Allo,

I’ve got a bit of a first world problem niggling away at me and it involves the purchase of a new hardtail to get me back into riding. I either buy a Cove Hummer now as they’re cheap (cheap, as in relative to other ti frames rather than financial) from merlin at £900 or wait a couple of months and buy one of Brants new 456 Evo Titanium frames.

Ideally i’d like to ride examples of the two bikes built up but thats going to happen seeing as i stay in the arse end of nowhere so i’ve been attempting to compare the 17″ Hummer & 16″ 456 Evo frame sizes and angles etc to my old custom Soulcraft but as the Soulcraft was designed around a 80mm travel fork with 73* seat angle & 71* head angle it’s hard to come to a conclusion apart from confirming top tube lengths/standover clearance etc.

I notice the Evo is designed around a 150mm fork and from reading reviews on here and elsewhere the cove is regarded as ideal for 120-130mm, going from a 80mm Fox Terralogic to 150mm of travel i feel may be overkill so thats’s why i’d be trying to run 120-130mm which leads me to favour the Hummer – has anyone got an 456 EVO running this set-up or has everyone went big to take advantage of the Evo’s slack angles?.

Most of my riding is out in the Galloway Hills with occasional visits to surrounding 7 Stane trail centres and I’m not one for jumps/drops etc so i feel the 456 Evo may be overkill or too much bike for my needs, I’d jump at the chance of buying Brants previous 456 TI in a 16″ but i’ve been trawling the web for the past 3months and none have come up.

Anyone got any advice for a dithering idiot?.

Cheers,

Can you get a go on a Cove Handjob? The geometry is the same as the Hummer isn’t it?

Mine was too short really, I liked my (carbon) 456 much more.

I looked at the Coves and the top tubes did look small. I was coming from one of Merlins own frames (same geometry as rocklobster) so wanted something longer. Unfortunately didn’t realise Cotic Souls are also about the length I need so didn’t get one of them but also opted for a C456 and it fits me perfect.

I thought of that but my nearest cove dealer that has a hummer/handjob is over 200 miles away so unless i could blag a ride on someones at a local trail centre i’m out of luck, my gut instinct and 25yrs+ riding experience says go for the Cove but there’s a niggle in my head that says wait and see what the 456 EVO is like.

In an ideal world where money grows on trees and every ride ends with a podium finish surrounded by fawning women i’d have both but as a first world problem this is a big decision for my wallet to suffer.

i love my stiffee.

If i didn’t have a load of 29er stuff in my spare room i would of bought a cove hummer!

The new Cotic Soul was at #1 place on my recent shortlist until i received an email from merlin regarding the cheap Hummer frames and as i’ve always wanted a Ti frame i started thinking “why not?”, My old Soulcraft had a 580mm/22.9 top tube measured horizontal (actual 522mm/20.75) so i’d be happy with a relatively short top tube as on the hummer but the 16″ Soul would suit me fine as well.

To be honest 120mm forks on a Handjob are a blast. Don’t need any more. Cove’s idea of ‘XC’ is more All Mountain than what the UK consider ‘XC’ (race/speed machine).

If you’re looking for a more trail/all mountain, all day riding HT, I doubt you’d be disappointed with either the Hummer or the 456 Evo in Ti.

My Handjob is current ‘sans’ bouncy forks with a set of Exotic carbon forks up front. Absolutely flew down the ‘black’ section at the top of Whites climb in Afan.

If frame measurements are important to you then check out Cove’s website for the dims.

i had a 2007 Litespeed built Hummer and it was a fantastic machine. My joint 2nd best bike ever. Amazing handling and just looking to get ragged on all the time. Just made me want to go faster and faster.

So who builds the current hummers and what are failures like? Didn’t know they were going cheap but I’m very tempted.

Failures are no worse than any other manufacturer.

As to manufacturer that would depend what model year is being sold off. As I said in the other thread, it’s new ‘old stock’.

http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1121655/

Going by what i’ve read previously regarding the Hummer and replies to this thread (cheers folks, good to read your opinions) i guess i’m leaning very heavily in the direction of the Hummer, i’m away out for a quick run on my Salsa to decide.

