Planet X Holdsworth Framesets
 

Bike Frames | Planet X

What's the scoop on these? Any good? I don't know anything about the brand or history.

There was a thread on them a while back. The upper end models are handmade in Italy.

Italy and England. Just depends on the model - Cyclone Heritage and Professional Italia are the prominent frames I've noticed being made in Italy, which both have counterparts crafted in England.

As far as I can tell the recent discussions about them mostly revolve around aesthetics, where they are made and what functions the various frames are suitable for. They were brought to attention most recently to discuss the touring capabilities of the Cyclone frames. I can't recall anyone actually posting about them that actually owns one yet... They look like other nice, high-volume handmade frames being divvied out to various companies and set up with historical paint schemes and decals lately.

I "chatted" with one of their customer reps about the origin of manufacture of specifically the Cyclone frames, and it seems that there was a sort of randomness to where they got them. I got the impression that it depended on which shops had extra capacity to build these frames to their specs. For instance, the red and white Cyclones were made in some of the English shops, while the red and purple were made in Italy by the Benotto factory.


I would love to hear from anyone who has bought one. The red and purple Cyclone frame is on my short list for my next frame. Two things prevent me from pulling the trigger- only one set of water bottle bosses, and room for only 28s with fenders. But dang, it sure does look beautiful!!

I briefly looked at these. They are nice, but there are some other options that are just as good or maybe even better. I almost pulled the trigger on the Holdsworth, but then started looking at the Bob Jackson Audax end to end. You can get the 631 version shipped to your door for about $750.Significantly less than the Holdsworth and you get you choice of colors etc. Bump up the tubing to Reynolds 725 and its around $900. Still a great deal for a handmade high end steel frame. In the end, I got a good deal on a complete Rivendell Romulus and decided to go with that.

A Brian Rourke may be another option.

If I had a cool grand...and the wife wasn't looking

http://d2plslj6xljffa.cloudfront.net...YCL_P5.jpg?v=s

It all depends on one's sense of aesthetics, but I have always found Holdsworth a bit over the top with those super-ornate lugs. (I know, some folks would consider Capo head lugs a bit too fancy, as well.)

Not all Holdsworth's had those "super ornate lugs".

I love the lugwork on this frame but a thing that concerns me about buying a frame from Planet X is that you don't know what you will get. Little detail differences like the fork, and the water bottle bosses. The specs say that these frames have two sets of water bottle bosses, but all the pics and the video show only one set. The other thing I just noticed from the above pic is that the fork crown is semi-sloping but the rest of the pics have a flat crown fork. It's hard to tell, but in the pic I posted below, the fork has a flat crown.


I would buy the purple and red one if they could physically verify the 2nd set of water bottle bosses. But even after I asked for this in a "chat session", and they said they would have it checked out, I still haven't received a confirmation email from them. I guess they don't really care to sell a frameset.

Not sure what model this is but not really my cup of Tea.


http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psg8ytyrwd.jpg

Nope, it's definitely the Competition frameset with the oversized Columbus Spirit tubing, carbon fork, and tapered headtube.

Doh!! The pics didn't show up on my work computer, so that's why I was confused, I'm with ya- I don't like that Competition frameset either. I'll be deleting my goofed up post above.:D