Ridden my new 456 a couple of times now, my old bike was a fairly cheap aluminium hardtail. The biggest change I have noticed is that the rear wheel seems to give, slip or flex (not sure which) a lot more than my old bike. In fact, when I first started riding I thought my seatpost QR had come loose and my saddle was twisting round(!).

Anyone else feel the same way? Do you think this could be due to less weight over the rear wheel contributing to the skipping feel, or the famed 'steel flex', or maybe both?

Not noticed any flex on my 456 (going to it from an Orange 5). Different tyres, pressures and riding position would be my guess.

if you have one of the on-one seat QRs then it probably is slipping! No matter how tight i cranked mine up it would never hold in place.

remove the brass bushing and it will stay tight 🙂

I swapped the bits over from my old frame, so no component differences. Riding position is probably different though. I do find it a little disconcerting at the moment, but then that's probably because i'm not used to it.

There was another lad posted something similar, he was running a weird tyre, swapped that out to something a bit grippier and suited to the conditions about now and posted back with a dramtic change in feel. I cant remember the tyre he had but he went to a 2.3 swampthing and it was sorted.

You might want to check the spoke tension in your wheel too, maybe the new frame is highlighting something else.

Could be exacerbated by the weather I suppose…