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Inspired Fourplay (New One)


Matt Vandart

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Here is a question aimed at people that have one.

Extract from Tarty Bikes:

- One-piece bottom bracket and chainstay yoke (68mm shell) offers excellent clearance for both the tyre and the chainring, especially when used with recommend 128mm axle length.

I would have thought that any bike would have good clearance for the cahinring with a bb axle that long :giggle:

Thats just a joke by the way.

Anyway my question is:

Can you get away with a shorter bb and if one did ride a shorter bb do you reckon that would affect any warranty claim?

I have been thinking of getting one o these frames for a while now to replace my Zebdi, but as far as I can tell the only difference in the geo is the +20bb and the lower standover height.

Is it worth me bothering do you think?

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I would have thought that any bike would have good clearance for the cahinring with a bb axle that long :giggle:

I can think of a couple of frames where that's definitely not the case, even with a 128mm BB. If you want to use a 22-ish tooth sized sprocket then a 128mm is the only size BB to go for. If you're using a FFW (or just a smaller fixed sprocket) you could go a little shorter, but not by much.

Are you using 24" wheels in your Zebdi at the moment?

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Thanks Mark,

Yeah I'm using 24" wheels in my Zebdi at the mo, the plan was to sort some 24 wheels out see if I liked it then get an inspired frame later.

But seeing as I have been riding the BMX more and more, I am hesitant in bothering to get a fourplay.

My question I suppose cut down without the waffle is:

Is it really LOADS better than my Zebdi with 24 wheels on it, I like that planet x frame and always seem to go back to it, so I may be gutted if it wasn't worth the wonga if you get me.

Oh and I'm using 22t chainring on some kind of race face cranks (I think)

Edited by Matt Vandart
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The geometry's reasonably different in fairness - the BB's quite a bit different height-wise, the rear end on the new Fourplay is shorter and the reach would be slightly different too. I'm fairly anal when it comes to 'feel' of bikes so I tend to feel differences like that more, but even if you're not that in tune with that kinda thing I think you'd still notice a difference. I'd say it was a positive one too - the extra BB height should make it feel a bit more lively compared to the lower BB on your Zebdi, and the tighter rear end makes everything a bit nicer too (when I switched from the older Fourplay (385) to the newer Fourplay (380) it made a noticeable difference). That's also what she said, by the way.

Even if the geo was the same I reckon there'd still be a difference in feel from changing from an older, flexier frame to a newer, stiffer frame with different overall proportions. Probably not worth changing if it was that alone obviously, but the Fourplay's got what I'd consider to be 'better' geometry so I think it'd be a positive change. It's also worth bearing in mind that there's virtually none of those frames for sale second hand so I think you'd be able to sell it on for not much less than you paid for it in the unlikely case you don't like it. I know I've heard quite a few people recently saying they've been looking out for a second hand 2011 frame but haven't been able to get hold of one, so I don't think you'd have too much trouble getting rid of it.

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Cool, thanks Mark.

No second hand ones sounds very promising indeed, must be pretty good then.

Pitty I havn't got one already, then I could sell it to myself when I get bored with it.

I shall mull it over for a while, you don't know of any stoopid changes lined up for nest year like lack of disc mounts do you?

And when you gonna have more in?

Edited by Matt Vandart
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Since that's not gonna be a Fourplay you'll probably be very wrong on that one ;)

Bender; I'm hoping that like how the original Fourplay essentially became the Element with a few tweaks, that the patter will continue this year (Think Shimano's range where things filter down from XTR to XT, LX etc each year)

I'd love a Fourplay at the mo, but like you I'm not a fan of the disc mount/brace as I'm a filthy little tart and in an ideal world I'd like to run a vee rather than a Magura. My only other option is to scrap the brakes altogether, but 'til I've got the hang of one I'd rather not push my luck too much :P

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Having only recently just seen the newer Fourplay in the flesh on the recent 24 secret thing i can say that it looks a lot nicer than my original model. The photos on Tarty of the brace etc might not look so great - but when they're built up the back end looks a lot nicer. Mix the new Fourplay with Saint Cranks a la Ben Rowlands and i think the bike looks fantastic.

I'm personally looking forward to the Skye as a bolt in rear end would be awesome, mix that with bolt in forks makes for a bike i'd very much be interested in - just hoping:

A. It'll come out sometime

B. It's made available in colours other than orange.

If my original Fourplay would only just break so i could begin to even contemplate justifying one...but it isn't going anywhere god damn it!

Will also be interesting to see if there will be many changes to the 2012 Fourplay.

Also i was thinking...if Danny Macaskill is the poster boy of the Inspired Skye, and Ali C is the face of the Hex, John Shrewsbury the man mountain behind the Element, does that make the slack jawed Sean Watson the face of the Fourplay?

Edited by Matthew62
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Cool, thanks Mark.

No second hand ones sounds very promising indeed, must be pretty good then.

