Rosa7

As part of my search for a hobbit touring bike, I found a junior bike online yesterday. It's a 36cm Echelon girl's bike with 24" stepthrough, with 26" wheels. I thought this might be a viable option for me if it is a good frame, so I looked up "Echelon," apparently some folks on here get a bit excited about Echelon's because they were made by a Japanes family of craftsmen that own Cheribum bikes. However, this bike doesn't look like good quality to me, not that I know much. It looks like it is lugged in the back but not the front, and it looks like the cables are connected to the top tube with tie wraps rather than braze-ons. I'm guessing it is as low-end as Cheribum ever made, either because it's a little girl's bike or because it was made for a company in California that imported cheap Cheribum bikes. I spoke to the owner, and she said that there is a decale on the bike that indicates that it is made of chromoly. She was Asian and said that this bike is from Japan. I can't see it very well, but the head badge looks like it might have the same "C" as the headbadge for the Cheribum bikes, though the emblem on the front forks looks different. Any feedback?

pcb 

Regardless of origin, it does look like a rock-bottom, very low-end frameset. No lugs on the frame, crimped/spot-welded rear stays/dropout, cheapest possible frame construction. Even if it fits you well and is in good, rideable shape (can't tell from photo), it will never be anywhere near a nice touring frame, even after you replace all the junky parts.

Hard to imagine it was built by Cherubim, I've never seen anything this low-end come out of there, and I can't believe they could have built a frame this cheap that would have been price-competitive. You need very high volume and either very low-paid workers or robots to build something like this profitably. Cherubim is a relatively small, low-volume shop. The Echelon-branded Cherubim-built frames I've seen have all been high-quality lugged road frames. Maybe DIN, the Cali importer, used the Echelon name on cheaper bikes they sourced elsewhere, or someone else used the same name on cheap bikes. IIRC Konno told me that Cherubim owns the Echelon name, but in real life that doesn't preclude the name popping up somewhere else.

Finding a really good, affordable vintage hobbit-sized frame ain't easy, I wish you luck! I'd advise you to stay far away from this clunker.

Rosa7

Thank you for the feedback. I have the same impression of the bike and the same guess about use of the name, though I've never heard of DIN. I will stay clear of this poor little step-child.

Chicago Al 

I saw an Echelon labeled mixte on the street here in Chicago a couple of years ago. A quick look showed very basic components, and I assumed it had nothing to do with the Cherubim-made bikes. I didn't even look very closely at it.

Rosa7

Thank you, Chicago Al. I'm glad to have my concerns confirmed.