Avanti Hammer S1 (2025)

The Hammer S1 sits in a category most riders skip straight past: down-country. It is a cross-country bike that has been given stable trail-bike handling, and it is the right bike for a very specific rider.

If you spend most of your ride climbing, linking singletrack and covering ground, and you want the descents to be fun rather than survival, this is the bike that suits you. If you drive to the trailhead and shuttle laps, it is not.

Avanti build it around a SL alloy frame with 120mm of rear travel, then over-fork it with a 130mm Marzocchi Z2 Bomber. That extra 10mm at the front is deliberate.

It slackens the head angle a touch and pushes the front wheel out ahead of you. Which is what stops a short-travel bike feeling nervous when the trail steepens.

Combined with the longer reach Avanti have given the frame, you get a bike that still climbs like a cross-country bike but does not tip you over the bars on the way back down.

How it feels

Rear travel is the number most people over-buy. They get a bike that has too much suspension for the riding they're doing.

The honest version:

120mm is usually enough for the majority of trails in metro Melbourne, including Lysterfield, Forrest and Buxton. These are trails reward holding speed and momentum (up and down). And punish riders on bigger travel bikes who aren't strong.

What it gives up is repeated big hits at speed. What it gives back is a bike that accelerates when you stand on the pedals instead of squatting into its travel.

The 120mm of rear wheel travel is controlled by the X-Fusion O2 Pro R shock is air-sprung with rebound adjustment.

If you are not sure whether 120mm is your number, our dual suspension mountain bikes page breaks the range down by travel and riding style, and the staff at any of our three stores will talk you through it honestly rather than up-selling you into travel you will never use.

The build, and where the money goes

Avanti have made sensible, unglamorous choices here, which is what you want at this level.

Marzocchi Z2 Bomber, 130mm air. Marzocchi is Fox's value brand and the Z2 uses a simplified version of Fox's damper. It is heavier than a Fox 34 and has fewer adjustments. It is also close to unkillable and holds its damping when it gets hot, which matters more on a long descent than a compression dial you never touch.

Shimano Deore 12-speed. Deore is the point on Shimano's range where you stop paying for weight savings and start paying for nothing. Same 10-51T range, same Hyperglide+ shifting under load, same clutch as XT and SLX. It is heavier by a couple of hundred grams and that is the entire difference. Replacement chains and cassettes are cheap and every shop in the country stocks them.

SRAM DB8 four-piston brakes, 180mm rotors. This is the standout spec on the bike. Four-piston brakes on a 120mm bike is more braking power than this category normally gets.

And the DB8 runs mineral oil rather than DOT fluid, which makes home bleeds far less unpleasant. On a bike you will ride into descents faster than its travel suggests, the extra power is the right kind of over-spec.

Tubeless-ready rims and 2.4in tyres. The Alex DP-27 rims and Kenda Regolith Pro tyres are both tubeless ready out of the box. Run them with tubes and you are carrying the weight penalty without the puncture protection, so this is worth doing on day one. We can set the bike up tubeless before you collect it, and we stock the tubeless sealant and valves to keep it that way.

Syncros cockpit and dropper. Syncros is the in-house component brand attached to Avanti's Swiss design partner, which is also where the frame engineering claim comes from. The Duncan dropper is internally routed and, more to the point, it is there at all, which is not a given at this price.

Questions we get asked about this bike

What does "down-country" actually mean? A cross-country bike with trail-bike geometry and parts. Typically 110mm to 130mm of travel, a head angle around 66 to 67 degrees, a dropper post and grippier tyres than a race bike. The goal is cross-country climbing speed without cross-country descending compromise.

Is the Hammer S1 a cross-country race bike? No. A race bike would be lighter, steeper and run narrower tyres. The Hammer S1 trades some of that for control on the way down. If your goal is marathon and XC racing, look at a genuine race platform instead.

Can I ride it at a bike park? For flow trails and blue runs, yes. For repeated big-hit descending, it is the wrong tool and you will be fighting it. That is a 150mm-plus bike.

Why is the fork 130mm when the frame is 120mm? Deliberate over-forking. The longer fork slackens the head angle and raises the front, which improves stability on steep terrain at a small cost to climbing steepness. It is a standard down-country design choice, not a mismatch.

Do I need to change anything to make it tubeless? The rims and tyres are both tubeless ready. You need sealant, tubeless valves and rim tape if it is not already fitted. We can do it for you at handover.