Mountain Bike Online

£1,050 (frame only)

The Zion 29in closely resembles the Ragley TD-1 coming from another titanium specialist manufacturer this time in the Netherlands.

Frame only comes in at 1,199 euros (approx £1,050) or you can go for complete build – a Shimano SLX set up would cost 2,807 euros (approx £2,450).

Unlike the TD-1 the Van Nicholas accepts suspension forks (the above build includes Rockshox Reba RLTs) . Van Nicholas offer a lifetime warranty for the Zion 29in and will replace any defective frame.

The DMR Bolt gives the rider 125mm of rear wheel travel which wraps around the bottom bracket pivot, so if you want to switch to single-speed – well it’s a doddle – you simply use DMR’s Swop-Out pivot.

Cost is £900 from Wiggle.co.uk

Pace Cycles, the suspension experts have recently moved to a new base deep in Dalby Forest. Pace have been around for 21 years now, and were based around 10 miles away in Pickering. Pace boss Adrian Carter says: “it seems like the right time, we always wanted to be in the forest, but when we were manufacturing forks ourselves, it didn’t really make sense, now it does”

The Pace offices will be based on site, as will a demo fleet of bikes ready to ride around the superb Dalby Forest complex.

For more information visit: www.pacecycles.com