[Closed] BrantFanbois! ASSEMBLE!

Wow awful thing.

Makes you realise how damn good the bikes from the likes of Specalized and Trek really are.

Me
No
Likeeee

I miss the days of short XC race bikes me.

This looks all colours of rong in my eyes.

Soz

My Brant Richards 456 Evo Carbon is my best bike. It's lighter, more comfortable while being faster uphill, along and down than my Singular Swift, Marin Mount Vision 5.8 or all titanium rigid DNA hardtail from back in the day. It absorbs all trail chatter making it my best all day ride. All the while taking fat tyres and a triple.

One positive I guess that Brant is not under the On One umbrella, is it does free him up to put extra's into frames that might not have been affordable under the On One business model, which gives us more choice, which is only a good thing.

Compared to my 456 Evo carbon, it's got a longer effective top tube, to have a shorter stem with the same reach, which should give me even better handling, and a steeper seat tube angle, which I also personally like and a higher stack height which I've come to like with the Swift. It would weight more though...enough to change, not at £500 and I prefer an ultralight bike to throw over gates, but is it the best geometry so far available, well yes, I'd say so, and if I was building a new bike now, it would be that frame. The Sonder Transmitter is close, and is boost and 650B+, which grabs my eye too. Alloy frame is £300. I don't quite understand why this one doesn't have that, I guess to have ultra short chainstays, but they are only 5mm shorter than the Transmitter which can take a 2.8. But Brant's designed it, not working Stiff's business model. Its a 456 650B Evo, but quite a a way further along.

I had a Blue Pig, looked "wrong", rode very very "right" but needed to be pushed hard.

I would expect that to ride a similarly.

£500 might be a touch high but not ridiculously so, lots of fancy tube manipulation going on there.

I had a Blue Pig, looked "wrong", rode very very "right" but needed to be pushed hard

Same here, going down it was brilliant, going up or along, I think it was Rocketdog that nailed it at the time, it was like a sulky teenager dragging its feet!

needed to be pushed hard

A frame like that is no good to me. I'm a very average rider so I'd never see the benefit just the downside of an extra pound or two of iron

This is the literally worst mountain bike I've ever seen and even though I'm not going to buy one it will somehow completely ruin mountain biking for me.

TBH along with the uplifts and enduro and dh races I did quite a lot of bimbling and mincing on my Ti, solo'd a 7 hour xc race, stuff like that... it loved to be thrashed but it didn't need to be. Obviously it was quite a bit lighter than a Pig but same geo etc. (my Bop never achieved the same tbh).

But I can't tell from the photo which it's more like 😉

Someone wanna email so he can come n defend his work

Why would a long established highly experienced well regarded thoroughly proven bike designer feel the need to respond to the comments of a handful of middle aged underskilled anonymous internet users hiding behind their keyboards in their dead end jobs getting the the biggest thrill of their day posting an edgy comment about a push bike?

^ 😆

Could Stif/Jungle be setting up a brand to get kit OE for online sales? 😉 a la Merlin etc

Sure it'll ride rather nicely too.

They wouldn't, would they 😯

I can't imagine Merlin doing that with road bikes!

I quite like it, love all the experts on here 🙂

Whereas there's been plenty of 853 bikes that people have gone daft over

dunno, I saw the £500 and thought not too bad, then I read 4130 and thought oh....

Seems to be a label thing, and I'm normally quite against the whole label thing, daft innit?

As for being the opposite of Merlin & CRC, ... doesn't sound very opposite to me.

Same here, going down it was brilliant, going up or along, I think it was Rocketdog that nailed it at the time, it was like a sulky teenager dragging its feet!

I thought it was good on steep techy climbs but on milder trails it did feel like the bike was bored.

D0NK - Member

dunno, I saw the £500 and thought not too bad, then I read 4130 and thought oh....

