its a compact road/cross crankset and yea I was shocked to find the chainline (even with the ring on the outside) was nearly perfect... still need to ID the creaking every time i pedal hard though...

I used to wonder about cutouts like that until I read a blog about a guy who thought the same thing and decided to find out. He found out that there was no loss of strength. I'm also 250lbs and trust them fine...

I usually use bullhorns too but spent a while on my utility bike and my polo bike, both of which have the small risers and got kinda frond of them... also wanted a to toy with some tarkiness and see what it was all about LOL!

To me it was like the Jamie Roy style wise but made of steel. I was sad Iro stopped making them... Also So far I have only seen one other of these here in town, so I get to feel special

I had a creaking from my BB/crank area every time I pedaled hard or pedaled backwards to stop. I fixed it by greasing and tightening the chainring bolts.

Yea, my old FG had a creaking sound from the pedal/bb/crankset area. My antidote? Grease, grease and GREASE!

It's Grease Lightning!

dude. Scrod. I think ima pull the trigger to once I have enough money. I think as long as I have the frame ill be fine, so im thinking about buying the frame and trasnferring all the parts to the Leader. And in any case, I looked at a close up of the dropouts (@ both Scrod and Bleeding), and it looks very thick actually. Like when I got up that close to my Windsor dropouts i realized that the Leader dropouts look a whole lot thicker (could be camera).

But yeah. I saw on one website that the TS was used as a trick bike, which gave me a little encouragement as to the durability.

@ Bleeding.....Yeeeah. Thats good to hear that someone has tested and found out that those kind of dropouts actually do not take away from the strength of the bike.

Dang. OP- wonderful bike lol. I love the chainring. =]my favorite part of your bike =p

im waiting for the eighthinch scrambler v3 raw (which they have pics of on their blog) and the aluminum frame, which i havent seen yet.

if alien has another groupbuy for 330 shipped w/ powdercoating (in blue sparkle, please ) im getting that.

I have the GXP external BB and have heard of creaking issues with the model I have... I have also heard of the need to put a washer in when you put the nondrive arm on... I'll check the chainring bolts but I locked those down damn good when I built it...

The dropouts are thick, I was surprised myself. It was a cool read, he also need to apoligize because he did some **** talking about the company who had made the flashy dropouts...

is it my chainring you like? its just an Origin8 110/130 bcd ring...

@squeegeesunny: That saddle is a Selle Italia SLR. Maybe has the leather ripped off the shell with shell only. But the 135g SLR is pretty f-in thin as it is, and your ass will feel it!

I like those kind of chainrings. Its the closest thing to Aero chainrings that I could possibly get on a low budget build lol. The other ones that time trialist use on road are like carbon, and the whole ring is like a solid disc. But they cost hundreds.

Those ones look so sick. Haha. Im not a big fan of risers or Brooks saddles either, thats why I like ur chainring more. Not saying I dont like your bike becasue tis beautiful either way, I just like the more traditional TRACK/Road bike (Not Tarc lol) look i.e. Drops or Bulls/aeros + the kind of saddles you see on Massans 722. I like the saddle he has there.

I guess b/c it's nice looking but it's still a cr-mo Leader, and it's $279 for a frame, no fork. A frameset is $379. That's basically what I paid for my low-budget but solid KHS frameset and DeepV wheelset, all brand new. I guess being conditioned to seeing the Kilo framesets for $199, that also have a teardrop downtube and include a fork, gets you accustomed to a certain price point for a certain type of bike. If that were my price range, I feel like I'd go with something else like a Tange Soma Rush or 631 Iro Angus, etc...

i agree with above.

rush is on universal cycles for 315 for frame, 85 for fork.

steamroller is around 420 wherever you look.

moto track is 350.

i would also, really, really consider the lugged leader. i hear its 853/631 stays, chrome dropouts/front lugs/fork crown. its very sweet at 500. really worth the extra 100.

the road version of this frame isnt too bad looking.

I'd be stoked if we could get a 722TS group buy happening.

adrianos road bike isnt too bad looking either

leaderbikestore's website has a new "shadow" frame. for 600 its a complete waste of time, but apparently it has a curved seattube and can hold 50c's. the fork is 160.

oh, and a mordecai freestyle frame. more freestyle stuff...

Haha. Ill quote Scrod's sig.

Screw my idea, listen to Scrod.

Man. If the Rush is on Universla for 315, I might just consider saving an extra 30 dollars to get the Rush. Rush > Leader 722?

That purple color is so hot!!! These are the 725 I think. Want.

These frames are looking better and better all the time. $279 for a nice steel frame is a good price.

Scrod, if you find a group of people that are down, I'd be interested.

Im interested in a group buy for sure.

I'm going to contact Leader today and report back here as soon as I get some info.

dude. I just realized that 279 is what I payed for my complete Windsor. Hahahahaha! Dude. I want an Air force color theme- blue frame on White B43s, TT style bullhorns that look like sidewinder missles on suicide wings......but not gonna happen (not the TT style horns/base bar)

I tightened mine down too, but I would get the same creaky noise whenever I started/accelerated/backpedaled. The grease is what ended up fixing it.

I will be watching this thread with interest.

You will need to get the bottom bracket shell faced before installing GXP bottom brackets.

Ill be hoping I can come up with 279 dollars by the time Scrod comes up with an answer regardless lol.

Im gonna b patient with this build actually, whether it takes me 2 months from now to get the frame or 5 months. I was gonna transfer parts over from my Windsor when I got the frame and buy new parts for it gradually (replace the wheels, then the bars, then bb etc), but I just decided to build it from scratch, all new parts all at once, and do it right =].

Ooooh im so excited to grab the frame.