possibly thinking of ditching the full sus and going for an aggressive long travel hardtail, something like cotic soul or ragley blue pig etc. what are my options and is this a good idea?

On on 456 carbon evo.

Cotic Bfe.

Evil Sovereign

Deleted, as it was a silly comment. Bikes don’t have to make sense to be fun. Each to their own.

aggressive long travel hardtail, something like cotic soul

Eh?

Beefy maybe, but not the Soul. For me, LT HT means at least 140mm.

Dialled alpine

plus the usual 456, bfe, and slackline suggestions

For me, LT HT means at least 140mm.

Like my Soul then?

Good few recent threads on this topic.
Lots of choices now, lots of UK manufacturers.

Bird Mtb is a new one.

Stanton Slackline, love mine. Production privee Shan was the other one on my short list. Spoilt for choice these days. Stanton have the super slack ‘oh so on trend’ 650b frame due out soon, that looks like a weapon, sidekick that one is called iirc. Btr also kick out some sweet frames and can customise to your requirements too.

Ever so slightly biased in recommended the Evil Sovereign.

<recommends what he owns> If you can find a sensibly priced Ragley Ti, they are bloomin brilliant.

I’d love a go on a ti Slackline though. Or some of the 29er options too, 29 seems to make sense for hardtails to me though maybe not for the classic thrashy HCHT.

b r – Member

Beefy maybe, but not the Soul. For me, LT HT means at least 140mm.

Ah in that case, how about a Soul, which can have 140mm forks?

Soul is 140 mm

I’ll just leave this here:

😉

Really like my Evil Sovereign with 150mm forks:

It’s not particularly slack by modern standards, but I find it a very capable climber and descender, but also good fun on tight singletrack.

Unfortunately Evil stopped making the frames in 2012, so you’d have to try and find one second hand.

On one 456, cheap as chips and huge grin factor!

<recommends what he owns> Stanton Slackline

Slightly discounted ex-display one here FWIW;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stanton-Slackline-631-/181351051161

Slacklines do look nice… what’re they like to ride? harsh or springy?

Another vote for the Slackline.

I love mine, I find it much more lively and less harsh than the BFe that it replaced. I’m running mine with 150mm forks and it feels pretty good. It’s not the best climber though but seems to be good in every other department. The only downside is that mine is an 853 so I’m limited on dropper post choice.

I’ve got one them there Shans

😀

That is all

Kingdom do some lovely frames.

20% off at the moment too.

Go on then, I’ll be another to recommend a bike that you can’t get anymore:

2014-03-11 15.23.58 by warpcow, on Flickr

If not for this, I’d be interested to have a go on a Slackline, NS Surge or a Ragley too.

Recomending own bike – Chumba HX1.

It’s never really held me back but the build is heavier than my FS and currently it’s sat in the garage 🙁 I’m thinking of replacing it with a soul as 140 is probably right and I can thrash it a bit more.

I’ve not long built up a Genesis Alpitude (150mm Marzocchis, 1×10) with the intention of sending it out to Greece to use there – the problem is that I’m enjoying it so much here I’m reluctant to part with it.

maxtorque – I am nursing a semi over that bike – its beautiful!

Another vote for the slackline , I run mine with 150 mm forks and it just a joy to ride, also look at bird great value for money and ace bikes

Those Shan’s are lovely.

If I could justify one as a second bike, I’d have one in a heartbeat to replace the Slackline. Even if they were rubbish to ride, I’d still have one in Gulf colours because it’s so pretty!

The Evil’s are lovely too.

[IMG]http://i57.tinypic.com/349eazc.jpg[/IMG]
Kingdom Brigante with those 650b wheels.
Feel free to have a test ride if you’re near Colchester.

Running a 140 Rev on my Yelli Screamy, along with wide rims and big tyres. Lots of fun.

Just done the same myself.
Transplanted everything off my Five onto one of those 456Ti frames that are on offer at the moment. ‘zocchi 44rc3ti fork work well on it.

Two weeks in and just about got it set-up to my liking now. It seems equally capabale on the slow-tech stuff and much lighter, despite dual ply minion on the rear.
Next test will be to see how it goes on on rougher stuff like Garburn at speed. That’s where I suspect I might start to miss the CCDB coil and the rear travel.

As it’s turned into “post your bike”, here’s one for the Slackline crew;

loads of similar threads to this, again everybody (rightly so) offers their own bikes. think you’ll be unlucky to pick a bad frame from those listed. i swapped my five for a bfe, no looking back.

If I were you, I’d buy a cheap frame and transplant the bits before you sell your full sus, that way it’s easy to go back if you want to!

Would second the Slackline, I rode a mate’s a year or so ago and it was bloody lovely. I have an MmmBop which is pretty ace (and going in the Classifieds today if you fancy something cheap!).

Can add a big yes to the privee and I’ve got it in the gulf colours to 😀
Fantastic bike and the new colour way is very pretty

Anyone on here got, or had, a Dartmoor Hornet?
They look like fun and are also really cheap. Was wondering how they rode.

I’ve had a few, I’m a hardtail fan for everything bar out and out DH days, otherwise full sus feels a bit like cheating. Also being able to stomp on the pedals to get up climbs rather than nursing a bouncy rear end up is much more rewarding.
Most of the frames listed in this thread are capable enough, main differences will be in head angle, BB height and top tube length. Newer frames are following a trend for lonfger TT and slacker head angles, but older frames can be slackened by the addition of a works componenets headset – I did this to my sovereign and found it improved the handling on the terrain I was riding.
My last 3 frames have been Evil Sovereign / Chromag Aperture / Evil Sovereign / Stanton slackline ti.
All 3 are great bikes, sadly the chromag was too small for me otherwise I would have kept it. Keeping hold of the sovereign as its too good a frame to let go for the kind of money they sell for, might SS it to justify keeping it.

from a ti 456 to this.

Slackline feels more fun, on the short rides i’ve done so far

Another Chromag fan here. My Samurai is (if I’m honest) my favourite ever bike.

I rode a Kingdom Brigante in Portugal as they were over there testing and kindly let me have a thrash. I’ve always been skeptical about Ti, but this was one awesome bike. Want.

Currently on offer here..

Yay! Sovereign! 🙂

Steel or alu?

26″, 29″ or 650B?

What fork travel is considered long travel these days?

FYI – I’ll be clearing out the last 725 and 853 frames for silly prices (about 30 frames in total) when I get my arse in gear and put something up on the Dialled Bikes website.