Originally Posted by bexley

King Kog is selling em, no?

Originally Posted by Poguemahone

Okay, I got one of these "Sparton" frames off ebay. Thought it might be a fun project bike, and what the heck, it was under 200$, lugged steel, and I have most of the parts lying about. My last project was an build of a 1971 Schwinn Paramount, and I figured I wouldn't have to worry about getting proper parts on this one-- I could just spend the next couple months building it. I'll report as dispassionately as I can on it, and believe it will be a fun bike.

The good:
1) Lugged Steel. The brazework is pretty clean, although, as other posters have mentioned, you can see file marks on the lugs on close observation. The file marks are not a dealbreaker, IMO.

The confusing:
1) Rear drops on mine are spaced at 126mm
2) I ordered a 60cm frame. The frame I got is stamped 60 on both the bottom bracket shell and the fork steerer tube. In reality, the frame measures to about 58cm center to center, so the frames appear to be a touch undersized, as wondered earlier in the post.
3) My scale weighs the frame and fork at 8 pounds. That's about the same as a gas pipe, 63cm 1970's Paris Sport frame I have laying about (the Sparton weighs out slightly heavier than the Paris Sport). I meant to weigh a 60cm Reynolds 531 1970's Lejeune frame for comparison, but forgot; I'll ammend this post in the next couple of days. This makes me wonder about the claims to cro-moly. Also, if my scale is correct (it's been pretty acurate in the past) it would appear the frame and fork are about a pound and half heavier than claimed.

The irritating:
1) The fork is not drilled for a brake, as claimed.
2) The fork crown has not been cut down to 26.4 and there is no way, stock out of the box, you will fit a standard BSC fork crown race on it. I'll have to cut it down.
3) The fork does not have a keyway cut for the washer on most threaded headsets.
4) It's hard to tell at this point, but the fork may not be threaded down far enough. I've done measurements, and measured out the stack height of a Shimano 105 HS I intended to install, and it is very close, I may have to cut more thread on the fork.
5) The rear drops are about 2mm out of alignment. The measurements were done with a Park frame alignment gauge, for those interested. In practice, I've found this out-of line is usually not enough to affect bike performance, but it is there.

In addition, the decals are largely fugly (that was opinion) but are not under clearcoat and can likely be removed by application of goo gone (that may be fact). I'll report on this. I like the headbadge, so I'll keep it.

I intend to:
1) Cold set the rear drops so they're in line and at 120.
2) Run a Fork crown race cutter over the fork crown.
3) Given the state of the fork crown, I'll face and ream the head tube, and face and run a tap thru the bottom bracket. The head tube shows signs of having been reamed and faced, and the bottom bracket has been tapped and looks to have been faced. Given the fork, I'd rather do these operations myself and be sure they are done right.
4) Drill for a brake.
5) Set up and ride. This is the best test of a bike.

I may run it with a carbon fiber fork (NOS one inch threaded) I had lying in the parts pile for a bit, because the most irritating part of this is the deficiences in the fork.

I'd say what you get here is a bike that's an equivalent of a Peugeot UO8 or other bike boom model. Given the expense of those on the used market these days, this may be a suitable substitute. My impression is that beginning riders should not buy this bike unless they have a friend who is awfully handy with bike tools and has access to some more specialized ones.

Me, I'll likely have fun with it, but eventually, I'll likely sell the frame and move some of the parts over to a Soma Delancy, or whatever Soma's lugged SS frame is.

Hopefully, others will post their experiences here, and have less in the way of issues than mine did. I'll report back in over the next few weeks (I take my time on these things, it's not like a need a bike right now or anything) with some more info.

Originally Posted by ottokbre

I wanted to post a review of mine on Fxd Gear Gallery, but those *&%^$ still havent approved my registration.

At anyrate, I finished a build this week and have several hours on it already. Mine is a 58cm built up with a Miche group, an EAI cog running at 49x19. Here is what I can tell you:

I got the frame from the chap in So. Carolina off ebay, not from King Kog. If KK does the work I needed to have done to my frame, their asking price ($350 vs. $200) is mostly reasonable. I had to:

*Chase the BB shell threads: They were messy, but cleaned up fine with a chaser. No way a BB was going to be installed w/o this though.
*Fork is NOT drilled, it simply has the pilot dimple. Some prefer this though.
*Seat tube had to be reamed... a lot. And I still ended up cutting my seat post. This is the worst part about my example.

All in all, I got a raw frame that needed plenty of elbow grease to be ready to build

Having said all of that, the geomatry is screaming! After riding conversions all summer, I am happy to have something this stiff and quick. It is HEAVY, way moreso than a Pake, but it is also lugged and way more agressive. The huge track drops were perfectly aligned and take chain lugs fine. Tire clearance is very tight with the 26c SOMA Everwears I am running. The size is accurate; mine is almost sqaure and seems tall until I get up on that high BB and realize its the right size. No more pedal strike!

Bottom line: If you want classic lugged steel track purism on a tight budget, get the Sparton! But if you are looking for an easy to assemble bike, or a modern light weight trick bike, go with something else like a Pake or Brass Knuckle.

Originally Posted by crushkilldstroy

Nice to hear that you're happy with it. But if you consider a Pake a light weight bike, there's no way in hell I'm buying one of these.