[Closed] on one 456. How good?

[i]ive currently got a lappiere full susser but I think it might be a bit small.[/i]

Just buy a bigger frame rather than a new bike.

b r thats what im thinking. I'm just wanting to swap the frame rather than a whole bike

Hi, I just posted on your other thread.

I've got a brand new 456 Ti (Van Nic) that's yours for £200 + postage. Fantastic Ti frame, shame to say it was never built it up.

Email in profile.

Funnily enough I was riding my on-one 45650b and my old FS back to back yesterday and now feel justified in not having touched the FS since the On One arrived back in Feb. That includes a recent trip to the Alps. I love the simplicity of the HT, its relative lightness (11 vs 14.5 kg) and 1x11 drive and its overall solid feel BUT, its a tricky comparison because: 1- the FS is 8+ years old and pretty loose. 2 - the 650b wheels (tubeless) feel really planted/roll over anything compared with the old 26-inch, and 3 - the wider bars of the HT feel like they give more control.
I've no regrets about buying the On One at all and is my absolute go-to bike ... but now wondering what an up to date FS would feel like?
Hope this helps.

I've got a medium zesty and had a large spicy. I'm 178cm. The Spicy was too big.

I'm a serial hardtail owner and believe that in general one of each is the best option but that if you need to choose preferences come into it in a big way. The 456 is respected and probably the cheapest frame option in the category but there may be plenty of better options depending on what you want.

The 456 was basically on one's take on the Chameleon but in steel. It's a ragabout trail bike that will happily take 4,5 or 6" forks (but is usually happiest with 5). It would be a good budget build option with the kit from your Zesty to see if you liked hardtails. Watch out for fork compatibility. They held on to straight steerer for a while...

Had a 456-evo that was brilliant, a proper little trail weapon, just as happy being loaded on an uplift truck as being pedaled around the trails for several hours....it had everything that great steel HTs had, narrow (flexy?) 27.2mm seat tube, thin stays, delicate 1-1/8 head tube etc....great bike, shouldn't have sold it.

I bought into the hype and went 27.5 with a 45650b, with a 150mm fork it was a tank and could barge through anything...unfortunately it went to harsh tubing with 30.9mm seat tubing, chunky 44mm head tube and much thicker stays...the old magic was lost IMO but if you wanted to race DH/Enduro on one I'm sure it'd be brutally effective....it wasn't for me though and I sold it.

On One at this point had stopped making the Summer Season and Evo models that I wanted, there was the Evo-2 but it had a 1-1/8 head tube and I now only had tapered steerer forks.

I turned to Ragley, they still had 26 inch bikes in the range, settled on the Piglet as I wanted a decent trail bike too, as attractive as the Bagger and Troof were, they are for 160mm forks and descending only really....anyway, there are certain things I hate about the Piglet, the chunky 44mm head tube, the crazy big and stiff 31.6mm seat tube and a generally thicker set of tubing and stays than I've ever had on steel HTs before....but you work with what you've got and I've built it up with a Renthal cockpit, RS Revs, Pacenti 28mm wide rims, Saint brakes etc and it now gives me pleasure in that it is virtually bombproof, it's my first choice on uplift days and the Trance only gets used for mates that want to come on a ride or if the other half wants a comfy ride round the woods on a full susser, if I started racing Enduros again I'd probably use the Trance but the 456 was (for me anyway) the start of my obsession with HTs and just how awesome they can be built up and the terrain they can cover while needing bugger all maintenance.

If I was buying now I'd be spoilt for choice:

Commencal Meta HT, Nukeproof Scout, Transition TransAm, PP Shan, Orange P7, Dartmoor Hornet, Stanton etc etc....only problem is they're so damn tough that waiting for something to break or wear out so I can replace and upgrade is a loooong and frustrating experience!

Naranjada
I'd like your van nic frame
Trying to send you an email as we speak

I love my TI 456 and as long as I can get decent parts for it I won't be getting another hardtail.

I've got a 456 26er I absolutely love it! I ride everything I ride on my orange five on it. Get one you will love it

The answer. Very good.

I've got a 456 ss (26). Its the best bike I've owned and the only way I'll part with it is if I break it. The new 650b variants with the bigger tubes are a mess and have only been redesigned to stay current and help sales with new sizes (wheels/droppers etc..) rather than for good design. They are like aluminium frames but made of steel.

