Stanton Sherpa Review - Weapon At Dawn

I've been mountain biking a hell of a long time now, long enough to see many trends come and go, to witness a niche pastime evolve into the mainstream behemoth it is now.  To see it splinter into ever more diverse categories requiring a litany of increasingly specialist kit.  To slap my forehead at bullshit marketing drives that dictated directions of development.  To watch manufacturers come and go, the brands I lusted over as a teenager virtually all extinct, driven from existence or swallowed by the faceless megacorps.  Today's empires, tomorrow's ashes.

It'd be a lie to claim to have been unaffected by the decades of 'progress'.  I undeniably appreciate that all aspects of bike design are exponentially better than the late Eighties when I commenced my lifelong passion.  The capabilities of equipment and athletes are so far in-advance of our most outlandish predictions from back then that the sport is often barely recognisable, except deep down, no matter what you do, it's still all about tearing around on two wheels for shits and giggles.

Nowadays plastic is everywhere, suspension obligatory, cassettes expanding, bars lengthening, seatposts dropping, stems shortening, axles extending, wheels growing, tyres widening, trade shows trading, retailers discounting, pushing aggressively, sell, sell, sell, buy, buy, buy and dispose.  Wear it out fast, instant obsolescence.  'Last years colours mate, time to move on...'

The 2017 Stanton Sherpa in aggro mood

And yet beyond my cynicism there is a hint of hope.  The craftsmen are returning and companies who covet quality, longevity, individualism and pride are fighting back.  'Outdated' materials are suddenly the hot new thing and shocked magazine editors with short memories are being blown away by designs beautiful in their simplicity.  The right grades of steel and titanium, inherently perfect for biking, are being improved by dedicated experts, wealthy on knowledge and experience, and are once again challenging the space-age wonder composites.

It's against this backdrop that I came across Stanton Bikes.

I've been a fan of Stanton ever since getting schooled by a rival hardtail Enduro racer on a raw finished Slackline a few years back.  The aesthetics of his steed, perfect welds and simplicity of frame layout seemed to scream 'fun', and every time I saw it I had a slight pang of jealousy.  At the time I was piloting an extremely fun but terrifyingly twangy Ibis Tranny but a sponsorship deal with Ragley took me back to steel and then in 2017 a chance e-mail led me to a dream scenario.

Dan Stanton is a bike geek.  I'm not sure if he'd be flattered or deeply offended by the moniker but my first ever conversation with him convinced me of the fact.  I'd tentatively enquired about a possible deal and to my surprise he'd asked me to give him a ring.  An hour-long chat ensued covering all things bike and I was immediately struck by his overwhelming enthusiasm for the seeming mundanities of seat tube diameters and metallurgical properties.  His knowledge eminently dwarfed my thirty-odd years of biking experience and we thoroughly enjoyed putting the industry to rights like grumpy old men venting at the world.  He offered me sponsorship, I danced a jig around my house!

Neat Cabling, Clean Lines, Bright Bars!

Now this is meant to be a bike review, and yet so far it reads like a mix between an industry rant and a gushing fanzine, but here's the deal.  I've been placed under no obligation to say anything positive about this machine whatsoever.  I'm not being given kit as a racer, more as a writer and a coach, someone who's opinion is regularly sought, so I guess Dan was being astute in considering effective ways to spread the word, but that came at a distinct risk.  If I didn't rate the bikes and components then I guess I'd return them and say no more but if people asked my opinion, I'd give them it with both barrels.

So what do I think?

First up, we need to consider another question, why the Sherpa?  As a fully signed up 'Enduro' type, bumbag and all, I should really be showcasing the 650b ripper, the Switchback.  With slacked out geometry, ISCG mounts, internal routing and beefy gussets surely that's the Stanton designed for the likes of me, not their more sedate, more upright 'trail bike' offering?  Except for one thing, all wheel sizes smaller then 29" are dead to me.  No doubt some of you will stop reading right here, stalled by your indignation, off to slag the rapidly expanding list of DH pros who are currently seeing the light I was blinded by two years ago.  Now that geometry is dialled, the big-wheeled machines are more capable in virtually all applications.  They fill in gaps to maintain speed better, roll faster, have more cornering grip, and are more stable in the tech than smaller wheeled offerings.  I've been saying for a while now that by 2020 you'll struggle to find any flagship Enduro models that aren't 29'ers, it looks like DH will follow suit too and XC has long-since made its decisions.  The Slackline and the Switchback both look lovely but I'll not be swinging a leg over either.

Set-Up

With a 67.5 degree head angle and a recommended fork travel of 100-120mm I was always going to be tweaking the Sherpa in a direction it maybe isn't exactly designed for.  140mm Pikes have jacked up the front end, slackening it for the steeps but have also raised the bottom bracket height which isn't ideal for cornering stability.  I've directly contradicted advice in over-forking the frameset but the only qualms Stanton had were over ride-qualities and definitely not regarding the frame's ability to handle the extra leverage.  I've also fitted a bottom-bracket secured ISCG mount having been denied a race victory last year by stupidly placing my faith in narrow-wide rings and clutch mechs.