Seems to be a label thing, and I'm normally quite against the whole label thing, daft innit.

there's absolutely nothing wrong with 4130.

for many applications it even has advantages over more expensive stuff like 853.

example: you can cold bend it, to make shapes that would crack 853.

What with long forks, wide bars, CEN, etc. frame stiffness is important. And a frame that's stiff enough, is strong enough. 4130 is just as stiff as 853.

[img] [/img]

There's alot going on here for steel, and it's neat. The seatstays are remarkable, never mind the oval top tube. The complete is a fully solid build. She'd be good for 20 years.

[img] [/img]

highly experienced well regarded thoroughly proven bike designer

Yeah it's not like his designs have ever had problems that would have embarrassed a big manufacturer 🙄

There are far better bike designers out there, but they just get on with their job rather than massaging their own egos.

Looks good for the £ imho. Top tube's cool. I've paid a fair bit more for good old 4130 that's had some though and work put into it, and would do again.

dragon - Member
...it's not like his designs have ever had problems that would have embarrassed a big manufacturer

ok, the QC on the early Ragleys was a bit hit and miss, but that's not even close to being his fault.

(he designed the frames, he didn't work a shift in Taiwan, reaming seat tubes)

i reckon it speaks volumes about the chap that he'd respond, often within minutes, to questions/problems aired on here.

Same here, going down it was brilliant, going up or along, I think it was Rocketdog that nailed it at the time, it was like a sulky teenager dragging its feet!

Not that it matters, but I think it was a line I - a different dog entirely - half-nicked from Guy Kesteven, who has a genius for stuff like that.

Yeah it's not like his designs have ever had problems that would have embarrassed a big manufacturer

There are far better bike designers out there, but they just get on with their job rather than massaging their own egos.

As other's have said there's a big difference between a design fault and a manufacturing fault.
End of the day - who here hasn't had an on-one at some point?
It's been the plethora of different designs delivered in the form of cheap frames that have given a lot of riders the chance to try a whole heap of new geometries and approaches and let them form the opinions they defend on here.
Brant frames from on-one, ragley etc etc have put affordable progressive designs in the hands of the masses.

End of the day - who here hasn't had an on-one at some point?

Me, and lots of others. Doesn't mean I've not thought about it, of course.

Brant frames from on-one, ragley etc etc have put affordable progressive designs in the hands of the masses

99.99999999999%* of people have never heard of brant or on-one/ragley/planet-x etc.

*or thereabouts

99.99999999999%* of people have never heard of brant or on-one/ragley/planet-x etc.

*or thereabouts

fair enough...by 'masses' i just mean the people on this forum!

there's absolutely nothing wrong with 4130.

*well not everyone obviously

The number it starts with is biggerer thou so the toobs must be better innit 😉

the dropper post routing is still pretty uncommon on steel too.

All you've got to do is drill a hole in the seat tube. I can do that to anything if you like...?
🙂

And fit some kind of grommet, surely?

[img] [/img]

I rather like Brant's earlier work. £300.

Pipedream Sirius wasn't it? The 853 frame that was going to be 4lbs til the factory refused to make it to the spec as it wasn't going to be strong enough, and ended up with about 2lbs of reinforcements to get it through CEN testing, and rode like every other lump of a 6lb frame. BUT IT WAS 853!

PeterPoddy - Member

All you've got to do is drill a hole in the seat tube. I can do that to anything if you like...?

Done that myself because I'm a bodger but that's not what it is here looks reinforced as well?

ahwiles - Member

ok, the QC on the early Ragleys was a bit hit and miss, but that's not even close to being his fault.

(he designed the frames, he didn't work a shift in Taiwan, reaming seat tubes)

Ehhhh. As I recall he made a lot of noise about factory visits, personal involvement, "best frame factory", that sort of thing. It was part of the ragley/shedfire schtick all the way through...

