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",

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/default.asp?cat=road

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

http://www.gbcycles.co.uk/eshop.asp?wci=dbpage&wce=GBFRAMES

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 http://www.clune.org
"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 http://www.clune.org
"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 - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
===========================================================
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
http://www.bhpc.org.uk/
===========================================================

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 http://www.clune.org
"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] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

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 http://www.clune.org
"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) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
"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) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

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