ive got a 19″ orange evo2 with tora 130s on it, had it nearly a year and its a great bike for messing about on… but its just all round a bit too big for me. im 510" with an inside leg of 31.5", and i suppose ive got short-average arms, theyre certainly not monkey arms! ive got about 200 quid max to spend on a second hand frame, which ill swap myself, and i just cant make up my mind what to buy. i actually use my bike to keep fit, so i (sorry for this heinous admission) usually use it on a selection of back road/fire road/singletrack combo round about my house. i do like the odd trip to trail centres, and i do like a childish session doing jumps off rocks and stuff. the orange is too big to jump, both heightwise and lengthwise, ive come off it plenty and hurt myself trying. i do love the way it handles though, with the longish forks and 50mm stem it corners brilliantly. if you were my size and were frame swapping for another hardtail to use it for my purposes, what would you buy? i have to say that a small cotic bfe is the prettiest bike in my want list, i like the idea that the bb wont be too high and i reckon that will give me a feeling of control. the effective top tube would be about the same as my orange, too, but would i end up running a ridiculous seatpost on my fitness runs, and would it be just too small for me to ride hard for a couple of hours? ive thought about a ragley blue pig as well, i nearly bidded on one the other day. now ive been looking at a cove stiffee in 17.5 (same effective top tube at about 23″), but i dont know whether it would wander too much on fitness climbs and just annoy me. mind you, my orange must be quite slack with its 130s pumped up to the max, shame i cant find any info on its head/seat angles. what do you guys think, would i be ok height-wise on a small bfe, with its long toptube making up for its short seat tube, or would i be better on one of the others ive mentioned. i must admit that looks are stupidly coming into my decision. that bfe just looks so cool in the light blue AND the grey. sigh. anyone got a bfe frame they want to sell?

The abridged version?

Wow – edit and add paragraphs so we can read!

If you stare at that posting with your eyes half closed you can see a picture of a dolphin. Paragraphs man!

Ha ha, sorry. I havent even used capitals. Im ashamed of myself!

Ive looked for ages and i cant see the dolphin- are you sure you didnt eat any sketchy toadstools while you were out riding today?

ivehadaquickreadandthinkthatmaybeyouneddtobelookingatsomethinglikeapipedreamsiriusorpossiblydialledbikes.
ivegotapipedreamsiriuswhich isperfectforlongerrideswhichmaysuityourfitnessrequirement,
ialsothinkthatitmightbeshortenoughinthetoptubeforyourshorterams.

HTH.

Try wiping your knob across the screen.

It doesn’t help much but was far more interesting than reading that crap.

Thanks. The sirius is not a bike Im familiar with, but Im going to go and check it out. The dialled alpine was another bike that held some appeal, loads of people seem to love them.

😉

Now I’ve read it, why no 456 on your list? Re-use current seatpost for cheapness too. Getting a new post/clamp/bottom bracket/front mech/headset can mess up a tight budget so look at what you can re-use.

you seem to keep changing fonts too, makes it too unpleasant to read your whole post.
But skimming, you have a bike with a 19in frame thats too big and are looking for a smaller frame. Theres an orange P7 (17in) in the classifieds if thats any use.

After trying to read that my eyes went out of focus and have an urge to buy stw this month…weird.

midlifecrashes- that is a good point that i was keeping an eye on. im aware that the bfe has chunkier tubing than my orange and therefore takes (i think im right in saying) a different bb and front mech, which would raise the cost. my bb is knackered anyway though, its making some major cracking noises, so would need replaced even if i bought another frame with 68mm shell.
sweepy- in my defence it wasnt me that changed the fonts, i think my post was so long the original font actually ran out :|.
don simon- that sirius looks quite nice, good shout.