It looks alright to me, I won't be buying a hard tail any time soon so I'm sat on the fence for once, the double barrel stepped chainstay is different and moves the material away from the chain ring while detracting your eye to the pipes and the straight section, the tubing is a nice touch but I can't help thinking that those cables and hoses are in an area where they could become fairly easily damaged? The stealth dropper access hole is clean and very neat, couldn't these be used to route the cables away from the underside of the down tube?

STIF is a premium bike shop in an often bargain basement budget driven market place, they import, well next door do one of the most desireable bike brands out there and have been great to deal with since the earliest days when they had a tiny advert in the back of MBUK, actually I'll retract some of that, there was a few years at the end of the 90's early 00's when the staff thought they were God, but I've been buying bikes and bits there since 1992, I've had a few GT's and Santa Cruz bikes in that time, I dare say as a regular you would get some discount on that £500, failing that V2 will be along soon, not for me though.

Looks alright to me, bent downtube aside.

@Northwind, yeah, spose you're probably right, but... (nitpickery) i don't remember many problems with the first bluepigs. wasn't it many months later, when the piglet came out, that the qC problems arose? - was BR still involved then?

[I]£500 is nowt when you lot are dropping £100+ on his slacks[/I]

Best
Hora
Post
Evaaaa

I don't get the hate for the graphics.
1) It's like the Stif logo - what did you expect?

I didn't expect anything personally. Mainly as i'd never heard of stif until i open this thread.

Since i'm an 'expert' on this particular subject i would had tried to convince whoever approved the graphics that basing the decals on a very dated looking and poorly designed (remember i'm the expert here 😛 ) is a bad idea. I'd have tried to convince them that [i]now[/i] would be a good time to rebrand the company and launch this bike on the back of that rebranding, killing two stones with one bird. I would have charged them a lot of money for this advice and spent said money on sweeties.

Or I would have just used the black outline (and thickened it a bit to match the stif logo) and not bothered with that awful green.

I'm all for fresh, young, fun and different, but it has to be well executed. This isn't.

p.s. i'm not actually an expert (as if you couldn't tell) but i've been designing all sorts of stuff for almost 30 years so i do have 'some' experience in making things look nice.

ahwiles - (he designed the frames, he didn't work a shift in Taiwan, reaming seat tubes)

Imagine if those designs had the wrong tolerances on them... who quality controls the design?

I reckon you could get two cadbury's mini rolls in the chainstay, as they already taste like Shit now Kraft changed the recipe it'd be perfect placement

Never seen one in the flesh let alone ridden one. Never going to either. Best say it's shit.

Re the earlier point, I think if you live in Lancashire or Yorkshire you have to have owned at least one On-One bike at some point - it's the law.

I like the idea of this bike but it's not a looker. And the logo is awful.

That's a pretty cunning solution for getting 420mm chainstays and good tyre clearance on a steel frame without a thick steel plate - I know it drove me nuts trying to fit in tyre, chainrings and chainstay when I was mocking up my stillborn steel frame in CAD (I actually started thinking Boost was actually a good idea!)

Geometry isn't as slack, low or long as it could be but it's a pretty decent compromise. Graphics are very original Ragley!

I wonder if Brant did the current Ragleys? The new Piglet is fractionally steeper of head angle, slacker of seat angle, longer of seat tube, shorter of reach but lower of BB. I'd say apart from the BB height the Morf is a better and certainly more up to date geometry.

wonder if Brant did the current Ragleys?

there's absolutely nothing wrong with 4130.

for many applications it even has advantages over more expensive stuff like 853.

example: you can cold bend it, to make shapes that would crack 853.

What with long forks, wide bars, CEN, etc. frame stiffness is important. And a frame that's stiff enough, is strong enough. 4130 is just as stiff as 853.

Which is why many 853 frames aren't entirely 853.

One tube is enough to use the sticker, I believe?

Rumour has it Guy Kesteven has ridden this bike in prototype form and was extremely impressed.....

