novitt

I bought one of these frames to and I have built it up quite nice. It's really turned out to be my favorite bike ever. The welds remind me of early Specilized S-Works bikes. Big and beefy. The frame is actually pretty light, less than 4lbs in a 56. The fork weighs a ton at 2.6 pounds so I ditched it and got a Nashbar Carbon fork. Now its right in the hunt with $1000 cross and touring frames.

It's awesome. The tubing is all butted, it's light and stiff with room for big tires, tons of useful braze ons, no logos. Do it, this is the best deal ever. Rides great, shifts awesome.

Right now the frame and carbon fork can be had for around $200 with the 30% off sale and the addtional coupon cr204. Incredible deal.

scoana

Good thread!

EnLaCalle

Which carbon fork are you talking about? The regular road fork?

hoopshot

I just ordered one of these frames (along with a bunch of components) yesterday. Nashbar has them at 137.95 and there is a 20% off coupon (code SUMSAV). It makes the total price about $110. I think I'll have the whole buildup for $600, with pretty decent components and a Brooks saddle. I've been wanting to build up a fairly traditional touring/commuting bike with bar-end shifters, and this makes it really affordable.

I think the previous poster was referring to the Nashbar Carbon Cyclocross Fork, which has studs for canti or v-brakes.

--Will

novitt

Yes, I was reffering to the carbon fork which does have studs for cantis and eyelets for fenders. The fork that comes with the bike is really heavy.

Mine is set up with bar end shifters a la chucksbikes.com. Dura Ace bar ends are $55. Nice.

Flip102

With the great sale Nashbar is having, how is the quality of Nashbar components? They seem to have good deals on casettes, brakes, chains, handlebars. Are they of any quality or just a waste of money?

novitt

The stuff is all very good, the brakes and controls are excelent. Alot of the other stuff, like chains and cassettes is sort of Tiagra level. Not super but fine. I use Shimano and Sram cassettes, more and more Sram becuase the shift gates are propritary and actually pretty important.

Other than that all the seatposts and stuff like that is fine, pretty light weight and well made. The 30%off Nashbar stuff and the 20% coupon it's just over the top.

This is a great chance to build a really usefull bike. I have two sets of wheels so my bike goes anywhere. Lot;s of room for wide tires, rugged frame 3lbs 14.3 oz on a registed postal scale.

The other guy that posted about not being able to get a really tire and a fender in behind the chain stay bridge is right, you'd have to run the fender over the back with something as big as a 35c tire, You could use a plastic fender and get away with it but it would be tight.

I really like the slightly sloping top tube. This frame is a steller deal.

RegularGuy

It's not the best bike in my stable, but it was a great project to build. It is a servicable touring bike, worth every penny I put into it. I've added a Brooks B-17 saddle and built up a front wheel on an LX hub with a Sun rim. I still need to build the rear wheel and cut down the steer tube.

novitt

I am running a brooks pro. I like them better then b17s but have both.

The bike is running on xt hubs with Mavic rims and Panaracer Pasela 35c tires Dura Ace barcons Nashbar brakes, Rivendell Nitto Albatross bar, Selcrof seatpost, Alvio front der, XTR rear, cane creek s3 headset, shimano m515 pedals, LX integrated crank 48 outer ring.

This is by far the most useful and comfortable bike I have ever built up. The albatross bars from Rivendell make it so confortable and useful. Never having really used the drops very much on drop bars this is way more praticle.

It's just hard finding a frame like this and at this price forget it. What the competion? No name brands if you can even find a "touring" rig. everything right now is cyclocross with the stupid high bottom bracket. You can maybe find a used Trek 520 frame, or some old thind with 126 spacing but a real hard core touring frame? New? There's nothing out there.

I come from a very diffrent school of thought than most that de emphisises the frame and puts more weight on components that are functional and fit to the job. This frame is just perfect for getting the job done. I have had bikes that were both more prestigioius and more expensive but none that were just a joy to ride, either to the market or on an all day ride or on a tour.

Tires make more of a diffrence in ride quality than frames, likewise wheels. Spend your $ there.

