A friend is looking at getting a budget fixed, so I recommended both of those. Which, specs wise, is the better bike?

Hard to say since the Masi has mainly house branded components. I have never ridden the Mercier but I think he'd likely be happy with either bike. IIRC the Masi is about 2x the cost of the Mercier new isn't it? I would probably go with the kilo unless you had a good deal lined up on the speciale.

$400+ tax for the Masi, $307+shipping+cost of front brake for the Kilo

That's a pretty good deal, I love my Masi and have no complaints with it.

i think the masi is a little bit better. personally, i dont like bikes with top tubes that slant either way.

kilo tt is more track geometry masi is lax as a mofo

the only thing that matters is looks and the Kilo wins.

where are you getting the masi for that price?

deathhare is right

kilo all the way.

To me, the choice is obvious, the Kilo TT. The geometry is a lot tighter and it looks nice. The Masi looks like a road bike and the wheel base looks super long to me. They've done a pretty crappy job of keeping the magic in the Masi name, if you ask me.

If your homeboy would like to race track, then I say he should get the Mercier. If, however, he wants to ride on the street, I say either is going to make him equally happy.

Heaven forbid someone ride a bike with road geometry on the road. Everybody knows you need track geometry to go to the bar. (That said, I ride my track bike to the bar more often than I actually make it to the track.)

Just a point of order: the road and the street are not the same thing.

Track bikes are great for the street, road bikes are good for the street, (in both cases this is assuming that we are not talking about super-carbon-radial-laced 13 pound monstrosities). Track bikes, not so hot on the road. Hybrids are rad for the street and pretty poopy on the road. Mountain bikes are fine on the street but double suck on the road.

^ That's a damn good point huerro, though arguably road bikes are great for the street as well. When i take out my geary i love that higher top speed for when traffic thins a bit. And furthermore, track bikes are really designed to be great under high g forces on the banks.

quill stem, crown fork ....nough said

The rake on tht fork looks like ass.

the fork looks like the one off the Kona Paddywagon.

but at least there is no annoying toe overlap

maybe your friend should pick up one of these they look fun to ride.

What's the point of the downward sloping tt on that Mercier if you're going to jack the stem like that? Should i know better than to ask such questions on bfssfg?

Why though would a rider who wanted low bars still want a long seat tube and longer seat stays? So you can use a shorter seat post? Or what?

I agree that the masi is a little fugly. In conclusion

do most budget fixed bikes out there have toe overlap?

what about masi vs rush hour?

budget or not, it depends on the geometry.

i understand that...i guess i could restate the question

do all of the entry level bikes being talked about on ss/fg have the geometry that lends itself to toe overlap?

just curious, because im shopping and the overlap bugs the sh** out of me.

Woah, I just woke up from a nap so I may be imagining this but do the Merciers now have forward sloping top tubes?