marqueemoon

I have still not seen this bike in any of the Interbike pics again this year, so here goes.

quality steel frame with crowned straight blade fork
1 1/8 head tube, 68mm english bb shell, takes 27.2 post, 135mm rear spacing
cable routing on the top of the top tube
no integrated or internal headset
gusseted headtube/downtube junction
not-too-slack geometry
no extreme compact geometry. slightly sloping or level top tube
eccentric bb or sliding dropouts
a beefy seat collar
takes up to a 700x40 tire or 700x32 with fenders without crazy toe overlap
disc tabs and fender eyelets that are friendly with each other
powdercoat finish with no decals (which should not be ugly) under clearcoat. offer in a few good colors
quality disc brakes with traditional bend road drops and road levers
3x wheels 32 or 36h with sealed bearing hubs with track nuts and decent quality box section rims for ISO disc rotors.
thread-on freewheel would probably be best/cheapest but cassette cog system might be more appealing to cross racers or those who need to change gearing often
include a decent bolt on fixed cog
sensible stock gearing for the street
silver components, and a stock crankset that doesn't suck too much.
square taper bb
two bolt clamp seatpost
don't cut the fork steerer too short
+/- 15 degree stock stem
nice, chunky road levers like Cane Creek SCR-5 or the similar Tektros with short reach version on the smaller sizes
a good range of sizes
not too terribly heavy or it will not have appeal as a cross bike
MSRP around $1000

So there you have it. If offering a complete bike seems like too much of a risk a frameset might be the way to go. If it had braze-ons for a rear der or internal gear hub cable you might sell a few more. The modular/sliding dropout thing might be cool for that. You could then offer the dropouts in a few different versions. Keep the street price under $600 and you should sell a ton of them.

baxtefer

I was with you until you said that.

PS you pretty much described the Kona Sutra.
oh and crowned fork + disc brakes is not generally a good idea.

marqueemoon

What number did you have in mind?

baxtefer

hmmm, maybe $1000 is doable, i'd say $1200 is more reasonable for what you're asking. For some reason i has thinking there were gears involved and my initial reaction was "in your dreams!".

Basically you're asking for a Bianchi Roger (which has a MSRP of $1100) with a steel frame and EBB/sliding drops (each of which will significantly increase the cost)

marqueemoon

I was initially thinking $1200 MSRP, so yeah. I think with a little creativity it could be done for $1000 street. Anyone interested in dropping $1K on a singlespeed/fixed bike is going to want to swap some parts out anyway, so specing it with that in mind would help keep the price down. Too expensive and you lose the commuters. Too cheap/heavy and you lose everyone else.

dutret

So you want a cross check
+ disks(and therefore sliding dropouts or ebb)
and also a bunch of pointlessly over built stuff to look cool?
not-too-slack geometry + no toe overlap with 40mm tires and fenders?
A thread on freewheel or cassette + disk rotors + a bolt on fixed cog**********
Light steel that's cheap and durable enough to commute on but light enough to attract racers?
All this for an actual price of $600?

Not really suprised that this doesn't exist.

marqueemoon

A Cross Check with discs would be an excellent start.

As far as the racer market for such a bike goes, it may not exist, so I get your point there. Maybe it's too much of a compromise to make everyone happy anyway. Maybe those kind of tire sizes with fenders, sporty geometry, and minimal to overlap are not practical. I'm throwing out an idea here.

Regarding the fixed cog, the idea is you take off the rear rotor and caliper and bolt on the cog, although with the right type of cassette setup I guess you could run a Fixxer-like device if you wanted fixed and two disc brakes.

As far as "pointlessly over built stuff to look cool" goes, I'm not sure what you mean. Yes, I mentioned a gusset. I'm not sure what's cool looking about that anyway. Like it or not, aesthetics play a big role in purchasing decisions. Yes, it should look cool. All bikes should look cool for their intended purpose. This bike should look cool for its target market (i.e. not you).

12XU

Have you seen my Karate Monkey?? It fits almost all of those criterion:

9Rings

^^^^

What handlebars are those? Salsa Bell Laps?

How do you lie 'em?

12XU

New WTB dirt drops. Aside from the small rise stem (10 deg), they are incredible for trail riding. Eventually I'm going to put a higher rise stem on there, likely an adjustable that goes up to 45 degrees, but it's sufficient for now.

a b seize

dag, that bike looks fun.

crushkilldstroy

Yeah, I very much want a Karate Monkey. Pretty sure it's gonna be my next big purchase.

dutret

yes I was talking about the gusset as well as the two bolt seat clamp.

A gusset is just simply wasteful and I doubt many people will even think it looks good. I think I probably am the target market. I love my crosscheck because I can race it 10 times a year but still have something useful for the other 9 months. However I wish it was lighter and I wouldn't have minded paying a bit more for something that was nicer and still as versatile. I also think that trying to make a complete that appeals to everyone in such a tight niche is probably a mistake. Also I don't think there is that much more that can be done with steel.