Custom graphics from hasdesigns.pt

The Pikes themselves have an MRP cartridge fitted, set-up firm to prevent diving but allowing a slightly lower air pressure than my rock-hard preferences, to improve initial-stroke sensitivity.  Pikes are a proven winner, in my opinion still the best mix of performance, reliability and long service intervals on the market and the MRP invites continual tweaking to further enhance the ride.

The groupset is XTR 1x11 with the Trail brakes, a stunning looking and generally faultless performer that although not as light as some SRAM offerings, is still my number-one choice every time.  Trail SPD's have been transferred once again from my last bike, they're simply peerless despite a pile of new competition.

Bearing surfaces are all taken care of by Chris King with an Inset 7 headset, ISO boost hubs and a ceramic bottom bracket.  It's obscenely expensive kit but I've got a CK fetish and find it the perfect antithesis to the dismal quality components used for cost-cutting by most companies in order to pointlessly upgrade a rear mech or other 'visible' part.  I've still got the Classic hubs received seventeen years ago on my twenty-first birthday and thousands of miles and many rims later, they're still like new with just one freehub bearing overhaul.  Class and style.

Boost Chris King and Ibis 941 rims

XTR gearing

Bars are Stanton aluminium in bright orange, initially cut to 780mm, the stem is a Stanton 35mm and saddle is Stanton Ti.  I stopped short of the own-brand grips, unable to depart from ODI Ruffians.  For the dropper I actually parted with my own cash to try a BikeYoke Revive as it seems to address the bobbing issue that has killed my previous five Reverbs.  More on that later.

My overwhelming love of 29'ers does come with an expensive caveat in that I find big carbon rims are indispensable for their lateral stiffness and refusal to come out of true.  The Ibis 941's have been faultless for over a year now and are soon to be upgraded to the asymmetrical 942's.  A Huck Norris is in place within the Maxxis Minion DHR 2.4 Wide Trail as a protection for the pricey plastic and a futile attempt to stop me tearing back tyres on a monthly basis.  Front tyre is a Minion DHF WT with pressures generally run around 18 and 22psi.

Enough talk, how does it ride?

Oh wow.  The first time I rode this bike was on practice day of the Vitus Enduro season opener, in conditions best described as 'testing' and on surfaces ranging from deep mud to grease to loam to exposed boulder field.  It was adorned with a borrowed Talas 140 fork from the years when Fox had lost their way worse than Father Ted in a lingerie department, but despite this huge hindrance I instantly felt at home having been raised on the lithe, whippy feeling of high quality steel tubing.  The Reynolds 853, 631 and 525 that is targetedly utilised throughout the frame has a 'personality' if that doesn't sound too pretentious and even if it does, then I know what I mean and I'll stand by the statement!  It soaked up the chatter and retained a lateral stiffness not apparent on last year's Ragley which suffered from frame to tyre buzz under heavy acceleration.  Despite losing by a miniscule 0.6 seconds on race day I was delighted, I've never felt such instant affinity with a bike and knew that with proper forks I was on a thoroughbred race winner.

At this juncture it's worth mentioning the frame detailing.  The welds are immaculate, and I mean utterly perfect.  Stanton use a factory which insists on a minimum fifteen years of welding experience before they'll entertain a CV and it massively shows in the uniform fishscales.  The curved seat tube and custom drive side yoke comfortably accommodate the big wheels and tyre widths up to large volume 2.4's, whilst keeping chainstays to a chuckable 435mm.

Very neat yoke and no clogging issues with 2.4WT rubber

The frame can also take 27+ tyres up to 3" if that's your thing but having ridden a few fatbikes I can assure you it's definitely not an upgrade in my book.  The seat tube junction is art and the head tube gusset is a lesson in subtlety.  Cable routing is painfully neat with simple external lines clipped under the top tube and down the stays, and stealth dropper routing entering the top of the down tube, leaving to circle the bottom bracket shell before re-entering at the base of the seat tube.  It'd be good to see some sort of included cover for those not running that option and maybe a rubber attachment to prevent water ingress round the cables for those who do. 

Simple cable routing and subtle gusset

The swop-out dropouts are extremely clever, facilitating rapid changes for different hub widths and singlespeed lovers.  A huge unforeseen bonus is the upcoming Boost conversion kit, allowing all Mk2 Stanton frame owners to adopt the new 'standard' for minimal expenditure.  Finishing is superb with classy graphics well lacquered over a shining green paint job.  The stony slop of early rides left a few superficial scratches on the top tube where my shorts rubbed but these have polished out, and the chips from a huge smash in Finale Ligure would almost certainly have happened to any paint coating.  Overall, it's still looking fresh and new, a facet that I certainly appreciate.  The metal headtube badge is a classy touch befitting of a top end frameset.

