Have to agree with cookea “Find yourself a late 90’s Kona Cindercone or Explosif, have some disc tabs welded on it, paint it (badly) with Hammerite to deter theives and ride the arse off it…” exchange hammerite for rattle can and you’ve got my ’97 Explosif. 🙂

Didn’t they all snap?

charge dusters are great bikes.not biased in the slightest (my one below) 😉

I have read not much of this because, as many have said, “insert my frame here” is the best. I will drop some facts of my own.

had a Ragles Piglet. It was awesome. climbed like a goat, felt comfortable enough on the downs.. snapped. Replaced it with the Blue Pig with a warranty.

The pig, I decided, was the greatest bike ever. After getting used to it..(deciding to keep it at a 130 max) it climbed just as well. It hit the downs like no tomorrow. The first hardtail I had swung my leg over that just made me want to ‘do work’. really solid going down everything. The back end bounces perfectly with the right practise.
Only qualms i have had with the pig: It has a super long rear triangle and top tube. which is great for stability, but makes it a pain to find that sweetspot that makes lifting easy. Downs were great, as I said, but balance is key here. It took me a while to find that perfect sweet spot. After I did that, berms were hit at bar drag angles, full sussers were being caught on the downs, and jumping was becoming a bit easier. It is a XC bike for people who like to neglect the trail the most of the time.

Recently, I have retired the pig for a Stanton Slackline. Similar price to the Blue Pig. better steel. Replacable drop out. Super awesome dudes running the show.
Reason I swapped the frame: The test ride. the RT is shorter by 2cm. Makes you feel like a manualing mastermind. A lot more playful than the pig. Which makes me feel a lot more comfortable ‘losing the back end’ and then regaining it. The shorter RT and TT, I think, makes balancing an easier affair than a neglected house with in madison county. Corners like a dream. It really made me feel like going 90mph. Have just built up the Stanton, so haven’t hossed it like I have the pig.. so you will have to wait for a full review.

Hope that helps.

I’ve ridden a few of the above mentioned but my fav so far is a Chromag Samurai, it just fitted me perfectly with a 140 or 160 fork on it and was so balanced and filtered just enough trail harshness out but let you feel all you needed, I miss it… 🙂

Check out Dialled. I had a Prince Albert and it was awesome. The newer 725 is a little lighter too 😀

The Alpine may be worth a look if you’re riding’s gnarly enough.

Genesis make good frames too, quite a few are available in 853 as well.

If you want the ‘best’ why not go custom?
Someone like Brian Rourke will build you whatever geometry you want & paint it whatever colour you like. Job done.

For a small outlay the std Inbred takes some beating, but STW badge snobs wont be happy.

Someone like Brian Rourke

We bumped into someone on one of these. Unbelievable how light it was (obviously not a long travel frame but steel still).

As Kona have been mentioned a few times (plus I ride a steel kona too) this might interest you
http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/kona-explosif-frame-item165925.html

Reason I swapped the frame: The test ride. the RT is shorter by 2cm. Makes you feel like a manualing mastermind. A lot more playful than the pig. Which makes me feel a lot more comfortable ‘losing the back end’ and then regaining it.

The shorter RT and TT, I think, makes balancing an easier affair than a neglected house with in madison county. Corners like a dream. It really made me feel like going 90mph. Have just built up the Stanton, so haven’t hossed it like I have the pig.. so you will have to wait for a full review.

This is exactly what i thought of the slackline. Amazing bike. corners amazingly well and feels very comfortable in the air.. I want it so bad but haven’t got funds at the moment (debating whether to sell my Voodoo djab to fund 🙁

or Orange R8 even 😉

trickydisco – (debating whether to sell my Voodoo djab to fund

I am putting my GSpot up for sale tomorrow to fund my purchase of it. That worth it. 😛

Normal Man – Member

or Orange R8 even

That’s the one that’s built exactly like an old-model Soul, except weaker, more expensive and heavier?

Didn’t they all snap?

