Which would be more fun?

prawny

Sorry chaps, another what bike question. Don't really have many mtb'er mates.

I should be upgrading my not very trusty old Saracen at some point this year. After a trip around the monkey on sunday I'm fairly sure a cheap FS would be more enjoyable than a decentish HT. I'd probably be getting it on Cyclescheme and my budget is low, at the moment I'm considering the Rockrider 9.1 and the Anthem X5 from pauls cycles.

My main concern is both of these are more xc than agressive trail (trance etc) but not being involved in MTBing for years I'm not sure really where The Monkey falls on the spectrum. Head angles are both fairly steep (70 for RR and 71 for the anthem) My saracen is 71 too. I've not had chance to ride a modern slack HA bike, but I don't think I caould afford one anyway.

Basically my problem is I want some thing that is not too wallowy on the uphills but than can have some fun coming back down. I'm not racing so it doesn't have to fly up hills and I'd like something to take some of the sting out of the rock gardens and braking bumps all for less than a grand.

Other options are Voodoo Canzo and Carrera Banshee X and Norco Fluid DX although from what others have said these all might be overkill for what I do, but then are they?

Can someone just buy me a bike please? Ta.

styxd

I think you're heading down the wrong road looking at a cheap full sus.

In all honesty, I think you'd find a decent hardtail more fun. Something like a Ragley Blue Pig with some 140mm forks, slack head angle, fat tyres, wide bars, short stem etc. will be more fun than a cheapo full sus with the poor parts and dodgy geometry.

Your legs will take the sting out of braking bumps and rock gardens.

prawny

I think I need to hire one don't I.

Any more input really welcome. I had looked at the Blue Pig/Mmmbop/456 but they're all a bit out of budget and/or dead heavy

Edit: I kinda got the imprssion from other posts that Blue Pigs etc were a bit much for the chase too most of the time, is that true? I thought lower cliff was pretty full on, and I didn't do the blacks.

angry_bird

Slack HAs aren't necessarily to everyones taste, to be honest I don't like them for XC. My 456 went on a crash diet the other week, popped all the XC kit from the other bike on there, went round Cannock with it, weighed a little more than it could have admittedly but I hated the slack angles of it there, not ideal at all, even the descents seemed slower than they would have been on the XC bike, just wasn't as snappy.

I'd love an Anthem, if I had £900 I'd buy an X5 right now. Had a play on one a couple of years ago now and it was a superb bike, felt nice and nimble but coped brilliantly with everything I threw at it, doesn't feel like it's just a 100mm XC bike when you start pointing it down.

supersonic

Your fun and my dun could be too different things lol. Some prefer the slack angled, long travel bikes and barge through terrain with a smile on their face. Some prefer a lighter, more agile bike and pick their way through harder stuff, yet rip through twists and turns and rocket up hills, still with a smile.

I'm afraid no-one can really say what it is for you!

prawny

To be fair to me (and my awwwwsum skillz), my only refusal of the morning was the first drop on the first black section, I decided to save the black until I was a bit more confident, I had no issue with the rock gardens on the red bit, so I really don't know how much benefit I'd get from slacker angles. I just can't manual for toffee so have issues with slow speed drops.

Any one fancy a group meet up at 6.30 one morning so I can have a go on some different bikes

.blitz

prawny wrote:

I think I need to hire one don't I.

£50/day for a 'Premium' FS from Swinnos or £30 for a half day. tbh tread carefully as pretty much anything will feel better than your current bike (no offence)

I spend half my life riding round Cannock and bike choice is difficult. Some days you are on it, destroy everything and a killer HT is all you need. Some days you chill and cruise round. Some days you destroy everything then have to go again the next day with a different bunch of mates with fresh legs.

The choice is yours but riding a HT is not a disadvantage if you are prepared to ride it as opposed to simply sitting on it and turning the pedals. Bear in mind Cannock is all up/down/stop/start so try to choose something that feels agile and responsive and accelerates sharpish but not too fragile.

styxd

The only reason I recommended a long forked slack angled bike is because thats what most people seem to rave about these days. Personally I prefer 100mm travel forks. Slack angles and long forks tend to give you more confidence downhill though.

A full sus definitely wont help you learn manuals (although you dont need to be able to manual to do a drop off)

What I would do is go on a skills course, get some tuition and learn how to ride. I think most mtbers these days could benefit from this.

1mancity2

This,

.blitz wrote:

The choice is yours but riding a HT is not a disadvantage if you are prepared to ride it as opposed to simply sitting on it and turning the pedals.

And this,

styxd wrote:

A full sus definitely wont help you learn manuals (although you dont need to be able to manual to do a drop off)

What I would do is go on a skills course, get some tuition and learn how to ride. I think most mtbers these days could benefit from this.

rockmonkeysc

A full sus definitely wont help you learn manuals (although you dont need to be able to manual to do a drop off)

What I would do is go on a skills course, get some tuition and learn how to ride. I think most mtbers these days could benefit from this.

You do need to be able to manual to ride drops properly.
Fork length is irrelivent on XC trails like Cannock, geometry counts for more. A Giant Trance is perfect for trail centre riding, it climbs as well as anything and will go down hills as fast as you want. It's got nice geometry which is slack enough without making it hard work.
Both my bikes have 160mm forks and very slack geometry. This makes them hard work on tight twisty trails, still not as bad as a 29er though.

styxd

You do need to be able to manual to ride drops properly.

Not at all. You probably need to go on one of the aforementioned skills courses

prawny

styxd wrote:

You do need to be able to manual to ride drops properly.

Not at all. You probably need to go on one of the aforementioned skills courses

Maybe I wasn't explaining myself properly, there's not a fat lot of run in the the one that I bottled, and I wasn't confident that I'd manage to get the back wheel over the edge before the front dropped. Faster drops i'm fine with.

I think I will look into the skillz course though. But I think over cannock it's bottle holding me back more than any technical stuff, none of it is that hard, I'm just a pussy.

prawny

Just hammered the second half of the dog, really enjoyed myself, made me think about the positives of hardtails, I'm not going to rush into anything. Going to test a few more before I do anything rash.