the BEST hardtail ever???

[Retro Cat]

Any bike that gets you out of the house on a cold wet day for a spin - only the Zinn's done it for me. 21 years old and still has magic

 

[sinnerman]

Re: Mountain Goat WTR

Definately Bontrager as well. These frames although looking very plain and simplistic were engineered to obtain every last bit of performance from a set of steel tubes...Awesome frames

And they are Fundamentally Cheap to buy.

I second the Motion...! Bontrager...!!!

 

[taffy]

Subjective. though i can offer you my top 5. (which is a damn hard thing to do as i want it to be my top 101)

Fat chance You eddy

Dekerf Team SL (how i soooo regret selling that in 2004 in a fit of "i wont ride it again..")

Bontrager OR

Steel Stumjumper - i'll be pretty honest they all ride nice. (later ones may be "better" but they were well dialed in from the word go)

Merlin Titanium



but it's very subjective - how long is a piece of string kinda thing (your riding style, weight riding terrain etc)

 

[highlandsflyer]

Terribly subjective.

Alu...Klein Attitude

Steel...Jamis Dragon.

Carbon/Steel...DBR WCF

Dragon edges it as an all rounder, and steel wins best material.

 

[whayne]

Steel-orange P7

 

[konasexthreerider]

above

I know what you mean and see what bikes you have.

My P7 rides brilliantly and I'll always remember my mate's Marin riding nicer than my other mates Zaskar.

Although steel is proper old skool, somehow I'm still attracted to it!

 

[kikaha]

def. the 1991-1993 BB Zaskar (eierlegendewollmilchsau).

The best allrounder ever made

 

[Splatter Paint]

The best I've ever ridden is my DBR Axis titanium, my Orange Prestige was also pretty good.

SP

 

[Nader]

Any ideas for the BEST hardtail ever made?
..

there are some, take a look in my gallerie ......and oh well a few are still missing :roll:

 

[Chapeau! Velo]

Rocky Mountains of course, they taught Dekerf how to build his bikes

But in all honesty, the ones that annoyingly stand out for me, really annoyingly, as they are crap mass produced, generic twoddle you see everywhere.
Bloody Kona's They ride nicely, are comfy, easy to work with, you can fit most forks with little tweaking. Have a size to fit pretty much anyone. And while I'm sure everyone hates them Few say they are actually crap bikes to ride.
They go up hill well, they go down hill well. They go over bumps and through bumps. Don't mind the flat either.
But of course they are still crap <in case anyone asks, I'll deny I said the above>

They are still around and the basic design lasted many many years

That is a good point and they manufactured their designs across all 3 of the popular materials and indulged in the bespoke end of the market at the same time: ti Hei Hei, steel Hot and alu Ku. Not quite a Dekerf, IF of Klein but there are plenty out there who swear by them (and I secretly quite liked thrashing my old Explosif probably as much as my Team SST!).