Photos from the Hargroves Cycles MTB demo day at the Croft Trail in Swindon. This was an opportunity to try out brand new models for free. Â Brands present were Specialized, Scott, Cube, Stevens and Genesis.
The MBSwindon club stand and BBQ was present. Coffee, cakes and sandwiches were served by Cafe-Xpresso and Donna from Back2fitness Extreme was on hand to answer sport therapy questions.
I tried several 29″ bikes and was impressed with all of them. After being underwhelmed by the wagon wheels a year ago it was great to find that the latest models now go round corners whilst having a subtle and noticeable improvement over undulations compared with 26″ wheels.
 Both the Genesis models I tried were point and shoot rockets. However, after riding only hard tails from 2002-2010 before converting to full suspension  it was a shock to ride hard tails again.
The best bike for me on the day was the Specialized Camber 29″ Carbon. I already own an alloy Stump Jumper and this very similar, just with bigger wheels. One hell of a bike if you are comfortable with the Specialized brand. I know that the image conscious can struggle with that. If you rate the riding experience then, for the money, Specialized hit the spot.Â
