[Closed] What's the most you have - or would - ever spend on a hardtail frame?

£1100, 456Ti.

Bought in 2009 and still riding it.

3k was the retail. I got it slightly cheaper. Titanium.

I spent about £2750 on a Kingdom Brigante 650b build.
I really wanted a light Ti trail hardtail and Chris at Kingdom is a lovely chap, so why not.
I'd probably spend up to about £4,000 (if I had that kind of money) if the right bike came along. Canfield Bros Epo or Stooge Ti.

£800 on an original Ti Inbred 11/12 years ago - I still ride it now as my main bike so it was great value for money. The wife didn't think so at the time though!

I paid £80 for my (26", steel, second hand) 2011 Sunn Tzar about a year ago, which was a Billy Bargain as far as I'm concerned. I'd pay £300-odd for a new Onza Jackpot (650B) if I could afford to buy all the new standardy bits I'd need to go with it (wheels, forks, BB etc...) but I can't, so I won't. Shame, cos it was nice to ride at the NEC.

I just spent £500ish on a Chromag Rootdown. Good quality Taiwanese built steel frame. The Canadian versions built by Chris Dekerf are proper spendy though.

£200 is the most i've paid so far, for my current Parkwood frame. Got an Inbred for £100, and £170 for a Rock Lobster 853 on sale in 2005.

Would spend more perhaps but i've got a fun, reasonably light and capable frame, so i'm happy.

The Canadian versions built by Chris Dekerf are proper spendy though.

I can believe that.

Come to think of it, I'm not sure where my (previously owned) Brodie Holeshot was built.

Most I've paid so far is around £140 I think for my Barry White Inbred.

I'd probably pay up to £500 for something really special that I was going to custom build. Can't see it ever happening though.

£1,100 for a custom Ti hardtail (one in, one on the way). I guess I might pay slightly more if there was some specific spend option I wanted but that seems to get mist things sorted.

Yeah £500 tops for me too, and it'd have to be damn fine steel or carbon.

Most I've actually ever spent was £400 on a c456 IIRC. Bike got nicked but I'm still using the Oury grips it was bundled with on my Patriot, so the memory lives on.

£300 for a '96 Zaskar LE frameset in 1996. Still got it in the [s]trophy cabinet[/s] garage.

£699 for Privee Shan.

It broke...

Depends what it offers really, it's a value question rather than absolutes. I'd say about £500 for a good TW-made steel frame but it could go a fair bit higher - my TW-made steel Jones F+F was £1200. It's great VFM imo but only since it does something nothing else does and I appreciate what goes into making something like that.

Carbon or Ti could be a lot more but I'm more likely to go for good steel, for HT MTBs anyway (for my own riding rather than any generalisation).

The most I have spent is £150 ish on a Ragley MmmBop when CRC when flogging them cheap a few years ago. I can't see myself ever [i]building[/i] my own hardtail again unless it was a custom-made frame, in which case I'd pay whatever the market price was...assuming it doesn't go above 3 figures 🙂

If money was no object however...

£2000.
Based on the colour.
Because I'm a ****ing idiot...

For production, I think I'm pretty close to my limit with the 2 souls Quarterhorse.

I'd go higher for custom though.

£1500 in 1998 for a Kona Hei Hei which I'm still using as my main bike, so awesome value for money. It had sat in the window of the LBS like the Wayne's World guitar just waiting for me to get promoted at work (still had to eat a lot of beans for the rest of the month though).

£1000 On-One Ti29er. Still riding it as my main bike, 7 years on.

~£1k on my CoticSoda. It's 10th birthday is in Jan '16. It's been by far the best value frame I've bought, both in smiles and miles.

erm, my rigid ti frame cost loads. and i had to do the whole customs thing to get it to the uk. courier needed almost £700 in import duty before handing me the box.

I'm not rich by any stretch of the imagination but this once in a life time purchase thought thats still making me smile... the best thing i ever did.

£1500 in 1998

in 1998??!! 😯

£1500 in 1998

in 1998??!!

