[Closed] BrantFanbois! ASSEMBLE!

Looks beyond crap.
The kinda BSO you'd buy from Sports Soccer or the like.
No doubt they'll sell loads mind.

It Takes 30 Years To Make A Bike This Good...

£500 is nowt when you lot are dropping £100+ on his slacks 😆

Someone wanna email so he can come n defend his work and explain those chainstay holes 😐

Mention his name three times...

Someone wanna email so he can come n defend his work

He's seen the thread and posted it up on twitter.

Can't see the problem myself, it looks the same as any number of modern HT's that you lot usually fawn over.

Modern HT's with modern geometry are not the prettiest by design. If you want a good looking steel frame you need to be heading back to 1993. 😉

If I was in the market for a HT it'd be on the list as Brant and the lads at Stif know what they're on about. I'd probably just get a new P7 though as I like the neon green one. 😮

curved chainstays are pointless in today's world of clutch mechs,

Niche circular mini hipflasks to fit in those bog roll holders ?

It's that or the mud.

Oh and whoever is the marketing guy over there at Stif, pictures sell stuff and this gate -

Being a tall rider i like the fact that they are showing a large/xl bike built up. Not as pretty as the usual sizes but its nice to see how much/little stand over there is. Doesn't look too bad in that regard, and a bit lower than my 20" 456 SS.

I'm not into this sort of maintain bike. To me this looks just the same as all the other on-one, Genesis, Ragley esq bikes that have been sold for the past few years.

What does it do that's special ? Serious question.

It's evolved on from a 456, by being longer in the frame shorter in the stem. The tubing looks more sophisticated in shaping in the oval used top tube and seat stays (look how they go from thinner to fatter towards the wheel) to further improve compliance.

[i]What does it do that's special ?[/i]

the same as many other bikes with similar geometry and tubing, no doubt. The tubing, the details and (yes) the designer all introduce differences but most 130mm hardtails are going to be fairly competentent.

Most mountain bikes don't do anything terribly 'special' they just give us the chance to get outdoors, ride around and have fun. Which, actually, is pretty special.

What does it do that's special ?

What would you expect a bicycle to do, you know, apart from the whole being a bicycle thing....

It looks OK but I agree with the criticism of the mud catching chainstay and poor cable routing. What I can't get over is £500 for a [s]basic[/s] 'custom' 4130 frame. It would have to really grab me on a test ride because there is a lot of choice at that price

It looks OK but I agree with the criticism of the mud catching chainstay and poor cable routing. What I can't get over is £500 for a basic 'custom' 4130 frame. It would have to really grab me on a test ride because there is a lot of choice at that price

When I saw the price I was amazed it was ONLY £500, this is STIF we are talking about remember...

What brake mount does the Morf have?
The Morf has a post mount.

updates have been noted 😉

the bluepig was a lovely bike.

£500 is a significant amount of cash for sure, but look at many other steel hardtails, Stanton, Transition, Chromag.

Lot of money, yes.
Unusual, no.
Edit- I suppose the tubing isn't always the same.

[quote=nbt said]
updates have been noted

They are amongst us 😮

Currently £719 at Stif (and that's with a 20% discount).

4130 steel.

[img] [/img]

I can't see that £500 is anything like approaching 'rip off for an off the shelf 4130 frame' pricing.

kayak23 - £500 is a significant amount of cash for sure, but look at many other steel hardtails, Stanton, Transition, Chromag.

Those are cool little brands that have established over time and especially with Transition and Chromag you are paying for the brand. This frame from a shop who probably realise they can make more money importing their own instead of importing someone else's, a better comparison would be On one, Merlin and anything from CRC / Hotlines.

Wot no rack mounts?

further improve compliance.

slack head tube and shortish fork I like. 500 quid for something that'll weigh about the same as my fridge i do not like.

I don't get the hate for the graphics.
1) It's like the Stif logo - what did you expect?
2) Bikes are for fun - especially a slack hardtail - far too many serious-looking bikes already. Fat Chance ftw.
3) It's harking back to the days of Mint Sauce, Bula hats, Nike Poobahs, etc.

