I’ve gone for an 18″ 456 because I got a good deal on it, looking at geo etc there isn’t much difference and I think a bigger frame may be more beneficial as it’ll get mainly used for Xc/ am as opposed to concentrating on descends, I have a dh bike for that. I bought some 36 talas forks too so can range between the travels, i most likely run clips so will be an Xc/ am build mainly, as light as I can. I’ll not get it finished for a month or 2 though.

Thanks for the help

From sounds of things i might be tempted by the 16″ as i’m used to smaller feeling frames with riding a downhill bike so much, they’re a bit more forgiving too i guess. 16″ and a 50-70mm stem might seem ideal, could even get a layback post if need be. I’ll compare the geo and reach of both sizes and see what’s best, i can’t be too picky though as i plan plan on going second hand on the frame.

Is anyone running theirs singlespeed? that goes for the inbred or 456, somehting i might give a go because i have the kit but failing that i could go 10spd zee for about 60 quid all in.

I had a crash back in april where i dislocated and fractured the end of my finger, 2 days later i had the daft bandage things off and that weekend (4 days after the crash) i was racing in the sda at dunkeld, didn’t knock my confidence, you’ve just got to try and not think about these things, i’d assume it’s the same rule as don’t aim for that tree or you’ll hit it etc, likewise, don’t think about the crash or it’ll happen again?

Very sad news, especially being so young.

what’re they like in terms of size? I’m roughly 5’10” but was looking at a 16″, should i go for an 18″ or a 16″?

or alternatives to the 456/ inbred?, any recomendations for other steel frames?

My rear rim has about 6 or 7 dents in it, including a massive flatspot, where the rim is joined it is starting to split, i’m still riding it and it’s fine :P It is a downhill rim and expected to handle this kind of thing, a season in the alps and racing fort william probably didn’t help..

on one have one on their website

In relation to the first few posts, I upgraded to windows 8.1, fine for the first month or 2, after that my actual windows programs became really slow and barely did anything, couldn’t even get on control panel to restore it etc, left it for a while loading and managed to return to windows 8, much, much better, only thing is if you do that you have to reinstall some programmes but don’t lose your files so back up any programmes you want/ need.