No kids, no house, secure job, minimal brain cells (still the best thing I've ever bought).

It seems the Ti "Bike for life" hardtail buyers are doing alright in here then 🙂

£100-150 a year seems the average so far.

Scienceofficer - Member
For production, I think I'm pretty close to my limit with the 2 souls Quarterhorse.

This. Paid £600 for a 2nd hand 2Souls QH. Made me question my sanity at the time but the reviews on here (incl the above Scienceofficer - thanks for that!) swayed me. Grrrrreat bike, immensely capable, custom drawn (by frame size) 853 tubing and fairly radical geometry. Love it!

Other than that, paid £395 for a Sanderson Life frame a couple of years ago. Might go higher for Ti, but certainly would go into 4 figures for something custom (being a gangly 6'4" I sometimes think that I could use something measured for me), but recent bike expenditure, coupled with imminent arrival of funkrodent junior, means that won't be for some time... 😐

Probably would scrounge the money for whatever PP or Stanton make, but not Ti! So, say £500 new?

£450 I think for a second hand Ti Voodoo D-Jab. It was fun, but the wheels were too small.
When I get a suitable windfall, I'll be off to see Mr Travers like a shot and spank £1k or so on an Angus.

Heh! I'd like to say sorry about that, but I'm not so I can't.

Candodavid of this parish is my riding buddy and the owner of [i]that[/I] Curtis 29er. I'd certainly pony up for one of those.

£1327 on an open o-1.1 and it was reduced

I just did the inflation calculation and in 1994 the frame cost 3000 but in todays money thats 5460 ... Eeeek.

But then that's 260 quid a year, I rode it 4 times a week in most of that time, so it cost about 1.25 per ride, bargain.

£275 for my TI 456 on eBay. If I can still get the parts for it in years to come then hopefully it'll be the last hardtail I buy. I think an aging body might be the thing that stops me riding it.

I'm glad I didn't pay for my Niner. It's an awesome bike, but I've abused it somewhat (many, many crashes) and it's looking pretty battered after just 6 months 😯 . If I'd dropped £2000 on the frame I'd be gutted.
If I was paying, I think £1000 would be the limit.

£900 ish for a custom Curtis 10 years ago in spring, probably good value considering how much I rode it for 6 or 7 years, found the order form a few weeks ago and remembered I'd had it built so a 650b rear wheel would fit (paragon drop outs well forward for a 26 and right back for 27.5), really mush get a fork and wheelset and get it built up again.

£699 for Privee Shan.

It broke...

😯

Warranty?

Whatever is was for a brand new Dialled Alpine when they were first released. Lovely bike but I bought the 15.5 rather than 17". A decision I regretted.

Just spent £150 on an Orange P7 which I'm really excited about.

I think I paid just over £400 for a Cotic BFe quite a few years ago, that was when they used to make about ten a year though. It was the only hardtail I could find with the geometry I wanted. There's alot more of them about now though.

I'd definitely pay £500 for one of those Chromags; they look great!

2.5k for a custom built ti frame. I don't think they have made any money out of me though as I am now on my 3rd frame from them under warranty!

Only bought 2 new hardtails frame only.

An 03 Azonic DS Evo £350

13 Chameleon, £349.99, reduced from £600

So yeah, £350

£599 for my s-works m4 HT in April 2000, part funded by an insurance payout on my stolen Rockhopper, still have the frame now, built up with (nice) spares and used for commuting to work and occasionally by MrsMomo if we go out on a nice day.

It was 'retired' form my main bike 5 years ago but was my only bike for 10 years and covered 1000s of miles in that time, the only original parts left are the seatpost and x-lite g-force handlebars

£495 for a pace rc127 and the same for the RC129's it's enough of a bike for me. Spent £949 on my Niner RLT frame for cross, hardly ridden it this year. I spend what ever I need to get what I would like, no hard and fast rules.

I've never built a hardtail frame on it's own, but as a one bike type, there's a point that comes up fairly soon where you start to think I could get a decent full suss for the same money.

