The 456 Summer Season offers everything you get with a standard 456, but with one important change: a slacker headangle.
But what triggered this new frame? We asked Brant of On-One to fill us in: “I did a ride towards the end of February this year with a few local riders, and a few things happened on that ride that made me think about things in a different way. Just how bikes were diverging, what people were doing with them, and the problems they were having. Specifically one of the things I noticed was people running longer and longer suspension forks (one rider was out with 160mm travel forks on a hardtail), but when I asked them why, it was more to do with head angle, than bump-eating potential.
“I was riding my rigid forked bike and that was more capable in a few situations as the front end didn’t dive when I slammed the brakes on. It was that that got us talking about shorter travel forks – well not short exactly, but coming back down to say 130mm – and keeping the front end slack – with a slacker head angle.”
The end result is the Summer Season, a frame based on the standard 456. It shares the same geometry but with the all-important change to the head angle, reducing the numbers from 69.5° to 66.6° (when used with a 5” fork). Tubing is DN6 plain gauge chromoly and is finished with a clear coated matt finish, leaving all the welding clearly visible. There’s disc brake mounts, cable guides under the top tube, vertical dropouts and rack mounts. Frame weight is 5.4lb (2.44kg).
So, if you want a 456 with a slacker head angle, head over to www.on-one-shop.co.uk for more info.
Priced £125 and available in sizes 14, 16, 18 and 20″.