a friend of mine is looking for a cx frame to turn into a city commuter. he has found one that has glued al tubing. its made by alan. i have never dealt with glued tubing and know nothing about it. is it strong, durable, etc etc?

thanks

Alan is well known for these "screwed and glued" aluminum frames. As as quality goes... your mileage will vary. The early models were not so reliable. The Alan cyclocross is world famous and pretty desireable... very nice looking bike. Just me personally but I would shy away from used aluminum. I am biased though, all my rides are steel. Torelli and Guerciotti both sold Alan frames under their marquee... so they do not have a rep as being junk, as far as aluminum goes

To be honest the thought of screws and glue holding things together? ARGH!!
LOL count me out!

Brendon

The glued and screwed Alan is the most successful bike of any manufacturer, ever, in terms of competative results. Most of the major CX titles since the late 1960s/early 1970s* have been won on an Alan.
Its a sound method of construction, but probably not as good as welded Al.
Alan are thoroughbred CX bikes, so probably lack threaded eyelets for waterbottles, rack and fenders. Personally I think there are better CX style frames to use for commuters.

* whenever araldite was invented !!