At the moment that point is about £350 on a frame only, I'd love a switchback, but you're looking at a total (new parts) build of about £1500, which would get you a decent trance or canyon, and that would always be in the back of my mind. Especially in the summer when the trails are dry and bumpy.

About £1800 for a Merlin XLM in 1993 oh and there was a Seven Axiom about £2000 in 2003 but that's a road bike so does it count?? 😉

£1500 for a Cannondale that is still going strongish. If I had the money one of the new carbon ones with a Lefty would be in my man-cave like a shot.

Max was £1300 for a Cannondale F3000SL, which was half price ex demo.

spent about £600 on a ti hardtail frame before.

generally I dont' buy bew bikes though.

Latest frame (Chromag Rootdown) is my most expensive hardtail to date at just under £500ish quid.

I think I would happily spend double maybe more that for either the candian built Chromag Surface or something similar with Geo tweaks and custom finish.

£400 on my 2003 S-Works M5 HT from CRC, reduced from £700. I'd always hankered after one and that was too much to resist. Still have it, the handling is almost telepathic.

Would definitely go well into 4 figures for something I really wanted, not found it yet though.

I think I paid £475 for my Ragley Ti, on ebay. Bargain tbh, never regretted that for a second. I'd wasted a load of time and money buying and selling and building less good frames. Just took a while to find one. The feller had a best offer on the ad, I didn't even bother- SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY 😆

£350 for a brand new FF29 frame last year. Plus the thick end of £2K in bits to build it into a light & strong MTB orienteering race bike.

£0.7k (less painful if we shift the decimal point). 🙂

SIR.9
Many have come & gone, but the that's a keeper.

Now rocking plus tyres.

SIR.9+ if you like.

[url= https://farm1.staticflickr.com/669/21881748931_3de99c410f_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm1.staticflickr.com/669/21881748931_3de99c410f_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/zkBFBi ]Untitled[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/takisawa2/ ]pten2106[/url], on Flickr

£900 for a nearly near Pronghorn 29er HT. Although MTB's are incredible value compared to top end road bikes (£6K frame and forks in this months "Cyclist" magazine).

2.2k back in 06 on a dekerf TI implant. Worst money I spent finish was beyond poor had to get the seat tube reemed out due to poor finish and the bottom bracket was finished of down to 63mm. Once sorted rode great but very tarnished purchase by the end could wait to sell it on.

Scienceofficer - Member
Heh! I'd like to say sorry about that, but I'm not so I can't

No need to apologise (not that you were going to anyway 😉 ), it's a great bike and a great buying decision. Certainly scratched my n+1 itch for the foreseeable..

It seems the Ti "Bike for life" hardtail buyers are doing alright in here then

I hate to think how much moneys worth of broken Ti frames i've had. 😐

I won't be going down that route again any time soon.

well both of my ti frames are still being ridden, but I've never believed in cheap ti

but I've never believed in cheap ti

Could it be that.

my ti frames are still being [s]ridden[/s] minced

andylaightscat - Member

I've never believed in cheap ti

Mine's a lynskey. And that's a bit worrying. But when it cracks, I'll get enigma to weld it back together.

I can't quite remember the price exactly, but I treated myself to a 20th Anniversary Marin Team Titanium frame back in 2007 as a wedding/30th birthday present. It was somewhere around £1,500. It's been and still is a fantastic bike *touches wood!*

It was around £1100.

£1200 for a Ti frame to fit 26" wheels about a year ago.

I've never built a hardtail frame on it's own, but as a one bike type, there's a point that comes up fairly soon where you start to think I could get a decent full suss for the same money.

Yeah, that's sort of where I'm going with this. Where does one outweigh the other? Or is it irrelevant?

I suppose what started this was looking at road bike frames, and how it seems very easy to splurge £1500 on a steel road frame, and a lot more on something carbon. I was wondering whether we have a similar thing here on this side of the fence / dry stone wall / treeline / mountain pass etc. etc.