I snapped my old steel 90’s Kona (chainstay, by the dropout), and i’m a 65kg jeycore xc rider 😐

That’s the one that’s built exactly like an old-model Soul, except weaker, more expensive and heavier?

Click the smiley and you’ll see why I said it.

Ah, I didn’t notice the link 😳 Still too heavy really for such a limited frame, but that’s about the right price, good spot.

They do ride really nicely though, really classic Orange “Jump on and go” feel- shame they didn’t do a better job of the construction. Just refusing to tell anyone what weight a frame is, is no substitute for making it light 😆

OK Heres my two pence worth…

whyte 19 steel is lovley, xc/trail waepon, cross country races, all dayers in the dales, kick full suss arse on red trail centers, really got me loving bikes again after i impulse bought a cheap marin east peak (uuuurgh!)
owned the whyte for 3 years, new frame every year… manufacturing fault, now resolved unfortunatley so ill have to look after this one 😉

Demoed a stanton slackline. Really REALLY nice. nice guy too that dan stanton. now id buy one if i could, however i just completed my ns surge build this evening, poor mans slackline lol. cant comment on it yet.

anyway depends what your into but i think you can find fairly light 140mm steel hardtails with fairly slack head angle, steep seat angle and shortish chainstays (bearing in mind i think just 20mm is the difference between very short and v long stays!) that you can pedal all day and then ride DH on….

so you have plenty of choice.

cotics are supposed to be the general standard/ starting point… and ive seen them ripping the gravity enduro scene better than lots of full sussers. wouldnt really want to do gravity on my whyte…

Holy thread resurrection batman!

I’m sure if the OP has spent the last 10 months dithering over his steel hardtail choice, DK will have just fixed that for him 😯

I never did get a kebab 🙁

Surely the Demon Frameworks is by far the prettist and bestest? Also made by one of the nicest people ever.

BETTER PICS HERE

In april bought a Commencal Ramones cro-mo from merlincycles.co.uk for half price,(900GBP) use for guiding at http://www.bikingandalucia.com
Can´t fault it 150mm Rochshox revelation, strong kit (bit heavy, 13.4kg), you would not want to race on it!But handles well and dependable.

Charge Blender. Better than a Trailstar, and I don’t say that lightly! Miles better than the BFe I had for a bit as well. In comparison the BFe was uninspiring and dull to ride. The Blender is just so much fun, something about the geometry just makes you want to rag it harder. Rides best with a short fork though (125mm seems about right) so probably not the one to go for if you want to mince around with too much travel 😛

I loved my charge Blender but swapped out for a prince Albert which is so much better all round.
It does everything the Blender did but with the fork left at 140mm and with a sensible seat angle for pedaling.

Same as my answer 10 months ago.

Chromag Sakura…….if you can afford one! It really is

For all round HT, the best in the world is indeed a sobre spam

I’m now fairly certain that it is my particular Cotic Soul. 😛

My Niner SIR.9
Because Charliethebikemonger said so.

Nope my Whyte 19 steel (on second frame mind 2012 this time 🙄 ) its a proper jack of all trades. So there!!!

i can certainly recommend the Demon, the one pictured above is mine! it rides lovely, just incase people thought it wouldn’t get ridden, here’s a little xc vid i did for fun.

regarding the best steel hardtail though, there are so many out there and they can be aimed at so many different styles of riding, only you know what riding you do, i could have bought something for a longer fork or heavier duty but it wouldn’t have suited my riding style and i think that is the key, admitting what type of rider you are, i’m old school xc, not happy jumping etc so i built the bike with that in mind from the frame up to the component choices. if you know you lean a particular way then find a brand that makes something that plays to your strengths as a rider. if you are a bit of an animal there’s no point looking for the lightweight option! on the other hand if you’re a superlight xc boy doing long rides don’t go looking at an abuse based frame, it’s common sense really but fashion and the mags try and convince you otherwise!

also if you do go down the custom route, regardless of the builder, look to your past frames and take from them the things you like whether it’s geometry, tubing, cable stops, drop out choice, future proofing etc, all very important.

Have a look at the Swarf cycles site.