Cheap Road Frame

"David Waters" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hey folks, can anybody recommend a cheap (under £300
preferably under £200) frame that could be built up into a
half decent road bike. People elsewhere have told me that
Tifosi offer good vfm and that on this budget I can
completely forget about trek, specialised, colnago etc.

any thoughts?

Have you thought about "Kinesis",

wiggle.co.ukdefault.aspOpen ↗

Graham

David Waters said:

Hey folks, can anybody recommend a cheap (under £300
preferably under £200) frame that could be built up into a
half decent road bike. People elsewhere have told me that
Tifosi offer good vfm and that on this budget I can
completely forget about trek, specialised, colnago etc.

any thoughts?

Dont forget this price is without forks. Its still a good
deal though. Also for the same sort of price, £350 inc fork
you could get the Geoffrey Butler Compact Alloy Frame
w/Carbon Fork

gbcycles.co.ukeshop.aspOpen ↗

Not the most prestigeous of names but bloody good value and
a lovely matt blue 🙂 Otherwise I would have a long hard
look at secondhand. All the best.

Stan Cox

David Waters <[email hidden]> wrote:
: Hey folks, can anybody recommend a cheap (under £300
: preferably under £200) frame that could be built up into a
: half decent road bike. People elsewhere have told me that
: Tifosi offer good vfm and that on this budget I can
: completely forget about trek, specialised, colnago etc.

I've been looking at the same for my new winter bike and
decided that either Tifosi or Fort looked the best for
the money.

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune clune.orgclune.orgOpen ↗ "Technolibertarians make a
philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook

David Waters <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hey folks, can anybody recommend a cheap (under £300
preferably under £200) frame that could be built up into a
half decent road bike. People elsewhere have told me that
Tifosi offer good vfm and that on this budget I can
completely forget about trek, specialised, colnago etc.

any thoughts?

What size?

LGF

LGF said:

David Waters <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hey folks, can anybody recommend a cheap (under £300
preferably under £200) frame that could be built up into a
half decent road bike. People elsewhere have told me that
Tifosi offer good vfm and that on this budget I can
completely forget about trek, specialised, colnago etc.

any thoughts?

What size?

LGF

hmm, I am about 6'3 with a 34" inside leg. I think I would
probably need about a 19" frame. Maybe slightly bigger.

"David Waters" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

LGF said:

David Waters <[email hidden]> wrote in
message

news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Hey folks, can anybody recommend a cheap (under £300
preferably under £200) frame that could be built up into
a half decent road bike. People elsewhere have told me
that Tifosi offer good vfm and that on this budget I can
completely forget about trek, specialised, colnago etc.

any thoughts?

What size?

LGF

hmm, I am about 6'3 with a 34" inside leg. I think I would
probably need about a 19" frame. Maybe slightly bigger.

Er - this is a road bike we're talking about, right?

I'm 6'2" and ride 23" or 23.5" in a conventional frame. I
think my kinesis is a 60cm one, but the seat tube sticks
about 1.5" above the top tube. My tandems are both 20" with
long seat tubes - they're both MTB frames. The MTB one is a
little high in the cross bar a.t.m - that's because it's got
bouncy forks on a frame which wasn't intended to have them.

cheers, clive

David Waters said:

hmm, I am about 6'3 with a 34" inside leg. I think I would
probably need about a 19" frame. Maybe slightly bigger.

Unless you're going for a compact, this size will be
much, much too small for you. I'm 6' tall (89cm inside
leg) and I'm looking at 58cm frames (23"😉 -- that's about
3 sizes larger!

Simonb <[email hidden]> wrote:
: David Waters wrote:

:> hmm, I am about 6'3 with a 34" inside leg. I think I
:> would probably need about a 19" frame. Maybe slightly
:> bigger.

: Unless you're going for a compact, this size will be
: much, much too small for you. I'm 6' tall (89cm inside
: leg) and I'm looking at 58cm frames (23"😉 -- that's about
: 3 sizes larger!

This is a MTB v road confusion. A 19" MTB frame would be
about right for that inside leg. There's no point in trying
to convert 19" -> cm to get a road size. It doesn't work
like that. I have no idea why not before anyone asks.

I'd suggest that you'd want a 60cm road frame.

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune clune.orgclune.orgOpen ↗ "Technolibertarians make a
philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook

Arthur Clune said:

Simonb <[email hidden]> wrote:
: David Waters wrote:

:> hmm, I am about 6'3 with a 34" inside leg. I think I
:> would probably need about a 19" frame. Maybe slightly
:> bigger.

: Unless you're going for a compact, this size will be
: much, much too small for you. I'm 6' tall (89cm inside
: leg) and I'm looking at 58cm frames (23"😉 -- that's
: about 3 sizes larger!

This is a MTB v road confusion. A 19" MTB frame would be
about right for that inside leg. There's no point in
trying to convert 19" -> cm to get a road size. It doesn't
work like that. I have no idea why not before anyone asks.

I'd suggest that you'd want a 60cm road frame.

Arthur

Ah, thats where I went wrong! My mtb is a 19" frame. My
Galaxy (which I think is one size too big for me is a 62cm
(maybe even a 64) and is a little too big for me, so 60cm
would sound about right!

What is a compact and what are the advantages/disadvantages?

I'm about the same size as David Waters and my touring bike
is a 25.5". However, it dates from the early Bronze Age,
when seat posts were rarely more than nine inches long...