I didnt really rate my 456 summer season. Harshest thing i have ridden. Looked bloody good though. Had proper sized hope wheels, turbo dropper, 150mm revelation up front.... changed for a pp shan which is simply amazing.

Had one of the first C456 frames, ace bike. Sold the frame and fitted the parts to a Banshee Spitfire because I couldn't afford both, only frame I've ever regretted selling.

Bought one of the new C456s, amazing bike. Miles better than the steel ones too.

I've the 45650B in 'raw', I bought the frame based upon feedback from the MBR forum and moved some of the essential parts from my 2015 Giant Talon 0 on to it (I needed a new fork and front wheel and have changed a few other bits too) Compared to the Giant it's a lot more focused and seems to cope with everything I've tried it on. I'm happy with it and think it looks great too.
If the offer of the titanium frame above is genuine then i'd snap that up, I saw one of those in the store and it looked great. If you go for new and get one of their frame bundles (like I did) then chances are you won't end up using most of the things you get with it, I've only kept the seatpost, stem and headset so paying the extra for the bundle might not be the most economical option for you if you have most of the parts already.

Had loads of 456s over the years, but kept selling them and then realising my mistake... face/palm.
I've currently got a 456 Evo2 that I'm very keen on - my sole mtb and it suits me fine. Simple, reliable, involving, versatile, well put together and just a really good fun bike. Highly recommended.

Had the summer season 456, felt awful compared to my p7, felt very harsh and wooden so I got shut, must be the cheapest steel they use maybe one up from hi tensile.

Have a 456 old version, harsh ride and unusual geo by todays standards but I guess you'd be going for a newer one? climbs well and stable on descnents due to the longish back end, you can hang bike bits off it, so that's all good. I'd imagine you might slightly underwhelmed coming from a zesty though?

I've a C456 (I'll porbably get a public flogging for saying this), but i've just never got on with it. Ran it as 1x10 with a Fox Talas 150-120 fork.
I found you had to ride it hard/fast to get the most out of it, but if i wasn;t on a trail i new i took a beating from it.

Perhaps i don't ride it enough, but when i do, i wish i'd ridden the full suss.

Had one of the first 456 'that blue' bike
Way too harsh for me

Love my 853 inbreds though

I've currently got a 456 Evo2 that I'm very keen on - my sole mtb and it suits me fine. Simple, reliable, involving, versatile, well put together and just a really good fun bike. Highly recommended.

Exactly the same as me.

I have an 18" Carbon 456 Evo for Sale of anyone is interested. 150mm Pikes, Zee and Slx kit, Stans Flow Ex on Hope Pro II evo, carbon on-one bars and reverb. All black. Built it last year as my reserve bike. Has only done about 50 miles. Looking for around £1000. Based in Farnborough. E-mail in profile if interested.
Cheers

Andy

I had one of the original steel 456s

Absolutely great for battering down the steep, muddy, boulder strewn descents of East Dartmoor..
With a 120mm fork and stiff wheels nothing could knock it off course and it climbed adequately..

I replaced it with a Cotic Soul when I realised that I didn't really have the stones for riding the steep stuff any more, but I've kept the frame..

I've had 4 in total. 2 16"s, and 2 18"s, one of which was a ti456.

I liked the geometry and the fact they were happy with a big fork and had reasonable tyre clearance. All of them felt pretty stiff, and the steel ones were pretty dead feeling. I made them more comfortable running a long seat post on a size too small.

Although stiff at bumbling speeds, the Ti456 was very different from its steel cousins when slammed into high speed chop and was every bit as good as the What MTB review said at the time. A bit of a modern classic IMO.

I sold it to fund my perverted 29er experiments.

Although stiff at bumbling speeds, the Ti456 was very different from its steel cousins when slammed into high speed chop and was every bit as good as the What MTB review said at the time. A bit of a modern classic IMO.

That was what I had, and agree 100% with it (Lynskey model). I only sold it as my local riding, which is 99% of my riding, just didn't need the 'goes to 11' it supplied, and a 29er hardtail just worked better for me (and was a smidge lighter and more comfy).