I like the graphics they are like fat chance.

Wait to see if it ever gets sold at rrp too.

I quite like it. Seriously tempted to get rid of my full sus and get a hardtail for my simple hour long "bombing around" rides which comprise 99% of my riding these days and the arrival of things like this, the new Pace and the new P7 is doing nothing to stop the temptation.

£500 is nowt when you lot are dropping £100+ on his slacks

Hahahaha.

£500 is nowt when you lot are dropping £100+ on his slacks

Will it take a chainguard, to stop the rider getting chain oil on their moleskin?

Rack/guard mounts?

Those are cool little brands that have established over time and especially with Transition and Chromag you are paying for the brand.

In many respects Stif is all those things you mention above and has been going far longer. No where cooler to hang out in 1991 than the original Headingley 'barn' and they have held on to that vibe and kept the reputation. If you advocate higher prices as a brand premium then the Stif brand holds weight regardless of whether they've made a frame before or not.

Stif are actually the complete opposite to On-One, CRC or Merlin.

I like it. In to see a brand trying different design approaches, and not punting another "me too" frame.

Rubber_Buccaneer - Member

What I can't get over is £500 for a basic 'custom' 4130 frame.

It's not really basic, there's a lot of tube forming going on there, the dropper post routing is still pretty uncommon on steel too. Whereas there's been plenty of 853 bikes that people have gone daft over that might as well have been gaspipe for all the difference it made to the actual bike. You can do boring things with posh steel and cool things with boring steel.

I have no love for slack head angle bikes, especially one that slack, but just about everything I have ridden that was designed by Brant has worked well, although I think he hit his peak with the Scandal and TD-1. 🙂

However if you want big front suspension on a hardtail this design probably nails it. As for the chainstay miniature whisky bottle holders, that's a kludge, but then any method of having a very short chainstay on an mtb will lead to a a kludge in that area if you want to run a bigger ring.

I'm sure it will be fun for the guys who like ripping downhill.

they have held on to that vibe and kept the reputation

chestrockwell - Those are cool little brands that have established over time and especially with Transition and Chromag you are paying for the brand.
In many respects Stif is all those things you mention above and has been going far longer. No where cooler to hang out in 1991 than the original Headingley 'barn' and they have held on to that vibe and kept the reputation. If you advocate higher prices as a brand premium then the Stif brand holds weight regardless of whether they've made a frame before or not.

Stif are actually the complete opposite to On-One, CRC or Merlin.

I disagree with that, yes Stif was a cool shop but its still a local, barely national shop and very much not an an international bike brand.

As for being the opposite of Merlin & CRC, all are bike shops, all established around the same time, all known to stock the best stuff in the area, all producing their own frames... doesn't sound very opposite to me.

I disagree with that, yes Stif was a cool shop but its still a local, barely national shop and very much not an an international bike brand.

Forget about what they sell and think about the brand. That's what sells and the Stif brand is strong. People will pay more for a Stif branded frame over a CRC branded one. The marketing men know this hence why CRC give their bikes a different brand identity but Stif can market them as 'Stif'.

As for being the opposite of Merlin & CRC, all are bike shops, all established around the same time, all known to stock the best stuff in the area, all producing their own frames... doesn't sound very opposite to me.

Yep, all started about the same time but from there CRC and Merlin turned in to a stack em high, sell em cheap brand. Great if you want a cheap XT rear mech but not so great if you then want a bike with a desirable name. A Merlin frame will never be anything other than a cheap frame in the eyes of the buyer.
Stif did the opposite and developed a brand that sold premium brands at a premium price. In much the same way as Hope refuse to discount their stuff Stif has refused to go down the continuous sale route so have a completely different reputation. When was the last time they significantly reduced the price of current stock?
Neither way is right or wrong and the fact that Stif, CRC and Merlin have been going so long suggests they're doing it right in different ways but to suggest they follow the same model is wrong.

In the pic of the gate sized one it looks as though it may be a bit noodly and flexy in the headtube !!

We'll have to agree to disagree. To me and I suspect to many others Stif is a shop, one that maybe has a history of stocking nice stuff but its still just a shop.

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.