On familiar trails my instant love affair continued with the bike feeling extremely sprightly, climbing confidently despite an overall 29.2lb weight that reflects a sturdy build.  Descending was a dream, big wheels and quality tubing combining to provide a ride quality that diminishes natural advantages provided by suspension.  A trip to the Italian Riviera would be a perfect opportunity to drive this point home, competing with friends on 140mm bikes down trails that push all aspects of equipment and ability.

The art of welding at its absolute finest

Really neat frame detailing and Swopout dropouts

Finale was a revelation.  Confidence came easily on epic, unfamiliar descents with a distinct lack of fatigue from the juddering of repeat rockiness.  The steel served to smooth the buzz expertly and by day two my brakes were getting a holiday themselves as I trusted the precision of the Sherpa to point and shoot over some serious features.  Day three we were accompanied by a guide who was clearly and vocally impressed by the Stanton as I dropped a bus full of bouncers and held the wheel of his Intense M16 downhill rig.  Of course, the inherent downfall of bikes that demand limits be pushed is the fallibility of the rider, and sure enough the next run witnessed a gruesome smash that has left my left shoulder virtually unusable three weeks on.  Clipping a tree at maximum velocity saw the hardest impact I've ever suffered in a biking career that has already generated seventeen broken bones.  Torn rotator cuff, heavily bruised intercostals, smashed hip and elbow bones, bar some tiny paint chips the Sherpa was untouched.  Solid.




So I clearly love it but it can't be perfect. 

No it can't, and there are aspects I'd change.  At 6ft on the button, the dimensions of the 19" frame suit me well, allowing me to spec my favoured 35mm stem without feeling hunched at all, but it's the longest seat tube I've ever run and I'm left feeling too high up on the bike.  Two photos from Finale highlight this perfectly, both taken at the same spot on exactly the same corner.  My mate Tony on his Orange Five is looking much more poised and attacking despite our technique being virtually identical.  The shock compression clearly helps lower his centre of gravity, stabilising his position and carving deeper into the corner but I look too high and slightly hunched, having to use more body language to gain the same effect.  Part of this is the trade-off of riding hardtails but a lower top-tube would greatly assist positioning.  Being slightly too high also makes rapid weight switching between corners harder as it seems tougher to throw the bike from edge to edge and still retain perfect balance. 

Tony looking poised...

...but me looking a bit upright

Although the swopouts are genius, I'd rather see them held in by chainring bolts like they are on the Switchback than the three small heads.  I'm not a fan of mini allen key fittings as they're more likely to round for ham-fisted mechanics and are also harder to replace if you haven't got spares.

BikeYoke dropper is smooth and ergonomic but still flawed

As previously mentioned, there's nothing included to plug the Stealth holes if you're not using them which means a bit of DIY unbefitting of a £700 frameset.

The BikeYoke dropper is extremely smooth and the lever is superb.  The feature that tempted me to purchase it was the release valve that eradicates any bobbing with a turn of an allen key and compression of the post.  Reading up beforehand they intimated that this process may be needed every three months or so but in reality it's twice per ride.  I'm persevering for now but I'm going to be contacting them to complain.  Yet another flawed dropper post to add to the list.

I've bent a link on the XTR chain causing skipping gears but don't remember any big impacts.  Obviously eleven speed chains are going to be weaker than equivalent price-point ten speed ones but it's been an unpromising start.

Yet another brand new Maxxis rear tyre tore on its second use.  I've tried most major manufacturers and they're all the same, but it's the eternal frustration of aggro hardtailing.  The Huck Norris potentially saved the rim but the holes were too large to plug and so I had to put in an inner-tube.  Unfortunately that meant wrestling the latex covered snake into my bag to pollute the other contents as inner tubes and Huck wouldn't both fit in the tyre.

I've trimmed the bars to my preferred width of 760mm.  They felt good at 780 but trails here are tight and I can't help wondering whether that extra 10mm on the end was the difference between a squeaky bum bar clip and the horror crash that has left me currently incapacitated.  I guess I'll never know.

The Bottom Line.

This is the best put together bike I have ever owned, end of story.  Detailing, build quality, ride attributes and finish are all up with the finest examples of MTB workmanship I've ever seen, it truly is a sight to behold and a joy to ride.  I've had more capable bikes, the Ibis Mojo HD3 being the most notable in thirty years of top end machines, but no others exhibiting this degree of craftsmanship and all round rideability.  At £700 for a steel frame it definitely isn't cheap and without years of experience you may not appreciate the differences between this and the pile of cheaper identikit steel offerings from other companies.  But that's the point of no-compromise products, those who know, appreciate, and those who don't have yet to learn.  I couldn't begin to comprehend the minutiae of subtleties between two V8 engines or differing computer operating systems but bikes are what I do and the Sherpa is worth every penny.  Unfortunately Brexshit has forced a recent price rise and with the UK economy being manhandled by idiots I guess there's no guarantee that further elevations won't eventually be in the pipeline, but in manufacturing the US Dollar is king and a plummeting pound is putting the squeeze on bigtime.

