Readers’ Awards – Best Hardtail – Stanton Slackline
We caught up with Dan from Stanton to find out a little more about the much loved Slackline and hardtails in general.
Do you think the “credit crunch” has driven people to hardtails, or is it more than just a cost effective way to get out and shred?
As I’m new to the game I don’t know at what realistic quantities hardtails should sell for per year, I’m very happy with how many I’ve sold this year but whether it would be more or less than a none credit crunch year I just don’t know. However, as for whether its just a more cost effective way to get out and ride or not, I can answer. Obviously a Hardtail is cheeper to run as there’s no pivot bearings to replace, no rear shock to get serviced and full sussers are just more expensive. A good steel Hardtail such as an 853 frame doesn’t have those issues and its tensile strength is three times that of alloy making it a much stronger frame to dent and to snap. Also as it doesn’t have all the gubbins going on so its much lighter too, meaning you can build a pimp ass bike that you don’t have to maintain as much or worry about when you crash.
Clipping into a Hardtail is a different experience to a Full susser, the predictability of a constant chainstay length, bottom bracket height mean you always know where your rear wheel is in relation to your position on the bike, making for a much more predictable ride. The bike also picks up much quicker out of turns etc as the virtual chainstay length hasn’t shortened under compression, slackening up the chain. Also riding hardtails is just out and out, straight up fun, as the margin for error is much less and so relying on you rather than the rear suspension to get you through the tough stuff, this unarguably makes you a better rider/bike handler (you only have to look at BMXers to see that). Put it this way, if you can do it on a hardtail you can do it on a full susser, can you say the same the other way around?
Every bike has its place though, you wouldn’t take a Slackline to World Cup DH round and expect to win, however if you want to get better on your DH bike then get a Slackline to hone some skills.
Where are Stanton Bikes headed next? What can we look forward to in 2013?
This year I’ve got my new 4X frame and Dirt Jump frames coming out. I’ve got a national 4X team consisting of UK national champ 2011 Luke Limerick and his riding partner, elite national 4X racer Richard Lane who came 7th over all last year. The team are also looking to do some of the world rounds too and we are also sponsoring the videos for the national series. I aiming to get to every event with my family, hanging out in the camper and watching some of the best athletes in UK cycling. 4X seems to have taken a bit of a hit over the last few years with some people saying its dead! I feel as cycling goes its one of the most thrilling spectator friendly sports out there. I’m in love with it and have been ever since It started hitting the headlines. It takes mega balls and a real high skill level to be shoulder to shoulder with 3 other dudes over a 25ft double, true kudos!
Other things I’ve got happening in the year is the release of a 29er, I’ve had a couple of prototypes and I’m now expecting the final samples. There’s two versions, a vertical dropout version and a horizontal dropout version that can run a belt. The Geo on the 29er is pretty playful too, it started off being XC orientated and as I’ve gone along the process of design I’ve tweaked and tweaked, I reckon it’ll be fine for XC trail at 80-100mm and a hooligan with a 120mm fork.
Other things; I’m looking at UK manufacture for anything 853 and there’s a possibility that anything Ti will be made by a bloke in a shed in America called Dean!!!
Thanks Dan!