Hello Dave! I bought a RIDICULOUS hardtail frame

[Hankj]

Backstory I sold my Ibis Ripmo frame. Loved that bike but decided it's time to dial it back from the Enduro category. Demoed the new Stumpjumper (non Evo), and it seems like a great bike to noodle around on into my golden years.

Got good $$$ for the Ripmo frame give supply side shortages. And couldn't find the Stumpy frame new in my size given supply side shortages.

Sooooo, decided to ride a hardtail this season. But needed a frameset and want to minimally invest since it's a place holder until the Stumpy comes available. Hardtail framesets also in very short supply, but the absolute cheapest new I could find in my size was ......

On One Hello Dave steel hardtail. Just under $450 brand new to my door in less than a week from the UK (I think the price went up a few days after I bought).

It's a crazy frame. 62 degree head angle, so slack AFFF. My XL Ripmo was around 1250mm wheelbase, long and stable. The Hello Dave is more than 4 inches longer! That's with a short offset fork. It's like world cup downhill bike long! 520mm reach has me feeling for the first time ever that a 50mm stem might be too long. The frame is heavy - 8.02lbs on my scale, nearly 1.5lbs heavier than my Ripmo Full Sus.

And yet it's kind of a handsome frame, well-made with nicely machined bits. Tubeset is double and triple-butted, and all tubes sing beautifully at the tap test. There were very nice colors available but I went black since I'm selling it before too long. Easily will take 29x2.6 tires if you want.

Not much in the review department, but Guy Keviston does a full professional review and finds that

A) it rides far more like a normal HT than expected - climbs fine without wander-wheel, steers pretty normal, excellent frame compliance in the right places so comfortable. It's heavy but doesn't feel too heavy.

B) it is very planted and stable given length, slackness and deep bottom bracket drop. No duh there.

So I guess I'll see, should at minimum be a fun experiment in extreme geometry until my first choice Full Sus comes available, ought to make for a bit of a different riding summer than the usual.

The name HELLO DAVE, btw, is a clever but obscure reference the British improv TV League of Gentlemen. A weird character knocks on doors, and when a housewife answers he say Hello Dave, you're my wife now! On One bought all the original Hello Dave frame from a manufacturer that wasn't being paid by another brand that ordered them. My wife now indeed

 

[Tony S]

Well? What's the build? Fork?

 

[Hankj]

Well? What's the build? Fork?

Fox Factory 36, which looks great on it. GX Eagle drivetrain with XO cassette. Bike Yoke Revive dropper. Light Bicycle i32mm Carbon wheels w/ DT240 hubs. Ibis 800mm carbon riser bar. Newer SLX 4-pot brakes (which I really like, and you can get a zillion different brake pads for).

It looks pretty nice. I've disliked carbon wheels on a previous hardtail, too harsh and less connected. So we'll see, might swap to 35mm aluminum. That former hardtail, to be fair, was carbon and really stiff. Will see

 

[Hankj]

Here she is built up, blacked out slacked out as they say (they being jump park heshers in 2014

32lbs, but climbing little hill in the hood it feels pretty good once the brain adjusted to the steering.

 

[Tom K.]

Looks like a chopper!

Should be a hoot, in the right environment!

 

[Hankj]

Looks like a chopper!

Should be a hoot, in the right environment!

Yeah it's fun in the right spots!

Got a ride in. Uphill and on flat it's not fast but not plodding, heavy but a balanced platform to chug along. Very good rear wheel traction on steep sections.

Downhill it's like a blunt machete singing a Pantera song. It's calm and planted like a ground-hugging downhill-biased enduro bike, smooth but without rear suspension. The front end has potential to write checks its backside can't cash, but if you don't forget it's a hardtail you're okay.

 

[Hankj]

I'll update this after 5 or 6 rides now. What's most interesting to me is how normal this bike feels. If I've been on a different bike, at first the steering feels super floppy. In 5 minutes it feels perfectly normal. It goes around all the switchbacks all of my other bikes go around no problem. The front end doesn't lift or wander. I actually ended up having to move my seat all the way back in the seat post from where it was for previous bike - this bike has a long back end and I ended up too far forward at first.

It is surprisingly capable for long climbs - I don't really feel its weight and feel plenty fresh at the top of my normal routes. Surprisingly as well, it feels really good climbing out of the saddle, even with the long fork. I think it's so slack that it doesn't compress as much from downward force of standing on the pedals and pushing down on the handlebars. It doesn't like to bunny hop so much though, not nimble in a flicking around seen.

It's very smooth and dampens rear wheel vibration better than any hardtail I've had.

The rear brake is giving me fits. It screams and won't bed, and I've done everything, and I've set up so many brakes without problem in the past. I''m starting to suspect that either the post mounts isn't faced flat enough, or that it is a little bit too short and so the pads aren't catching the rotor quite in the right place. I'm going to put in some in spacers and see ...

All in all for a dirt cheap frame it's been much better than expected.