buying new frame!
 

ok heres the deal
going from hardtail to soft tail, dont want to spend that much but dont want to cheap it out and ruin the rest of my bike.

atm i have a giant stp-2, pretty good bike, but its got good front forks and i like it, i dont really want to change the geometry just get a medioca soft tail that isnt gonaa cost me a fortune

any websites? brand names? products? or even better prices?! ( in australian dollars, or atleast say waht currency, i dont wanna get all excited when something looks really cheap but isnt...)

-cheers

How much travel are you looking at? Wheelworld.com was having some good sales on frames, not sure if that's still going on or not, but if they do ship international it may cost an arm and a leg.

www.norco.com has australian suggested prices, but on complete bikes. you can get frame only with the best of the category, but im not sure if it means australian when you go to the australian site. you can always check with your LBS, to see how much it would be. the listed price (unknown currency) is $1799 on one frame, which includes the shock and rear hub. they have complete bikes for a little less than $3000, if thats what you want to do, but i take it you dont.

buy softtail I assume you mean full suspension?

i hope thats what he means, because a rigid fork with rear suspension wouldnt go well

no, you don't get it. A softtail is a hardtail but uses frame flex to act as rear suspension

I bought a new 05 Marin Attack Trail frame on Ebay for $425 and it has worked out great. 4-6 inches of travel and a Fox RP3 shock. I still see them pop up on there from time to time. I swapped all of my parts over from my hardtail and I have been very happy with the performance. It climbs really well with the propedal on it barely moves at all and when you point it downhill it just soaks everything up great value for the price I paid

nah i emant full suspension, i just called them soft tails cause there different to the hard tails.. tohught it would work, maybe im wrong.. meh alwasy happens

oh and trvel wise, not that much just a nice amount of travel so that my bike dosnt break when i hit up some heckers drops

Whew. I now feel better knowing it isn't only American kids that want other people to do their online researching for them! :rolleyes:

How much money do you want to spend? Your STP has a 100mm travel fork, yes? So sticking to frames with similar travel is probably best. Keep in mind for your total cost, you may also need to get a new seat post (or a shim at the very least) as well as possibly a new bottom bracket.

Type this into the search bar of your favourite engine and see what comes up: australian online bicycle retailers

http://wheelworld.com/itemdetails.cf...gId=39&id=4213
I've never ridden this bike, and I don't know how much to shipping to Australia would be, but $249 seems like a good deal to me.
(almost) Any bikes you find you can check out on MTBR.com, although remember that the reviews are being written by people of all experience and knowledge levels. As with anything on the internet take your daily dose of salt ;)