Hi Guys,

I have been lurking on here for a while and decided to join and get in straight away with a question!

I currently have a Kona Cindercone, i think it is a 2007 one, (orange frame), with hydrolic (?) discs.

However, i think I would like to change my frame, sticking with a hardtail.

I dont want to spend a great deal of cash, (no surprise there eh!), but wondered weather I could get something a bit lighter...

Is it worth making the change and do you have any recommendations?

Someone mentioned a handsome dog XC01 to me but dont know whether that would be a step down or up!!

Thanks in advance guys!

Mike

If you still have the agricultural DART forks on your Cindercone I would strongly recommend a decent set of forks rather than a new frame. You will probably save almost as much weight but the handling of the Kona will be transformed.

Current Dart 1 forks for comparison @ 5.5lb

Recon Gold £200 4.4lb

Reba RL £320 3.7lb

If you spend the same money on a frame rather than forks you will struggle to save the same amount of weight plus you will still have the overweight Darts's pulling the front end down.

The old Cinders where great bikes, And TBH you wont save much weight if any by changing the frame. 1 or 2 lbs max unless you start spending mega bucks.

Best cheapest options are.

Kevler tyres and light weight tubes, Around £70, better handeling and can loose 1-2 lbs easy.

As mentioned the forks wont be the lightest, Some crazy deals on Wiggle and Chainreation with decent light weight xc forks. £250 will get you some thing much much better and again 1-2lbs weight saving.

Other cheap fixes if you fancy the S/h route, handle bars, stem seat and post may not be the lightest as factories allways cheap out on these. But these all can be picked up on ebay and pinkbike for £10-£15 a peice and again around a pound saving.

happy hunting

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply, the forks I currently have on it are Marzocchi MZ forks...

what now?!

Thanks again...

If you're desperate to replace the frame then the On One Inbred is probably best value for money.

However if it's a 2007 bike the frame should still be good and if it's not been ridden much then should be in good shape.

The same advice applies to the Marzocchi entry level MZ series of forks as they are a similar weight as the darts and suffer from the same lack of quality damping.

All really interesting, thanks guys. I think sometimes we all fancy a change and I cant really afford to have 2 different bikes, but maybe i need to look at changing components instead of the frame...so undecided!

Hmmm, what to do!

Don't you need one of these

Click to view attachment

Absolutely!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Never mind those Merlin prices check out their fork sale

Good deal on the Rebas and I agree with Doug. Not only will there be a possible weight saving you'll get a much better & stiffer fork than your 2007 (?) Marz forks. I just stuck a set of 20mm maxle-light 120mm Rebas (from this sale) on my rebuilt (2008) HT and they're a fantastic fork.

Forks and wheels are where you wil notice the big difference in performance, unless you really want to change what you are riding, as in doing jumps or DH then there isn't much point changing frames,

The Handsome dog XC01 is a great frame for £60 I just built one up for my dad and it's really nice (but light stiff wheels and a RS Tora 318is forks will do that), but it doesn't do anything more than just be a nice bike that will do a bit off road but be an excellent fireroad bus to get to isolated mountains to walk up (the reason for the bike build), geometry is alright but nothing special, a good frame for transplanting the old bits from your other bike to

Hi Captainfly,

Thanks for the info. Do you by any chance have any pictures of the bike you built?

Just out of morbid interest, does anyone here use or have experience of the 5 spoke mountain bike wheels you can get? Again, just curious as they definitely add something different!

Again thanks....

Put away your credit card and step away from the computer you are about to make a hideous mistake!

Dont worry, the card wasn't out, I just saw some and thought "I wonder if they are stronger than normal wheels"

I am toying with taking the advice here of keeping the frame and upgrading the components.

I might consider upgrading the gear mechs, so any suggestions there would be great.

Might also add some completely black or orange wheels...

anyhow, here is a picture of the bike as is now...

I do have a photo but it's rubbish


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=188...7026&type=1

The bike is currently hung up and locked up with the front wheel off, so is not looking its best.

This photo is a bit better