I've mentioned the alterations I'd love to see, a slacker, beefier, internally routed, ISCG mounted aggro 29'er built around a 140mm travel fork would be an approximation of perfection.  At this point you've got to ask yourself why as a sponsored rider I'm not already on top of the range Sherpa Ti?

Maybe this frame was always a stopgap?  With an expected recovery time measured in months, maybe I'll never ride the Sherpa in anger again?  Maybe one of greatest hardtails in the history of MTB is about to drop?  Maybe...

Off the brakes and destroying Finale...

Until it bit back and destroyed me!

Ragley Bigwig - End of Term Report

No it's not a fatbike!! The Ibis 941 rims do look chunky though

So I've had a full season of riding, racing, holidaying and coaching aboard my Ragley Bigwig 29er and it's time to sum up what I think of the bike.

It is worth mentioning again for the sake of integrity that Ragley were kind enough to give me the bike for free but put me under no obligation to write this review or actually promote their equipment in any way so it's all 100% my honest opinion.

So what is that opinion?

The nitty gritty of the spec was dealt with in my previous review so I'm not going to go over it in detail here.  To summarise briefly, after a few months on the bike the frame, forks, SLX gears and brakes, Ragley stem and bars were all excelling.  The wheels, Nukeproof dropper post, Ragley grips and saddle, WTB tyres and the front mech and associated gubbins had all been swapped or broken for various reasons.

The addition of Ibis 941 carbon wheels with Maxxis Minion 2.4's set up tubeless along with a KS Lev dropper post and Southpaw lever, my favourite ODI Ruffian grips and a swap to 1x gearing had vastly improved on the original set up albeit with an added cost that doubled the £1550 RRP!

Ride wise, my feelings on the Bigwig were only enhanced during the second half of the year.  This is a remarkably capable bike.  In addition to wrapping up the Vitus Enduro series hardtail category I was away riding the arse puckeringly steep, techy trails of the Tweed Valley and the confidence inspiring nature of the frame just egged me to push it harder.  The remit of the Bigwig was always about producing a big wheeled hardtail that feels like you're sitting on a 160mm bike and in that respect Ragley have succeeded massively.  Having my weight placed effortlessly within the centre of the bike means that I'm constantly poised for whatever the trail dishes out regardless of how steep or nasty it becomes.  It is a downhill weapon par excellence and definitely the fastest hardtail I've ever had the fortune of riding.  I've been encouraged to attack trails to a degree that I've never experienced without some travel out back to compensate and the bike has soaked up the abuse with only an occasional cramping trail leg to make me back off.

The Bigwig is a podium topping machine

So what has changed from my mid-season impressions?

I was initially critical of the low bottom bracket height.  Whilst it obviously makes carving corners a dream and gives the bike a really stable feel, easing you into a low centre of gravity, it also means multiple stalling pedal strikes on the climbs.  Over time I've subconsciously adapted my style to counteract this problem.  I did put 170mm cranks back on and still think that the standard speccing of 175's is a big mistake but it's amazing how you eventually adapt to any bike's attributes.  I'd still rather have it a touch higher but it's not a major issue.

On the flip side I've actually begun to wish it wasn't quite so slack in the head angle.  Now I know this is all the fashion at the moment with 'longer, lower and slacker' seemingly tattooed on the brains of frame designers but there are times when it is detrimental.  I have noticed a slight 'flip-flop' nature to the steering which is a facet of overly slack frames.  What I mean by that is that if you turn it a few degrees from straight, it then wants to continue turning further of its own volition with no rider input. The end result is that on flatter trails I've found myself having to fight the front end a bit to keep it on line.  It's very subtle but has been increasingly notable as I've got totally familiar with all the foibles of the bike.  I could run shorter travel forks to help alleviate the issue but the 130mm Rockshox Yaris have been superb.  It's obviously trail specific and on vertical drops it's great to be pushed back on the bike but given that Ireland isn't noted for those types of trail it almost left me feeling a bit over-biked at times, a feeling I've never experienced on a hardtail.  Perhaps I'm just not hardcore enough for the bike!

Perfect bike for the Tweed Valley trails

The rest of the frame angles feel pretty bang on for me and the bike actually climbs exceedingly well for a slacked out, near 30lb machine.  29ers are superb on the ups and I can't think of many trails I've been unable to plough through without dabbing.  An extra bit of length in the top tube would be welcome but I never felt hugely cramped and adapted by moving the saddle back a bit further than recommended.

What about the wheel size debate?

It's a real shame to me that this still exists.  I know a lot of the memes are tongue in cheek but there are still a fair number of riders out there actively hating on 29ers.  I think it's fair to say that the majority of those have never ridden one of the new breed of big wheeled bikes and would join the queue of converts pretty rapidly if they did.  Here's the facts as I see them.

