I have a Cotic Flare, but could do with something to pop into town on, (mile or two) cruise around the lanes on, and do some loaded bike packing with.

I’m thinking a reasonably lightweight, rigid 29er with bar ends and big apples or SB8’S or similar would fit the bill. I have some bits in the shed – brakes, stems, bars, bar ends, cranks, seatpost, saddle. I’ve had a scandal and would love another but they’re just not about, lots of on one options back in the day actually…

What should I be looking at? Frame, fork and wheels for now. New (cheap) or used.

Ramin?

Frontier?

size?

Brother cycles or Stooge

Large probably, I’m 6ft

Radon?

25 EUR delivery charge though

Big apples are superb for this.

i had a set, and built up a surly karate monkey to go with them.

its a nice bike, but fails on the budget side of things.

Andreas Rohen will be along soon to tell you about cheap Cube frames on bikediscount.de. They are cheap, but he does mention them in every single thread about frame buying so I assume he works for them. Abyway I’ve done his job for him now…

will be selling a large 29er setup soon if u r interested

I’d go Chinese Carbon from eBay for the frame and fork.  Then some destickered Mavic wheels and the cheapest 1*10 drivetrain I could buy that was also black.  Coupled to some Schwalbe G One 29*2.35 Tyres

my math reckoned this could be done for ~£500 and would be around 20lbs in weight.

Daffy. Hard to argue with that tbh

Andreas Rohen will be along soon to tell you about the EWS standings and how Canyon are number 1, but that he has a bossnut, and it’s an awesome trail bike, but wouldn’t last 10 minutes at EWS ad nauseum….

FTFY mate. 😉

If you’ve got a direct mount chainset and a 28t ring maybe play a bit of OO/PX roulette:

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/FRTICH29JP/titus-el-chulo-29er-aluminum-hardtail-frame-28t

if you can find some nice long forks to correct for a 130mm ish fork of course…

I was just sick in my mouth a bit at the sight of that Titus

@Daffy – any recommendations on frames/suppliers not likely to get me killed to death?