As i wrote yesterday, i made a list of frames recommended so far

Dialled Prince Albert
Orange p7 ( kinda expensive, seems heavy )
Sanderson life
Pipedream sirius / scion
Rock lobster
Genesis altitude / latitude ( thanks @ dukeduvet )
Cotic soul – only sh

Bad / Not so good / Nothing special : ragley piglet , on-one 456, kona explosif .

Nothing was said about the charge duster, which is made of a different steel ( tange ) than reynolds 853 ( which seems to be all-round favourite ).

The discounts that run at the moment are irrelevant, because i don’t have the money right now, but plan to in the winter . Some of them are over my budget, so i will be keeping an eye on ebay.
I guess in a perfect world where each of them would be availabe and budget would not be a problem, i would go with the Cotic .
But, as i’m on a budget, i guess that whatever i’d choose from that list, i can’t go wrong. That is the purpose of this topic, anyway.

So, how about that Charge Duster ? 🙂

I’ll add Rocky Mountain Blizzard cos I’ve got one 😉
RRP takes the piss in a big way but if you can get one at a sensible price they’re pretty good.

You should be able to find a good second hand frame, and if it’s a good quality, well made steel frame, that’s been reasonably well looked after you’ll get a good few years use out of it.. no reason why it shouldn’t last and last..

Like Swingbing, I picked up a second hand Soul from the classifieds here.. mine was almost mint condition and within your price range (very very nearly)..
It’s previous owner was replacing it with one of the new 853 Prince Alberts, which would have definitely been on my shortlist if I’d had a few more quid to spare..

That’s exactly what i intend to do.
I’ll stick to new products ( if the discounts are right ) and / or buy from ebay, because, given my location ( all the way across europe ) i need certain guarantees that the deal will go smoothly .

I’ve got/had most of the frames (I have issues), my 2p…

Prince Albert classic – excellent frame, really good fun. Not as good as a soul but very close

Soul – excellent. Yunki has my old one! In fact I went and got another one after I sold it!

Sanderson breath – really springy steel feel but I found the paint chipped easy and they are very very long, not good if you have a short body but long legs.

Scandal – excellent frames, rather steel like I found. Very light.

On one 853 – really good. Might get one s/h.

Bit off topic but if you can find a chumba hx1 they are really good too.

For the record, my ‘seconds’ Sanderson Breath was £175 8)
It had a couple of chips on the dropout it seems…

Thank you people, you make things even harder 😀 Cracked my aluminium Scott Scale so now im searching for a new frame to replace and to specificaly searching for a steel frame, and now you just made my life harder becouse there are so much variants, but its hard to find one that could resemble Scale geometry but easily take 120mm of fork travel and aprox 24,4″ effective top tube (also the availability to buy the frame used but in a good condition) 🙄

Oh, and dont forget Cove Handjob XC, should be a pretty decent ride, but theyr distributors have problems with theyr sites 🙁 Well atleast the polish ones 😀

@ elliotas,
i have created this topic so there will be a list of frames that, whatever you choose, will be at least a decent choice, if not perfect. It’s impossible for all opinions to converge towards a unique answer.
🙂 i am so deep after midnight 😀

hi, ive got a kona explosif 2011 i am selling it is NEW ive had it a month 18″ frame double butted cromolly in metalic orange. This is a very strong very light and versatile frame that has been around for a long time this is the latest version Kona have tweaked the design over the years and this bike is built to last.Alot of people trek on them. ive just grabbed a sweet ti piglet for good price so if your interested the explosif is up for grabs dont think youll be able to find another to easy. they were £500 then discounted to £280. let me no ill send pics

I would be interested in 20″ inch (or bigger) steel frames if anyone could send them to Lithuania 🙁

Voodoo Wanga or hoodoo (proper one not the halfords variant), come up on the ‘bay all the time!

I had a 2nd hand Sanderson Life frame of here for a little bit more than your budget, superb frame and fantastic all-rounder.

Jay

So been searching the net for a reasonably priced frame or a used one for myself and stumbled upon Breezers. Saddly they are mostly sold in US so shipping would cost a price of another frame but maybe someone will be interested in them as they look good (the reviews are also good) and cost is very attractive and there are either 26er or 29er versions. http://www.breezerbikes.com official site, but could not find any dealers in the dealer search but the frames are sold in online stores like nashbar.