Is there one? Crucially – must be bolt through front and rear. Because I have a spare set of nice 29er xc wheels and thus clearly building an entirely new bike is the best way to deal with them.

Will be replacing my old alu kona Dew CX/commuter/thing, which I use to razz round the local roads, trails, bridleways etc.

Looking for something faster more refined so either alu or steel probably.

I’ve seen the edge sports ‘gravel carbo ‘ which fits the bill perfectly other than being £999 and the Alu version which is not in stock.

have you seen the Ridley X-Trail alloy Tiagra?

Any reason why it can’t be a BBB? At risk of being egged, I’d say you can’t go far wrong for the money. I use my nice 29er wheel set with a 40c Nano up front and a 35c WTB something (can’t remember!) out back. And I ride it everywhere around Calderdale. Yes, I had to make my peace with On One’s fictitious claim that the BBB has enough rear mud clearance for 40c, but then it (was) a £500 frame I could put standard 29er parts on and ride the hell out of it. I think her Kermit green looks quite sharp too.

Here’s just hoping it doesn’t get too ostracised when it turns up for the Dirty One Thirty later this month…

No reason not no – other than what you just said about clearance, i was rather banking on fitting some quite chunky tyres in…

I do actually like the mad colours and I’ve had my eye on it a while, I’m gonna see if the price does anything over the weekend, they are only half an hour down the road so might pop in.

I’ll look up that Ridley too, though its a frame only I’m after.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/vitus-energie-vr-rival-2017-cyclocross-bike/

Or http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/vitus-bikes-energie-vr-cyclo-x-bike-rival-1×11-2017/rp-prod146066 with BC discout?

Yeah, fair point re the chunky tyres. My BBB is my chunky road bike/crosser, so it’s job done for me. If you’re wanting a ‘slimline’ 29er on the other hand, that not-quite-’40c’ rear clearance will be an ar*e indeed!

I have a full BBB for sale…

If the hydraulic BBB had been closer to the price of my Crosslight 5T disc last May I’d have had one instead. It was too close to £2k for my liking at the time. No problem with the bike at all, it was just more than I wanted to pay – not unreasonable for the spec though.