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Most of my riding is in the Peak. Probably more in the Dark Peak than the White.
I started out doing so on a rigid steel bike and have used 26" wheels 160mm coil sprung steam roller, 29er 120mm carbon hardtail and 150/160mm air sprung 650b Ibis.
Fancy a new bike but can't decide how much travel I really want.
Thoughts?
My next full sus will be a slack 130mm thing i think
Big enough to do everything but nimble enough not to kill other stuff
One bike for all your MTBing?
I'd go 140/150mm rear and 150/160mm front. Full 29er and make sure it's not overly heavy or wallowy.
Depends on which of your previous bikes you liked/disliked most, and why.
That's the thing isn't it, trying to find that Goldilocks middle ground. Enough bounce to get silly but not enough to sanitise everything.
My 160 coil Turner 6 pack was wonderful but did flatten a lot of stuff.
I don't get to ride the peak as much as I used to
I'm on a 160/130mm full suss and occasionally a 160mm hardtail.
The hardtail always leaves me feeling battered after 25 miles in the peaks. Part of that is probably not getting to ride there regularly anymore.
So either would be fine is I rode there regularly.
Alpkit in hathersage did test rides last time I looked. Why not try a few different bike styles from there as a way of making up your mind?
It's not like the full suss is anymore fun to ride, it's the ride and the people that are the fun parts.
180/180 for me, don't regret it even on XC loops.
The Trek fuel ex is a great all rounder IMO, light and poppy enough to feel good for XC but enough travel for stuff a bit more gnarly. They're just a bit too expensive otherwise I'd have one!
I'll let you know. I just bought a Nukeproof Reactor from CRC for South Wales, which is similar to the Peak in many areas, to replace my ancient long travel Patriot and hopefully provide a more sensible uphill riding experience whilst still letting me charge downhill. It's 130mm rear and 150 up front.
It doesn't feel particularly weird riding around, and coming from older bikes it feels like it would be decent for riding around 'normal' stuff whilst pinning descents, which is what I was hoping for.
They’re just a bit too expensive otherwise I’d have one!
The Fuels come up for cheap money lightly used... And yes they're an excellent bike.
Not much for the Peak imho. Usually plenty of mileage involved, and almost no winch and plummet style trails - unless you typically do hours sessioning Win Hill / Ladybower stuff, or actively look for the cheeky steeps. All the classic Dark Peak bw stuff is pretty easy, let's face it, it's just rough.
I have a trance which is a probably the best suited Peak bike I've owned - 115mm at the rear (sounds like nowt but rides bigger than that).
A bigger trail bike is more versatile though - for when you ride somewhere else.
When I first got my Occam I hated riding it in the Peak, for three reasons:
* Horrible weather and muddy paths.
* Pedal strikes.
* It was just too much bike
I solved 1 by never riding there when the weather was bad
2 by going 165
3 I never really resolved. I tend to do most of my riding in the Lakes and rarely go to the Peak except for the occasional purge. There just aren't any bridleway routes that are challenging on a 150/140 mm bike.
BUT, objectively speaking thec Occam is pretty well suited to the trails. I finally got round to a (big ride last weekend including Cavedale) for the first time. My old Spec'duro got me down Cavedale no problems but was a PITA on anything long. My Anthem was great on long flowy routes but a PITA on anything rocky, and had to be pushed on Cavedale.
The Occam was good for Cavedale and then another 3hkm of xc afterwards. So a pretty good semi reasonable compromise.
Shout if you want to try it one evening.
< edit as I realised I didn't write what I really thought. I think 140/150 is too much for the Peak. If I was mainly riding there I'd go shorter [ but not Anthem short, and defo not Anthem angles])
120/130
I mostly ride the Dark Peak as well and I'm either on a 160/140mm Starling or a 130mm SolarisMAX. Enjoy both but the hardtail does give you a kicking. I think 130/140ish rear and 150/160ish front is optimal for the Dark Peak.
I haven’t ever ridden the peak but have over the years ridden a decent selection of types of trails. Concluded that a good compromise is around 130-140mm rear travel and 140-150mm front travel with decent geometry. May as well go 29er these days.
The usual list of bikes I think of is:
Spectral 125
Bird Aether 9
Nukeproof Reactor 290
Transition Smuggler (bit spendy though)
Maybe a Trek Fuel Ex
Santa Cruz Tallboy / Hightower
Norco Optic
Some are more at the DH end - some pedal a bit better. Depends what you want really.
The other option is go a bit more ‘downcountry’ for more pedalling efficiency but give up some stability on the rockiest stuff:
Spec Epic Evo
Transition Spur
YT Izzo uncaged
Cotic Jeht works very well for me in the Peak. Modern geo and 140/150.
