I currently have two fixed gear bikes (Cannondale track and an Ibis Scorcher). I'm toying with the idea of putting together a singlespeed road bike. Does anyone have any experience with the IRO Mark V frame (www.irocycle.com)? Thanks for your help.

Rhody

i have the jamie roy and my friend is dealing the mark V out of his shop in denver. the mark V seems a bit heavy for what it is, but he has built several up without a hitch. my jamie roy went together smoothly as well. a picture of my bike is on the iro site, under the old gallery. it's also #738 on fixedgeargallery.com. the stays and the dropouts are shorter on the mark v than on the jamie roy. i like the looks of the mark v dropouts better; the drop outs on the jamie roy are unneccessarily long, imo. i would also like the frames better if they had 120mm spacing.

on the site i notice a guy apparently racing his in a velodrome. i took mine to the track and was scraping my 170's at slow speeds on the embankment, probably due to the non-track heigth bb. 165's would probably do the trick, but i am going to use a friend's matsuri track bike for racing until i get my custom ground up track frame built...

all in all, i love riding my bike.

-chris

I just emailed those guys and they said the jamie roy is more road bike feel and the mark v has a higher bottom bracket and slightly sharper angles and would feel better in the city and occasionally on the track. I plan on getting a mark v as soon as i can sneak it past my better half.

The mark v is the best looking frame in their stable...plus it is steel!

What shop in Denver, Isotopesope? I'd be interested in taking a look.

mark 5 has some ugly fork tho! last month they had 100$ on their complete package and maybe some discount off the frame, too

Just to clarify (and I just measured mine to be sure), the Mark V has 120mm spacing. I just finished putting together my IRO, today actually, and finally had a chance to take it out for a spin. I am really happy with the bike, and Tony from IRO was great to deal with. I ordered the parts on a Saturday, and they arrived on Tuesday! My only complaint was that I had Tony build me a wheelset and they arrived dangerously under-tensioned. Thus, I had to get the wheels re-trued. However, I can't really complain that much because Tony upgraded me to Suzue Pro Maxs for free (he was out of stock for the hubs I wanted). As far as weight goes, I haven't weighed it yet, but its probably about 18lbs complete.

too bad IRO doesn't have anything smaller...I'd need something around a 49 or so

Or bigger. 59 just doesn't get it done.

my friend's name is scott taylor. his shop is called fix my bike. the address is 2150 s bellaire st. suite 205. i think it's just one block south of yale. it's upstairs in this small office building. sort of a weird place for a shop, but he has a nice big west facing window. always a plus on the front range. the number is 303.691.5595. he has at least one in there now, as well as two black sheep frames. hot hot hot. he's the only dealer for black sheep frames right now. he is also going to start dealing my friend eric's ground up frames. he has been selling complete bikes for around 700, with better components than tony is selling his complete bikes for off the iro site. he also sells maté by the kilo. mmmm... maté.

-chris

the mark v has 120 spacing!? crap. i'm starting to wish the mark v was out when i got my jamie roy... poop. 18 pounds isn't too terrible i suppose. a carbon fork would probably help it a great deal. when i picked up just the fork at my friend's shop i was surprised how much it weighed.

schiek, how tall are you? my jamie roy is the 59 c-t and it fits me well. i'm 6'4". i do prefer a tad smaller of a frame than perhaps i technically fit though.

I'm 6'5", but I should probably get on one before I assume it's too small. Currently, I have three 61cm frames that run the gamut from cramped to stretched, so you never know.

IRO has added a 62cm Mark Vee frame to their line up. But don't forget that the BB is about 2cm higher than a standard road bike BB so the 59cm frame will have a about the same standover height as a 61cm road frame.

Jim

Holy crap, you guys are all giants or midgets. Try fitting into the sociatal norms, everything fits much nicer. Happy at 5'11".

Great...that I just didn't need to know. Now I'm going to have to start working on Brilliant Idea #677 (I've had one or two in the interim) to come up with the justification for buying a new frame.

Gear it approptiately to pull a baby trailer. You NEED a baby trailer puller right?

Exactly, the added stress of the trailer mount and the pulling of the trailer alone will cause undue stress and wear, hell, even cracking of the existing frame. It's all about safety.

Dave

I finally got the clearance from my fiance to get the IRO Mark V frame. I've allready talked to Tony and I'll have the $$ on July 1st. Which means i'll have a pic within a few days of recieving it. I only have to ride my oversized(63cm) schwinn for another 2 weeks!!!!

how tall are you? Im 6'3'' with a 34inch inseam..I prefer 59's with the seatpost jacked up...I dont like the look of larger-than-59-frames.

you skid with your seat in your back? looks like that wafer of a seat would stab you as high as you have that thing pushed up