Looking at a frame swop, and considering a aluminium frame thats suitable to be used with 100mm forks. Dont want a really lightweight frame as im 13 stone with kit on a good day, so nothing racy.
Im not familiar whats out there in terms of alu frames as ive ridden steel frames in the past, so suggestions appreciated.
Go to Merlin cycles website, their own brand frames (called Merlin, funnily enough but built by Kinesis) are excellent. You can buy a Merlin Malt for £100 with seatpost and headset, unbeatable value for money and excellent too.
I'd say a Scandal personally, it's pretty light but sturdy enough, I don't think your weight would give it any problems. And it's not as stupidly stiff as many alloy frames, very nice ride. I loved mine but it wasn't much cop with longer forks- at 100mm it was spot on though.
Just looked at the Scandal, looks good but doesnt appear to have a replaceable gear hanger which kind of puts me off.
check out dirtyjobikes.co.uk £80 posted and choice of colours +post,clamp and headset £103.49 bargain !!
"Just looked at the Scandal, looks good but doesnt appear to have a replaceable gear hanger which kind of puts me off. "
Ah, that might be true with the sliding dropout model, not sure- I had the conventional dropout one which definately did have one (because I broke it!)
Checkout the Rock lobster team tig sl on merlin, suits me just fine at 15st
I just got a boardman XC team 2008 frame for £109 from halfords (superstore). It looks sweet. Yours might have some kicking around too.