1) 29ers are faster.  They roll faster, they corner faster, they're much better in really highly technical terrain and faster in speedy technical terrain.  They flow better in rough sections with far less impact from stalling gaps between rocks and roots.  They climb better, grip better, in short, if speed is your goal then you're currently massively missing a trick if you're on any other wheel size.  XC racers use them and I confidently predict that within three years, if their sponsors allow it then most EWS podiums will be filled with riders on 29ers.

2) Their wheels are weaker.  Yep, they're bigger which means more pressure on the rims.  If you want to keep them straight and also a decent weight then you need some carbon rims or some well built aluminium rims with the right spokes at the right tensions.  I think bike manufacturers need to think about the quality of wheels on their 29ers.  I'd like to see tyre manufacturers keep up too and offer some tougher tyres for the big wheels.  I still rip holes in them at an alarming rate.

3) They're not as playful and that can result in them being less fun.  I really enjoy going fast and so the Bigwig has had me grinning from day one but on the occasions where I jump back on to my super light 26" wheeled Ibis Tranny singlespeed I'm reminded just how much fun small wheels are. With the 29er trundling over everything so effectively there's less need to bunny hop and jump sections but there's no doubt that throwing a bike about is a hell of a laugh and so if you value that playfulness over pure rapidness then the big wheels may still not be for you.

4) They close the gap between hardtails and full suspension.  The big wheels perform some of the function that suspension does, allowing the bike to stay fast over technical sections that would stall smaller wheels and so on a hardtail they have a huge impact upon the ride capabilities and characteristics.

Treat it like you love it, and I do love it!

For me, I'm a convert and can't see myself opting for a smaller wheel size ever again on my main bike.  I love hardtails and love speed so there really is no other choice.  I've also got over my aesthetic aversion to the wagon wheels and grown to almost love the look of the Bigwig.  I find that the more fun I have on a bike, the more I grow to love all aspects of it eventually!

So what's the final verdict?

Ragley have got a lot of things very right with the Bigwig.  It truly is a blast to ride, always attack minded and seriously fast in all terrains.  It inspires confidence on the downs and certainly doesn't instill hatred for the ups.  As a £1550 package it's well priced and I reckon it's much better than an equivalently priced full bouncer that will have more corners cut spec wise.  The Rockshox Yari forks are pretty faultless and the Ragley bar and stem are brilliant units.  The SLX/XT gearing and SLX brakes have been fantastic.  Given that my usual bikes cost four times the Bigwig's RRP it could easily have felt cheap but actually, bar the odd niggle (and expensive wheel and seatpost upgrades) it actually felt pretty damn good.

It's certainly not perfect.  The Nukeproof dropper lever is poor, the wheels needed a rebuild and WTB tyres are a mediocre choice.  Speccing 175mm cranks and 2x gearing on a bike with a super low bottom bracket and ISCG mounts is just bizarre.  The frame was just about 10mm short for me reach wise and I'd love to see my chosen 18" frame be just a touch longer in the top tube.

Overall I'd have no hesitation whatsoever recommending the Ragley Bigwig to anyone.  It's a superb hardtail that would make a worthy addition or brilliant replacement to a full suspension bike for anyone who doesn't aspire to win Enduro races outright or spend most of their ride time at a bike park.  The 2017 version has addressed some of my complaints with 1x11 gearing and a much better dropper post, and in stealth black it's definitely a looker.

I failed in my intentions to ride a stock spec bike for the year, the lure of carbon wheels and the need for a dropper post that functioned better meant that my Bigwig would actually cost over £3000 to replicate. That expenditure did hugely enhance the ride quality but I reckon that the 2017 version with a set of decent hand built wheels (something like Stans rims on Hope hubs) would be a stunning bike that would give change out of two grand.  I'd more than happily spend another season on that set up which given my previously long running insistence of only using absolute top spec kit represents quite a statement.

Thanks Ragley.  It's been a hell of a ride!

Chimay and Ragley, two great products! Cheers!

The Most Important Bike Related Study In History

Now I'm the first to admit that when it comes to technology I'm generally a total luddite.  I could not give a shit about your latest phone, I have no apps and my TV is still deeper than the screen is wide. I find nothing more tedious than having to listen to 21st century bores extolling the virtues of the shiny and new, except that is when it comes to bikes.  For some reason it's my one weak spot where the latent consumerist tendencies boil up in me and I involuntarily find myself emptying my Paypal account because my stem is 5mm too long or my helmet is the wrong colour.

I've been biking for a loooong time now and it was whilst gathering bits together for a retro project build (disguised as a new bike for my wife to ride) that I realised that nobody in history has done a proper in-depth comparative study between the old school and the modern.  It's probably because the writers of the world are too scared of the evil superpowers of the corporate biking behemoths who'll ruin their lives if they threaten the inevitability of 'progress'.  Or perhaps it's fear of the realisation that they've essentially wasted thousands of pounds on kit that's made them no better riders whilst simultaneously ruining their spousal relationships and denying their kids the chance of a Third Level education.

