Dammit’s adventures in mountain biking

sticker shock

I too suffer from that affliction sometimes...

OK Mr Rolhof custom 29er - whaaatever.....

Rowdier is good. If you're buying a mountain bike to go uphill with both wheels on the ground at all times then just stick to gravel bikes.

The AMG is going to look the tits blasting across country to Wales with a North Shore rack on the back! :)

Yeah but rowdy bikes do tend to suck for anything outside of a trail centre.

But I'm stuck in a regressive loop of decreasingly capable bikes so take my words with a pinch of salt.

120mm FS 29er is where it's at. Gives you the option to ride anything within reason. Need something burlier? Hire a full enduro or DH bike for the day and go completely nuts.

So, maybe something like this then?

Only, with a warranty.....

Looks shit m8

I wouldn't have any worries about getting one - the chassis is proven and there's no Cannondale specific nonsense on it. But I would buy it from a real shop, i.e. sigma, Swift, Bespoke etc.

Only, with a Lefty

Ftfy

I'm sure it's fine.

There is something irksome about a £4k bike coming with £60 brakes though.

Only, with a Lefty, and Howard, to service it for you

Better yet

Indeed.

Not available in the UK.

The 100mm race versions are -but I think they are too racey for a do-it-all.

Dammit's always in the states.

Worth it

They are killing off the dual crown Lefty next year. On the racing models it will be replaced with Occhio, but it tops out at 100mm travel, so effectively there will be no Lefty on anything but pure race XC bikes.

Which is a shame. I wouldn't recommend anyone to buy something with a dual crown lefty at the moment - you could be buying something that will be unsupported in a couple of years.

They might be working on something longer travel. But they might not :)

Bringing back the Headshox?

I think they still make them for the German touring crowd.

But they are extremely limited travel wise. You can't stack all the bits you need and get modern travel and performance and a normal stack height. This problem was kinda what pushed them in to doing the Lefty 1.0.

nooo, not true. the amount of trails you need a "rowdy" bike for in the UK is very very low...

P.S. just buy a goddamn bike already

I agree plus "rowdier" = worse for bikepacking (except the #enduropacking folks). MTB bikepacking is fun. Hardtail = big frame bag

true, frame bags are the best thing about bikepacking

BMW big link?

I like Trek, so I'll throw this into the mix:

https://www.trekbikes.com/gb/en_GB/bikes/mountain-bikes/cross-country-mountain-bikes/top-fuel/top-fuel-9-7/p/21904/?colorCode=grey

mondraker ?