I've got a Cotic BFe and the wife has an On-one 456 Evo2. They're both the same size, so I often take the Evo out for a ride.

I much prefer the Bfe. To me, it's way less harsh than the Evo and just handles better. The Evo's not a bad frame, it's just not as good as my BFe.

I also have a friend who was pretty much sold on a 456 Evo2. However, he decided to try out both our bikes and then changed his mind and went for the BFe, even though the frame was twice the price of the On-one.

I've a 456 frame sitting in the garage (blue, 18") that I really should get around to selling if anyone is interested, Pm me.

I actually went from the ti456 to a Cotic Solaris and then to a 2souls quarterhorse. There may or may not be a theme there.

I found the angles weird on the BFE I tried, correct me if I'm wrong but aren't they the same geometry as a Soul?...and they're optimised for 120mm forks.

Just chucking on a set of 160mm forks and hoping it'll work seems half arsed to me, the bottom bracket was high, the seat tube was canted too far back with long forks etc...lovely looking but if you're going to design a frame for up to 160mm forks you need to lower the BB, slacken out the HA and steepen the seat tube so it still makes a good fist of climbing....none of that was done on the BFE, it just looked (and rode) like a really lazy effort to get on the 'long forks' hardtail bandwagon....simply making the construction more burly does not change the fact it's a Soul with different tubing.

I was underwhelmed, the 456's I've had have been designed from the ground up to take long forks, whether the quality of steel is there or not is largely irrelevant, they're a good design rather than an afterthought which is what the the BFE felt like.... I'd love a Soul, you couldn't give me a BFE.

I also had a Dialled Alpine for a while, my 456-evo and the Alpine briefly overlapped....honestly I couldn't tell any difference in 'feel' between the two despite the Alpine being covered in Reynolds-853 stickers....the fabled springiness from steel comes from narrow tubing which has all but disappeared due to demand for bolt-thru rear axles, tapered head tubes, dropper post compatible seat tubing etc....it doesn't matter whether the steel hardtail in question was a cheap 456 with gas piping or an Alpine with 853 tubing, as long as it had thin stays, a traditional head tube and a 27.2mm seat tube it felt 'springy' and great to ride.

Sadly those days have passed, I should've kept one or the other and bought a straight steerer set of Revs to keep them going....like a gullible fool I believed the hype, I believed I needed a dropper post, I believed the front of my bike was compromised without a tapered head tube, I believed the rear wheel needed to be bolted through on massive stays....what an idiot eh?!....goes to show peer pressure and marketing does work though!

Yes, the BFe does have the same geometry as the Soul. I have 150mm revelations on mine and to me the geometry is fine.The bottom bracket sits in line with the rear axle when it's static. Sit on the bike and the bottom bracket sinks and I can't ever think of a time when I've wanted it to be lower. My background is downhill and I love taking my BFe down the local DH tracks because it's stable when the fork is compressed (when cornering) and it handles like a dream (it's more fun than my full sus DH bike). HA hasn't been a problem either. I don't look at numbers, all I know is that when i put my weight over the front (again when I'm cornering) I never feel unbalanced.

Doing trails, it goes uphill well enough for me, but I'm no mountain goat and I don't get that excited about pedalling up.

I've put the BFe up against my wife's Evo2 and the differences in geometry are marginal. The bottom bracket is no higher and the angles look very similar (although I haven't paid too much attention to the seat tube angle). I'd expect the 456 to be more comfortable at the rear because of the smaller chainstays and seatstays, but it's just not the case; perhaps the thickness of the tubing is greater.

At the end of the day, it's horses for courses. For the riding I do and the way I ride I feel that the BFe is better.

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Well it seems you were right. It was bloody brilliant

Mulling trying to get hold of one of these in 20" for a cheap and cheerful winter hardtail. Still kicking myself for not getting one of the carbon ones when they were churning them out for £200

I'll just echo what pretty much everyone else has said. I've had a steel 456 and now a C456 and loved them both. I went from full suss XC to full suss DH back to a long travel HT like what you're thinking of and loved the move!

I got bored of chucking the bike down a run and not worrying about lines as the bike would just go over anything, so bought a second hand 456 and loved having to think a bit more about my riding, never looked back!