I love my 456 but the arrival of my Covert has seen it sit in the shed an awful lot due to it weighing in about the same and obviously not being as quick.
So to bring back some appeal it really needs to lose a load of weight to make it more viable for long mileage and XC rides. How light can you get a mkI 456 without spending loads? it’s currently specced:

Gravity dropper turbo
RS revs 120-150 dual air u turn
Roval EL wheels
SLX/XT 3×10 group.

and weighs in around 31lb on my scales

My first move would be 1×10 group, but I can’t live without a dropper with a 36″ inside leg!

Or is it time to get a carbon whippet frame?

Love my 456, but its never going to be the lightest of bikes due to being made out of old scaffold pipes 😉

If you’re not up for swapping out the dropper (probably 1-2lbs there) i’d just accept it for that it is.

Get a secondhand Carbon 456 frame? They’re bombproof and must go cheap now.

Chew: I’m thinking I might just have to do that, or get a new frame, thing is I really don’t want to have the frame unbuilt…

chakaping: Was thinking about one of those, not too expensive brand new either, but what’s the ride like? stiff power delivery or flexy forgiving ride? If i’m going for a new frame it’ll be purely XC aimed

Change the frame 😆

I think mines a bit lighter than that, built up with dropper, slx2x10, pike dual airs, but I could be wrong.

Weight of it only poses a problem when it comes to lifting it onto the car roof rack after a long day out on it.

I’m fortunate enough to ride from home 90% of the time, but was out yesterday on the Covert with a mate on his Marin CXR and did a rather XC route, and he was all over me on anything but rough descents, whilst when we both take our full sussers I’m normally waiting for him.. Which is no surprise, however the fact that I have a very nice HT sat in the shed with rather nice kit on it that I don’t use does annoy me, hence the will to find it an ‘edge’ over the Covert..

My C456 was more forgiving than an aluminium XC frame (Kinesis made Merlin) over bumps but stiffer under power and is bloody tough.

If you like the geometry of the 456 then I would say go for it. But it won’t be a simple swap everything over as the headset is different, eat post different, FD clamp is bigger and needs to be a high clamp.

I’ll keep my eye out for one of either to come up second hand, if it’s cheap I could spend a couple of quid on headsets etc, maybe swap the revs for some sids…
Problem is a few weeks down the line I’ll be looking for bits to build the steel 456 back up…

Sell the steel one and keep the revs as the 456 is good at 100 but better at 130+ 🙂