After not long having my Orange 5, like a true shopaholic im already weighing up my next purchase!

I've decided against building back up Pashley and getting a hardtail thats:

light ish (25lbs max)

long travelled (120mm+)

but sturdy enough for Peak style trail riding ( not an xc whippet or carbon like the scale )

nb. Pashley was a trials bike made into a trail bike but could only take short travel and as it was steel, weighed a ton! 

Price no object, I haven't decided on my budget yet but will be at least £1k - so ladies what do you recommend? what do you have? 

I have an On-One 456, cheap frame (more to spend on bling to attach to it) and its steel so not so much as a shock on the body after riding a full-suss.  I love mine more than my full-suss...no I don't I love my full-suss more...no I don't I love my hardtail more ad infinitum.  I have no problems riding my On-One on 30 miles of Lake District terrain though which is pretty tough on bike and body.  Not sure its massively light being steel but its also not a trials bruiser, I think its was a smidge lighter than my Titus which was around the 26 pound mark.  I got the frame second hand as at the time 14" 456 frames were like goldust (about 2.5 years ago I think) and used parts of my old ally hardtail and some new ones.  I put some Revelations on it as my old hardtail forks were only 80mm which wasn't enough.

I was favouring the Titus over this for a while but now the Titus is out of action awaiting new bearings I've fallen in love with it all over again.

on one 456 14' is on my list actually with revelations ( similar tastes! )  26lbs shouldnt be too bad....

i love my orange 5, but after 2 yrs on my hardtail i don't want to forget how to ride one..... and become soft!

its no bother at all on any downhill section and to be honest i don't do more than 30km at the mo anyway.

Just get one off Ebay like I did!

I love that bike it is fab - and a wicked colour which is the most important thing obviously!

the bloke laughs at me, but the colour is massively important! I'm with you Debs

unfort on one 14' ( in red) have already sold out!

what's her name

maybe I should email you rather than ask on here  

Cotic Soul all the way Ads. Andy bought one second hand and adores it. He loves hard technical riding. He had an Orange P7 before and the Soul p*ssed all over it. I used Andy's Soul for a lap at Mountain Mayhem and thought it was brilliant. 

Kate Potter swears by them, but then she does have the Ti version.

If I was going to buy a hard tail I'd go for the Soul.

Riks mate has a soul and everytime i see it i drool....

but i don't think they do anything my size ( ie 14 ideally or 15 max) i think the smallest is 16' which is too big

ps. Pez if you end up splitting your turner - can i get first dibs on the parts please...

More on topic you want to try a HandJob...

I love mine.... best steel available in the kingdom...         

rudey toot! ( just joking i know its a bike )

just emailed cotic and they reckon the 16' can fit a shortie like me, so im gonna investigate and also look for a on one 14' at same time. Theres no rush after all

If I did I'd let you know, but will probably keep it as backup/winter bike if I don't sell it in 1 piece. I can't believe Cotic don't make a smaller frame, what a shame.

just emailed cotic and they reckon the 16' can fit a shortie like me, so im gonna investigate and also look for a on one 14' at same time. Theres no rush after all

Try http://www.peakcyclehire.com , Rich has a fleet of On-One 456's for hire, I think he's got a 14" and I know he's got at least 1 16".  Based out of Hayfield but he delivers to most of the Dark Peak area.  18 Bikes in Hope is a Cotic demo place, maybe give them a call and see what they've got in stock?

Not sure why you've decided against carbon?  Nick Craig rides a Scale (HT) and a Spark (FS) in the Peaks, the bikes are plenty strong enough although the handling on the Scale might get a bit wallowy with 120mm forks in there, it works best at around 100mm.

im looking at 130mm forks min. hence no go for the scale etc. 

I'm gonna be looking at a cotic demo from 18 at somepoint (already knew they were the local dealers). I'm not 100% convinced the 16' will fit, even if i change bits as suggested by cy but i won't know until i try. Kate potters ti version is custom specced to fit her - i just wish i could afford to have the same! really like the soul....

I think the Cotics have quite long top tubes don't they?  So if you have long legs like most girls it might not fit very well?  How tall are you - 5'3"ish??

I think Kate Potter used to ride a standard Cotic soul in the pyrenees some of the time before she raced for them and she was fine on that, but she's not really short.

I'd be worried that either the standover would be too high if you have short legs or the reach too long if you have long ones, but I guess cy knows what he is talking about!

I've got an On one Scandal - 1lb lighter than the steel frame (and a bit more expensive) - with a revelation up front, and ride in the peaks.  It took a bit of getting used to after my 80mm travel hardtail.  The angles are a lot slacker and it makes technical stuff downhill easier, BUT ofcourse it's not so good on long climbs, but with a wind down fork (mine isn't cos I'm not good with adjusting things when I'm riding) I guess you'd have the best of both worlds.  It's also a lot less harsh at the back end than the aluminium hardtail i had been riding. Mine's a 18" and with mostly xt, and stroker trails, mavic 717 rims and bontrager mud x (where was the summer this year?) it weighs about 27lb,  I reckon with a smaller frame, you'd be able to build it up to 25lb no probs.

If you have a 14" bike and a 130mm fork, does that mean it's even slacker than an 18" frame with a 130mm fork?  I don't know the answer to that question.

If you have a 14" bike and a 130mm fork, does that mean it's even slacker than an 18" frame with a 130mm fork?  I don't know the answer to that question.

no idea! ... 

thanks for info Spana. I like on ones!

I'm still going to have a demo as its only at hope but im not massively convinced with its long top tube i'll fit the 16'.

yeah i could squeeze on, but to properly go off the back on downhills im not sure..... 

currently my 14' orange has a 70mm stem and i need to change to a 50mm for the same reason! 

I had a 19" hardtail (Be One Javelin) and a large Santa Cruz (bought 2nd hand at a bargain price, but in hind sight was a bit too large for me), but then I had a bit of an inheritance to spend and the Be One needed a lot of replacement bits - so got the on one, but went for the 18" as my husband's 20" inbred was definately too big. 

The Santa Cruz superlight has also been sold (ebay can be a wonderful thing) as I bid on and won an 18" Orange 5 (2006 model) at the starting price  ( I didn't really mean to buy it, but haven't regretted it in the slightest and it has improved my confidence and I can now ride more stuff on my hardtail, cos I've done it on the Orange and it suits me better than the superlight).  The increased standover on both bikes makes technical riding less of a worry - oh ok, still get shaky legs from time to time, but far less likely to bump bits on the top tube - but also, my back, which had been bad over the past year or so has improved - or was that because of changing from yoga to circuit training?  Both have 80mm stems on, but the Orange top tube is noticeably shorter than the On One, but both seem to fit well and I can get off the back of both of them. 

Apparantly the angles stay the same whatever the size of bike cos they sort it so they do!  Or so I've been told.

Enjoy your ride on the Cotic!