Best Steel Bikes
- Thread starter Err
- Start date
My Dave Yates Diabolo (Columbus OR) cost £180 inc postage - complete bike (inc P2's). I love it. Dave Yates does a frame building course which allows you to make your own frame to your spec under his expert gaze. Costs about £1000 inc materials.
purplewicked
Retro Guru
brand of tubing means zip. it's about the builder's talent and experience.
also, there is mass produced (kona, gt, on one etc..), small builders like IF, bontrager, ibis, fat city who will imprint their personality in handling, finish etc.. but still maintaining a uniformity and custom builders like curtlo who will select tube stiffness, angles and wheelbase based on your body, style and riding conditions.
also, there is mass produced (kona, gt, on one etc..), small builders like IF, bontrager, ibis, fat city who will imprint their personality in handling, finish etc.. but still maintaining a uniformity and custom builders like curtlo who will select tube stiffness, angles and wheelbase based on your body, style and riding conditions.
velomaniac
MacRetro Rider
Hi- Tensile steel is underated in my possibly stupid opinion.
Provided the frame does not involve oversized tubes, sub 28 lb mtb's are possible and the frames are well tough !
Unless double butting is involved, chromoly plain gauge tubed bikes are little different than hi-ten, but I'm sure most will dispute this.
Most of my best fun mtb moments have been on a cheap hi-ten hack.
Cheers
Provided the frame does not involve oversized tubes, sub 28 lb mtb's are possible and the frames are well tough !
Unless double butting is involved, chromoly plain gauge tubed bikes are little different than hi-ten, but I'm sure most will dispute this.
Most of my best fun mtb moments have been on a cheap hi-ten hack.
Cheers
P20
Retrobike Rider
My P20 is made from deddaccai, which is quite flexible through the corners, yet feels fine when climbing. Its very comfortable to ride and definitely feels light.
My Bonty however feels heavier, more robust, stiffer, it doesn' t seem to skim over things like the P20. You'd never describe it as uncomfortable or a ride that crashes through things, but its totally different to the P20. I think its made of Tange, but its too cold and wet out there to go and look :roll:
My Bonty however feels heavier, more robust, stiffer, it doesn' t seem to skim over things like the P20. You'd never describe it as uncomfortable or a ride that crashes through things, but its totally different to the P20. I think its made of Tange, but its too cold and wet out there to go and look :roll:
Ok, i am interested in hearing more about the custom's and low volume producers. Teesdale, serotta, curtlo, roberts yates lloyd's etc.
I am also thinking that since as i said in my first post i am short of funds there is not much point me looking for a hot or an explosif since plenty of people are looking for them.
I would like something a bit rarer or esoteric, that i can pick up cheap and do up.
Who built bike's with the Fuji tubing?
I am also thinking that since as i said in my first post i am short of funds there is not much point me looking for a hot or an explosif since plenty of people are looking for them.
I would like something a bit rarer or esoteric, that i can pick up cheap and do up.
Who built bike's with the Fuji tubing?
http://www.strongframes.com/material_tech/specs/
Rody says this is a bit derivative of manufacturers' claims, but still quite a useful summary I think.
Seems to me all the different tubing is 4130 chromium-molybdenum and thus all basically fairly similar, although the various manufacturers all claim theirs is the best, just as the manufacturers of soap powder do.
Far more important is whether the tube thickness and butting is suitable for your particular needs. It makes no sense for example to say '853 is light', as there are lots of heavy 853 frames around - if you want to build for strength and rigidity, you have to specify thicker tubing and it weighs more, whatever brand it is.
An Inbred, Prince Albert or Pipedream Nevis all weigh 5lbs or so, and I guess the P7 must be heading that way, as they're built for strength. The Cotic Soul, Pastey Howler and Rock Lobster 853 are all closer to 4lbs because they're built to be xc whippets.
The latest Explosif is made of Dedacciai tubing, and no doubt some say 'wow, Dedacciai, that must be light', but in fact the Kona website quotes the weight at 4.8lbs, so clearly it's built towards the strength end of the spectrum and way away from the racing end where Explosifs were in the early nineties. So the name's the same but it's really a completely different bike now from what it once was. But that's not to say that Dedacciai is heavy, but just that Kona wanted to build more of an Inbred-type bike than a Soul-type bike, that's all.
Rody says this is a bit derivative of manufacturers' claims, but still quite a useful summary I think.
Seems to me all the different tubing is 4130 chromium-molybdenum and thus all basically fairly similar, although the various manufacturers all claim theirs is the best, just as the manufacturers of soap powder do.
Far more important is whether the tube thickness and butting is suitable for your particular needs. It makes no sense for example to say '853 is light', as there are lots of heavy 853 frames around - if you want to build for strength and rigidity, you have to specify thicker tubing and it weighs more, whatever brand it is.
An Inbred, Prince Albert or Pipedream Nevis all weigh 5lbs or so, and I guess the P7 must be heading that way, as they're built for strength. The Cotic Soul, Pastey Howler and Rock Lobster 853 are all closer to 4lbs because they're built to be xc whippets.
The latest Explosif is made of Dedacciai tubing, and no doubt some say 'wow, Dedacciai, that must be light', but in fact the Kona website quotes the weight at 4.8lbs, so clearly it's built towards the strength end of the spectrum and way away from the racing end where Explosifs were in the early nineties. So the name's the same but it's really a completely different bike now from what it once was. But that's not to say that Dedacciai is heavy, but just that Kona wanted to build more of an Inbred-type bike than a Soul-type bike, that's all.
