My Mythic Paradox is never going to be the lightest of frames to base a race bike around so I’m thinking of building a light weight race bike from the ground up. I’ll build it over the winter getting parts as & when i can afford to.

1st up it needs to be durable as I’m no light weight & I’m not looking to build it superlight, something around the 23-25lb mark would do me. For that reason to my mind a carbon frame is out & i can’t afford Ti so the frame will be alloy. But which one?

I’ll be running 80-100mm forks.

So what’s out there at the moment or anyone know of anything in the pipeline for early next year?

New scandal(October),New Mamasita (I’ll be getting one when they come out in the new year),Soul cycles dillinger,Niner emd,errrr

Do like the look of that Salsa.

Any other ideas anyone ?

if it fits & you fancy something light and cheap to give it a go then I still have a viper sitting in my loft boxed up and ready to go for not a lot of money.

viper ad

I cant do pics for a few days but drop me an email if your interested.
Cheers.

cheers 2unfit. My 1st 29er was a Viper and they are a very good starting point.

Just looking for something a little more from this one if you know what i mean 😉

I had the same dilemma recently. Came across the Tomac Flint from crc that is cheap and about 4lbs too. They look good and can also be run singlespeed.

One of them cannondales that was in the last issue of the Mag

Edit: you said no carbon, so that’s out

Chumba HX2? New one is quite light and will work well with 100mm.

I’ve got a Tomac Flint and I’m very impressed. Built with a pair of bolt through Rebas, Flow rims, Thomson bits, and old XT cranks etc (so not an uber light build but not too bad) it weighs in at 25.8lbs and mine’s an XL.

It rides really nicely and seems pretty fast.

Niner Air 9

With rigid forks mines under 21lbs

Air 9 x2

cheers 2unfit. My 1st 29er was a Viper and they are a very good starting point.

Just looking for something a little more from this one if you know what i mean

Out of interest did you find it to steep & long? I thought mine was trying to kill me with it’s silly angles, it is chuffing light though, I can’t believe you can get much lighter for any money, mine wieghed in at about 3.5lbs !
I was thinking about giving it go with longer forks, but I just don’t know if it’s worth changing from the original Scandal I have, it fits me fine, but I always have an itch for something else, if you know what I mean 😉

I have two Scandal 29er’s, but I’m going to try a Niner Air 9 frame soon. I don’t suppose it will feel any better than the Scandals as the geometry is very similar, but it is a bit more niche and badge etc!

I’d find it hard to justify the shear cost of the Air 9,the salsa should be <£500 ,so more than a new scandal but I fancy a change.But it’ll match my selma Ti ss when I get it 😀

PSA..The new Mamasita is available now at £499!!Its not even on the salsa website yet…..mines on the way 😀 .Used ss 19.5 scandal anyone?

2unfit – Yes it is quite long and going from a Blur LT to the Viper i did find it quite steep however i felt more confident on it due to the wheel size etc meaning I was sitting in it rather than on it. I just feel its a bit to thin on the welds for someone of my stature. Mine was run at 100mm & i wouldn’t want to run it any longer as its only designed for 80mm 😉

That Mamasita is lovely & i really like the look of Salsa but not sure the budget will stretch to £500 given it’s going to be a ground up build so I’ll need forks, wheels groupset etc etc.

The Scandal is tempting if only for the price point.

Niner Air 9. If only! Wayyyyyy too expensive at them moment.

Decisions decisions 😛

Si, we have a 10% offer on the HX2 at the moment, makes it £360 🙂