'08 Meta 55... good buy or no? Or asking for trouble?

mac_man

I have the possibility of buying an '08 Meta 55 in very good nick... no dings or scratches anywhere. Current owner bought it new 18 months ago for around £1300. Spec is Fox Float and RP2 shock. Transmission is SLX/XT with Avid Juicy 5 brakes.

I was thinking around £600 it would be a decent buy.

But... is this bike of the era affected by cracked frames. If so, is it worth a punt at that price... or am I asking for trouble?

Finally... are they actually a good bike? I could get a brand new Boardman for £400 extra... for example. Or something from Pauls for around a grand...

bigpee

My understanding is that it is the 2009 frames that had the cracking problem ( certainly hope the case as I own a 2010 ) . I am also lead to believe that the 2008 was a good frame, but I have no personal experience of this.

mac_man

How do you like the bike generally?

Pudseyp

If it is the triangular rear then it will be fine, if the one piece arm then that's when they had the issues....sounds like a 5.5.1

£600 is not a bad price if its the 5.5.1 with Fox fork, but depends if it has had lots of use....if the fork stancions are OK with no damage to the coating it is worth the money..

bigpee

mac man wrote:

How do you like the bike generally?

I love my bike - it's given me a lot of extra confidence (although sadly wet roots still faze me). However it is my first full sus so I might have got a similar feeling from any other full sus. What I can say is that the design seems to eliminate pedal bob as even with pro-pedal turned off it still climbs very well (it feels as easy to get up hills as my Boardman HT did although it could just be I'm getting better at hills).

mac_man

Pudseyp wrote:

If it is the triangular rear then it will be fine, if the one piece arm then that's when they had the issues....sounds like a 5.5.1

£600 is not a bad price if its the 5.5.1 with Fox fork, but depends if it has had lots of use....if the fork stancions are OK with no damage to the coating it is worth the money..

It's got the one piece swingarm with linkage driven shock. Forks and shock are Fox Float and RP2. Does look in very good nick... but am concerned on potential for cracks.

Pudseyp

Oh...sounds like one of the ones that had the frame issue, it was on soon after they moved to the one piece arm...if it does look in good nick and to can get it for 600 sheets, to be honest I would have a punt especially for trail riding...after all most manufractures have issues at some point...

robertpb

There is nothing wrong with the 2008 frame, the issues started later.

Mine has given me no problems except general wear and tear.

mac_man

Thanks guys... will see if the guy is interested. Just need to dig up the readies from somewhere as I wasn't really looking to change till next year.

Bits of the old hardtail might be going up in the classifieds :-)