However, I'm not afraid.  My kids are still young and my wife knows I squander a fortune of our retirement fund.  So I'm going to face into the epic task and produce the World's first definitive bike technology study and answer the question that everyone needs the answer to, 'is new bike technology a bit shit?'  Before I start can I make it clear that this isn't a discussion, everything in this entirely objective piece of work is FACT.  You can disagree but you're wrong, deal with it.

So here goes, wish me luck...

Back when Bontrager wasn't just part of the Trek corporation

Frames - 
So back in the day (you'll hear that at least 100 times in this piece!) frames all looked the same. They were made of steel and had 89 degree head angles and were all welded and had bottle cage mounts and some even had rack mounts for 'touring'.  Some were truly things of beauty (Bontrager, Chas Roberts, Fat Chance etc) but the similar appearances made it too hard for punters to tell that you'd spent a fortune on one which definitely limited your chances to look cool.  Then came titanium, aluminium, magnesium (Kirk Revolution anyone?!) and carbon and everything went mad.  Without even mentioning suspension (until the next section), slacker angles, integrated ISCG mounts, tapered head tubes etc have all incrementally improved the beating hearts of our bikes.  Frankly, if you'd shown me my Nomad C back in 1988 I'd have imploded.  Frames are lighter, better handling and displaying previously unimaginable degrees of versatility and so it's definitely a point for the new school.

EXCEPT...

Back in the nineties you bought a new frame and transferred all your old parts, easy.  Kids these days would laugh at that concept.  'Oh no, my forks have the wrong steerer, my headset isn't integrated, my bottom bracket has threads, my seatpost is a 30.9, my disk mounts are wrong', pass me the pills!! Gone are the delightful days of being able to waste hours in your garage plugging together a new build, replaced by hours of poring over CRC and BikeDiscount.de to save a few quid on extras you'd not budgeted for.  New builds are now a protracted succession of minor disappointments of incompatibility that leave you hating your new frame long before it ever tastes dirt.  The alternative is buying a complete bike but that often means a migraine inducing Euro colour scheme with matching hubs and tyre logos.  No thanks.  So it's actually a point for the old school and if you disagree, one word, 'E-Bike'!!  Or is that two words?

Old School 1-0 Technology

Suspension -

Hmmm, £1,300 you say...

The REAL RS1's

Oh how I lusted after those RockShox RS1's.  Not the £1300 upside down, 29'er only abominations, the beautiful half-inch travel, neon-stickered originals.  Yes, early suspension was terrible until some Italian motorbikers with an excess of orange paint changed the world forever, but its possibilities have always been apparent.  I must admit I was a bit hostile towards full suspension in its early days, the XC racer in me was afraid of being morphed into a big hairy downhiller using terms like 'rad' and 'sketchy' but I wasn't hairy until years later and by then I'd seen the light.  Nowadays I own a 28lb, 160mm travel dream machine that allows me to hit drops and gaps like I actually know what I'm doing.  Surely an easy point for the modernisers?

EXCEPT... (tedious theme developing here)

In the 90's our bikes were so rigid that getting up to any kind of speed involved a rattling that could liquidise your kidneys.  That self regulation meant that although our crashes were regular they were never too serious.  Sure, we broke the odd bone or three but it was normally because we'd drilled holes in our 130g handlebars which then snapped in two when we hopped off a kerb.  Suspension has meant that we can all hit maximum velocity in the nasty stuff and when the talent runs out and the travel can't save us it's a one way trip to the morgue.  So on the one hand suspension makes me look like I know what I'm doing and on the other hand it's exponentially increased our chances of a chat with the reaper.  Only one winner then, suspension.  Did you not hear me right?  It makes it look like I can ride.

Old School 1-1 Technology

Wheels - 
Oh piss off.  If you want to discuss wheel sizes go and read the troll fest at the bottom of any Pinkbike post.  Yes, 29'ers roll faster but they're less fun than 26" and 650b is a total con (they're not 27.5"!!) and frankly any more talk about this will guarantee a change in the laws on 'assisted' suicide spearheaded by me.  I've got a garage full of tyres that'll probably never get used because I had to get bigger wheels.  I've also got the same Chris King hubs I got for my 18th birthday in 1996 and the bearings have never needed changing so hub technology clearly hasn't had to advance at all.  And since when is it ever morally justifiable to charge two grand for a set of carbon wheels that broke in virtually every bike magazine test in 2014?!  The old school not only wins, it's dancing away down a dusty trail into the sunset with its fast accelerating, brilliant in the tight tech 26" glory whilst the twisted faces of the new school glare at their computer screens pouring vitriol on anyone who dares question their supposed superiority.

