rigidftw
Retro Guru
I like hardtails. Back in 2012 I had the chance to try a Production Privee Shan, the arguably original euro 26" hardcore hardtail. It belonged to a friend that I visited. Such a beautiful bike and the ride was sublime...
We went to get some drinks late at night, he told me to try to manual, so I did and crashed hard; twisted my knee pretty badly. The night and couple weeks after were ruined, but the Shan was stuck in my mind.
At the time I rode an On One 456 Summer Season, which was nowhere near as nice as the Production Privee.
The On One was my first hardtail that was meant to prioritize fun riding down a hill.
It was heavy and slow but this kind of bike appealed to me, so I quickly graduated to a Ragley Bagger 288.
Great bike, but lots of squish up front that I did not feel to be all that necessary.
I had strong opinions, so I ordered a custom frame from Swarf Cycles.
At some point it was voted Sexiest Hardtail of the year over on Pinkbike.
For aesthetic reasons I wanted the downtube to be bigger. Adrian, the guy behind Swarf Cycles originally recommended the down tube to be the same diameter as the top tube....but what does he know, right?
I played around with different fork travel numbers and ended up screwing up the geometry with a shorter fork and an angle-adjust headset. This, coupled with an overall harshness (big down tubes do not help with this), ruined the experience and I did not like it anymore.
This is how it looked right before I sold it.
I now was after a bike of similar length, but with a more comfortable ride.
My girlfriend has had a Production Privee Oka for several years. A short-travel hardtail, meant for more tame riding. It also came with the rather special Production Privee seat and chainstays and had a lighter tubeset than the bigger Shan.
I found an Oka in size XL.
The ride of a Production Privee is quite special. The people at PP argue that this special ride comes from their use of specially treated rear stays. This might be possible, but I think most of the vibrations dissipate where the dropouts are bolted to the frame. All frames with bolt-on dropouts ride nicer than frames with welded-on, or in case of the Swarf brazed-on dropouts, IME.
The ride was much less harsh and for a time I really enjoyed it, but then the doubt kept creeping up again and I decided the 460mm reach was too much for me.
The drivetrain on this was an interesting experiment, though. Short-range 3x1 [24-32-36] with a clutch-assisted chain tensioner.
After that I managed to get my hands on my holy grail. A Production Privee Shan (2018 model). The geometry was already considered out of date in 2018, but it seemed to tick all the boxes for me.
I put it through multiple builds. Singlespeed, light XC, 4X, three different forks and dropper posts, I shortened the seat tube and finally ended up with this.
But, hurrying down some uneven terrain, I still felt not as confident as I wanted.
Late into the ownership of the Shan a Transition Trans Am crossed my path on kleinanzeigen.de. Cheap and cheerful, dressed up in parts-bin gear, this thing turned out to be a riot. On the right trail this thing instills more confidence than the Shan, despite a 26" rear wheel and even more outdated geometry.
Back in May this year a guy over in Colorado said he wanted to sell one of his frames. A Stanton Switchback Ti Mk2.
This naturally piqued my interest.
We quickly agreed on a deal that at least for me was almost too good to be true, but everything worked out as planned and I am now the proud owner of said frame.
All the parts from the Shan were transferred.
The Shan's strong point was climbing. Not what I am after on a bike meant to be most fun going in the opposite direction. The bikes weakness were overly tight, steep sections of trail and quick direction changes.
The Switchback is the polar opposite. Its geometry is similar to the Trans Am. It's very short, both in reach and chainstay length. The seat tube is very slack.
Short chainstays, slack seat tube and the slightly higher BB compared to the Shan, make it very easy to pop a wheelie and/or jump.
The bolt-on dropouts and whole Ti-ness of the frame deal with most vibrations coming from the back end.
The moderately slack head tube angle gives confidence in bermed corners on our moderately steep terrain.
The frame itself is very light.
It's safe to say this is the best hardtail I have ever ridden. It even surpasses the somewhat clouded memory of that PP Shan I fell off one night ten or so years ago.
