456 Summer Season - The end

rockmonkeysc

My 456 Summer Season is now on it's second build, to be honest I'm surprised it has lasted this long, very strong frame!

First build was a freeride / downhill build. Big fun to ride but I broke too many bones on it! I did ok racing it & used it on uplift days at Triscombe DH tracks. Also had a couple coaching sessions with freeride legend Chris Smith on it which involved me dropping 6' to flat and other stupidity/fun!



Medium 456 Summer season frame
Intense MAG30 DH rims on Pro 2 rear / Hadley front hubs
Rockshox Domain 160mm 318 motion control forks
Deore cranks
SLX rear mech / shifter
Superstar Plasma chain device
FSA Gravity 50mm stem / 720mm riser bars
Deity saddle
FSA Gravity seat post
Renthal single 34t chain ring
Avid juicy 7 brakes with goodridge hoses (came with the brakes, not my choice)
Straitline brake levers
Hope seat clamp & QR skewer




Now that I have a proper DH bike the Summer Season is now my XC bike & 6lb lighter!



Now with Push tuned Rockshox Pike 454 Dual air u-turn forks
Mavic XM719 rims on Superstar hubs
Double chain ring & bash
Thomson elite layback seat post (not in photo's)
Charge spoon saddle
Maxxis Advantage 2.1" tyres



Rides really nicely. Still feels like the same bike underneath. Great fun on twisty singletrack. Nice to be back on a hardtail again

Adotparker

Looks great mate, im gonna off-load my Crush and build one up!!

rockmonkeysc

Bombproof frame and great fun to ride but not light!

Adotparker

we're not all 10 stone dweebs... how wold an extra kilo or so.... effect us normal social riders??

anj132

OP: Nice mid flight photo and loving both builds, how do you find the 456SS for XC - I would have thought it would've been really slack to climb on?

Adotparker wrote:

we're not all 10 stone dweebs... how wold an extra kilo or so.... effect us normal social riders??

must... not... feed....

or use any more "..." myself

rockmonkeysc

It's a pretty decent xc bike, I can happily go for a 30 mile ride on it.
It climbs fine, I have the forks set at 110mm travel most of the time and just wind them up to 140mm for serious abuse.
I'm actually considering racing this in the Forest of Dean downhill race this weekend, thinking a hardtail could actually be faster than my DH bike with all the pedaling and the jump line on the new track

anj132

RockmonkeySC wrote:

It's a pretty decent xc bike, I can happily go for a 30 mile ride on it.
It climbs fine, I have the forks set at 110mm travel most of the time and just wind them up to 140mm for serious abuse.
I'm actually considering racing this in the Forest of Dean downhill race this weekend, thinking a hardtail could actually be faster than my DH bike with all the pedaling and the jump line on the new track

Was going to say best of luck... but seeing as the weekend has been and gone, how did you get on?

rockmonkeysc

I ended up taking the DH bike and crashed on both race runs :? I think I would have been nearly as quick on the 456SS, where I would have lost out on the rough stuff I could have made up a bit on the flat out pedally sections and jumps. Single ply tyres might have been a problem .

rockmonkeysc

Sadly, the Summer Season is no more
I have decided to strip it and use some of the parts to build up a Giant XTC frame for the XC endurance events I'm doing this year.
It's been a great fun bike, a surprisingly good downhill hardtail and a wicked fun trail bike.
If anyone wants to buy either the frame or forks, please send me a PM

pesky_jones

are you selling the frame mate?

rockmonkeysc

Yep. I need to take some photo's. There are a few marks, mainly from chain suck. Send me a PM if you are interested and I will sort some pics.