On a general note I don't understand individuals who post regularly on Twitter. For me it's a company or celeb tool otherwise its strictly narcissistic and self-glorification

Facebook at least communicates with 'friends'. Twitter is for 'followers'

Nice bike. Crap name.
Is there a full suss called Chas?

nah I think I get chestrockwell's point, to me merlin crc have always been bargain hunter territory whereas stif have seemed more premium prices for posh stuff

Yup, exactly. Stif have a reputation as a premium shop that only sells decent kit. Any frame they produce will be expected to be as good as their rep so can enter the market at the higher end. Only time will tell if the frame lives up to this but I would expect it will as I can't see them risking a 25+ year of brand building.

When I was young I really wanted a Stif sticker on my 89 Clockwork as the shop was ace and they regularly built bikes for MBUK. When I got back in to mountain bikes around 2004 I drove 20 miles further than necessary (past the original Allterrain Cycles) to get a bike from them so I got a sticker. The brand is strong and the bikes will sell.

Re the earlier point, I think if you live in Lancashire or Yorkshire you have to have owned at least one On-One bike at some point - it's the law.

Nah, the law used to be Orange bike with Pace forks. Bit difficult these days though. Yorkshire born and bred but never had a On-One and don't expect I ever will.

i don't remember many problems with the first bluepigs. wasn't it many months later, when the piglet came out, that the qC problems arose? - was BR still involved then?

The first Bluepig had major problems with the seatpost size. Brant emailed my mate personally about it and said it was a factory problem. Mate was promised a Mk2 that was late because they were sourcing a new factory. When that arrived about a year later the headtube was oval. Fail. Wouldn't put me off a Brant designed bike though, he was Zak Tempest for gods sake!

greyley1 - Member

Rumour has it Guy Kesteven has ridden this bike in prototype form and was extremely impressed

Good roll on the Random Review Table?

Looks pretty good in my eyes; I've been banging on about short stays and short forks for years; good to see a respected bike designer has taken note.

Looks a bit long/low/slack for trail centre fun; bet it'd be good for downhill tracks and the like though.

I'm sure another well respected designer will recognize your genius and make a short/high/steep one for double track and fire roads tedium.

Should have called it the Vain Vagrant

IHN well the sartorial Gok Brant even retails belts at a snip over 100 sheets.

Should have called it the Corby Extreme...

hora - Member
On a general note I don't understand individuals who post regularly on Twitter. For me it's a company or celeb tool otherwise its strictly narcissistic and self-glorification
Facebook at least communicates with 'friends'. Twitter is for 'followers'

What if the two services had decided to use the alternate names for linked people?

What a load of guff.

Followers seems more realistic than 'friends' for the most part anyway! 😆

I rather like it, there's some nice engineering going on there - by the looks of it anyway. It seems as if the "short" would have enough TT length for me too (615mm/22.4") so I'm actually considering it, that's if a summer riding with gears in Greece persuades me to build another geared bike.

Just been checking out the full build spec and it seems decent value to me. Am I missing something?

Fed up of all this 1x fascism. Some people like to ride fast!

6079smithw - Member
Fed up of all this 1x fascism. Some people like to ride fast!

Fast is about the engine not the gears. There's a few guys on here who do 1x at each end, ie singlespeed.

They're fast. Fast enough to win 24 hour races.

6079smithw - Member
Fed up of all this 1x fascism. Some people like to ride fast!

Mind **** isn't it 🙂 Kind of where strava is actually a lot of use

6079smithw - Member

Fed up of all this 1x fascism. Some people like to ride fast!

Testify brother! THat's why all those downhill bikes have double rings

....on fire roads...whilst aero tucking

Rumour has it Guy Kesteven has ridden this bike in prototype form and was extremely impressed

Especially when 1250 pounds buys you a good review in a mag these days.

Geometry isn't as slack, low or long as it could be

Looks a bit long/low/slack for trail centre fun

You guys should meet up

You guys should meet up

That would be nice but seeing as DT only rides road bikes nowadays and I only ride mountain bikes and we're at opposite ends of England I can't see it happening! 😉