FInding a rack to fit has been a little bit of a problem but I am sure that I'll come up with something. The seatstay attachement points have thusfar interfered with the v brakes. I dont think this would have been a problem with cantis.

Also having the 132.5 spacing allows me to use two sets of wheels, one for fat tires one for skinny. This is very nice.

RegularGuy

I've got Jandd racks front and rear. Fit was not an issue.

novitt

What do you have for a front rack? A low rider type rack?

RegularGuy

Yes. This one:

https://www.jandd.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=FRLOW

taylor8

After all this time what what do you think of the Nashbar frame now?

Joe

RegularGuy

It's a good, sturdy, rather heavy, kind of dead feeling frame. Definitely worthy for a budget tourer/commuter. I got a 58 cm frame. I think I'd size down to 56 if I were buying another.

I haven't really got many miles on it. Breaking my collarbone cut into my riding.

arrasmithf

Hey guys, thanks for all the great posts, I got all the info I needed about the Nashbar frame. So now that I'm committed to the build, I went to purchase and found that they were sold out of the 56cm, until 2008(ouch). My question is this. I found the Geometry specs, and even though my current bike is a 56 and fits pretty well, should I wait(sigh), or size up to the 58 or down to the 54 and make adjustments? I like the fact that the 58 has a longer wheelbase, good right? here are the specs from Nashbar.

RegularGuy

I wouldn't size up. The frames run to the large side anyway.

NoReg

The BB height is about 12 inches, I confirmed it with nashbar, you could almost run it on 26" wheels, I gave that some thought at one time. So I wouldn't get one that is too big and make maters worse.

I'm surprised about the wait. I have seen long waits over winter, but all through summer too?

DukeArcher 

have you any pictures?

JunkYardBike

I've been considering this frame as well. I have an Octalink 113mm BB. How is the chainline with the 118mm? I'm assuming since your mechanic commented about perfect shifting that 118 is ideal? I'll be using a 22T inner chainring...would there be enough clearance at the chainstay with a 113? I know FD positioning is another issue...

Also, I'd be better off with the 60cm for seattube height, but the 61cm top tube on that frame is incredibly long. How do you find the 58cm with the near 60cm top tube? Too long? Gone to a shorter stem?

vik 

I'm pretty sure Nashbar was selling this touring frame long before there was a Surly LHT.

awc380

Why are you so concerned with 'ugly' welds?

a) you can't (usually) tell anything about a weld's quality by how it looks from the outside, painted over, and;

b) it's a touring bike - all the better with ugly (but functional) welds and no decals to attract attention.

RegularGuy

There used to be a bunch of pics in this thread. They must have been lost in a server hiccup or something...

RegularGuy

The first time I saw this particular touring frame was after the LHT came out. I saw their road and mountain frames before the LHT, but not the tourer.

RegularGuy

Dude, these are some UGLY welds. And while the appearance of a weld may not say anything about its strength, it does say something about the care and craftsmanship that went into the manufacture of a frame. The Nashbar Touring frame is functional, but it is nobody's work of art.

If I really cared about how the welds looked, I would have returned the bike. I started this thread to give my impressions of the bike and to describe the process of building it. One of my impressions is that Chinese robots make butt-ugly welds. Anyone interested in buying the frame might want to know that.

seeker333

Yes, you're right, nashbar jumped on the bandwagon a short time after surly started the LHT.

My neighbor bought one - it looks pretty good for the money - probably as good as a cannondale.

I didn't think the welds were particularly ugly. Those sort of wide beady welds are common on aluminum mtbs. But, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Also, I think some of the Chinese robots probably weld better than some of the Chinese men. I've had a couple steel chino frames with screwed up dropouts and brake bosses. In fact, many of last year's LHTs had screwed up brake bosses on frames and forks (crooked or uneven height). They use robots on the main triangle, then manually add stays, dropouts and bosses. On my steel chino frames the main triangle welds are nearly perfect.

Cannondales welds would look the same as Nashbars except they file and sand them down a bit.

The Nashbar frames tend to cut costs on the material side (cheap straight gauge tubing), not the assembly labor. Of course they all have nice paint jobs....