XC Racer on a budget . .

After several years racing XC and Enduro (FNSS, Gorrick etc) my trusty Gary Fisher Ziggurat race bike got pinched along with almost all my other bikes in a daring raid on the sheds in my back garden.  After after climbing along a set of garages, scaling five of my neighbours' eight foot fences the thieves got to my back garden, cropped the locks off my two sheds to help themselves to three MTB’s and two carbon road bikes - the only survivor being my 1994 Kona AA that was in bits for a re-build. 

Fortunately they gave up on the road bikes five gardens down and left them in a neighbour’s garden, they called the Police and the bikes were returned the next day.  By the time the insurance company paid out for the other bikes (M&S - excellent service) I was in the process of moving house from Northampton to London and had been doing more road riding, so I decided to take the payout and plough the cash into the house. 

Eighteen months later I’ve been really missing racing and getting out in the woods with my mates, so the hunt started for a new mountain bike. I had been steadily saving up some cash, and set myself a budget of £750 to get a bike together. I also had my “spares” to help soften the blow, sadly my “good” wheels were on the Zigg but I had a second set of Bontrager Race Lite wheels with Mud tyres on for bad weather and winter riding, along with a Race XXX Lite seat post, Shimano SLX Groupset, some SPD pedals and an assortment of tyres, tubes and Stan’s sealant.

I wanted something fast and light, but still a bit trail orientated so I could also hit the trail centres and woods for fun.  The Zigg had been perfect for that so I had the geometry and data from my Retul bike fit to work with while looking for a similar bike.  Ideally I wanted a carbon frame (mainly as I haven’t had a carbon mtb before) and 100mm forks with the preference being Fox and 100mm - F100 RLC or similar.  Brake wise I had Avid Juicy 7’s before and had 160mm discs on my wheels, so something Avid was the way I wanted to go.  

On the hunt several bikes looked to be what I was after; On-One Whippet, Trek 8 or 9 Series, Focus Raven, and I also had an eye out for another Ziggurat or similar Genesis Frame to build up.

Component wise my spares left me needing:

Handlebars

Saddle

Grips

Stem

Brakes (160mm discs already in stock)

After looking at my tyres they were all in various stages of wear, so some Rocket Rons would also be nice if the budget would allow.

The hunt was on . .