What have I missed? Looking for something new & cheap for a bit of a frankenbike. Inbred pretty much fits the bill but is a little bit long in the top tube.

Needs plenty of leg length though, the 16″ inbred is still a smidge on the small side but a bit long on the top tube. Ideally something a bit slacker would be nice.

Soul pretty much fits the bill on geometry but is too expensive! 456 is a bit on the expensive side, the forks i’ve got to go on it are 100mm so not ideal for the 456 and (apparently more importantly) you can’t get it in a nice colour… 🙄

I have a 17.5″ Soul frame for sale if that would be of any interest, it’s the older one with 1 1/8 headtube and 27.2 seatpost.

Could you not just buy a larger frame to get the leg length and use a short stem to keep the reach on the top tube shorter?

Charge Duster? they are a bit shorter than most for any given frame size, and currently there are a few places punting the 2011 and 2012 Duster Skinny frames out for ~£150

I bought one before Xmas just to see what they were like, so far so good, about .75inch shorter TT than my soul, a lot flexier, this has pros and cons, it’s comfy and nicely whippy if ridden right but if you get a bit too animated on it it can feel a bit vague and needs some extra effort to go round tight corners if you come in at speed as the front end just has too much flex and wont bite until you really force it. Having said that it’s growing on me as a spinny XC mile munching bike.

Hmm duster could be a good shout, let’s go and find some numbers. Edit: That’s some steep angles… how does it descend? Guessing it’s more XC orientated.

Any more?
Cheers

you said Soul pretty much fit the bill, the Duster is only a degree steeper in the head angle (comparing them both with 100mm forks which you said you’d be using), but yes it is pretty XC oriented, are you looking for something slacker and more hooligany?