Thinking about swaping out the Trek 5200 for a custom steel frame. Been all through the web, and have found a few that seem to do a good job building a bike that fits your dimensions fairly precisely. Looking at spending $1500 or less. Probably put a carbon fork on it, too. Any recommendations on custom manufacturers? if so, why do you lik the guy you bought from?

Happy Thanksgiving

Steve

what size is the 5200? what year? pm me , cause i may be intrested. Look at strong, independent fabrications, serotta, and i'm sure there are tons more, but i have yet to hear anything but praise about these manufacturers. good luck!

henryjames.com has a good directory of custom builders.

For his named price, he MIGHT squeeze into a Colorado III but then he has to buy the groupset (I am assuming his $1,500 or less was the frame only).

Right now you can get Mondonico Futura Leggero made out of Foco for the same price they normally sell the el-os.. www.torelli.com

At that price, Waterford is easily one of the best choices.

Vanilla - www.vanillabicycles.com

Tasty creations.

55/Rad

For a custom steel frames around that price range, Albert Eisentraut and Russ Denny come to my mind. I love my aluminum Denny, but he first started building steel frames under thge ledgendary Dave Moulton (look up "Dave Moulton" under a username on this site). My Easton Superlight frame is under 2.5 lbs and cost me $895 with a Reynolds Ouzo Pro fork. I love it. It's comfortable and handles like a dream. Eisentraut is also a legend. His lugged steel frames are beautiful. Check out the Henry James website as MichaelW suggests and also sandsmachine.com for lists of American framebuilders

I'm on a 62 cm 5200. Not quite ready to sell yet. plan on taking the group off and bringing it to the new bike.

Thanks for the ideas and suggestions. I've also looked over the Rodriguez frame site, and they look pretty good too. I want to find someone who will take time measuring me, and then building the frame to those specs.

steve

strong frames are about $1200 - $1300 i believe, but a lot of people aren't crazy about the powdercoating, but i'm 99% sure they do custom

Where do you live? If it were me, I'd shop locally if possible - meet the builder, have him fit you, etc. In Massachusetts area where I live, there are quite a few local builders within a few hours.

Tom Kellogg, Spectrum. He got my custom frame just right.

Dave Kirk, who is based in Montana is about to finish my bike. He will pay, up to 100 dollars, to have you go to a serotta dealer and be sized on a special adjustable bike. I took advantage of that, it takes 2+ hours and is very thorough. He offers a unique seat stay option that helps keep the rear wheel better than standard stays. Very easy to work with. It takes about 3 months.

I will pitch in my 2 cents also for Tom Kellogg and Dave Kirk. With either of these builders you get the some of the best craftsmanship and fit advice to be had in a steel bike, or titanium for that matter. Of course with titanium we must add Moots into this equation because they are at the pinnacle of the art also. Very exquisite quality. These are a few of the truly elite bicycle makers that are producing the finest riding bikes today and the heirlooms of tommorrow. If it wasn't for the two year waiting list I would also add Richard Sach's name here.

If you decide to sell that 62cm 5200, put me on the waiting list. But, don't make me wait two years.

Try www.zinncycles.com. He specializes in custom bikes (and long cranks) for tall people.
Tom

Ind. Fab is great - I've seen some of their bikes. Steelman in NoCal makes great bikes, too, if you don't mind powdercoating. I recently had my Surly CrossCheck (not a custom frame) retro-fitted with S&S Machine BTC's (www.sandsmachine.com) by Stephen Bilenky at Bilenky Cycle Works. He did an amazing job. He builds awesome custom bikes. He can make any style frame with almost any tubeset - or even combinations of various tubesets, depending on what's best for you. If you travel with your bike, S&S couplers are the only way to fly!

I second Kirk and vanilla, it will take you much longer the get a vanilla. I love my Kirk, I went with the steel fork, without regrets, and the upcharge 2 tone pearl paint for $2200.

The IF (www.ifbikes.com) crown jewel is right at the price point and I have never heard any complaints here about IF. But don't look at the IF site to long or you will end up with the Ti Crown Jewel not bad other then the second morage.

Serotta.

BlastinBob: You gots one nice lookin' bike!!!

Are Richard Sachs frames custom? Or just waiting list? Spectrum frames and Sachs would be my favorite steel frames.

i'm about to pull the trigger on an indy fab steel crown jewel, just agonizing over what paint job to get, and waiting for my boss to tell me how much its gonna set me back.

Don't tell my FG brethren i'm getting gears, though, I'll be ostracized.

Thanks for all of the advice. plenty to look over. I live in a small town in western Colorado, so any custom frame will be a mail (email) order deal.

Have a great week, and stay warm

Steve

Seven's Axiom Steel frame is $1495.


https://www.sevencycles.com/bikes/axiomsteel.html

My cousin got a custom frame from seven and he loves it, says they did a very good job.