Versatile, practical SS road bike?
 

I am considering buying / building a dedicated road SS bike to ride to work (three hiily miles), long leisurely road rides, and maybe some light touring. I work at a bike shop with Trek, Hawley, and QBP stuff, so I am considering the following:

1 Trek district S- light alu frame, room for big tires, racks, and fenders, easily upgraded. Might put drop bars and a carbon fork on it. Does anyone know about how much one of these weighs? What is the ride quality compared fo a steel bike?

2 On-one Pompino- more of a cx bike with room for rain and hauling bits. Can build up with parts I already have but it will be a mediocre build. Noticably lighter than a District? This is mu cheapest option as buying direct from Titus these frames are cheap!

3 Pake rum runner or cmute. Pretty darn cheap and built with my meiocre parts. The runner would require that i drill holes in it for some water bottle mounts.

You thoughts?

Three(3) ****ing miles? I'm pretty sure any of those options would be fine.

Did you read my whole post?

I could ride a Next Powerclimber to work for that matter. I don't want or even have room for a "stable" of bikes, so this will be my only pavement bike for everything not dirt. I have a nice Surly Karate Monkey for that. I like to do long rides around the city of 30-50 miles at a time, but none of the bikes I have slapped together in recent months did it for me. I had a nice Masi road bike with 2x9 gears and a carbon fork but the frame ended up being too small for me. I have been trying to build up bikes with whatever cheap stuff i can slap together but i need to be more intensional at this point.

I hear Next Powerclimbers are nice.

On a more serious note, consider something like a Cross Check. Can't get much more versatile than that.

Honestly, I'd probably go with a conversion for this kind of thing.

At the rediculous prices that people are selling rusty old road bikes under the auspices that they are "vintage," on craigslist, it might be cheaper to buy a new bike/ frame for me. I have been trolling CL for weeks and old junk keeps popping up for around $400. I have built several conversions pver the last few months and none of them end up working out for me. The last one I tried ended up having a French BB on it. Have fun replacing the TA cranks on that. I am considering a new frame or new bike because I am out of options. I am the lead volunteer at a local bike co-op and nothing that fits my size (5'9") comes through and on the rare occasion that it does, it's so rusty as to be on borrowed time.

The cross check frameset was on my list, but a Pake offers the same thing for quite a bit cheaper, at least for my situation. I have a cross check fork sitting around unused, along with some basic steel road forks, so a surly frameset would be redundant when I can buy a pake frame a lot cheaper and put my own fork on it.

French bottom brackets are readily available from several manufacturers.

I can't figure out why you have the rum runner on your list when one of your requirements is light touring.

Phil Wood makes a nice bottom bracket w/ french cups. I've used PW in the past when I ended up with a Raleigh-threaded BB shell. Worked great.

3 miles? Why not run and decent workout?

I'd go with the on-one. It's your cheapest option, and if you don't like it, then sell it and use your profits to throw down on something nicer. If you want gears for your occasional run around, no one is truly going to hate you for it. But for your daily commute, it makes sense. I ride something a lot crappier that distance every day!

If I was to have just one road bike, it would have to start with an outrageous frame...Surly's are nice but just blah...good if you have to leave it locked up I guess? If I was building I'd look at stuff like a Claud Butler Allarounder with Bi-laminate lugs, if your pockets are deep a Hetchins or Bates, if you want an Amercican Bike maybe a Schwinn Paramont or a Boulder. Ya, that's what I'd do. ( A 70's vintage Raleigh International with chrome head lugs would also be sweet start)

Go with the Pompino. You can get a screaming deal and it will hold up. It's rated well and like you said, lighter. Plus, if sized right, will be ultra comfortable. The other cheap parts can always be swapped out later as nicer stuff comes your way.

Takes a LOT longer and there's no shower at work. Running sweat> riding sweat, by a landslide. Plus running with a backpack full of lunch would suck.

This is not primarily a commuter but it will see a lot of miles from that. I want to have a bike that is cheap enough that i don't mind leaving it outside for a while but nice enough that I can do longer rides like I have been doing. I really want to convert an old bike for this purpose but anything decent is hard to come by. I invite you to dig around Atlanta's craigslist but nothing decent ever pops up unless it's "vintage" with a stupid "vintage" pricetag.

I would love to get an American steel frame but my pockets are nowhere near that deep.

If i can hold out for it to become available, the Fyxation Quiver looks perfect!

Phill Wood stuff is nice but costs way more than i want to spend on building up a frame that i am not sure fits me. I don't think I even have access to PW's proprietary tools. Like i said, not worth the effort.

You really should get fit. Then you can know if a frame fits you by using a tape measure. And since you work at a bike shop, you really should get fit.

Take a look at the Trek Earl, too. It's cheaper than the District S and it uses a steel frame instead of aluminum.

You work at a bike shop... I take it you are not a mechanic.

Scratch that. I hope you are not a mechanic.

I am trying to look at Hotlanta's CL but the accent is throwing me off.

What is a "sangle spade road back, saz fitty sit santamaters"

I am a mechanic, hence my lack of funds to buy nice, new, domestic steel and my interest in serviceable, simple bikes. I work on over-engineered tri bikes all day, the last thing I want is to ride something with obscure, outdated standards. if Phil Wood makes a GXP BB for outdated euro frames, I might try that. it still seems like a lot of trouble.

getting fit on a bike is not that simple. different manufacturers use different geometries and different eras used different sizing techniques. on a road bike from the 70s, i would have to ride a 56cm frame with almost no standover clearance. that's how they were made. that was the size of the mystery bike I was trying to build up when i discovered the BB roadblock. I know that would have fit me with the right parts, but I didn't want to deal with non-modern stuff. on a modern bike, i should be on something more like a 52-54cm, depending on the manufacturer.

you SS/FG forum guys are rather surly, eh? for the few of you who are less interested in making snide remarks at my expense and want to help, i have definitely dropped the Rum Runner from my list and added the Fyxation Quiver, which is not available yet. i would love to just do a conversion on a late 80's road bike if i could find the right frame at the right price.

What shop?

http://www.ebay.com/itm//160884365096

Ends in 4 hours.

Or another route you might go...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/400319266217

You might also go down to LooseNut Cycles in Atlanta and check out the Surly Steamrollers. I think they run about $800 for a complete bike. But at the least, you can get an idea of how one fits. They pop up on ebay from time to time pretty cheap.

And a last comment on fit:

There's a lot more to fit than the seat tube measurement. You're giving a range that you say is dependent on manufacturers. But 53cm from CBB to CTT means exactly that. If you don't trust a manufacturer's listed specs, you can usually find one and measure it yourself.

You should find out what measurements you like for various lengths in the following pic:

http://surlybikes.com/blogimages/spew17_1.jpg
Then just take a tape measure out with you and compare. Or if you're ordering online, most reputable manufacturers are not cryptic about their specs.

I like the Pake C'mute but the Fyxation looks rather nice. If you can hold out until then and buy it, then do it.


I think he understands this. He was correct when he said older frames fit differently. I dont know why you're getting on his case about mentioning seat tube length (maybe I misunderstand you intent). Yeah, it isn't very precise but it is how most people communicate their frame size without getting into detail. It definitely doesnt work with compact frames but he was talking in context of old frames.