Let's offroad / mountain bike / mtb / ride dirt

From west wickham you can pick up bridleways.
It ain't much, but something.

Tbh if riding from your house, a cross or hipster gravel bike would probebrly be better. If going to the hills then mtb will be more fun.

Didn't there used to be a bunch of saddos off here doing London based mtb rides?

Those guys are dicks

A slack heavy 140mm bike does suck a bit for ride outs but a lighter more distance oriented 120mm bike is surprisingly good.

A slack heavy 140mm bike does suck a bit for ride outs

Can confirm

The handling can be fine but you'd probably want to avoid anything with less than a 69° head angle, and obviously you'd need to compensate for the reach of the bars, and there's a lot of time there spent looking a geometry charts.

Drop bar droppers are a thing! Pro make a lever so you can actuate it in the drops.

Drop bar hydraulic brifters!

Yeah, they're pretty ugly bar that headshok equipped on in the Cannondale thread.

I've spent quite a while looking at, and very nearly bought a SL2SS to do this to, but I've already got two cross bikes and I don't need another. There's a lot of faffing and ultimately what it is it achieving? It's taking a fun bike and making it less fun.

You're far too sensible.

@Bodz

From west wickham you can pick up bridleways.

There's quite a lot of off road from West Wickham, I might have some routes on Strava as I'm a former South Londoner, the Dulwich cross route is pretty good but there are quite a few road sections.

Hah. The 2014-2017 Cannondale bikes, while not engaging in the head tube angle arms race, certainly pedalled well.

yeah, my exceed is 100mm.

Before kiddo came along I was happily doing 70-80 mile rides on my Habit, a 130/120 bike with a 67.5 deg HA. Was good - you could pedal it out to the hills, get a bit rad then pedal home without feeling like you’ve lugged around more than you had to.

You all need an NS Synonym.

@Howard
@Colm89
@skinny
@Dogs

Thanks for all the advice!!

I’d want to do a mix of riding out and getting the train somewhere more fun, which sounds like it’s achievable.

Any opinions on the Santa Cruz Chameleon? Alternative 120mm light-ish hardtails?

I'd avoid a mtb with sram, I feel shimano is a lot better. But that is my opinion and not fact.

That SC is quite slack, with 67ht. I also would not want an aluminium mtb.

I would also think about a full sus XC bike. So 120mm front, 100mm rear. A HT is good, but I think full sus more versatile. I do with I had rear travel sometimes.

Perhaps something 2nd hand.

Perhaps something 2nd hand.

Are you trolling @Howard on purpose?

Out of curiosity, why would you rule out an Aluminium mtb? I assume you are all in on carbon?

There is a bit of truth in that 'steel is real' stuff. I think I'd find full suspension annoying if I had to travel particularly far to get to anything worth riding.

If you've not got much interesting riding nearby then going for a less capable bike can make it a lot more fun.

Scott Spark in non RC is the way.

Any opinions on the Santa Cruz Chameleon?

Yeah it's banging. You are paying a premium for it though. But if you accept that it's a great frame.

No. Accidental coincidence, whatever I said.

Carbon is superior in nearly every way, except for cost.

@umop3pisdn that's what lockout is for.

That looks real good!

I went with http://www.carbonda.com/mountain/full-suspension/98.html.

Got any pics of the build? Assuming you are running it 29.

It hasn't arrived yet. Delivery scheduled for today. I still need to get the shock mount gear and swap the air shaft in my Reba to increase it to 120mm.

Intriguing. Thinking about morphing my 27.5+ Sentier into something a bit more XC oriented, even pedalling three miles to Leigh Woods is a real drag on it.