rms13

Which one is the "brand"? Cause the Kilo is a made up brand so I'm sure you're not talking about that

Nagrom_

I'm talking components. Tektro vs "dual pivot alloy", Sugino vs " forged 6061", Alex vs "Deep profile", etc, etc.

The frames are probably comparable.

Nagrom_

In all honesty though, the Contender and the Undefeated look like sweet bikes.

TejanoTrackie 

Doubt it, and you of all people should know this. Where is the Kilo TT frame made ? Answer: Taiwan = good to excellent welds. Where is the $429 State frame made ? China ? Every bike I have that is made in China has crappy welds. Every one I have that was made in Taiwan has good to excellent welds. Is the the State even made with double butted tubing or is it heavy like most Hi-Ten tubing, which is rarely double butted.

Nagrom_

They use 4130.

I doubt their demographic is checking welds, but I get what you're saying.

Wut

Wait a sec....people recommend the wabi and their complete bikes come with generic parts....I do not think tektro is special either...now dura ace on the other hand....mmmmmmmmm yummy.

rms13

They do. They are more money wit brand components. Any bike at the $400 price point is a frame, fork, headset and bb to me as I would plan on upgrading the rest down the road. It's just cheaper and easier for me to buy complete then buy all the components separately up front and build it

TejanoTrackie 

And they are $649 and $945 respectively. Hardly relevant to this discussion.

Nagrom_

The point wasn't that Tektro is top of the line, the point was that they have a brand. If my choices were Tektro, or forged alloy dual pivot, I'd go Tektro.

The wabi comes with a bomb ass frame, which is what you are paying for.

TejanoTrackie 

Huh. Name some major component on the Wabi that is not name brand.

Wut

I doubt you could even tell if a frame was double butted or straight gauge just from riding it. Doubt you could tell reynolds from tainge prestige just from riding....and I doubt you could tell if a weld is good just from appearances.....

Scrodzilla

That proves nothing. A lot of those same dealers sell Pure Fixed, Retrospec and Origin8 garbage too.

TejanoTrackie 

4130 is just a material. It doesn't tell you whether or not the tubing is double butted, which has a major impact on overall weight. That's why SE Drafts are so heavy, not because the material is Hi-Ten, but because it's straight gauge. My point is that frame quality is no better than on a $300 BD bike like my Motobecane Messenger, which has nasty bad welds. The frame is the one component you can't upgrade. Oh, and the wheel bearings are loose, whereas they are sealed cartridge on the Kilo TT Pro and WT.

TejanoTrackie 

You could sure tell by weighing it. I can definitely judge the quality of a fillet weld visually, because I'm an AWS D1.1 Level 1 certified weld inspector.

Training.Wheels

my gf has a Motobecane Track, my best friend has a kilo TT, and my brother has a state. I built all three. The difference in quality is really apparent between the Kilo TT and the other two, but none of them are truly terrible, although I did have significantly more issues trying to build up the State. The Kilo is pretty much comparable to my $700 Jamis Sputnik back when it was stock.

Huffandstuff

Ive rode a vilano, big shot or pure fix(cant remember which), state and a kilo. Ill take a kilo every time, never really inspected them super close cause it was a friends/acquaintance bike but on the test ride, all three of them jjst felt real ****ty.

iTripped

I'm all for it. Having an actual representative in here should be good. Enjoy all the questions, your company's products get asked about a lot.

TejanoTrackie 

I have a Motobecane Messenger that is similar to the Motobecane Track that cost me $300 and a Kilo WT that is similar to the Kilo TT Pro that cost me $440. The Motobecane Messenger ended up costing me more than the Kilo WT because I had to upgrade more components, principally wheels and cranks. In the end I ended up with a better bike with a much better frameset in the Kilo WT for less money spent.

Wut

I want to test ride a kilo. Gotta see if the bf hype is valid. Anybody know a good lbs to test them out?

TejanoTrackie 

Don't think you can get them thru an lbs, but the KHS Flite 100 is the same thing. Maybe you can find one on CL.

Training.Wheels

Haha, right? I bought the Track for my gf, and I ended up putting $700 worth of parts before she was happy with it. My best friend is still happy with his stock Kilo.

Wut

Wait a sec not sure what specs your looking at but the kilo tt for 399 uses a lot of no name junk....

Alloy crankset...
Alloy dual pivot brakes...
Spokes....stainless
Wheelset...deep sectioned...

Whoa...not exactly killer components from my view.

TejanoTrackie 

Yeah, I just reached $1K on the Messenger. Just ordered a new chain for it, so the only original component remaining is the front brake caliper. Next step is to get a good frame, transfer all the parts and put the Messenger back together with its original parts that are currently on an even crappier Vilano, and put them both on CL.

YK_

You can still get the 2010 Pro for $399. Though they've got slim pickings for sizes.

https://bikesdirect.com/products/mercier/kilott_pro.htm

rms13

Hence the biggest problem with Kilo: availability