Stanton Slackline 853 – Review
It was only 10 year ago that most of us were riding hard tails as our DH bike, XC bike, jump bike and general fun times bike. Fond memories are all I have of the hard-core breed. Regrettably I haven’t had one for 5 years but with recent times a few underground companies have been making their mark on the hardtail scene, producing amazing frames with up to date geometry and specs. This was all the excuse I needed to get one back in my life, one of the best bike related decisions I have made in a while.
After some research I concluded on the Stanton Slackline 853 as it ticked all my boxes and is a very versatile frame packing 3 different bikes into one, quite an achievement for a simple hardtail. All that is needed is to change the travel of the fork and you have a dirt jumper/4x bike (120mm fork), a trail bike (120-150mm fork) and a DH bike (160mm fork). You may think this means it wont be good at any of them, in fact it does all of them better than if you had 3 specific hardtails.
I have built mine up with a 160mm X-Fusion Vengeance fork, 1×9 Shimano drivetrain, Stans flow tubeless rims on Hope hubs with Shimano brakes and Spank Bars, creating an Alpine XC machine. Living in the Alps I need it to be strong to manage the rocky, rooty and steep descents. I have tried not to compromise the ascending prowess by using lightweight tubeless wheels, which has worked amazingly well.
Stanton produce the frame using Reynolds 853 steel tubing, chosen for it’s manipulative and vibration damping properties and it certainly shows. I have been riding this bike hard for 8 months now and have been very surprised how smooth it is through the ruff stuff. The build quality is second to none with really smart welds and great attention to detail.
The Slackline begs to be ragged downhill as soon as you swing a leg over it. With a good head angle (68 Degrees), low bottom bracket and short chain stays it is one of the most playful bikes I have ridden. Cornering is amazing thanks to its strong 4X/slalom influence, this is also obvious when air born. I am cashing in on air miles aboard Stanton’s Flagship frame, I think it is partly why this bike is so much fun. The Slackline is very stable at speed and just wants to go faster, the only thing that will hold this bike back is the rider!
After some pretty epic alpine rides on this bike it hasn’t missed a beat, even after being put to the back of the garage then dragged back out because the expensive bike is broken…. Its like the wife of your fleet of bikes…… forever faithful even if you neglect her and take the mistress (expensive carbon suspension bike) out for a spin. It’s the simplicity of this frame that makes it a winner, no frills or fancy bits just a double diamond hardtail frame built to do everything, go everywhere and have the most amount of fun doing it.
Recently Dan Stanton has answered his consumers callings of a few up to date additions to this amazing frame. The new Slackline 631 now comes with a 44mm headtube, a 31.6 seat tube to accommodate for a dropper post and the same ISG 05 tabs. These additions can only make a great bike better.
With an ever growing presence in the UK hardtail scene Stanton bikes are a force to be reckoned with producing top quality goods at a great price. RRP £385
Looking for a winter bike that is low maintenance but all about the fun factor? Hit up www.Stantonbikes.com, get a Slackline then send me a message to say thank you…..
Words – Oli Carter