DarthDonkey

I'd never buy anything Adidas ever again after what they did to FiveTen, I can't wear the newer ones 'cause I don't have skinny Italian feet. I must have ten pairs of Freeriders, but I can only wear about seven of them (the older ones). Doesn't make any difference if they're the Pros or not, I have both. Adidas bought FiveTen for their sticky rubber soles, then changed the lasts so peeps wouldn't buy the FiveTen so much. They lost a loyal FiveTen customer in me when they did that, I like my shoes but now I hate Adidas. Way to go fellas, alienate your original fanbase in an attempt to draw in new fans who couldn't care less. Smells like Disney to me, and we all know how that went.

I would be very surprised if you COULDN'T build a 26 pound all-mountain bike in this day and age, if money is no object like here. I built my bike twenty years ago and didn't have the entire Earth to spend, but I still built a 6 inch travel bike that could take a few hits. I picked up a 2004 Patriot frame brand new from Orange for £500 in 2006, and bought a new Fox 36 Vanilla RC2 for £600. I'd picked up a Vanilla RC rear shock about a year (or maybe two) before from one of the Pace factory sales they used to have at Great Edstone (I still regret not picking up the Klein road bike that was up for grabs while I was there). I sent both shock and fork to Chris Porter at Mojo (who were the importers for Fox at that time), and he performed his secret witchcraft upon them. He even milled 5mm off the shock body, transforming it to a 195 x 57mm. He added some heavyweight gloop/syrup (I too may have a little burger induced centre-body tuned mass damper, I'm old and it happens. Also pizza) and I had a very capable platform indeed for the time. I built it up with some parts I had, and some especially bought for the build, and it came out at just short of 30 pounds. TWENTY YEARS AGO! Think I spent £2.5 all in. There was nothing particularly fragine on that bike, and I still have it to this day. The only real concession to weight weenie-ism was the Racing Ralph tyres. Running Rocket Ron's at the moment, with actual tubes (the Schwalbe downhill jobbies). I'm running big brakes, Hope Mono6Ti with Tech3 levers and decent rotor sizes. I know it's overkill, but it suits my riding style - I was a roadie whippet three, four and five decades ago so I live on the brakes while stamping on the pedals. Got into moutainbikes in about '93 (although got my first MTB in '88), went full sus in '98 and single ring by '99. Was forever breaking chains in the late '90s, ended up with Rolhoff chains until I discovered KMC and their gorgeous colours. Modern things I have no time for include 15mm axles up front, I've been running 20mm for quarter of a century at this point and it's solid. Why would I downgrade? Don't need a dropper post, I've always run my seat low. And you can keep your silly electronics. Just maintain your gear, it's not rocket surgery. Works fine. And 148mm rear hubs can go do one, we had 150mm hubs in the late '90s - what feckin' numpty decided a hub 2mm narrower was a good idea? That's when I decided most new shyte wasn't for me. When corporate gets that out of touch you just have to walk away. So lately I've been picking up select bits of 'retro' kit, latest frame I picked up was the Orange Mii (2007s rehash of the MsIsle with sliding dropouts, literally the best hardtail frame Orange produced - only thing comes close is the early hardtail freeride frames of the mid to late noughties that evolved into the Crush, the 'made in Halifax' frames are pretty nice and burly). Currently I'm looking for a nice 224 Evo frame, I've got a ratty one but I want something nicer for my archive collection. Wanted some Marzocchi Shivers to, but the price is a bit prohibitive at the moment (can't fault people for asking what they're worth, but times are hard for most of us these days so I'll wait 'til I can afford 'em). But yeah, I was building bikes not quite on a budget, but certainly not this level of head in the clouds beyond what most of us can afford silliness, twenty years ago, without carbon, and I was still getting below 30 pounds weight.

Have you considered that running a bar that is not so wide would mean you need less backswep? I have a preferrence for a 740 or 750mm bar (about shoulder width or so), consequently I'm not after double figures in backsweep. I like to fit between the trees. :-D

Oh look, another 'trend' (read 'marketing hype') in mountainbiking. Not another gimmick to get you to buy a bike with less travel than your old bike and it only works half as good - oh yes, and it costs twice as much. Perfect for people with more money than sense, not much use for people with more sense than money though (hopefully that's most of us, though the way MTBs have been selling I'm not optimistic).

Get a frame with a good, durable finish. Problem solved. Powdercoat works wonders, check out Orange bikes for instance. Hard anodising is another finish that keeps well. It's not rocket science people.