Hello,

I am a very healthy 48 year old in shape guy who has been saving up to purchase my
first steel bike. I currently ride a Jamis Ventura Race in 58cm frame and its an ok bike.
I am NOT a racer but love long casual rides in the country, charity ride and century rides
with freinds.

I am currently looking at the Bilenky Tourlite, Gunnar Sport or possibly a Co-Motion model
in the "sports touring" category. I am 5 11 170lbs and a very proportional individual. I would like to build the bike with custom wheels and the Shimano 105 components.

My goal is a bike that is super smooth and comfortable on long casual rides. I also want the ability to sometimes tide limestone packed trail-rails, so I plan on using
28m tires for this bike.

Any suggestions or thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Michael

I just put together something similar on a Surly Pacer frame for exactly the same kind of use. It wont hold tons of racks for serious long range touring, but its great for going light. I've been very happy with it so far.

Maybe you are already considering this, but I would recommend wheels with Shimano hubs. I use a similar bike for centuries, and have some CXP/Dura-Ace handbuilts on it that are smooth rolling and refreshingly silent as compared to my "race wheels". The bike is a Waterford RS-22, so obviously my vote is for the Gunnar.

I ride the smallest size bikes, so my experience may not be typical. I rode a Surly Pacer with the steel fork for a few years and it was a very nice riding bike. Not light and fast, but very comfortable. I did a bit of gravel roads with it and it was fine. Then I found a Gunnar Sport in my size on ebay and moved everything off the Pacer on to it (including the steel fork), and it's a wonderful ride too. Luxo sport tourer. I did 4 centuries on it last year, some over huge mtn passes.

Both are nice bikes. I think the Pacer is a great frame for the price! It's bombproof and you don't have to worry about it much, easy to replace.
Gunnars are ~$800 retail, dent easily, paint jobs chip, but they go for about half that on ebay.

Independent Fabrication steel Planet Cross.

All good choices.

Some considerations:

1. Do you feel as if you need the support of a good local dealer to help you get measured, spec' and build the bike? If so, both Gunnar and Co-Motion have great dealers around the country. If you have a great dealer for either of those two who is convenient to you, that could make the difference.

2. At those prices, you're not too far away from a custom bike. Even though you said you don't need one, it's great to work with a custom builder, especially if he/she is local and you can work directly w/them. If you want another choice from a new builder, check out Chris Boeker, who makes Boedie bikes (one of the links in my signature below). His blog lists a number of his bikes, and a couple would be very close to what you're looking for; he also has built a couple of bikes with room for even bigger tires.

3. I'd think through a couple of things in advance:
- If you're doing more dirt road and packed trails, you might also consider a bike w/room for 32 c tires
- Do you want to be able to use fenders on the bike?
- Do you want rack mounts for a light rack; would you ever use this bike (say) for commuting?

Here's one of Chris's bikes for "dirt road" riding:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/boedeke...7623532319355/

Here's a more traditional bike:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/boedeke...7624083384514/

If I didn't recently spend a boatload on a custom Hampsten Ti bike and wanted a steel bike for the purposes exactly as described:
Custom-drawn MAX tubing!
https://hampsten.blogspot.com/2010/10...e-on-wake.html
Unfortunately, I don't have the power output to really deserve riding on MAX...

i dont see a budget defined. you can not get a good feel for what's out there without a budget in mind. there are literally a ton of frame builders out there, and there are quite a few good "off the shelf" steel frames too. decide how much you want to spend, then ask us.

the indy fab 55rad mentioned is a great choice.

Thanks for all your responses!

Let me fine tune my question a bit....

For my dream steel frame bike, I want to step up from the entry level, chinese factory steel frames offerings from Bianchi, Jamis, Masi, Trek, etc.
I would really like this bike to last close to a lifetime and would like it to be a more custom build like from Gunnar, Blineky, Co-Motion, or maybe even a Waterford, but they might be out of my budget. I would like the pride of ownership of an American made,custom hand built steel frame.
My budget is right around $3250.00.

Also, I will want a top tube that is slightly sloped, as opposed to completely horizontal, Much some models of the Blineky TourLite models I see
on their website.

Thanks

Also, to clarify my budget of $3250.00 is for complete build.

Contact Karl Strong in Montana. From my experience, he builds the finest custom steel road frames. I've got a Strong Hyalite, built from Columbus FoCo tubing, that rides better than any of my other steel, carbon fiber, Al, Ti or Mg frames.

Not 'merican, but check out Mercian (https://www.merciancycles.com. It's spelled with the same letters as 'merican ;-)

Off season discounts at Waterford may bring you within budget.

Oswald

If budget and dream are two main factors, ever considered go for a C&V bike? Could get expensive though, depending on bike and theres just as many dreambikes as there are tastes...

SingleSpeeDemon: Oswald

reynolds tubing for sure

No question -

https://vanillabicycles.com/frames/road/1/

or

https://speedvagen.com/

Both works of functional art

Thanks for the advice on Oswald. However, I just spoke to Tom and the order time is around 14 months! Thats crazy.

The Vanilla site reads,
Ordering

As of April 20th, 2009 the wait for a custom Vanilla is over five years.




5 year lead time !?!?!?

Meh, its about 3.5 years these days

...not to mention the fact that the OP has already stated a budget of $3250, complete.

Where do you live?? If you can find a good framebuilder within an hour of your place, go there first.

If no framebuilders nearby, research and find a good one. Bilenky you mentioned is good, also look at IF and Kellogg/spectrum. There are lots of others. Serotta should be on the list too.

But you will do best by getting fitted by the builder in person.

Trust me on this.

I know a used bike might not be an idea of a dream bike (it was for me.) But if you are in the DC/VA area this bike meets all your criteria.

As Rad/55 ordered:

https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/n...144748304.html

Thanks datlas for the great advice!

You are right, if im gonna spend $3200.00 on my dream steel bike, I surely want it to fit my like a GLOVE! Since, I am only 45 minutes from Bilenky Cycle Works in Philly, I may drive out to him to get fitted in person! I also LOVE the look of Independent Fabrication Steel Club Racer bike and the Gunnar Sport
also. So, it may be one of these 3 choices at this point. IF and Gunnar dealer are also within my driving distance.

Steelman Cycles https://steelmancycles.com/