I’ve had a few days this year on a 650 plus bike and really liked the ride, considerably more than the 29ers I’ve owned recently. I might be replacing my existing hardtail for the new 650b plus version, but am unsure whether it’s worth doing so as it will be roughly £2k that I’d need to spend. This would be my third Niner Air aluminum, but are there any other recommendations that you’d have for an all purpose hardtail? It would be used for general trail riding and bikepacking. It was a Scott Scale I tried earlier this year, and it was a decent if perhaps slightly dull bike.

I’d prefer an aluminum frame that I could buy on its own that I could build up myself, which Niner no longer do.

Personally I’d look at the reduced 2017 Pinnacle Ramin for your requirements, cheap as chips so plenty left over for posher wheels if you felt the need. Don’t think you need to spend anywhere near £2k…

That.

Especially the last bit.

Nukeproof Scout 275 takes 2.8in tyres.

Someone posted pics of theirs on here last week.

Standard recommend what you own – Chameleon!

I like the look of the Ramin 3 but the reviews mentioned the seatpost can slip a lot. Charge should be launching their 2018 Cooker soon so I expect the 2017 Cookers to be reduced if they aren’t already.

Build a P7 up from the 2018 frame £600 takes 29 and 650b+ or the pace 127+ frame build http://www.pacecycles.com/rc127-bike-page

Or Seen is Evans can source you a Norco Torrent

I built my Solaris up for a fair bit less than 2k . Orbea Loki is a nice looking bike but not sure if it comes frame only . Any reason aluminium? Steel gets you into stuff like cotic , Stanton , ragley bigwig etc