Bit of help required please. I’ve got around £400 to spend on an agressive hardtail, but am looking for something with a long top tube so i can run a short stem/wide bars.

any advice would be greatly appreciated

You looking for frame only?

I love my carbon 456 in short stem wide bar mode.

+1 for the c456. I have the evo 18 inch and it is the same effective top tube as my large nomad. Long and low in true marketing blurb style!

ideally looking for complete build. got majority of bits for a build, but lack time. will look at selling these components on for a dropper. really like the look of the C456 frame, not seen one for my money though. had a look on CRC for new bike in sale, but cant see any with long travel/agressive geometry

ns surge

Slackline’s pretty long.

Sorry – just noticed the £400 is complete.

I think your only option at that price would be a 456 2nd hand.

Most (any?) new <£400 bike will be right from the bottom of the range, and unlikely to have a fork that functions properly, 150mm of travel means it needs to be well damped, so the minimum is going to be nearer £1000, like an On-One 45650b, 456 evo, parkwood etc. Cheaper bikes tend to be either XC/trail hardtails or dirtjump bikes.

I got a Ragley Piglet from eBay for £400….it had a crappy 120mm Recon fork but i had a 140mm Sektor at home so the bike has turned out great for not a lot of money.
Trawl eBay, some complete On-One 456 Summer Season builds come up surprisingly regularly for about your price range….or get a 2nd hand fork from these guys:

http://flatoutcycles.co.uk/

….their stock changes daily but i’ve seen decent forks on there for less than £200, they currently have some 140mm Sektors for £140 and some Fox 32 150mm for £200.

Then get a Dartmoor Hornet from here:

http://slam69.co.uk/

….the frame is £185 brand new.

I reckon for less than £350 you could have a new frame running on good second hand forks, you can pick up wheels for nothing on eBay or On-One do their Reet’ard set for £100 and they’re fine….been running them on a hardtail for over a year now with no problems.

Sunn Tzar s2 @ CRC?

looked at the Sunn Tzar, doesnt really do much for me. liking the 456 though. any more suggestions chaps??

Worth having a gander to see if you can find a Sanderson Life, though you may struggle on your budget. Superb steel (Reynolds 853) hardtail, rides brilliantly. I’m quicker round my trail centre (Llandegla) black run on it (descending as well as climbing) than I am on my full suspension

What size are you after? We are about to put my sons ragley up for sale. It has 150 magura thors up front and is running 1×9 on sram x9 and has roval wheels. This may be a bit closer to your budget.

Great hardcore and slack hardtail. It’s a 16″.

I am getting a new 650b hardtail (a bird) and my son has decided he wants my current hardtail, so this one is going (I think he should keep the ragley, but you can’t reason with a teenager).

Email in profile if you want to know more.

Simone

Thanks for the shout, but I’m looking for either a medium or large depending on the top tube length.
Budget now set at £500!

You can have my 456-evo frame (Raw colour, 16 inch, fits me at 5ft 9″) for £100 if you can collect, i’m in Hampshire?
Leaves you £400 to get a fork and wheels, drivetrain etc etc….easy enough to do, that’ll be a nice AM hardtail once built up.

appreciate the offer, but after a bit more research I’m after either an 18 or 19 inch frame and run a 50mm tem – hopefully complete build too!

No worries, BTW there about three full build 456’s on eBay right now that fit your budget, buy it now too.

got my eye on them, cheers!