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Moon on a stick perhaps, but to tempt me away from HTs again (I seem to jump from FS to HTs every few years), what frame-only options are out there for a max-130mm alloy frame that can hold a bottle and has a relatively simple linkage design - for a competitive price? Like a Five Evo (that could properly house a bottle) and not for £2.2k!
Sonder Cortex is £999 and pretty excellent. Not sure about the 'simple linkage' but mine is 18 months old and haven't had to replace any bearings yet and it's been used multiple times per week ever since I got it.
Bird AEther 7/9 (depending on wheelsize) is around £1300-1400 for the basic shock version with headset, rear axle and seat clamp. Again, not sure it passes the simple linkage though, but then are there any non-linkage bikes out there apart from Orange anymore?
I like the idea of a single pivot frame for the simplicity of maintenance but most better value frames are Horst link. I figured with the saving I made on buying the frame I could afford the extra bearings needed.
Cotic?
I was gonna say Sonder look about the best "affordable" frame-only offering.
Perhaps Bird, if the geometry works for you.
If you have an aversion to Horst links, Commencal often seem to be punting frames out cheap.
And if you fancy a cheap single-pivot (why aren't there more?), I stumbled across these a while ago...
https://dartmoor-bikes.com/hardware/trail/bluebird-275-2021
Bird Aether a good shout. Also mayabe a Commencal Meta?
Does it have to be alloy? Starling Murmur/Swoop/Twist? The simplest of simple! Full frame bearing change in 15mins...
New Saracen frames are £1100 on website.
The new saracen ariel 30 looks a good shout
Beaten to it😂
New Saracen Ariel 30 is £1,199 with a Kashima rear shock, 130 mm travel and takes a bottle cage.
Seems to tick the boxes, and, even more importantly in 2021, it seems to be in stock.
Edit: beaten to it.. twice! whilst I was typing.
Well that is pretty impressive from Saracen.
Almost seems churlish to bring up the superboost rear end.
Find some really old Hope downhill hubs?
Need a zee downhill crank as well
I have two brand new unfitted Zee DH cranks if anyone is interested?
DM me on here or my email is username@gmail.com
Ian
That Ariel 30 is great value for a 2021 frame, can't help feeling though come the 2084 all new bikes will have super mega exo wide boost spacing of 1.43 meteres.
Propain are great value too.