Rose Mr Ride (custom build)

Rose's Mr Ride 29er has it all in terms of component value and low weight, and the basic geometry is sound if you get the right size for your sort of riding. The brutal bluntness of the oversized frame tubes makes it a boneshaker on longer rides and less than buff trails, though.

Ride & handling: Stable, safe, burly

The Mr Ride's cockpit is well shaped for control, but handling is stable rather than racy. It takes some turning at higher speeds, but when you’ve got it pointing where you want or swooping through a turn it’s a safe ride.

The tall, short ride position helps you use bodyweight to bully the slack head angle through tight sections. If you want a decent stretch for climbing, try going up a size. There’s no shortage of drive from the stout rear end and a direct connection from grips to ground at both ends. This will suit powerful riders, but on rides much over an hour it’s punishing on your body.

We’d suggest exploiting the tubeless-ready potential of tyres and rims to soften it up, but even then it’s not a subtle ride. You’ll want faster rolling tyres than the Schwalbe Nobby Nics specced here to unleash its obvious low weight potential on climbs too.

Frame: Tidy, super-stiff and up-to-date chassis

The ring reinforced head tube isn’t tapered, but is fat enough to suck brake and shift lines into its face for a clean start to the frame. The oversized down tube and top tube/seat tube junctions are smooth welded. The massive throat gusset and flared top tube make it look more like a jump bike than a cross-country bike though.

There’s a stiff BB30 press-fit bottom bracket system and the neat cowled and scoop-backed dropouts carry easy-to-adjust post mount brake fixtures. There’s a quick-release collar for the seatpost and adequate spacing round the 2.25in tyres. You can choose blue and white painted or black anodised finishes.

Equipment: Great wheels and plenty of options

The full triple compound Schwalbe tyres with racy Pacestar compound are a taste of the top-level componentry. They’re sat on Mavic’s light and eye-catching alloy-spoked C29ssMax wheels. Formula’s RX brakes get 180mm rotors for extra power. A broad Rose low-rise bar and short stem provide a sorted cockpit, and the own-brand seatpost is a quality twin-bolt piece.

Rose enable you to customise your componentry when you order. Our bike came with a RockShox Reba fork and SRAM X9 transmission to hit the £1,500 target price. The standard Fox-forked, SRAM X0, Formula R1, Syncros kit version is £1,700.

(BR)