Juan Foote

I have a Roubaix Elite that I absolutely love the way it rides. Issue is several things....

Since buying the bike I have not had the time to ride as much as I would like and have gained enough weight to be near the recommended limit for the frame, seatpost, and wheels. At the time that I purchased the bike I was new(er) to riding with my prosthesis and had been riding frames sized too small for me. Additionally, it has no rack mounts...so, I would like to find a "modern" steel, tapered headset, NON disk brake frame in good quality steel/cromo to replace the Roubaix frame. I will be looking to bring over much of the components from the Roubaix, as I am super happy with the Ultegra group I have and resell went to (poo) when 11S came out.

I have a good idea of the geometry I am working with to emulate the ride from the Roubaix, but am having problems finding a builder that makes anything suitable for under $1200 or so (frame only). Want: tapered headset, short pull rim brakes to fit 25 tires, rack mount.

Soma Smoothie and ES and good candidates and aside from Snyder (here in Atlanta) are and have been my favorite options. The Soma will be around $500 with required fork, and will need "long" brakes. Snyder starts at a grand for "custom" builds, and I will require some different part options.

Niner makes a frameset that offers everything I want, aside from the fact that it has disk brakes.....

Kona doesn't offer a frame with the size I want in a road bike and also would require a different brakes, they price with fork included.

I can't find a price on an All City frameset in the size I require.


Is there anything else in the stock or semi custom steel frame market I have missed that would have a tapered headset?

bikemig 

gunnar will be right around the top of your budget.

Jarrett2

What is driving the headset requirement?

A few things come to mind:

Black Mountain Cycles Road Frameset
Ritchey Road Logic Frameset
Fairdale Goodship Frameset

All will ride smoother than your Roubaix.

Juan Foote

I love the feel and control from tapered headset, really like the fork on the Roubaix....it is my intention to take as much of the parts from the Roubaix to use on the new frame as possible....and, well I like the way the "modern look" looks.
There were two ways I looked at going about this. One of them involved selling the Roubaix and buying a whole new, purpose built bike. Since I basically can't seem to GIVE away the Roubaix at a major loss, the idea now is to try and find another bike that will be as close to "drop in replacement" to the current parts I have as possible, with some changes to a few components for strength as related to my weight.

With that in mind, it pretty much eliminates lugged, classic builders.

Jarrett2

I think Lynskey does a tapered frame, but not for a grand I don't think.

Might be more cost effective to let the Roubaix fork go and find a steel frame set.

I can tell you from experience that the Enve Road 2.0 fork that comes with the Fairdale Goodship frame is nicer than my old Roubiax fork.

I'm sure the same can be said of the Ritchey fork that comes with their frameset. You can get that whole frameset (fork, frame, headset included) for $900 or less. It's the best deal going in modern steel frame/carbon fork setups.

Juan Foote

Logic would seem to dictate this as true, but the resell market doesn't seem to. Since this level of SL4 never comes up (only the works versions) I have no benchmark to price by. I would have figured selling whole for half new retail with a set of good wheels would have been easy, but not so much.

As this progresses and my desire to sell becomes greater when I narrow down my frame choice I will expand my sales markets and effort.

Slash5

It will be harder to sell the old frame without fork and you'll have to price much cheaper. Missing fork equals crashed bike.

Juan Foote

mmm, didn't think of that. Thanks

Steve B.

Not sure that I'd notice the difference in ride quality between a tapered headset vs. standard. Not even sure I know what tapered is.

That said, you can also go with the SOMA Smoothie, not the ES. It'll take a 28-29mm tire and uses regular short reach dual pivot brakes. Has eyelets for a rack.

Mine is now 7 years old, just did 20 this morning on it and was reminded yet again what a great riding bike this is.