S’funny really…….what started out a few weeks ago as a max budget of £1000 for a decent 2nd hand hardtail has turned into a £2500 possible build if i can justify it to myself – damn those cheap frames!.

I doubt it helps but I’ve got the previous 456 ti frame (‘mk 2’ Van Nic built) for sale, thing is its an 18” frame?

Big savings on a new one though, and its in brilliant condition… 🙂

Cheers for the offer daw5 but i’ve just ordered a cove hummer from merlin, if your frame was smaller i’d have taken it but the price merlin are selling the hummers for was too good a chance to miss out on.

Good man! Congratulations! I’ve a 09 Hummer with 90-130 Talas and I lurve the feel of the ride 😀

Enjoy dude, I’m sure you will 😀

Hummer might me cheap now at £900 but if its non-Litespeed built with the 27.2 seatpost it only has a 2 year warranty.Which is not great.

Good purchase.

I’d have been tempted but bought a small Shocker in the CRC sale.

15.5-inch Stiffee’s are half price at the moment. As long as you want black.

dobiejessmo – It’s the new “Lynskey” built hummer with a 30mm seatpost.

According to Silverfish…..The Cove Hummer has a five year warranty against defects in materials and workmanship, and a lifetime crash replacement scheme (whereby a replacement frame can be bought for half SRP if the frame breaks for ANY reason not covered under warranty). As with any product; the warranty is dealt with by your dealer.

Hopefully I’ll never need to make use of nor test the warranty but it’s there if i need it and merlin have a good reputation for dealing with claims, i bought one of their high end malt’s back in the late 90’s for my gf at the time, 3 years later the chainstay broke but they offered an immediate replacement which was nice.

It arrived today along with a ceramic hope bb and hope headset – very impressed with the welding and surprisingly so is my father when i showed him – he’s been a welder/fabricator for 40 odd years doing stuff to nuclear/chemical/pharmaceutical plants so it’s high praise indeed coming from him, he asked me if i wanted it x-rayed to check the weld penetration as he could do it at his work – I may get it done as an x-rayed pic on the wall would be kinda cool.

Now to start speccing it up with nice bits n’ bobs as funds allow. Dunno whether to go for 140mm ctd/trail adjust Kashima Talas or 140mm ctd/trail adjust Kashima Floats and Easton wheelset or stick to Hopes which have never let down in 18 odd years of use, my original 1994 Ti Hope xc hub is still going strong on my singlespeed roadbike.

Middleburn cranks running 1×10 of some sort or the new Sram XX1 is another decision and i guess the usual thomson seatpost/stem, easton bars combination and finally formula R0 or R1 brakes, should build into a nice 22lbs ish hardtail.

Gonna be a couple of months till i get it fully built as i’m scouring the net for this years bargains as the new 2013 kit filters in, so i guess my patience will be sorely tested as i figure i’ve enough old parts lying around to build it up into a rideable state but i’m not gonna do that, havn’t had a new bike since 2004 so i’m gonna build it how i want beforehand.

Where are stiffee’s half price?

Have a look at Magura Thor’s, I run them on a 456Ti and they just kinda suit it – and probably the same type of riding as you too (also live in the Borders).

Subscribing….

Cheers b r, not looked at anything other than rockshox or fox yet but i’ll away for a google now, coming from a salsa juan solo ss with 80mm of optimistic travel courtesy of 8yr old fox terralogics i imagine anything i buy is gonna be a vast improvement.

MoseyMTB – Member

Where are stiffee’s half price?

Was on CRC but it looks like they’ve all gone now. Still heavy discount on others though.

Somafunk thats good then.There was a thing on here a while back with them breaking and silver-fish only doing a 2 year warranty on the 27.2mm.I have a Litespeed one 2009 which is great.I still have the Litespeed label where the welders names are on it that did the various welds. Enjoy they handle ace.

