The ultimate 26 inch wheeled bike....the vote...or rather, bag of opinions....

[2manyoranges]

Well....as I sat riding my 29er Stanton and looking forward to a ride on the 29er Bfe, I wondered about what 26 inch bike might be considered the zenith of 26er build re performance. From the early 80s, I worked through many, many mtbs, rigid and hardtail and FS, and finally had a bevy of 26 inch Cotics, and perhaps my ultimate 26er is the ti Stanton Slackline. Which I still have...and like...a lot. But how about you?........

 

[BlackCat]

Controversial around these parts, but of all the 26” bikes I’ve had over the years, my Cannondale Prophet, which is a 2007, 140mm bike, is by far the best. Tough, nippy, can handle XC or being ripped down a technical DH. Actually thinking about picking up another one as a spare.

I guess a more UK-centric suggestion might be an Orange Five (though I would like to point out that the ‘Dale beat the Orange in the contemporary MBUK group test!).

 

[2manyoranges]

That’s a really interesting take - I always saw the Dale Prophet as an American analogue of the Orange FS family. I still have an Orange Alpine 160 26er and it’s a fabulous bike for Alpine DH oriented Alpine riding.

 

[BlackCat]

The thing that set the Orange and Dale apart as spec’d at the time was the fork. The former had a Fox 32, the latter a Pike. The Pike hit stuff like a Challenger II.. the 32 on the other hand was pretty flexy. Still, to each his own. One of my riding buddies had the Orange and it was a great bike too.

 

[BlackCat]

Would love an Alpine 160! They just look like such a fun bike..

 

[stevet1]

my ultimate 26er is the ti Stanton Switchback
Switchback was 27.5 only, I ran mine with 26" wheels for a short while but BB was too low really.
Now the 26" Ti Slackline was a beauty, owned one for about 5 years.
If I had to pick the best 26'er before 27.5 and 29 (shudder) bikes took over then the Evil Uprising was the best handling that I rode.
This thread probably belongs in the post-98 forum...

 

[2manyoranges]

Argh - typo - you are absolutely right....Slackline....

I saw an Evil Uprising on the South Downs Way last week....nice.

Yes I wondered about putting it in the post-98 but then thought that people might be nominating anything from any era. When I cast my riding memory back, prior to the Slackline I would nominate a few pre-98. The Clockworks were brilliant bikes, and would vie for a vote with the Marin Team Issue. And (weirdly in some people’s minds) I would nominate my ProFlex 855.

 

[fearfactoryüberalles]

Which frame material do you ask? Carbon's not my thing, alu is depressing, ti and high-end steel are my picks.
For Ti: Morati bikes, Marin Ti.
For steel: top-end Marins, Diamond Backs, Scott Pro, Breezers. Bontragers. Sunn, KHS, Jamis, Kästle were obscure but competent offerings too back then. Difficult to choose, really. My little collection extends mostly to these anyway, so maybe I'm too biased.