Old School 2-1 Technology

Headsets and Stems - 
Ok, ok, so the modernisers just took a pounding on the hoops but can they strike back when we look at componentry?  Hands up who remembers threaded headsets?  Keep your hands up if you could tighten one whilst on the trail.  Nah, thought not.  Any component that requires not one, but two huge spanners to tweak it is inherently a bit flawed and they always seemed to work their way loose when you were in the back of beyond.  And as for quill stems, what... the... hell?!  The only surprise is how long it took someone (was it Tange?) to invent something that bolts directly on to the fork steerer. Even minor crashes used to result in the old front wheel between the legs, haul on the bars to straighten routine.  Some fella has just invented a laser guide to get your stem straight.  Back then we were happy if it was within 30 degrees after we near snapped our bar ends off getting the wheel re-aligned!  The other huge improvements have come from the ongoing shortening.  The only people who benefited from our old 150mm stems were chiropractors.  Steering was so slow you had to pre-empt a corner whilst the bike was still in the shed.  Mondraker may be going a bit far, we'll be on negative length stems next like this dude but generally shorter has meant funner, safer and sharper handling.  Better control, allen keys to tension and tighten, a firmer grip between stem and steerer, the modern day wins by a mile.  Now if they could just standardise the sizes of the allen bolts!

It took a lot of paper rounds to afford this 135mm back destroyer!

Old School 2-2 Technology 

Handlebars - 
My old mate Greeny used to have bars so narrow that by the time he'd got his brake levers, XT thumbies and cork grips on there wasn't even room to fit a novelty bell.  That set up was pure lightning... in a straight line.  As soon as he tried to corner the gyroscopic forces involved meant that he needed a physics degree to work out how to not deck it into a tree.  Bars have got wider, swoopier, and thanks to the joys of the black stuff they've got stronger too and it's revolutionised the handling of all our bikes.  I thought bars less than 740mm had been banned under EU law until I went to Lake Garda last year and found that the German tourists there must've bought them all up in the late 90's. To top it all we used to stick bar ends on too, and not just stubby ones, huge cow horns that made our bikes look like Boss Hogg's motor.  So to summarise, we had bars that were far too narrow, made of paper thin aluminium which we then made narrower and stuck bits of metal on the end to maximise leverage and guarantee catastrophic failure.  And then we drilled holes in them to save weight.  In defence of the old school, some kind (but misguided) individual did give me fifty notes on E-Bay for an old set of Pace RC Sub-130's I found in the garage but that's hardly going to sway the verdict.

Old School 2-3 Technology 

Seatposts - 
In the nineties the only time 'bleeding' and 'seatpost' came in the same sentence was when my teammate Nick Mock snapped his USE in half (didn't everyone over 4 stone in weight?) and attempted DIY stomach surgery.  These days that static tube of metal has taken on a whole new life. Now don't get me wrong, most of my bikes have got dropper posts because I'm just so damn ENDURO but really, at what point could we no longer be arsed to flip open a seat QR?  Yes, they're convenient and yes isn't it amazing how often you use them on the trail but £250 for a glorified office chair?! Plus points include not having to swing my leg so high to get on the bike and having the public saying 'oooh, what will they think of next'.  Downsides include more handlebar tat, weight, cost, getting hit in the knackers after you bleed them and forget about the rebound speed, ugly cable routing, annoying 'stealth' routing and trying to persuade an E-Bay seller in Hong Kong to honour the warranty when they inevitably break.  I'd be prepared to forgive all this because they truly are amazing except for one key factor.  Me and my mates used to ride fast to the top of the hill and then take a twenty minute break under the spurious premise of dropping the saddles for the way down. During that time we ate, drank and solved all the World's problems.  Nowadays we push a button and crack on without stopping.  End result, we're hungrier, thirstier and the World is totally screwed.

Old School 3-3 Technology

Bottom Brackets and Chainsets - 
I've got a great idea.  Let's take the set of bearings that are most exposed to the elements, low down near the mud and the mire, feeling the full weight of the lardy arsed rider bobbing away side to side and let's put them on the outside of the frame where they're much more vulnerable.  Whilst we're at it lets get rid of the threads that have worked perfectly for 100 years and make them press-in so they're much harder to replace, oh and did anyone say creeeeeaaaakkkkkkk?  Now the old square tapers and internal BB's weren't perfect.  Sometimes we all had to rob a piece of scaffold pole, stick it on a foot long spanner and get three mates to help remove a seized internal BB, but that was character building and that fella would've probably fallen off next door's scaffold even if it was fully intact.  Imagine a time when you could remove any set of cranks and bottom bracket with the same couple of tools. Granted, those tools weighed more than your bike but they worked.  Then it went all Octalink, ISIS (won't be chasing that breach of copyright), Race Face, BB30, External, Megadrive, Hyperlink, Uberchav, SPAM, Splined, blah, blah.  And what knobber decided to switch from five bolt to four bolt and make my spare chainrings and old cranks obsolete?  Technology peaked at Royce titanium square taper BB's and Bullseye cranks with maybe a nod to the Middleburn RS3's.  Since then it's been a gradual downward spiral towards a hellish mush of incompatible bits and bobs.

Old School 4-3 Technology

Pedals - 
I exposed my fledgling teenage knee joints to the original floatless SPD pedals.  I haven't walked without a limp ever since.  No further questions m'lud...

