Bicycle Mechanics - Nashbar question

Here's my question, I have a Raleigh Supercourse Technium that I regretably snapped the seat stays on a few months back. I was thinking of buying one of the Nashbar Frame (pronounced Fram-ay) frames and using the parts from the old bike on the new bike. Any challenges? Will the bottom bracket fit? Anyone used one of these frames? I'd love some opinions. I think I can basically duplicate my old Supercourse which I found far superior to my current Grand Sport. Thanks.

At that price it has to be a chinese frame FWIW and likely a bit on the
stiff side but not clearly so. There is a small chance the head tube and
fork threaded tube may be mismatched, if the fork is a bit long spacers
will do the job, if too short you will need a new fork. It is almost a
certainty that everything else will just be a bolt on R&R. Nashbar is
good to deal with and will stand behind their products so if something
like what happened to the OP at
www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=292596
happens you will have some recourse. Chinese metallurgy can be
spotty, but Nashbar presumably has done a bit of homework here.
In theory you might have to face the BB and headtube, and there is
a small chance you would have to replace instead of just clean the
headset, but most likely you just build the frame up. You might ask
the techrep at Nashbar about whether the frame is faced or not,
for $110, it might not be. This might add $20-40 to the cost for an
LBS to face the frame.
One other thought, not sure the vintage of your Raleigh, but brakes
went through a change in mounting methods 12-15yrs ago and brakes
made for earlier frames sometimes don't fit newer frames. Since you
will likely use the same fork, this won't matter in the front and likely
will be ok in the rear.

I'm pretty sure that Nashbar's site will list the specs of the bike so if you know the size of your current bb, you can tell if it matches. I know since my g/f's mtb frame is from there. Also it is made in China because I am Chinese and I recognized the papers they had in there (the shipping box) with Chinese characters (I'm illiterate in Chinese, but I know Chinese when I see it).

The weight they have on the frames is above average for the price (at least for the hardtail frame), but I was kind of sketchy since they are so cheap and light. As for mtb frames, a lot of people on BF has said they were pretty decent and held up. I cannot tell you from personal experience since I still haven't finished building my g/f's bike.

Also, we had some trouble with the BB. The frame said 68mm bb width and we got a 68mm wide bb, but it didn't quite fit - as in either the frame was a little small or the bb was a little wider than 68mm. I am leaning more towards it being the bb's fault because it is a Shimano squared spindle - with the plastic threaded cup thing - and I believe it was warped thus could not be threaded down flush to the race or whatever it's called. Its very minimal, off my 1mm at the most.

Here's my question, I have a Raleigh Supercourse Technium that I regretably snapped the seat stays on a few months back. I was thinking of buying one of the Nashbar Frame (pronounced Fram-ay) frames and using the parts from the old bike on the new bike. Any challenges? Will the bottom bracket fit? Anyone used one of these frames? I'd love some opinions. I think I can basically duplicate my old Supercourse which I found far superior to my current Grand Sport. Thanks.

For that kind of money you can buy a Leader frame. Nicer welds than Nashbar. The choice is yours though. Good luck

Tim

www.chucksbikes.com -> frames

I built up a winter trainer with that frame, scored it on sale for about 80 bucks. Not a bad ride at all, welds are no worse than on most of the other frames coming out of Taiwan (most made by Giant anyway). One caveat is that it is a 1 inch headtube. Everything else is fairly standard, such as the 68mm BB shell.

Here's my question, I have a Raleigh Supercourse Technium that I regretably snapped the seat stays on a few months back. I was thinking of buying one of the Nashbar Frame (pronounced Fram-ay) frames and using the parts from the old bike on the new bike. Any challenges? Will the bottom bracket fit? Anyone used one of these frames? I'd love some opinions. I think I can basically duplicate my old Supercourse which I found far superior to my current Grand Sport. Thanks.


USA Techniums frames have a lifetime warranty. Are you the original owner? Do you still have the receipt? I snapped my old 86' Scott Tinley Tri-Lite technium right at the chainstay just in front of the derailluer drop out back in 91 and was able to do a warranty claim. They replaced the old frame with a more up to date Technium Pro frame and I did this from a different retailer than I originally purchased the bike from, I was on short term business 300 miles from home. The only cost which I felt was fair and is stated in the warranty was the removal and installation of parts (about $100). I even got a new seat post as the old one was too small. I was quite happy with the warranty procedure although I did request the next smaller size frame as the one I purchased was just a little big (not much room to play for the boys).

Good Luck

The Nashbar frame is Chinese or Taiwanese... just like every other sub-$2000 bike out there (and a good number of sub-$3000 bikes) and those bikes are mostly just fine. The country in which a frame was made isn't much of an indication of quality these days, except that in the USA, Italy, or Japan, labour is so expensive that ONLY boutique bikes tend to be made there, meaning that quality is usually good on these, but it doesn't mean that US, Italian, or Japanese labour is inherently better.