What Keirin frame to get?
 

I would love some help deciding which frame to get. I'm 6'1" and fit a 59 cm frame. There are so many brands and so many years of brands. I would love a Top 10 (Brand/Year) List from people with experience. I live in San Francisco and have a heavy, clunky fixed-gear and have heard great things about Keirin frames, though haven't ridden one. They are very expensive, and I don't want to make a bad decision. This is my first posting and pretty much the reason why I joined. Thanks for all your help in advance!

If you're looking for a 59 frame, I would say get any used one that fits because you're not going to find many. Or order one of Deathhare's panasonics for $1000 - http://www.pistoposeur.blogspot.com/

Just get a Kilo and be done with it. If you don't know which brands to look into you won't tell enough of a difference to make it worth while.

Son,
The hype will kill you before you get your feet in the clips, but not before it kills your wallet.
Why U wants NJSES anyway?
REAL QUESTION.

I thought I posted in this this morning.

The kilo does indeed make a decent keirin bike if you're on a budget. For a bit more a pista probably and for a bit more than that I've found the pista concept to be nice. If you really have a lot to spend a teschner or perhaps something custom in Al. And if money is truly no object wait till the end on the summer and get the new bt.

which overkill should i buy?

Keirin bikes have track geometry, which blows for real riding. Go buy something that isn't marketed for hipsters and get something practical. That you're from SF is just massive lulz.

+1

p.s. buy my surly steamroller keirin frame.

honestly if u want a keirin frame. just go buy one. the difference between a ______ or a ______ NJS frame is going to be negligible to you. just buy a kilo tt

ps. and someone sed it already but you are going to be hard pressed to find a keirin frame in 59cm , and even if u do u will either.
1. not be able to afford it
2. be fighting off hundreds of tall homies just to buy it

Thanks for all the help guys! Looks like the Kilo TT is a reasonable $/quality bike.

Keirin bikes are heavy and klunky.

and this claim is based on....

Thanks for the plug. :love:

Yes, we can help you get what you want. If youre looking for a 59cm keirin frame you almost def wont find one elsewhere.

The fact that a supa sweet (pink even!) 52cm Panasonic can be more kludgy, heavier, and flexier than a mass produced mid-level track frame.

The new Panasonics are about 4lbs on average.

That's not anything really heavy IMO. Just normal for a good steel track frame. If you buy a Nagasawa or a 3rensho (I did), you'll find it won't be any lighter or built any better. NJS frames are, as everyone knows, made of steel and built about like a great frame in the 70s would have been. Theyre no modern carbon or AL frame and cant be compared with one in the weight game. More than anything, at least they have style and are built to the utmost quality standards and have never seen a Taiwan factory.

As for the stiffness...not sure if theyve changed or not over the old one you have/had but the new green one I had awhile back was a very stiff frame.

Any NJS frame will have insane toe overlap won't it?


How do people ride in cities on bikes like that?

Not really true. All the frames I've had and ridden didnt have but a little toe overlap.(i ride a 55cm) Its really only true for the smaller sized frames in my experience but the design of frames can vary I guess.
My wife rides a 51cm Bridgestone NJS and it has quite a bit. She got used to it in a day and she'd never even ridden a 700c bike before this...only shopping bikes and junk down the sidewalk at 4mph.

My "57" Samson has little to no toe overlap, which is surprising. It is also far more stable than my IRO was.

Keirin bikes = zero marketing if you haven't noticed... at least in the states. No idea about Japan...

Out of my 3 keirin bikes I've had, the Anchor with Kaisei 8630 tubing seemed a bit lighter than the other two, almost too light for steel... Keep in mind there's a decent range of tubesets the builders can work with, from high end stuff like Columbus Genius or 8630 to more entry level like Kaisei 019 or 022. But yeah, weights per frame are probably not varying by any more than a pound from lightest to heaviest tubesets...

And stiffness, well it mostly depends on tubing diameters from what I know, but with lugs you can't work with a whole lot of diameters really. I think Kaisei offers two or three diameters for their tubes, not sure about other builders. As far as getting a legitimately stiff steel track bike for racing track, oversized filet brazed/welded would be ideal.

Why do people insist on calling track bikes "keirin bikes"? There are no frames made anywhere in the world (including here in Japan) soley for the purpose of riding this one track event. Keirin riders in Japan ride track bikes - antiquated track bikes, but track bikes nonetheless. Perhaps it's fair enough to use it as shorthand when you mean an NJS-approved bicycle. But calling a Kilo TT a keirin bike is like calling a Nissan Cedric a Le Mans racer.

p.p.s. buy my toyota starlet le mans racer. ;)

I use it interchangeably with NJS and always have.

yet another claim....

my 50.5 nagasawa had ZERO overlap

sucks for you...

ps. many japanese keirin frames are made with some thiner walled steel tubing to reduce weight... obviously if u compare it to aluminum it'll be "HEAVY", but compare it to another steel frame and it's comparable...

hmm, I say keirin bike (or 競輪の自転車、sometimes 競技用の自転車、競輪車 etc) to refer to NJS-approved bikes. makes more sense in Japanese to call them a keirin bike, I think you'd get a confused glance if you said 'NJS bike' and though keirin is a specific event around the world, in Japan it is popular shorthand for velodrome bike racing w/betting (as you know).

I can see it being weird to refer to a KitoTT as a 'keirin' bike, but as an =NJS statement I think it's fine.

actually, come to think of it I say "keirin frame" more often than "keirin bike"....