Somafunk, I’ve been pondering over the same thing for a couple of weeks now (while I try and find money from somewhere !). I don’t want to worry you, but I asked Merlin what the warranty is for those Hummers (they’re actually 2011 models) and they said 3 years. To be honest, if I had £900, I’d probably do the same as you. But they idea of getting something ‘fragile’ worries me, especially as I’m currently riding a Stiffee and the concept of checking the frame for cracks after each ride is totally alien to me 😕

DiscJockey : 3years? :?, according to silverfish the warrenty is 5 yrs and seeing as they are the importers i will be holding them to it if anything goes wrong, richie’s very decent to deal with so i doubt very much that i’d have any trouble. I received my frame from merlin a couple of weeks ago but i didn’t start to build it up till last friday as i eventually decided to splurge out my last remaining cash on a pimpy build for it, i just couldn’t wait a few months, we now live in an era of immediate gratification and god-dammit why should i wait? 😀

I started to press in the lower headset cup using my park headset press and found a problem, the lower cup would only press in part way and even that was quite an effort so i knocked it back out and found the headtube had removed a sliver of aluminium from the circumference of the Hope lower cup – not good!, the headtube has not been reamed out to the correct size which i hope is an oversight rather than shoddy workmanship so the frame and headset is being collected from a mates bike shop tomorrow and merlin will send me out a new frame and hopefully headset as the other one is goosed due to the removal of aluminium from the lower cup.

I also want them to remove the current 60mm depth seat tube shim as that is the primary factor in the failures of the seatube cluster as shown on threads on this site and others imho, hopefully they’ll fit an industry standard 100mm depth shim which will displace the seatpost load down the seatube where the natural elasticity of Titanium will be able to handle the stress and loads with ease.

I posted up on here bout 10-14 days ago regarding the seatpost shim but i cannot find the thread using the search function? – has it been removed for some reason?.

The build kit sitting patiently at home is,
Fox Kashima Talas 140mm-110mm remote CTD/Trail Adjust bought from TF-Tuned.
Middleburn RS8 cranks/Renthal 34tooth front ring/Hope Ceramic BB/E13 XCX-ST Chain Device/XTR Platform SPD’s/Sram Hollow Pin 10sp chain.
Thomson 70mm stem/Hope headset/Easton Haven Carbon bars/Lizard Skins grips/Formula R1 brakes/Ti bolt kit with Alloy spiders 180mm front 160mm rear.
Hope Pro2 28h hubs/Stans Crest 28h rims/Sapim cx-ray spokes/Conti Mountain King protection 2.4 front/Conti X-King protection 2.4 rear.
Shimano 10sp Zee rear mech/Shimano 11-36 rear cassette/Shimano xt shifter.
Thomson seatpost (of course) and Fizik Gobi saddle.

I was going to go for sram x11 but i’ll wait to see what the long term ride reports say about the longevity and durabilty of the kit first – it’s a fair wad of cash for the rear cassette alone.

It wasn’t built nor were parts bought with any consideration to weight at all but after the disappointment of not getting it built up last friday i started to weigh the components on a very accurate set of bodyshop paint scales and surprisingly it comes in well under 21lbs – not bad for a 5″ do it all hardtail, well……..it would do it all if i had the frigging frame to build up but i can wait another day or two.

Thanks for the update somafunk, that’s interesting. Your headset experience sounds really crap. I thoroughly enjoyed fitting my Chris King headset to my new Stiffee frame, which was perfectly machined and smooth on the inside. To have any issues with a Titanium would infuriate the hell out of me. I was also worried about the reports of the shim. What the hell is the point of Cove speccing out a 30.0mm seat tube ID with a shim. I accept this size with the Stiffee as that’s how they get their Easton RAD tubing made, and no-one’s arguing with that stuff. But to ‘retain’ this size for Cove lovers and use a crappy shim is engineering nonsense. I think I’ve got that right anyhow, otherwise it’s a bit of a pointless rant. Overall, your experience is putting me off the Hummer slightly. If I do get one, I’ll take my Stiffee frame up to their shop and get them to fit the headset, even though I have a professional workshop press in my garage. It’s a shame you’re having to wait – you must be itching to ride this thing.