Ive just bought this Cove on ebay, the seller said it's a 2008. Thing is he also said that the paint had A FEW SCRATCHES HERE AND THERE, turns out the frame has a lot more scratches than advertised, he conveniently forget to mention that one of the bottle cage bosses was super glued on.
apart from the very badly scratched paint and the boss it's in good nick.

The paint doesn't bother to much me Cu's I was planning on getting the frame re-done any way, but the fact he hasn't been a 100% truthful with the auction, I'm a little worried about what year it is as I'm going to be running a set of Pike's on it.

can any one help me age the thing ????

My Dad built one up for me that looked exactly the same, the frame was a 2006.

Definitely not one of the older ones (mine was 2004) designed for shorter travel as they had rear V bosses so you should be OK with Pikes.

I had an older one (2005/06 100mm fork version) that didn't have brake bosses so it's difficult to say.

Didn't they use an oval downtube on the later ones? Pre-oval were for 100mm, oval were for 130mm or so.

I have a 2006 h/j which was the first year of the current design. So that is the oldest it could be.

Hope you enjoy.

So you didn't research it and you bought it on fleabay-what do you expect?

Well it's steel so check for dents and scratches-otherwise you should be fine.

Maybe someone could fix/retap the threads but he didn't state that and you could return it.

Is there any sort of reference number on the frame that you could e-mail through to Silverfish/Cove and let them confirm the year?

Mine's 2006 and the cable guides are on the top of the top tube, so I'd say it's newer than that.

zaskar- as it happens, the seller has gave me the option to return it, but I'm just doing a little checking / research first, trying to give him the benefit of the doubt so to speak.. I did have a look around before and after purchasing it, and been unable to confirm either way as yet. I'm still waiting for Silverfish getting back to me.

There are no dent's on the frame or serious scratches, but as I mentioned above one of the bottle cage bosses has came off, Ive checked the frame and all seems well, so a small repair should sort that out without to much drama. However the paint is shocking in the flesh.

My only concern, is it the model he Say's it is, don't want to find out the hard way 😯

It appears to have rear v-brake bosses so it's not the 2008 frame, I've got one I bought in 2008 from Royles and it doesn't have the bosses like yours.

Looks like mine and its an 08.

Those v-brake bosses are the hose guide for the rear caliper and cable
guide for the rear mech.

Looks like my 2006 one.

It is definitely the latest model – the other clue I think is the reinforced head tube (top & bottom) – I have 130mm vanillas on mine (2006 same model as yours) and it's fine. The older model had smaller fork travel geometry (if you know what I mean).

2008!

He should have mentioned about the bottle mount as, after a quick search and if I've got the right one, from the ebay pics, if its the lower mount all the paint has gone around it so I suspect he would have known. Having said that, he's done quite a few good size pics and you can see the paint is a bit scratched and tatty. Looks like he's touched up some of the scratches?

nuke – your rite it is the lower mount, it's not the paint that has gone, what he's done is use a washer to super glue the mount back onto the frame, I new the paint wasn't perfect, but you cant see how bad the paint is from the ebay pictures. Its shocking, just as well I always planed to re-paint it or I would be sending it back quick smart, your correct that he has put up some good photo's and you can clearly see the washer, it's funny Cu's I browsed through the photo's a good few time and never noticed it.

Quinn- I know exactly what you mean regarding the geometry, this is what I'm trying to work out, I suspect that its a 2006 i have, in which case does this mean it will be OK with 130mm travel forks??

Does any one have a pic of the older frame, before they changed the geometry to take 130mm forks ???

It has the extra gusset on the downtube, and looks identical to mine (apart from the location of the maple leaf and Columbus stickers) so I'd say it was one of the new long travel frames. I got mine over 2 years ago so I guess its on '07.

2006 frame. Recommended for 100-120mm forks, IIRC.
Here with 115mm Zocchis:

and 130mm AM2s:

It was a little less wandery on climbs before, but is great with the am3s.
Cove recommended the shorter travel more for strength reasons than geometry, i think.

Thanks for that DezB, it's looking like ive got the new style frame 😀

Yep, but my paint job is perfect 😉

I ride a 15 1/2 in frame I bought in late (Nov)2007..I think the 2008 version. It definitely has no vee brake bosses. I run Pikes on it too which are fine. The tubing looks similar though (Columbus set with ovalised downtube),but im not sure if they changed the geometry pre 2007?

Thought I'd do an update on this post.

Turns out Ive defo. got a 2008 frame :D, Silverfish got back to me and they say the way to check is to have a look at the drop outs, the newer versions have a bottle opener and plus they don't have the V-brake bosses that the early models had.

The seller even refunded me £30 which went to re-painting of it.
so over all in the end I'm very happy with my purchase.

Thanks all for your help in this one