Nicolai G16 10

It's an expensive bike, with some trick stuff, but there's a notable absence of pointless bling and carbon, because a bent handle-bar is better than a snapped one (and a concave face) and I use this bike for some heavy duty riding. Most of the components are picked purely because they are what I consider "the best" for the riding I do, even if they're not the most expensive. The Shimano XT M780 cranks for example - nothing else is technically "better" and as mentioned, I'm not even prepared to consider carbon - just no. XT cranks are close to indestructible, sensibly light, stiff and finding compatible chainrings is super easy. M780 brakes too - the newer M8000 ones are actually less reliable and the levers are flexy in comparison. The M780 brakes have all the power I need. Oh and that also goes for the pedals too - I have tried XTR trail pedals, but only my wallet noticed any real difference.

There are areas where money has been splashed in more subtle areas though. The forks have an Adreani compression stack kit fitted, which opens up fuller use of the available travel and goes a long way towards fixing the flawed volume-reducing-token, air spring system (which doesn't make the forks ramp up where you actually want them to). Admittedly its not a cheap upgrade for what you apparently get, but it really does drastically improve both the initial stroke, by having less LSC; and the end stroke by making the progression curve more gentle. Instead of having all the ramp up in the last 25mm of travel (which is what tokens give you) they just get gradually stiffer through the whole stroke.

Cheap 2nd hand Titanium shock springs are abundant now the market is flooded with them, so basically - why wouldn't you? They don't snap due to corrosion, like steel ones do (which has happened to me twice in the past, each time bending the shock shaft). Expensive, super-light steel springs (which still aren't as light as Ti) are a false economy. The frame has enough progression in the linkage to cope without needing an air shock, although I do have hi-speed compression and rebound at close to max on the adjusters. Coil is just easy for my simple brain too.

Wheelsets are cheap enough that worrying about the exact merits of any one particular set is easily solved by having multiple sets, especially on a bike like this which gets used for ALL types of mountain bike riding. These are my trail wheels pictured, but I also have a DH set (and a few others!). I've tried some of the new skool super-wide rims, but I'm not convinced. 25-28mm seems to be about right I reckon. Other than that, wheels are wheels; I stick to 32 J-spokes and good quality alloy rims, any deviation from that has penalties and compromises that aren't worth the so called benefits.

I will say that I'm a big fan of Schwalbe Procores - they deliver everything they promise - it's one of the best 100 quid's you can spend. The anti-puncturing is the headline, but there's a lot more to like besides just that: They vice-grip the tyre firmly on the rim, at any pressure; they're easy to inflate with any pump; you can get away with lighter sidewall tyres; and use super lightweight rims as they're so much harder to dent. I've been using Procores for 2 years now, zero complaints, just keep refreshing the 50p presta valves.

Saddle - hah, that's an old saddle that's been re-skinned by a local cobbler. He used leather from my mum's old handbag and charged me £5 for the work - no jokes. I just like the saddle and thought it would be fun. That thing hanging off the back is a GoPro mount with a carbon MX fork fender bolted on. It just keeps the splash off the dropper post stanchion. Seems to work as that KS dropper is over 2 years old now and I've only done the occasional collar re-grease and she still works fine. Shout out to Revolution Bike park - hence the uplift band on the saddle.

I think my only 2 gripes about the frame are no water bottle mounts and the cable routing is good, but not perfect.

One final point on components is the 1X drive chain. It still has me scratching my head - I really don't think its the all-singing perfect solution it's cracked up to be. A heavy cassette is really bad unsprung weight, and the flappy derailleur in lower gears is pretty annoying. I'm so tempted to go back to a 2X system but I'm in constant indecision about that....

Set up is fairly standard. I guess the suspension is hard-ish and fast-ish and the riding position is high-ish, nothing extreme though. I never saw a fast rider that had a "slammed" front end or soggy suspension.