--

Dave Larrington - legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uklegslarry.beerdrinkers.co.ukOpen ↗
===========================================================
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
bhpc.org.ukbhpc.org.ukOpen ↗
===========================================================

David Waters <[email hidden]> wrote:

: What is a compact and what are the
: advantages/disadvantages?

Compact = smaller frame combined with longer seatpost. Try
one and see. May or may not suit, though most aren't that
extreme these days.

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune clune.orgclune.orgOpen ↗ "Technolibertarians make a
philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook

David Waters said:

What is a compact and what are the
advantages/disadvantages?

Compact geometry involves a sloping top tube (though not as
sloping as an MTB). Advantages are negligible lightness and
stiffness. They are currently in fashion, but look a bit
silly IMHO (especially larger sizes -- all that seatpost!).

Simonb said:

Compact geometry involves a sloping top tube (though not
as sloping as an MTB). Advantages are negligible lightness
and stiffness. They are currently in fashion, but look a
bit silly IMHO (especially larger sizes -- all that
seatpost!).

A lot of the reason for being in fashion is (so I gather, at
least) that a compact frame will fit a bigger range of
potential riders if it's been designed properly (i.e.,
Giant's original OCRs from Mike Burrows), so a manufacturer
can get away with building fewer sizes of frame so the net
costs of manufacturing will come down. If the builders are
making enough of them and are nice they'll plough back a
percentage of the savings into giving you better tubing
and/or welds for the same money while still retaining their
usual margins. Note that that isn't quite the same as saying
you /will/ get better tubing and welds, just that the
potential is there in a mass produced compact.

Looks silly having a lot of seatpost? Speaking as a Brompton
rider, you don't know the meaning of showing a lot of
seatpost! ;-)

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer Tel 44 1382 660111
ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital Fax 44 1382
640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net
[email hidden] dundee.ac.uk~pjclinchOpen ↗

Simonb <[email hidden]> wrote:

: Compact geometry involves a sloping top tube (though not
: as sloping as an MTB). Advantages are negligible lightness
: and stiffness. They are currently in fashion, but look a
: bit silly IMHO (especially larger sizes -- all that
: seatpost!).

That's taste. I think they look nicer than the "barn gate"
large size non-compacts.

As I said though, most "compacts" aren't very. Look at the
Airborne Torch for an example of a very compact bike and
their Zepplinn for a very mildly compact bike.

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune clune.orgclune.orgOpen ↗ "Technolibertarians make a
philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook

David Waters said:

Hey folks, can anybody recommend a cheap (under £300
preferably under £200) frame that could be built up into a
half decent road bike. People elsewhere have told me that
Tifosi offer good vfm and that on this budget I can
completely forget about trek, specialised, colnago etc.

any thoughts?

I have the Tifosi Audax frame (CK7) which I think sells for
about 200 pounds, forks extra.

It is an alloy frame with a slightly sloping top tube and
has braze-ons for mudguards and rear rack. There is ample
space for mudguard fitting, so long drop brake calipers are
required. The carbon forks with which my bike is fitted sell
for about 80 pounds I believe. I like the bike, which is
lighter and more manoeuverable than the Dawes Audax that I
used to have.

I haven't used the Fort Audax steel frame which sells for
about 130 pounds I think, but I can tell you that it _looks_
absolutely identical to the yellow and black (whichever year
that was) Dawes Audax frame. The similarity was so great
that my LBS man reckons he knows who makes Dawes frames.

Hope that helps.

Terry Duckmanton

in message <[email hidden]>, David Waters

(') said:

LGF said:

David Waters <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hey folks, can anybody recommend a cheap (under £300
preferably under £200) frame that could be built up into
a half decent road bike. People elsewhere have told me
that Tifosi offer good vfm and that on this budget I can
completely forget about trek, specialised, colnago etc.

any thoughts?

What size?

LGF

hmm, I am about 6'3 with a 34" inside leg. I think I would
probably need about a 19" frame. Maybe slightly bigger.

Err... I'm that size, and I ride a 25 1/2" frame.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke)
jasmine.org.uk~simonOpen ↗ "This young man has not
the faintest idea how socialists think and does not begin to
understand the mentality of the party he has been elected to
lead. He is quite simply a liberal" -- Ken Coates MEP (Lab)
of Tony Blair

in message <[email hidden]>, David Waters

(') said:

What is a compact and what are the
advantages/disadvantages?

Long ago, bicycles were made of steel and tubes were
generally of small diameter. Because the seat post was of
steel and of small diameter if you exposed a lot of it it
would flex. So frames were designed with horizontal top
tubes, in order to reduce the length of the exposed seat
tubes. The range of practical adjustment was quite small, so
many sizes had to be made and stocked, meaning that
manufacturers had quite a lot of capital tied up in stock.

Nowadays bicycles are often made of aluminium, with larger
diameter tubes. So the seat post can be of larger diameter
and hence stiffer. So you can expose more of it without
excessive flex. So you can make bikes with sloping top tubes
which give a lot more adjustment. So you don't have to make
so many sizes. These bikes with sloping top tubes and yards
of exposed seat post are called 'compacts'.

Two benefits: the manufacturers save money, so the bike may
cost less. And in an unplanned dismount you're less likely
to come down hard on the bar with your wedding tackle.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke)
jasmine.org.uk~simonOpen ↗

I shall continue to be an impossible person so long
as those who are now possible remain possible --
Michael Bakunin