Originally Posted by
Toccata47
The appearance of a weld to the naked eye has little, to no, relation to it's integrity.
I totally agree that an insert adds peace of mind, but as long as the frame comes with a warranty that covers this potential issue, this alone would not be a dealbreaker for me. The wabi comes with a lifetime warranty, pretty tough to beat, imo.
Not an expert, just a noob looking for a bike.
Me personally I don't have a problem either. I have an older leader (721) w/ single plated dropouts, ugly welds, etc and it doesn't bother me in the least. It's fun to ride and has held up well in the year or so I've had it so far. No complaints. I was mainly pointing out how one bike can be derided and another praised while they both share the same "flaws"
I think the biggest strike about it is the name. Pake is pretty synonimus w/ budget frames and coming out with a relatively expensive (compared to their rum runner/cmute) makes $500 look steep in compairson. In real world prices it stacks up fine with the competition imo.