Its a Hardtail life…

Ok so im fair new to the world of hardtails, currently riding an alpine and have a cannondale prophet, wanting to build something that i can have even more fun on! a hardtail… question is what frame do i go for? i want something i can do xc on but also tech stuff like drops,stairs, n bits of downhill, im looking towards the Ragley/on one- kinda frames at the moment, ive seen some good deals on the on-ones but some say only take 120mm travel forks? or 100mm travel? ive been told the 456 is prob going to be the best as it takes a 150 travel ? im wanting to run a 140 really, what frames out there can i go for? and will the on one 456 frame take a 140 fork? Cheers!

Cotic Soul with 140mm fork; I know there are a lot of Cotic fanboys on here but they really are that good.

The 456 will take 4, 5 or 6 inches of travel, hence the name.

Prince Albert,

The 456 will take 4, 5 or 6 inches of travel, hence the name.

I was not aware of that. Every day’s a school day.

Sell you my ti456…

Best ever hard tail, fact……

Best ever hard tail, fact……

Why you selling it then?

456 is at its best with 140mm IME. Works well. Not the biggest fan of the handling tbh, that’s why I’m selling mine, but they’re good solid effective bikes.

Ragleys… Well, I love mine, but it’s the Ti- I reckon the others have their shortcomings but you might or might not care. My Mmmbop was just ludicrously stiff, back wheel had a mind of its own, bouncing off rocks all over the place… And the Pig is hefty and IMO a wee bit dead feeling like heavy steel frames can be. But the geometry is ace- descends brilliantly, but also a fantastic stood-up climber.

Still getting to know my Ti but so far, might well be the best hardtail I’ve had. It’s going to be competing with a Soul and a Soda though so quite hard competition.

ive seen a DN6 on one inbred will that take a 140 ?

Why you selling it then?

Wrong size wheels innit 😉

I’m surprised nobody mentioned the Sovereign earlier. Although you can only get them second hand nowadays.

Its just a fad. 😉

chris_mbuk – Member

ive seen a DN6 on one inbred will that take a 140 ?

Inbred is now warrantied up to 120mm. But tbh it’s more an XC frame. (the DN6 part is just On One’s name for their cromo tubing, doesn’t mean anything)

If you’re looking at On One, then the 456 is going to be the correct choice for you.

Its just a fad

What?

Duty bound to throw a BFe into the mix.

Another Cotic fanboy here, get a BFe it sounds spot on for what you want. Im not a fan of the 456, the EVO might be a different beast and I’m sure the Ti feels totally different.

Yep. It’s all I ever bang on about on this here forum but the correct answer to ‘what 140mm hardtail’ is Evil Sovereign – best handling rad HT ever made. Stanton Slackline and Cotic BFe are viable alternatives, 456 if you’re on a tight budget.

These are facts.

Its just a fad 😉

It’s not! Once my Solaris has a dropper post (waiting for Thompson) it will be all the bike I ever need

Evil Sovereign – best handling rad HT ever made

+1
This is a fact 🙂

hmm ive no idea.. cotic bfe u say?

I rate my BFe on par if not slightly better than my 853 Sov. Both are streets ahead of the 456 I had in the middle, all three have pretty much the same build so I can’t put it down to that for the different feeling.

How impolite of me – forgot the obligatory pic of my Sov. Mine is shortly to be retired with its bits being transferred to my new big bike but it has done sterling service as my only bike for the last 3 years…

I’ve not owned any of the other bikes mentioned but I LOVE my Cotic BFe

I do everything on this one bike; XC, Jumps, Drops, Black runs at Cannock Chase, Downhill stuff and anything and everything in between.

It simply copes – it has 140mm travel Fox FLOAT forks and a 3×9 Shimano SLX drivetrain 8)

looks pretty cool ill look more into these thx

Mine is shortly to be retired

Are you selling it?

Prince Albert.
Best bike I’ve ever ridden.

A guy I ride with has a Pipedream Sirius and he shames us on everything with that bike.

Surely a Cotic Bfe must be worth a serious look! Their fork range is from 100mm all the way up to 160mm so they’ll do just about anything. Either that or a Ragley Blue Pig but I’m not sure if they’re quite as versatile. Both fantastic bikes though!

I’ve had a pig for nearly 3 years now and love it,ridden allsorts of different stuff on it.
that said I keep looking a full bouncers. Threads like this keep me thinking I’ll be wasting my money!!

what’s up with your alpine, i love mine?

You could buy a nice Transition Transam frame off me…

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8187/8109968789_0eb0534e48_h.jpg

Isn’t the Alpine the sort of bike you want?

Maybe he means Orange, not Dialled.

Are you selling it?

Don’t think so, due to a combination of the fact that I still love it and the fact that it is all but worthless – it’s had quite a hard life – a few dings, damaged dropouts, drilled out/ chopped off cable guides, repainted, cracked, re-welded and re cracked. I’d flog it if someone offered me an outrageous sum, but that would be pretty daft of them.
I see a future life for it as a rugged singlespeed thrasher…

I’d probably say Cotic Bfe as they are £300. Or a carbon 456 if you want the lightest long travel hardtail in the budget range I think you are looking at.

Three years and 6 LT hardtails since I had it and I still think it was the best

re-welded and re cracked

Really O_o ! Where did you get a crack and how hard was it to get it fixed?

For the sort of riding you’re describing, its sounds like you want a short travel hardtail.

Blimey so many great bikes to choose from.

My Mmmbop was just ludicrously stiff, back wheel had a mind of its own, bouncing off rocks all over the place..

The mmmbop is just so much fun though because it is a handful. Being so stiff and light it feels so fast when you stomp on the pedals. Also great on the downs with the slack angles. Brought it on a bit of a hardtail whim and hated it at first, it took me a while to work out how to get the best out of it but now I absolutely love it.

Also you might find yourself reconsidering the 140 fork once you’ve had a hardtail for a while. Got a 150 rev on the mmmbop but run it at 120 pretty much all the time. Not that convinced about big forks on a trail hardtail.

Its got to be a Cotic Soul. Ive ridden an Orange Crush for the last 3 years and a ’12 Five this year. I’ll be buying a Soul at some point and building it up over a period of time. I’ve got other priorities right now so it’ll probably take a while, but its ging to happen.

Where did you get a crack and how hard was it to get it fixed?

Managed to crack it at the headtube/ downtube join on one side – not really sure how, just general use. It was really really tiny crack (maybe 5-6mm).

I took the paint surrounding it off with a wire brush, keyed in a little groove with a dremel and took it to a local metal fabricators – they put a tidy little TIG weld over the crack FOC, but unfortunately the crack has reappeared through the weld – it’s still tiny, and I’ve ridden it very hard with no apparent ill effects so far but it’s clearly not ideal. I still feel like I got my money’s worth out of the frame though.