£0.7k (less painful if we shift the decimal point).

😆

£1200 for my Ti Stooge .....money well spent

If I had the money, which I don't, Id happily buy a Pivot LES

£895 for an Airbourne Lucky Strike ti frame.
It snapped, I got a warranty replacement & promptly sold it for much less.

@PJ I suppose it depends on why you're buying a hardtail, for me it's the price first, simplicity second HT ride feel a distant third. For others you could build a stinking light HT race bike for £2k, a full suss would be a lot more and maybe not as efficient (maybe)

With road bikes, there's only really two different things you're looking for, race bikes and not race bikes, the more you pay the lighter/better features you get there's not really the full suss/HT argument to have with yourself.

£700 in 1998 on an Airborne Lucky Strike. Spent another £85 on it in 2006, having a disc mount welded on. Running at £46 per annum (so far) for a comfy but strong ti frame; happy boy. :-). They can bury it beside me when I die.

Cove Hummer in 2007, local shop gave me it for £1200 rrp was £1400, still ride it almost everyday, starting to feel dated now, everything seems to have changed standards and specs.

Just bought a Privee Shan 27.5 - £729

Previous to that, C456 - £399

I paid £120 for a Tange Prestige fillet brazed framed full bike in 1995 (2nd hand). Now, there's Triggers brush & there's my bike. The only 2 original tubes on it are the right hand side seat & chainstay. Probably cost me £300 since I 1st got it, including all paintwork.
Still got it.

[url= https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2812/9102409582_3a6619b357_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2812/9102409582_3a6619b357_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/eSmeff ]Mk 8[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmygrainger/ ]jimmyg352[/url], on Flickr

Don't think I could spend more than maybe £600 on a new HT frame.

There is no limit for me as i have decided i will never bother with a do it all bouncer. Ill get a proper, proper DH bike one day. With that in mind i'd have a Canadian built Chromag. I'd go on holiday to measure it up, that kind of thing.

Thousands.

You are all responsible for adding another one hundred pound rose tinted mark-up to old-skool steel frames, shame on you all.

I'd pay four grand coz I was dropped on my head many times when I was a wean and love the feel of my bones being liquidised on rocky descents! Long chainstays, steep head angles, canti brakes, rigid forks and bar ends all the way man.

I bought a Wicked! Fat Chance in 1994 when I was 16. From memory it was about £850 and I was paying it off by working in the LBS from whence it came. Sadly (?!) it closed down a few months later and I'd only 'paid' back about £350s worth..

I wish Marin's new steel HT came in frame only - it looks lovely!

£150 is the most I've ever spent.

You're kind of an idiot if you've ever spent more than £300 on a hardtail frame.

I've just bought a £2200 hardtail... and adding enough upgrades to call it £2.5k when I'm done.

Spent £400 on a frame only previously.

£699 for a Bontrager Race OR back in '97. Then another £399 for the modified crown Rockshox Judy's. Still using the frame so money well spent 🙂
I'm still not so sure about the forks though. They were ebayed for about £40 years ago...

Most ?
- was probably £1100 on a 'discounted' Scott Scale Premium frame - was meant to be £1700 apparently.
'tis a thing of beauty though. Matt black carbon.

You're kind of an idiot if you've ever spent more than £300 on a hardtail frame.

599. Pp shan. Mmmm best hardtail i have ridden.

I've bought new from Ragley and On-One so around the £200-350 mark so far.

But having spent all year so far on a HT while I slooooowly gather bits for my Trance build its reminded me that I don't actually need FS even on uplift days and local/grass roots DH racing.
I like the lack of maintenance and the abuse it takes in its stride, just buy a decent fork and you're done.

So, I would happily now pay for something exotic like a PP Shan (£600) or go the custom route with Curtis (£1000)....mental to some perhaps but I think paying several thousand for a poorly set up FS that need tokens, bands, corset air sleeves etc after the initial purchase is bonkers and the manufacturers must be laughing all the way to the bank.