Pitty I havn't got one already, then I could sell it to myself when I get bored with it.

I shall mull it over for a while, you don't know of any stoopid changes lined up for nest year like lack of disc mounts do you?

And when you gonna have more in?

I don't think the frames are changing in the immediate future. The next batch of bikes are going to be pretty much unchanged frame wise as far as I'm aware. We've had a couple of what would effectively be the '2012' Fourplay Pro bikes in and they use the same frame, they've just had some component upgrades:

large_pro20122.jpg

From what I've heard, we were expecting to have more of the frames and bikes by now but I think there's been a couple of delays so we're still waiting for them. They shouldn't be more than a few weeks or so, but I don't have a definite date or anything.

That would be cool, but what would the New Fourplay like?

I'll start.

It will be orange and have a maxle dropout.

Post your answers here:

That's the Skye - the new Fourplay's pretty much unchanged as far as we're aware.

Since that's not gonna be a Fourplay you'll probably be very wrong on that one ;)

Bender; I'm hoping that like how the original Fourplay essentially became the Element with a few tweaks, that the patter will continue this year (Think Shimano's range where things filter down from XTR to XT, LX etc each year)

I'd love a Fourplay at the mo, but like you I'm not a fan of the disc mount/brace as I'm a filthy little tart and in an ideal world I'd like to run a vee rather than a Magura. My only other option is to scrap the brakes altogether, but 'til I've got the hang of one I'd rather not push my luck too much :P

I've had a disc mount and brace ground off one of my frames before by Mr. Alastair Clarkson and he did a pretty awesome job of it. If you particularly wanted to make it happen I think you could get a pretty clean look, but obviously you'd need to respray it to make it not look haggard...

Having only recently just seen the newer Fourplay in the flesh on the recent 24 secret thing i can say that it looks a lot nicer than my original model. The photos on Tarty of the brace etc might not look so great - but when they're built up the back end looks a lot nicer. Mix the new Fourplay with Saint Cranks a la Ben Rowlands and i think the bike looks fantastic.

I'm personally looking forward to the Skye as a bolt in rear end would be awesome, mix that with bolt in forks makes for a bike i'd very much be interested in - just hoping:

A. It'll come out sometime

B. It's made available in colours other than orange.

If my original Fourplay would only just break so i could begin to even contemplate justifying one...but it isn't going anywhere god damn it!

Will also be interesting to see if there will be many changes to the 2012 Fourplay.

Also i was thinking...if Danny Macaskill is the poster boy of the Inspired Skye, and Ali C is the face of the Hex, John Shrewsbury the man mountain behind the Element, does that make the slack jawed Sean Watson the face of the Fourplay?

I prefer the 'lines' of the newer Fourplay compared to the older one. The more 'sculpted' headtube looks way nicer in my opinion, I'm a big fan of the looks of the new dropouts and the BB yoke's pretty nice too. Like you said as well when you've got the rest of a bike built up onto the frame details like the brake mounts don't really stick out as much. Studio shots aren't really often that complimentary to things - it's a fairly safe bet that most stuff will look nicer in the flesh :P

I think the riders/bikes list you've put up there is fairly accurate, although I think the Fourplay's promo work has sort of been done pretty extensively in the past by Danny and most of their other team riders (if you search for most videos on Youtube or Vimeo of people on Inspireds they're almost always riding the Fourplay, so there's a lot of promo done from that alone). I think Sean just adds a new twist to it and shows that you can do other stuff on them compared to the April '09 video :P

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So still no news of whether the Skye will be coming along with the 2012 batch of frames.....

I know there was print ad's for it sometime ago, and a dodgy page on the Inspired website which comes up on a google search but not from linking within the site.

The product photo issue is completely true - even that picture you've just posted up looks infinetly better than the official ones. Althought obviously you can't have a product shot like that, the additional elements such as the backdrop give a greater sense of size and proportion.

Everytime i look at my dropouts now i hate them a little more....tempted to use those pannier mounts.

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I've had a disc mount and brace ground off one of my frames before by Mr. Alastair Clarkson and he did a pretty awesome job of it. If you particularly wanted to make it happen I think you could get a pretty clean look, but obviously you'd need to respray it to make it not look haggard...

But I've never played with grinders before and going near sprays terrifies me hence I've never sprayed a frame before and don't think I could get some sweet results. :rolleyes:

Nah - I'd be more than happy to whip (Wip?) off a disc mount if there's enough material on the lower 4bolt mount in which to stick a vee boss :)

Been on the lookout for the past week or so - I'll have one at some point so here's hoping I get a batch of student loan sometime :P

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What is the Skye?

Is it that orange one I saw posted up on facef**k, I thought that was the new fourplay for next year.

It all becomes more clear now.

So is that one having maxle dropouts, where would that leave one in terms of hubs?

I like my hope hub :mellow:

Is there anymore pics of it on the web? like the other side of the rear end?

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