sofa. Its just too much bike for about 98% of the riding I do. And the other 2% I can still do on the P7. Its just that I do it with my eyes closed, screaming 😀

There and back, sold my old 5 year old Giant trance and went to just a rigid 29er.

After a year I just missed it too much, just finished building up a Kili Flyer, took it out last weekend and had a blast, they really have come on in the last few years haven't they?

Totally reignited my passion for riding, itching to get out on it again.

Haven't touched anything but my Stooge (SS rigid) since building it up a few months ago. Can't see me getting rid of the others though. They all do something different.

Do you find the Slides 'stick' when left overnight for eg?

Hmmm, possibly. I think it's possible they ignore small bumps at the start of a ride, but tbh that doesn't really bother me too much. I don't think I've quite got the amount of air right in there to make a serious judgement. They're very different (neither worse nor better) to the Rebas on my 26" bike.

FWIW I had to drop 10psi off the 'suggested' psi on the fork leg chart.

Thanks oldnpastit.

It's personal but having owned a swift I wouldn't have one for my do it all bike

Agree this, I had one too, unless my do-it-all was XC, touring and the odd race.

esher shore - Member
I got rid of my 6" full suspension bike and bought a hardtail 29'er with short travel fork and 1 x 10 gearing

What travel forks?

100mm- 2012 Specialized Stumpjumper Evo 29'er I belive.

Thanks ska-49.

My do-it-all ht is also on 100mm forks. Really is my go to bike, but was was my previous 29er ht. Firstly a Carve now a Solaris.

@ska @normal man

80mm manitou tower pro I got cheap off crc after the fox forks started creaking in the CSU again, just out of warranty. Mojo very helpful but still £200 to fix, and I'd already had the CSU replaced under warranty the year before.

New fork suits the current frame (stumpy expert carbon) really well. Fork is structurally much stiffer and more controlled damper which means it sits higher in travel under load.

The 2012 evo had an issue with the tolerances on the bb shell and SBC UK were stellar in giving me the carbon frame as an upgrade under warranty.

Thanks Esher shore.

I'll try not to drag this thread further OT. Except I will say a big thumbs up for Spesh customer service!