[Closed] New bike for the winter - slack hardtail

Transition, Stanton, Cotic are all worth a peak.

Slack winter hardtail? Isn't the stock STW answer "On-One 456"? To be fair, [url= https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBOO45650BX9/on-one-45650b-sram-x9-mountain-bike ]£1k[/url] for X9 and Sectors seems like a bloody good deal to me. Not light mind you

Bird Zero

I have a C456 which is great, like the looks and reviews of those bird zeros though. Plus if I was buying new On One shoddy customer services vs ben from bird who seems like a geniunely nice bloke would be part of my decision

Love my NS eccentric.

All great frames above ^ ......but i'd get a Dartmoor Hornet.

Takes both 26 or 27.5 wheels, head angle of 66 degrees with a 140mm fork but warrantied by Dartmoor for up to 160mm forks!
12mm thru-axle out back and tapered head tube up front, takes all the usual dropper post sizes too....as a bonus they are sub £200 brand new and being aluminium instead of steel are probably lighter than most of the bikes suggested already.

If only my bloody Ragley would die I'd have an excuse to buy one and move all the parts across!...comes in Black (nice), Silver/Raw (very nice), Blue (meh)....and Petrol!..,,you know that effect when fuel gets in water and creates that amazing colour collage on the surface?!....yep they've done one in that!

Buy it....for me?..,.so I can live out my hardtail fantasies vicariously through you, haha! 😆

Did spot a Hornet at the mega, looked pretty sweet, sounds good from what you're saying above too

I did the same. I was going to buy a reasonable HT and ended up with somethink very expensive and very nice!
Bloody glad I did though.

Canfield EPO.

Just been through this and ended up buying a Kingdom Vendetta 2 frame, just collecting all the parts ready for the build, other main contenders were Stanton and Canfield.

I'd vote for the Stanton Switchback, but I'm biased as I love mine. I think it rides really well and looks lovely too. There's just something so right about the way a steel hardtail looks.

I run my (non eveo) c456 with a 150mm fork and a 12mm rear axle, and it's great. But.......... Next time around i'd probably get the PP Shan as it's a lot nicer to look at 😉

Whyte 901/905/909 would be the obvious choice for the OP's given criteria.

Light and Shan are not things you can put in the same sentence, unless that sentence is "This Shan is not light"

I'd say why focus on weight for a winter hardtail, it wouldn't be my priority. Something fun with reliable and durable components.

The shan looks proper nice, but is not cheap! Stantons look good too.. I'd say you'd struggle to buy a bad hardtail frame these days.

maxtorque, how are you running a 12mm in your C456? I can't find the swapouts for them anywhere, the qr on the rear of mine is driving me mad, no matter how tight I do it up it moves a tiny bit and the rotor rubs

I'd say why focus on weight for a winter hardtail, it wouldn't be my priority. Something fun with reliable and durable components.

This, it's going to have a couple of kg of mud attached at most times anyway. I like mine nice n light as it gets chucked around the woods in summer as well and raced at local enduros

Bird Zero.

Running a 1 x 10 for even easier cleaning. Now use it more than the full suss...

Rear tyre clearance is one of the most important things on a winter hardtail. If, like me, you want to rag your bike round the woods, down rooty greasy descents and hit all the usual rough stuff that you'd ride in the summer, then it'll ride far better with a big tyre than a more traditional skinny mud tyre. But once it gets really stickily muddy that big tyre will stop turning if you don't have plenty of space.

My venerable hardtail is a 2010 Cotic Soul which wears a Baron 2.3 front and Rubber Queen 2.2 rear, all year round. If I was buying something now I'd probably get a BFe 275 - barely any heavier, slacker, lower BB and bigger wheels.

My shan is pretty light... 28lbs or so. got it to replace a harsh 456 summer season. Lots of cash but really worth it. It runs real size and 650b wheels too... mind you it was NOT cheap..

It's July.

It's July.

An alternative to the Shan is the PP OKA - lighter, but still slack and designed around a shorter fork.

Coincidentally.. I will have one for sale soon.

If you want to get spendy;
[img] [/img]
That's not mine BTW, it's MUCH LOUDER!
Available with effigear belt drive too;
[img] http://www.kai-gimmler-bikes.de/nicolai-testcenter/Nicolai%20Galerie/argon-am-pinion-2/image [/img]

TBH, it's probably overpriced for a alu HT but I don't care.

Really fancied building up a Shan but after seeing that Kingdom Vendetta I may have changed my mind, very nice!

I've got the Identiti AKA. Lovely frame, slack headangle, can run both 26" and 650 wheels, takes up to a 150mm fork, very light, very strong. Only complaint is that the paint job isn't brilliant, but it's great to ride, very quick and you can pick up a frame + headset from Winstanley for less than £300. Not trendy like some of the other mentioned above (although they're all bloody good bikes) but it's a superb piece of kit

Blimey - that Dartmoor Hornet looks pretty good for the budget option. Just seen it on a site for £153 delivered!

At least they publish weights - At 5lb for the L it's not as heavy as some.

Those Nicolais though - mmmmm 🙂
Another nice spendy option is Chromag

wrecker - Available with effigear belt drive too

That's a Pinion belt drive, Effigear doesn't have a drive around the BB & doesn't have Pinion printed on the crank

Standard recommend what you've got answer....

Commencal Meta ht, long, low, slack (66) and great VFM. I picked up my frame for about 300 euros new from their website. Just need to be able to live with the lairy colours.

Having owned a C456 I'd avoid.

Just remembered, that on my potential wish list at the moment are:
Pace RC127
Ritchey Timberwolf

Worth investigating (although that Kingdom Vendetta 2 looks amazing if within budget).