Surrey Hills - XC or AM ??

JimboM

A friend took me round some of the routes around the Peaslake / Surrey Hills yesterday and I loved it. Definitely got the bug so am looking to upgrade my hardtail GT Avalanche to something a bit more adventurous - problem is being a complete newbie I'm not sure what I really need.

I'll be spending 99% of my time riding the same area, not sure what this would be classified as but to me it was mainly narrow muddy tracks, with plenty of twists, turns, roots, lumps, bumps and the odd bomb hole Being (cough) 41 and 97kg I'm not going to be any speed freak and huge jumps/ massive drop offs are definitely out of the question but I'm not completely dead yet and still wany to have some fun. If anyone knows the area can they advise what sort of bike would suit me best and recommend something in the sub £1500 price range - preferably nearer the £1000 mark

Cheers

Jim

heavy_rat

Giant Anthem is what I'd go for. Loads around at the moment at great prices.

diy

You don't need an AM bike, a trail oriented XC bike will be fine, any of the decent spec hartails with 120mm forks will be fine.

I ride 120mm full sus and can't remember the last time someone caught up with me on BKB or Yoghurt pots. There are plenty of people who ride long travel bikes, I ride with guys on 100mm hard tails and they are not much slower. At 97kg you want something sturdy though.

PS I am only a year younger than you. Surrey is a great place to live for MTBing

cooldad

Gnarrly XC we call it. 120mm is a good compromise. A Boardman would be a ideal.

cooldad

As DIY says, pretty much anything will do, ride with people with bikes ranging from 150/160mm AM FS to 100mm Rockrider HT. I have a 100mm FS, would like a bit more cush sometimes, but I'm 50 next so entitled to some comfort.

Anonymous

Surrey Hills is what you make of it. There's something for everyone, though it's not massively heavy on the DH scene but there is some and you will see some big DH rigs out there.

You can happily XC it away all day there, climbs, bridleways, singletrack, and even wear lyrcra if you like.

Chuck in some technical stuff, drops, jumps, general gnarl. Any old trail bike will do.

What else are you likely to do though? Do you want one bike that does it all anywhere, or one bike mainly for one place and you might get something else if you go elsewhere or trade up, etc?

AM is an odd term really, not that I like pigeon holes for bikes, but it really is All Mountain, so means such a bike should be quite at home in Surrey Hills, the Welsh mountains and even the Alps. There's no "wrong" territory for it (and contrary to popular belief, large forks do still climb and can climb just as well).

Just Surrey Hills though and an AM bike is perhaps OTT, but todays XC/trail bikes were yesterdays AM bikes.

But you can ride it all on a hard tail, single speed, rigid, whatever. Hell, we've been shown up by a girl on a folding bike!

Anyway, I'm cruising on a big bouncy blingy 170mm AM bike round there usually .

It is Surrey after all, though I don't drive an Audi and I might even talk to a Specialized owner occasionally

JimboM

Thanks guys, just the info I was after and gives me a few pointers of what sort of bikes I should be looking at.