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Hi there.
Looking for a lightweight (under 1400g would be fine in my book) hardtail frame to set up as a 29er with a few spare parts I have. Don't mind alu or carbon, it seems I'd probably get the best deal buying a whole bike second hand and upgrading where & when. Been looking at On One Whippets or a Specialized Chisel so far - any other suggestions? Slightly put off by reports of bad paint on the Whippets and the Chisels don't seem to come up for sale much. If I can get something for 1Kish I can give it a wheel upgrade, probably nothing too niche or I'll be waiting for ever.
Any tips appreciated, cheers.
Loving my Chisel at the moment and a medium does come up as 1400g. I was lucky my local shop had a small in stock.
I'd be a L in a Chisel but could live with it.
Certini Cylcles is showing a large instock and still selling it for £1800 rather than this months upped £2000 price.
They do have a long top tube, I'm normally a medium in specialized but the small fits me a treat.
What sort of riding? I really like my cube alu XC frame but the paint is really soft.
Or do you want something a bit more aggro?
I think mines 1.8kg, (thats the XXL 22" frame though, I guess mediums and smalls woule be a tad lighter) so i'm guesing you want a super light weight xc frame ?
Been looking at On One Whippets or a Specialized Chisel so far – any other suggestions? Slightly put off by reports of bad paint on the Whippets
Considering a decent paint job weighs around 200g and you want a mountain bike hard tail for under a grand to weigh less than 1400g a flakey paint job probably means a lightweight paint job.
If your buying from new cover it in 3m tape on all the major wear points and it will be fine.
If you do buy the whippet sell the wheels and tyres straight away to get some cash back and buy something decent and lightweight.
Loving my Chisel. Perfect xc frame.
Sonder dial? No idea on weight.
Vitus (sometimes you can find the frames on the wiggle outlet but normally they are full bikes).
Thanks folks, more votes for a Chisel then.
You can get a really good quality Chinese carbon frame for less money and less weight with similar geometry to the Chisel. You could probably also get custom paint on top and still save money. I loved mine and if they did one more matching the geo of my steel SS (longer reach/ slacker HTA) I would jump at buying one again
Dial is a good bet, but I just wish they had put in 2 sets of bottle mounts.
Have you considered the Airwolf carbon one that gets talked about on here quite a bit? Roughly £300 for what is basically an SC Highball?
Mostly XC and gravel stuff for those that asked, I have a full suss for more aggro terrain.
The Dial is showing 1900g for a large frame which is more that I was looking for. The Airwolf etc look interesting, not considered something like that.
In your position I would buy from China.
I did.
I bought an "Airwolf" (I know!) 29er frame through eBay.
£300.
It has been amazing. Went together super easy. There are pull-throughs along all the cable routes. There is a thread on it here somewhere. I've ridden it loads in Surrey and I raced the Gorrick Brass Monkeys on it (I'm poor but I was 10th).
Annoyingly I lost the cover to the underside of the BB. I emailed the seller and they painted one up in the correct colour and sent it to me. They are not cowboys.
Martin