Mass produced frame manufacturers (m*d&%n fun bike upgr

can i recommend a cove stiffee, obviously in your price range, very strong, pretty light, fantastic ride off road and plenty strong enough to blast around town on. dont go over the top on the fork travel tho, 120-130mm of well controlled travel is much better than 150mm of wollowy flex. has a certian character aswell that most mass produced bikes lack. possibly the best all rounder i have ridden, having ridden alot of different bikes.

funny you say that, i was avoiding bikes with that kind of travel before. I was looking for a do it all with 100mm that ticks all boxes.

I'm building around my White Bros DT1.2 forks so they can give a tall 100mm or a tall 120mm, perhaps I could build a fun trail bike HT. Over £400 (thats what i'm told i can get the 4x for) is a tad out of my comfort zone, but considering lots of options

then later build some rough looking short and low and cheap street bruiser!

Arrgh too many bikes!

DMR TRAILSTAR
http://www.dmrbikes.com/?Section=produc ... id=FRMTS07
or
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DMR-Trailstar-Fra ... 240%3A1318 and buy the converter to make it run a mtb bb
its the best bike i've ever had, a bit on the heavy side but i've never seen a broken one :shock: mines set up for riding trails, street etc but i know people that have them built into proper xc type bikes and i've seen some set up as downhill bikes :shock: :shock: i'm ordering loads of the new DMRCOLOUR stuff right now http://www.dmrbikes.com/?Section=page&p ... newsid=121

really really need to look a bit closer at DMR they have been mainstay for over a decade.

Still waiting on a Giant frame only price as it really is waffly versatile!


Theres no rush on this so extended my search, to look at bikes I discarded earlier on. the light jump bikes keep coming in but the Transition Trail or Park bike looks good. My forks only 20mm too tall and the geometry looks good to start with, very small frame height so no time to sit down on this one! Same weight as my current frame

Very different again, but isn't this smart?! I do like teh look of this, different beast, similar geo but longer (adjustable) seat stays and longer fork, so i'd need to make mine 120mm travel again. its 6.2lbs but for a cromo AM/FR i'd let it off. sweet


http://www.transitionbikes.com/index.cfm

Well i've seriously still got the hots for one of those Transitions! ^ but the distributors are useless and with the £-$ situation, they fall into the Cotic price bracket! :O

Still want one.

Early in Feb I ended up going for something completely different.

Similar geo to the Commencal, the Transition Trail or Park, etc etc but a bit heavier. but German brand, Sanko Cromo, you can see i took Perrys advice and all of the alu vs cromo research.

So Weight wise its 'heavy'

6.4lbs Last quoted weight

6.2lbs Transition All Mountain frame

5.83lbs quoted for my Alloy Identiti

4.2Lbs :shock: commencal 4x race frame

5.7lbs for the transition Trail or Park which is the nearest equivalent, but thats not a lot extra in grams at all. Length wise its a good compromise, steep seat tube with 552mm Top tube, so losing 16mm off my identiti XL
Back end is crazy short though

So plan is to get some lighter less creaky, less BMXycranks and BB like new Saints and go from there... so how it fares, its used so not a lot of monies to lose where there was with the others.

Headset wise I have a new Cane Creek S8 I bought for the Santa Cruz FS, or I can get the Diatech D cup off the Identiti.. :?:





It should be fun for monkeying about locally and the BMX track when I go back down there and hitting the trails. And If I get summat more grown up later it can still hang around as a big BMX


Will add build up to readers rides > 1998 if its safe to :?

Here is the thread on my overbuilt trail bike. This is the bike I use the most as it's the most versatile, fun and unbreakable thing I've found... yet.

Balfa Minuteman

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... ight=balfa

I was considering trading it in for a Transition TransAM but I recently got a longer seatpost - Blackspire - which finally makes this tiny frame fit.

Balfa's are no longer available but point243 racing do an almost carbon copy - check out www.balfa.co.uk Good value and a cult following.
Saddle up for climbs and dropped for jumps and playing.

I had a ride on a friend Dialled Prince Albert last week and really enjoyed it, but it was not as much fun as my flicky Balfa.

would it wind you up if i said it looks very similar geometry wise to the frame i gave the mrs

Nope. Face. Bothered!

Its a hmm iirc meant to be around 69 deg head tube and 73 seat though with my forks will be a very small bit slacker.

Had a good look on balfa some great stuff on there out of the norm.
balfa looks good, and great to see someone braving the long seatpost thing I was plotting to buy a 400mm for it to uppie and downie when required.
I looked at the .243 frames those were even heavier (edit: one is one isn't) but bomb proof no doubt. Got one of their stems 400g's worth! looks ace though, again no doubt bomb proof!

Over here, Norco bikes fill a similar niche and they're very common. There's a hardtail trail/FR line (Manic, Sasquatch, Bigfoot), and a jump-specific line (125, 250CC). The jump-specific bikes are really heavy, all cromo. I did my first lift day on a rental Sasquatch, and my friend has a Manic built with a Pike that I've tried - both bikes were pretty good!

Norcos are generally decent - not exceptional, but the price is really right and they tend to be spec'd durably for FR riding.

Balfa Minuteman frames are still sought over here! Same with the BB7 bikes. Also, lotsa people still ride Cove Stiffies.

Yeah the Norcos were becoming a bit more popular when I got my last bike, I really should have opted for a Norco that time.