Originally Posted by
sfcrossrider
It's a high-end, super light, custom steel race frame. Unfortunately, that combination isn't cheap regardless what people think.
BTW... the "base price" you see on most builders sites is just that... the basic. Add custom geometry, light tubes, and other options (not to mention an Alpha Q fork), and you're at 3K, or more.
the steelman that you compare the speedvagen to is $2800. It's still expensive but it's $700 less. And there are plenty of builders that can do the same thing for even less than that. I've ridden on high end steel bikes and I bet that in a blind test none of you would perform better than chance in distinguishing builders.