The original gist of my idea was not to get an already inexpensive frame cheaper, but rather to make the type of frame that would normally be upwards of $800 within the financial grasp of those who mostly would not have that type of scratch to drop on a frame.

I was also thinking frame only, so people could kind of tweak the handling by going with a road or track fork. Then again, i'm not sure how beneficial this would be.

In any event my general idea was a material like columbus life, reynolds 853, or 3/2.5 ti, welded, clearance for a front brake, and a bit short of true track geometry. Then pair it up with a carbon fork off of ebay, chucksbikes, nashbar...

how about these...
 

The Soma Delancey is lugged with a polished head tube lugset...

also the Bike Biz makes their own, the Cochon...

both lugged and nice.

I still want to help you organize this effort, sers. I'm of the mind that we can get a consensus, once the choices are narrowed down. It will just require some patience on everyone's parts (no pun intended). If you have bubget concerns, start saving, becuase this project could come to fruition as early as summer '07.

more power to you guys. i hope it works out for you, and even better, coincides with my needs/budget. i'll be watching.

The Cochon was a very nice looking frame, and that's exactly what I had in mind anyway, but it's sold out. From the page at thebikebiz it appears building them was a winter project for last winter. There's no indication they will build any more. Perhaps because it was a lot of work, and the Delancey now fills that niche.

i'd be down with the cochon. if there was enough demand, i bet they'd do another run.

yeah, if you could do the cochon in the $500 range i think there'd be considerable interest.

so, it seems:

- carbon fibre is out unless we were able to score a bootleg of an existing frame direct from the manufacturer.

- if we went the titanium route, it wouldn't be worthwhile unless the tubing quality was decent

- the viability of getting someone to make 25+ worthwhile lugged frames in a reasonable amount of time would be questionable. what's unclear is what grade of steel are we going for? entry level offerings like 631 and zona, mid range like life and ox platinum, or top end such as spirit and s3?

- aluminum fans are looking for pista concept quality at a tsunami price. i think we'd have to be most diligent about quality control going this route.


now, unpainted, welded, frame only, 1 1/8" headtube, english bb with track ends seems the easiest to ship and manage.

how steep are people looking for the geometry to be? possibly make a poll down the road for who wants less and who wants more than 73.5*x73.5*

i think group ordering a bootleg of a nicer frame would be better than getting a volume discount on something like a bareknuckle. commissioning a frame is the most exciting prospect to me.

Bob Jackson! Mercian!

We'll pay quite the price for the name, shipping, paint, stickers, and logistics. The generic aspect of a group frame buy is what will keep it affordable. If people want a Mercian badly, surely they will just order one. We have to think about actually being able to move these things, not just service pledges.

Sers, all of the points above are right on target.

I would be cool with either, especially Mercian!

http://www.merciancycles.co.uk/frame...gorelli_v1.jpg

I hear you. I would love one myself.

Preparing a group of generic, affordable frames for the members would not exclude the prospect of a group of serious, high end buyers commited to one existing brand.

Part of me would want to go the titanium route if we did that, though. Maybe if we can get ten commited Ti buyers, and ten for one brand approach, it would be optimal.

I'm all for it. My initial vote was for Ti, but if steel's the way people want to go I'm certainly not against it. That Cochon looked purty nice, but I can't stand unicrown forks. I guess the consensus thus far is to order it forkless, though, which solves that problem.

I really hope this comes to fruition. I'm getting excited!

the problems we are going to run into with a custom spec are:

getting everyone to agree on specs (that ought to be fun)
quality control (as an unproven product somebody will have to make sure they don't suck)
wait time (how long is everyone going to be willing to have hundreds of $$$ tied up before they have a frame in hand? A custom speced frame is going to take longer no matter how it's done)
cost - a custom spec will be by nature more expensive than a frame already in production, which could be a dealbreaker for many

My vote is for the cartoon of Nathan Fabian for the headtube badge.

http://www.hubjub.co.uk/fixieinc/peacemaker1.jpg

This is a cool bike too... fillet brazed steel. But limited sizes.

Holla.

Not to derail, but the street dog only fits 25mm tires. Sure it has room for fenders?

i wouldn't want an unpainted frame to get shipped by container across the Pacific. I'm sure TW framebuilding shops have in-house paint facilities or at least ez access to cheap paint.

For me, 1 color, no logos or headbadges of any sort.

And if it's gonna be welded, I'd say go with a higher end steel. There's too much generic cromo floating around now. The price difference will be small enough to live with.

Still want lugged, though. Unicrown? Please.

i am down for either ti or steel

Not that I'm "in" anyway, but any Natty Fab reference on the bike would be a deal-breaker for me. Bike Forums references should be to the best of BF, not the worst.

Is there anything good about bikeforums fixed gear/ss?

You! You are good, B.F.!

Maybe not, but since I spend so much time here I like to think that maybe there is. A bunch of bike nuts shooting the **** about bikes, and helping each other out can't be all bad. Except of course when we get bored or mean...

OK, so juvi on the headtube then? or a njs sticker?