I could have gotten you a black one. http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-fc/hiding.gif

Please Report back on your thoughts about the frame.

Right now I'm thinking that I wish it would get here faster.

If you don't mind me asking, what happened to the BK?

I've had the frame for ~7 years and have ridden it slightly less than 20,000 miles.
The Thomson seat post has been frozen in the seat tube for quite some time, which I found to be quite annoying since I decided over a year ago that the saddle was just a hair too high.
I don't really know how or why it got stuck. I stored it indoors (at home and in my office) and only got caught in the rain once with it (actually 4 winters ago). For some reason, it is the most corrosion-prone bike I have ever owned. I have other steel beaters that always get ridden in the rain and are never cleaned or overhauled that are less corrosion prone.
Anyway, I tried every nonviolent (and some violent) means I could think of to get the seatpost out and finally decided to sacrifice the seatpost by wrenching it out with a big pipe wrench. One good yank on it and the seatpost catastrophically exploded, leaving a fatal inch long tear in the seat tube. The remaining seatpost fragment is basically welded to the frame..its never coming out.

I'm going to blame it on a defect rather than my own stupidity, because I really didn't even get a chance to start wrenching hard before it exploded. I should be pissed, but really I'm just glad to be done with the whole hassle and move on.

Will try to post photos later.

I want to see photos of that too! Have you tried to hammer the post down into the tube? To pry open the clamp opening?

Yes.

Seatposts suck.

The aftermath...http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=286575.

Pake French 75 on the scale. Frame weight (59cm) is with dropout protectors.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=286576http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=286577

The initial buildup with old BK parts...
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=286578
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=286579

The old BK parts are well-used and have a lot of "carbon scoring". Total build is somewhere around 18 lbs. The current seatpost, saddle, and headset are temporary. Also I've concluded I need some bars with a more organic curve. It would look nicer with NMSW rims and Omniums.
The headtube is shorter than the BK, so I cut the steerer tube rather high. There are too many spacers right now. I am going to experiment a bit with the stem flipped up and down and rearrange spacers before I decide what to do here. I will probably end up flipping the stem and removing most of the spacers.

Looking good, how does it ride compared to your BK? Cant wait for mine to get here in a few days.

I took the Pake French 75 out for a 52 mile spin this morning. I choose a route with a good mixture of hills, flat, open road, heavy traffic so I could start to develop a well-rounded opinion.
The handling is close enough to my BK that I don't really notice a difference. Its definately a track bike.. its stable, yet quick....fun to weave around in traffic and handles sprints and hard out-of-the saddle uphill climbs beautifully. I pedaled it up to 38.6 mph top speed and it stays confident at high speeds/insane cadences as long as the road is smooth. The BB area is plenty stiff, though maybe not quite as stiff as the BK, although its too close to be sure. Anyway, its not enough of a difference to be a concern.

The fork is much nicer than the BK fork. The brake hole is drilled in the right place. The brake hole of my BK fork wasn't positioned properly. The F75 fork is not quite as stiff either. It shows a small amount of visible flex when standing and hammering (which is a good thing, unlike the BK fork which felt rigid and dead).

As expected it provides a more jaring ride than a well-designed road bike. People generally complain about aluminum because its beats you up. This aspect of aluminum doesn't really bother me. I'm certain I could comfortably ride a century on this thing. However, the additional rigidity does have other drawbacks. My BK tended to buck over large bumps and waves in the pavement, which kind of sucks at high speed, especially when cornering. The F75 does the same, and its not as if I wasn't expecting this, given the straight bladed fork and oversize aluminum tubed frame.

Basically, like any stiff track bike, the bumpier it gets, the less confident it feels. I can't really make up my mind if the F75 is a more jarring ride than the steel BK, but I get the feeling that it is, but I really need to ride it more before I can make up my mind.

This isn't really a concern most of the time and it rides just fine on decent asphalt road (which make up 95% of the roads around here.) Moreover, rough roads and comfort are farther beyond the design parameters of this frame compared to a standard road frame, so its not something to fault the frame for.

Overall, I'm pleased with the frame, and it was worth what I paid. Its certainly a good entry-mid level track frame, and it serves my purposes well. I wouldn't choose it if I were only going to have one road bike, because its not really designed for the road, but neither is any true track bike. However, its perfectly capable of handling a century...though I doubt I'll be riding that far at any given time.

Where did you order yours? What color?

A seller on eBay had them for $325 w free shipping. Got blue because its the only color they had.

Yep...thats were I got mine!

Thanks for the review. Looking good.

Think it had anything to do with trying to remove the seatpost while being clamped from the seat tube?
I have no idea, but it may not have helped.

miss my kilo

but it wasn't even close to my TET

french75 looks good!

+1

Looking good milbach!

No , The frame wasn't clamped to anything when it broke.

Figured as much, was just curious.