Dammit’s adventures in mountain biking

£699 for the frame from Stif.

Surely a Bird Zero 29 is the ultimate Swinley hard tail....

The Formula Selva forks have interested me.
The damper uses a system where you can swap out valves to change the compression tune of the fork. It's apparently a 5 minute job using a tool that comes with the fork.
Fun for anyone who likes to fettle with different set ups.
Its worth looking into if you fancy something different from the usual rockshox/fox.

I'm thinking about one for my other bike. But my lyrik feels so good it's tempting just to get another one

Surely a Bird Zero 29 is the ultimate Swinley hard tail....

A little difficult to find out much about them, however.

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Is it me or are Santa Cruz just a bit meh these days?

They are "born in Swinley"(built down the road). You can demo them there by appointment I think. Frame only is £475.

I do wonder whether I should just stick much less aggressive tyres on the RC295, but I would like to try riding a hardtail that isn’t 30 years old and fully rigid.

I like the Chameleon. Probably the ability to singlespeed it

but I would like to try riding a hardtail that isn’t 30 years old and fully rigid

They do vary an awful lot now. I'd follow @umop3pisdn 's advice and get something more XC, rather than end up with something that still makes easy trails too easy

An XC bike with a dropper and flats?

You don't have to wear full lycra

And modern XC bikes are far from 1990's Kleins

You can still have 67-68 degree head angles and 120-130mm forks, only without the heft

Much as bike classifications are a pain, I'm suggesting XC, rather than XC 'race'

I'm suggesting XC, rather than XC 'race'

whats the diff? 67º instead of 69º and 120 instead of 100 travel?

Pretty much. Usually with wider bars and tyres that won't kill you

Effectively a hardtail version of Neil's Scalpel

An example of which would be the Chameleon?

I like @Howard 's approach of making an XC race bike 'rad'

Effectively a hardtail version of Neil's Scalpel

downcountry

They don't appear to have gone LL&S yet

Yes! @Howard gets it

downcountry

Get out

Ibis DV9 was advertised as such.

Ok, the wheels I have are wearing a Knobby Nick and a Hans Dampf, 10-52 (or whatever) XTR cassette, Rimpact inserts and 180/203 rotors. They’re the second set for the RC295, so never been mounted etc, I am also rebuilding the carbon wheels that were on the Scalpel to have a non AS, boost rear hub, and they’ll have a Rocket Ron/Hans Dampf combination, same XTR cassette, rotors and inserts.

I was thinking of a hardtail to rotate the three wheel sets I will have (inc the Santa Cruz/Maxxis DHF II’s) between that and the RC295.

So I could run the RC295 with the RR/HD

Ibis DV9

That's hideous, so it deserves a shit name