[/url]
Ragley FS Prototype #001[/url] by brantrichards[/url], on Flickr[/img]

You may have to wait a bit….

if you got a 6″ trail bike then swapped the shock for one which was

a) shorter eyelet-eyelet
b) shorter stroke

by the appropriate amount (1/3 off the stroke and the same distance off the eyelet to eyelet) you’d end up with a slack bike with 4″ travel? Might do the trick

Otherwise, bottlerocket/double

My two bikes which I’ve got setup to feel pretty much identical:

Poor pic of the actual bike but its a 456SS, 105mm forks, 1×9 setup.

And its perfect partner?

Blur 4X, now with 36 Float Rs for increased madness…

Another vote for a blur 4x

Here’s mine:

36 Van up front

how slack is your 456? how slack (in Deg) do you want the full sus to be?

another thread

Pivot Mach 4 (Check out Benji’s long term test reports)

The SC Superlight @ 120mm wouldn’t be too steep, I run my with 115mm Reba’s and it’s a fricken laugh but not as slack as my Prophet… I did wonder about angle offset shock mounts but don’t believe there enought space behind the lower mount to fit. Maybe one of the new angleset 1 1/8 headset is worth playing with.

Pushing it up to 5″/130mm travel..
SC Blur TRc

I’ve been looking at this recently and can’t believe there aren’t more short travel bikes out there with 67 deg or less HA.

Knolly Endophin was about the best I found, very expensive though. Also there is the Banshee (Mythic) Spitfire that is worth looking at.

Trance and C’dale Rush shouldn’t be discounted either if you thinking 2nd hand, both very versatile bikes.
Local Leisure Lakes guys couldn’t rave enough about the Rush demo they had in (yes couple of years back)… said it could (& did) take a lot more than a classic XC bike should.

EDIT: Ricko’s… great minds..

oh and the other one I was trying to think of… Was another Pivot frame.. the M4X four cross frame[/url]

What about this new GT Distortion?

As already said above, something like a Kona Howler, Cowan DS or Dudu (if you can get hold of one) would be great. I’ve had a couple of Cowan DS’s and more recently imported a new old stock Dudu frame from USA – felt great with forks set at 120mm and wound out to 140mm for d/h. Only sold it as I bought my old Tazer back – another build that feels pretty damn perfect at 120-140mm 😀 . Currently waiting on an older Heckler from ebay USA – fingers crossed that’ll feel just as good as the Tazer with the forks wound out a little more and a tad more skill compensation 😉

Mailed you on the ad linked from your profile. Got an 2011 ST4 frame I’m probably going to have to sell.
Mail in profile if you are interested.

I’m going to sell my 4″ 07 trance frame soon. stick some 140mm pikes or similar on that and you’ll be giggling. 100mm fork = 70.5° HA but with 140’s that’d come down to 68.5°. It was good with 130 revelations on but I re-built it with 140 marz 44’s to do the 100k HONC which wasn’t all that bad. Had a play in the woods on it the following week and god it was fun. 3lb lighter and more fun than my 09 marin wolfridge.

I have an Orange St4 frame for sale, 2010 model, 16″ in white. Immaculate condition as it was new in February, fitted with hope headset, bb and seat clamp in red. £625 o.n.o,

See my forum activity for pics, does everything superb, only selling as I have bought a Cotic soul which suite my riding better.

Email mikedonald@hotmail.com if u have any questions.

Thanks,

Mike.

IMO there’s little point choppering a bike out just to have a fashionably slack HA you can boast about on the internet if it raises your BB to the detriment of cornering ability.

just a general opinion (don’t know anything about the sinster)

Cheers for the reply Paulrockliffe 🙂