It also copes with Antur / Dyfi
Theres more to it than just travel
Basing your opinion of 160mm bikes on an old coil 26er (So I guess 10+ years old) and 120mm on a carbon hardtail (unless very recent that would have some "classic xc race geo) might unfairly limit you.
The old coil bike was a 2005 turner 6 pack. The hardtail is a 2018 transition vanquish which is reasonably modern geo. Also ridden the area on Manitou HT, Manitou FS, og Intense Uzzi SL (Horst link), og Intence Tracer (Horst link).
As above, all fun rides because I was out with friends. I've always been the sort who'd rather come down cave dale than pin dale, the beast rather than potato alley. I tend not to shy away from the techy bits.
Bikes under consideration are 130 rear with 140/150 front or 145 rear with 150/160 front.
There's a 160 rear 160/170 front as an outlier but I think it will remain an outlier. No real weight penalty between them either.
I live Matlock way and rarely ride outside of one of the Peaks. Stanton Sherpa mainly for the White peak area. Its fine for Dark peak, gets up/down the trails and all but you can feel battered especially on the baby head stuff - Potato ally etc. Most of my PR's are on the Sherpa though and it handled the new buff Tarland trails just fine. I have a 140/130 Intense Primer which copes much better with the rubble sort of trails Edale cross way but still goes well in the stuff further to the south. Next FS bike will be something like an Orange Stage Evo or something from Cotic. I don't ride Win Hill style trails so can't really comment there and I started riding here 30 years ago on a rigid Kona Hahanna so it all feels much easier!
FWIW I don't worry about weight these days. I did the Loop of the Loops on the Starling 2 years ago and it was fine, weighs between 15.5 & 16kg at a guess. Good geo and a robust build are much more important. And like you, I much prefer the techier trails.
I’ve always been the sort who’d rather come down cave dale than pin dale, the beast rather than potato alley.
On that subject, does anyone ever prefer Potato Alley to the Beast? Did it the other day simply because it links better to Rowlee Farm.
God it's awful. Just 1.5km of assorted rocks between golfball and melon size. No real line choice, little steering and little interest.
Not sure why I'm asking TBH. It's clear from the rapidly growing singletrack trail that has evolved on the right hand side that pretty much everyone is of the same opinion.
Put me in a reet bad mood all the way to Cut Gate north, which truly is XC perfection.
Depends on which of your previous bikes you liked/disliked most, and why.
absolutlely this. bizarrely i`d go for my fully rigid single speed despite having owed pretty much all other varients of bikes/travel etc including an eeb.
it makes my local easy singletrack gnarly which is more fun and what i ride the most. and i`m sure i could get through the bigger jumps on it if i tried. defo wouldnt want a rigid bike if i lived somewhere rocky though.
dark peak is my regular riding, and i think 160F / 150 rear is perfect if you like riding the rough rocky stuff at speed. having said that my current bike is 170F/165R, but then i use it for winch & plummet riding too - wharncliffe, winn hill off piste etc, trips to the alps and the techy reds and some of the blacks at places like BPW. i never feel the extra travel gets in the way in the peak though
No real line choice, little steering and little interest.
Not sure why I’m asking TBH. It’s clear from the rapidly growing singletrack trail that has evolved on the right hand side that pretty much everyone is of the same opinion
nah, tight left hand line down the stepped bedrock for 2/3 of the descent and then cut across to the right towards the bottom. far more fun that the right hand singletrack on the bank
Get some test rides and don’t get hung up on the exact amount of travel. I wouldn’t take too much notice of the bs incredibly broad range of opinions on here 😀
I find my 150/135 Stage 5 is a great all rounder for that sort of riding. Never seems to run out of travel like my old Segment did but is also not over kill.
I did test ride them recently, but on more flowy trails than I'm used to rather than rocky tech.
I think it felt like the shorter travel bike made more difference going up than the longer one did coming down. Having said that, it could have been the tyres.
I'd be building with a heavier duty tyre than the Nobby nic that wason the front of the short travel one. That is not a tyre I like on the front end of any bike.
The dark peak is my regular stomping ground. My old bike was a 140mm travel Jeffsy 29, which was plenty, verging on being overbiked IMO.
I’m on 160/150 now, but that’s to ride the Alps and regular uplift days. It’s still fun around the Peaks, the Dales etc, but I think in most of those cases I’d have more fun on a shorter travel bike.
A case in point, I was riding the red at Nant Yr Arian earlier this week, and ended up riding round with a guy on an Epic Evo (120/120), we were both enjoying ourselves, but he was working much less hard on the climbs, and on the downhills he was able to much more easily pop off stuff than I was, as well as being faster in the tighter stuff too.