Just finished at Afan yesterday and noticed a massive crack in the top tube headtube weld of my Meta 4, it’s 4 years old so out of warranty but had a fairly quite life, used maybe 10 times a year tops for trail centre duties.

Not wanting to give Commencal much more of my money as I don’t really think I’ve had the use out of it I’d expect before failure, what do I replace it with? had it set up 120mm forks with 100mm on the rear, it was a real blast. my style is more fast singletrack, Llandegla, CwnCarn, Afan etc than rock garden and jumping, although a little of the latter features every now and then.

I’m 6’2 and 83kg. Is the Anthem X sturdy enough? anything else I should look at? only need a frame as all the parts on Commencal were pretty new, I want to keep the weight down so no ‘big rigs’

I’d be inclined to drop a polite letter to Maddison (Commencal Distrib) explaining what’s happened to a little used bike.

You have no commitment to do anything but may look favourably on you given Commencal’s rotten reputation for frame failures on 08/09 frames.

Specialized have a limited lifetime warranty on frames which I believe to be very good.

Yes, waiting on a response from Madison but looking like crash replacement is the best I’ll be offered according to commencal HQ, which is still a fair bit of cash as the price of the frames has gone up quite a bit now. Just weighing up my options at mo.

I thought I’d heard Madison had dropped Commencal ? Bad luck OP, but with the amount of people I know who have had trouble with Specialized bikes (mainly shock bushes dying very quickly) I wouldn’t go for one of those.

Santa Cruz Superlight?

Don’t have one myself but they would seem to fit the bill (and are only £900 for the frame).

Would a Titus X Carbon take a 120mm fork?

Right, trying to make my mind up now….

New giant anthem x circa £1200
2010 giant anthem x for approx £700

Or…. The curve ball

Turner 2010 flux from wiggle for £1299

Which way would people lean? I think I only want 4″ of travel and both the giant and turner review well although I’ve ridden neither. The bike won’t get raced but I do love a flat out blast around a trail centre and fast flowing singletrack, I like a technical climb just as much as a technical decent.

Help please before I drive my wife insane with my indecision!

Commencal offered my mate a crash replacement for his old cracked Meta 5, about 1/2 price I think. He’s happy with it.

That’s the problem, if they offer at half price it’s still £600 and tbh I’ve lost a bit of faith in a company that’s prepared to take £1200 off you for a frame and then with 2 years of not all that much use say the won’t replace when an obvious manufacturing fault occurs. It’d want to be a much better offer than 1/2 price for me to buy another…

Turner Flux £1075 🙂

Merlin have some left; 09, large, in Raw finish. You need to join the VIP club to get the extra discount.
Mine just arrived 🙂

They seem to be a late 09 frame, with the extra welded areas. I would have preferred the painted 2010 Wiggle ones, but couldn’t argue with over £200 difference!

Two Turners in the garage now 🙂

Thanks for that Stanley but in need XL size. I also quite fancy the copper colour so Wiggles offer sounds the best so far?

Just trying to justify the extra £500 over the Giant Anthem ’10. they seem essentially the same design.

Yeah, I fancied the bronze one too.

That is still a blinding deal from Wiggle.

I have a 5-Spot too….. Love it! Turners are just so well designed and made. The DW system pedals so well.
Had a minor problem with my first 5-Spot; Turner replaced within a few days with a newer model (2009-2010)

I’m a fan of the nice straight lines of them….. don’t like these new swoopy frames!