Hello,
Lovely ride into work down the trails today, apart from snapping my frame.
Never mind though – the trails are dry, spring is in the air and I didn't fall off when it broke.

It also means I can start speculating about what to buy to replace it.

So, as per the title I'm looking for a versatile hardtail. This has probably been asked loads before but It's fun to ask again anyway.

Must have:

Singlespeed and geared capability (e.g. ebb, slidey dropouts)
Take a 120mm+ fork
Come in a big-ish size (19.5" – 20")
27.2 + seatpost tube so I can run an uppy-downy seatpost if I want to.
Strong enough to take a beating under 14st of bloke.
Take a nice wide tyre (2.3" +)

Nice to have:
The lighter the better, though I'm more bothered about strength (to a point)
Rack / mudguard mounts

Not really that fussed about material to be honest. I just want a bike that's fun to ride and begs to be hammered round the woods.

Spending up to about £300 I suppose.

These have sprung to mind so far:

On-one Scandal
Pipedream Sirrius 853
On-one inbred (cheapo option)

Owt else?

Get a Boardmad Pro frame and have it powder coated to your choice of colour if the brand bothers you.

I've been ragging one for 2 years now and it's never put a foot wrong and I'm about 14st

456 ticks most of the boxes there.

Is the 456 singlespeedable without a tensioner? Not obvious from the on-one site.

+1 Pipedream Sirius. Ticks all the boxes and come in funky green!

can you get a SC chameleon for that?

Personally I like the look of the Sirius though, quite superb value for the spec

It's the geared/ss capability that might be tricky. Off the top of my head an Inbred (not 456) and Soul Cycles Hooligan are all that come to mind in that price range.

Never seen a Hooligan in the flesh but they look purdy in pictures. There's a lot of them over on mtbr.

EDIT: Kinesis decade too.

Decade Virsa ???

What about one of these?

http://www.pipedreamcycles.com/sirius_2010.html

EDIT: Beaten! Secondhand Cotic Simple?

One of these:

http://www.dialledbikes.com/products/mtb/love-hate.php

?

EDIT: Maybe not, cheers Mike.

On One Inbred sliding dropouts. 456 is not ss without a tensioner. Genesis IO. Cove Handjob is on sale at CRC at the mo but £345. Pipedream Sirius. Dialled Bikes Prince Albert.

They are the ones I'd look at.

Love/Hate is designed for a 100mm travel sus fork (or 440mm rigid), not 120mm+ travel.

Prince Albert isn't singlespeedable without a tensioner.

One of these:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=15686

(not sure how big they go)

Look on the bright side, not having many choices means you won't have to spend ages worring about it 😉

AGH mate that sucks,

Probably no help at all but I was looking at a ragley MMbop a few weeks ago and I want one. Think they size up pretty large, not sure if its easy to single speed and it may not be super practical.

but there you go,

Happy shopping

Sorry, i missed the bit about SS…..

Sliding dropout Inbred has gotta be the obvious suggestion as noted above. Mind you I've ss'd my normal inbred, adding a tensioner is no big hassle or expense so I'd look at geared frames as well if it widens the choice available.

Just ordered mesen a Pipedream in Kawasaki Green

🙂

You wont break the scandal and it fits the light bit and all your other requirments… I love mine, goes like a rocket, even with a slightly burlier build than usual.

Scandal would be nice (although you can`t get slot drop ones brand new at the moment). The Scandal and Inbred are designed around 80-100mm forks though I think, so not sure how they would handle with 120mm+.

el_boufador, post some pics up of the Sirius when you

t need it) and would be good to seem some proper pics (rather than the custom two tone paint job in the website).

Sirius doesn't have rack mounts AFAIK. That's not insurmountable though is it?

I'll be posting up my Ti if it ever materialises. It might even be next week.

Only early Inbreds are 80-100, by the time the Scandal came along they were setup for 100-120 forks…

Don't know what happend to my above post, but some pics of the sirius would be nice when finished please!