I am after a new hardtail primarily for mucking about and skill development at the likes of Lee Quarry & Gisburn and am thinking Ragley.

I have never owned a ali hard tail before.

Would I want the ali mmmbop or the steel Blue Pig ?

I guess the difference is weight & harshness of ride ?

As I want it primarily as a trail centre bike which tend to be fairly smoothe am I better going for the stiffer/lighter ali frame ?

Ti is off budget as are Cove bikes.

Hi Bill

I've been riding a Blue Pig for the last few months and I've just built an mmmBop up – only ridden it once but my impression is that yes it is more harsh but not so much that it's a problem – time will tell if that's correct – it certainly feels quicker and more direct.

Incidentally I weighed the bare frames back to back and the mmmBop is 1.5 pounds lighter

Bear in mind the 1.5" headtube on the mmmBop which will probably mean you need to buy a new headset

If the blue pig is stiffer than the 456 then I'd go with the mmmbop as it wont have any give in it anyway and you dont get many chances to lose 1.5lb for free.

James,
Please can you report back to me (by email maybe) when you have formed more of a comparison.

I guess I need to ride both and see. The Dog & Partride at Gisburn have a demo of each but size 16" is probably the size too small for my 6'1".

never mind that, does anyone have any 20" pig-frames left?

I went for the mmmbop because of the weight savings over the blue pig, plus it's being built as a local spot bike, so 2-3hr rides tops. Thought I could put up with a bit more harshness on shorter rides.

I already have a steel hardtail, and was hoping to build the mmmbop up with slightly burlier kit to approx the same weight (26lb ish)

Having lugged heavier bikes around I'm loving the turn of speed a lighter bike has (I mean sub 30lb)

It's sat in the kitchen waiting for a headset. Driving me nuts

DT78,
is getting the a step down headset an issue for the mmmbop?

I noticed that chainreaction & wiggle did not have the Hope one, in stock atleast.

There's plenty of people selling the Hope stepdown headset on ebay