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

Mine's faster.

Bird? Never heard of 'em (like most MTB stuff made after the year 2005)

They have a showroom that we picked Fenella's bike up in that's very near Swinley Forest, we got the bike, went and had a nice lunch and then rode round the forest, was fun.

The bikes themselves are well thought out and well priced, and as mentioned they're super-helpful if you call them and talk through what you want the bike to do, and how much you want it to cost.

It's certainly on my bucket list but assume we'll be staying closer to home for now. Was going to do the GNT with the missus but I was thinking more off-road racing in EU (Badlands was a nice taster) and just riding stuff that I don't really like doing on the gravel bike. The Tripster has done some dumb shit but at the moment I'm clipping in with speedplay which means any dabs in mud are bad news. I'd like the mtb setup for flats with big tyres so I can ride anything and not worry so much.

For £18,999 I'd expect so too.

@hippy most current xc/down country/what ever bikes would probably work for most of the ultra races. Current rigid forks seem to be suspension corrected for 100-120 mm.

Salsa Timberjack looks like a good bike for something like that, though I haven't tried it. And Niner Sir 9 too. Nørdest have some interesting bike too but can't remember the model now. I have a Stanton Sherpa, but older model than what they sell now, I use it for natural trails and bikepacking mostly and will likely use it in a race. 29x2.4, light steel, 120mm.

Or if you want something weirder buy Jones or Stooge.

Longshot Solaris Max (large), rigid fork with ~490mm a-c. Worked a treat* on the Bearbones 200.

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*My legs being the weakest link.

@Dammit makes a good suggestion with Bird. Slack enough to cope with most shit, steep enough to mince round Swinley/gravé/continent crushers.

@hippy 100mm fork, added a dropper. Plenty capable for me. Was AU$2500 out of the box.

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Cheers mate I'll have a look at those options. In the current climate it's probably going to be simple availability that dictates what I end up getting.

My thinking is I should aim to get something that allows me to get more confident on gnarlier terrain and then just adapt whatever that is for racing (run what ya brung). I got around Badlands on my road ultra bike with 50mm GKs and a bit of walking.

Longshot Solaris Max

Longshot? Is that a name or just your comment? Is there a reason you didn't ride sus fork?

The other thing that concerns me is the groupsets are all different. 12spd ffs. Is there any chance of backward compatibility with Road 11 speed stuff I have now or is it another "buy everything new again hahaha CONSUME CONSUME CONSUME"

That looks pretty neat and I am a boring Spesh whore (cheap, common so easily replaceable, do the job well). I need to look at Samuli's options to see what they look like but in my head I'm leaning towards a Surly just because I've always like them, yet never owned one. Or that Ritchey Ultra skinny posted. What tyres are you running on that?

Chisels were going at £999 (full bike) as part of sale end of last year .. if that will happen again this year, I do not know.

They also have threaded BB.

Preference is still definitely for steel though, even if alu options might be cheaper. I won't be doing any XC racing so I'm less concerned with lightest/fastest setups. Durable, comfortable, capable.

The Cotic does look pretty sexy though:
https://bikepacking.com/news/2020-cotic-solarismax/
What's with all the bottle mounts on the DT though!?

"Exclusive Cotic Designed Reynolds 853 34.9mm seat tube"
Does that mean non-standard, pain in the arse to find later on, seatposts?

What about Di2? How much is it going to cost me to keep smashing Di2 RDs off?

I guess I'm looking somewhere between Chisel and Fuse:
https://www.specialized.com/us/en/fuse

Not lightweight xc bike and no I wont be backflipping any time soon...

I think you should aim for something fun for the TD like my colleague Les. Surly Krampus with a lefty fork.

I remember seeing that when the list was first published. I do like that.

What's the advantage/disadvantage of a Lefty though? Surely (Surly) a bit more of a ballache to fix/replace if it goes wrong, compared to getting into any bike shop and grabbing a standard front wheel?

don't go di2 no need. just go shimano deore xt 12 speed.

Also Krampus vs. Karate Monkey ?

"All Mountain" that was the other term they used to use! I guess the Krampus is a bigger bike for gnarlier stuff?

I love my Di2 and hate cables though. #sadface

I don't think the Chisel qualifies as super light weight.

Was that the 2021 model though? Lots of stuff has changed on that one.

"we put the Chisel on a serious diet to deliver one of the lightest alloy hardtail frames out there, we’re talking carbon light. "

That salsa isnt a bad option either.

Also there is one mech/shift to worry about so no need for di2