Yeh, thanks Shimano for not thinking about 'float'!

Old School 4-4 Technology

Gears N' Stuff - 
Everyone used to know that more gears equalled cooler bike.  In 1992 if someone asked me how many gears I had I could proudly say '21' and know that I was instantly rad to the power of sick.  In 2015 my Nomad and my Ibis Tranny only have 20 gears between them, not very impressive!  But wait a minute.  Who the hell actually needs a big ring?  And whilst we're at it who needs a granny ring either? (answer; roadies and people too fond of pies).  I'm running a 30 tooth ring and an 11-36 cassette and it's more than enough for Alpine riding.  I happily scaled the steep sides of the Chamonix valley last year and only span out the 30-11 combo when chasing some Belgian mates down the road to Lake Garda after I'd already been waiting for hours on the techy bits.  Even better, new school ratios have finally canned off the worst of components, the front mech.  Less weight, cleaner lines, less clutter and unhindered suspension designs.  The mech is dead, long die the mech.  I do still very occasionally hanker after the beautiful simplicity of thumbshifters in friction mode when fighting with one of the many bikes that get thrust at me because I'm 'handy with the spanners' but advances have resulted in gears that work stunningly well at all price points.  On top of all that, clutch mechs and narrow wides have made dropped chains a real rarity so we don't even need to shell out a ton to E13 or MRP.  Happy days!

Old School 4-5 Technology

Tyres - 

Aaaah, the Onza Porcupines

Aaahhh, the halcyon days.  Onza Porcupines, Panaracer Smokes, amber walls...  Hang on a minute, halcyon my arse.  Tyres used to be too thin, too flexy and I know the lighter walls are creeping back but boy do they look terrible.  There have been huge advances in compound technology and tread design.  Super Tackys have saved my bacon on plenty of occasions when pushing to the limit on the loose.  The super wide rims on the Nomad have allowed me to safely run pressures as low as 12psi and tubeless technology has changed everything.  Imagine, we used to get punctures!  How prehistoric is that?  On the sizeable flip side, the tyre companies have been totally complicit in this whole wheel size debacle.  They knew what they were doing when they embraced the expanding diameters and I bet the smug gits can't wait until the decent 26" tyres become endangered species and they can shift them from bargain basement to retro item.  I bet I end up handing back that pile of loot I got for selling those hideous elastomer stuffed Rock Shox Judy's to help pay for the last High Rollers in Europe.  My heart rate is doubling and my face burning with the injustice of it all.  Despite all evidence to the contrary I'm handing this one to the old school.

Old School 5-5 Technology

Brakes - 
Disc (why not disk?) brakes - Amazing modulation, brilliant stopping power, can run with buckled rims BUT can't be bled on the trailside.
Cantilever brakes - Just rubbish power, needed 6 hands to get them set up right, still had to be accompanied by a foot on the back wheel to stop in the wet.
Maguras - Who are you?  Hans Rey?
V-Brakes - Great power, super light, easy to set up and fix, Avid levers were pure jewellery.  They needed straight rims to not rub which was a bummer but if your wheels are bent then get fixing!
I know disc brakes are the best but who ever lost a fingertip setting up V's?  Who amongst you has had to suffer the ignominy of never ending squeals because you accidentally got 0.05ml of any chemicals near your pads?  Who is slightly perturbed about having to explain to the in-laws why there are syringes sitting on your draining board?  Don't be blinded by their superb performance and obvious superiority over rim brakes, discs aren't all that and so the V's win.  What do you mean this study is rigged??

Old School 6-5 Technology

Saddles - 
Selle Italia reintroduced the 'classic' Flite Titanium twenty odd years after I refused to run anything else on my bikes, only this time they were quadruple the price.  Ignoring the pointlessness of I-Beam and the 0.6 gram saving of carbon rails they're really just somewhere to park your arse, just like they always were.  This one's a draw.

Old School 7-6 Technology

And so that's the final result!  Undeniable, incontrovertible evidence that whilst some technological advances have definitely been to the benefit of all, the overall balance points towards old school bikes being the pinnacle of MTB creation.  It's a shock to me but you'd struggle to deny the impartiality of this most rigorous of studies.  When this goes viral I'm afraid the ramifications for the wider bike industry could be catastrophic as the enlightened turn their backs on senseless consumerism and start to just enjoy riding their bikes again.  Forum monkeys and trolls will have to reconnect with the real world and some may even eventually talk to someone of the opposite sex (or the same sex, whatever floats their boats).  Corporate greedmongers will cease from attempting to force their lust for change on to a savvy new breed of technophobes.  And as for me, well I've been writing for a long time now and so I'm off for a spin.  I know now that my hydraulically braked and suspended, perfectly indexed, super lightweight, superbly balanced, frictionless bearinged, big wheeled carbon dream machines aren't the answer and so I'll take out my 20 year old steel hardtail instead.

Well I would, but it's just a bit shit isn't it...