One thing to note, though: Seated climbing is very unpleasant on any considerable incline....but you cannot have everything. So I'm fine with it.
We went to get some drinks late at night, he told me to try to manual, so I did and crashed hard; twisted my knee pretty badly. The night and couple weeks after were ruined, but the Shan was stuck in my mind.
At the time I rode an On One 456 Summer Season, which was nowhere near as nice as the Production Privee.
The On One was my first hardtail that was meant to prioritize fun riding down a hill.
It was heavy and slow but this kind of bike appealed to me, so I quickly graduated to a Ragley Bagger 288.
Great bike, but lots of squish up front that I did not feel to be all that necessary.
I had strong opinions, so I ordered a custom frame from Swarf Cycles.
At some point it was voted Sexiest Hardtail of the year over on Pinkbike.
For aesthetic reasons I wanted the downtube to be bigger. Adrian, the guy behind Swarf Cycles originally recommended the down tube to be the same diameter as the top tube....but what does he know, right?
I played around with different fork travel numbers and ended up screwing up the geometry with a shorter fork and an angle-adjust headset. This, coupled with an overall harshness (big down tubes do not help with this), ruined the experience and I did not like it anymore.
This is how it looked right before I sold it.
I now was after a bike of similar length, but with a more comfortable ride.
My girlfriend has had a Production Privee Oka for several years. A short-travel hardtail, meant for more tame riding. It also came with the rather special Production Privee seat and chainstays and had a lighter tubeset than the bigger Shan.
I found an Oka in size XL.
The ride of a Production Privee is quite special. The people at PP argue that this special ride comes from their use of specially treated rear stays. This might be possible, but I think most of the vibrations dissipate where the dropouts are bolted to the frame. All frames with bolt-on dropouts ride nicer than frames with welded-on, or in case of the Swarf brazed-on dropouts, IME.
The ride was much less harsh and for a time I really enjoyed it, but then the doubt kept creeping up again and I decided the 460mm reach was too much for me.
The drivetrain on this was an interesting experiment, though. Short-range 3x1 [24-32-36] with a clutch-assisted chain tensioner.
After that I managed to get my hands on my holy grail. A Production Privee Shan (2018 model). The geometry was already considered out of date in 2018, but it seemed to tick all the boxes for me.
I put it through multiple builds. Singlespeed, light XC, 4X, three different forks and dropper posts, I shortened the seat tube and finally ended up with this.
But, hurrying down some uneven terrain, I still felt not as confident as I wanted.
Late into the ownership of the Shan a Transition Trans Am crossed my path on kleinanzeigen.de. Cheap and cheerful, dressed up in parts-bin gear, this thing turned out to be a riot. On the right trail this thing instills more confidence than the Shan, despite a 26" rear wheel and even more outdated geometry.
Back in May this year a guy over in Colorado said he wanted to sell one of his frames. A Stanton Switchback Ti Mk2.
This naturally piqued my interest.
We quickly agreed on a deal that at least for me was almost too good to be true, but everything worked out as planned and I am now the proud owner of said frame.
All the parts from the Shan were transferred.
The Shan's strong point was climbing. Not what I am after on a bike meant to be most fun going in the opposite direction. The bikes weakness were overly tight, steep sections of trail and quick direction changes.
The Switchback is the polar opposite. Its geometry is similar to the Trans Am. It's very short, both in reach and chainstay length. The seat tube is very slack.
Short chainstays, slack seat tube and the slightly higher BB compared to the Shan, make it very easy to pop a wheelie and/or jump.
The bolt-on dropouts and whole Ti-ness of the frame deal with most vibrations coming from the back end.
The moderately slack head tube angle gives confidence in bermed corners on our moderately steep terrain.
The frame itself is very light.
It's safe to say this is the best hardtail I have ever ridden. It even surpasses the somewhat clouded memory of that PP Shan I fell off one night ten or so years ago.
One thing to note, though: Seated climbing is very unpleasant on any considerable incline....but you cannot have everything. So I'm fine with it.
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