Winter Road Frame

[john]

After yet another winter of constantly rubbing and rattling mudguards on my thoroughly unsuitable winter bike (which is my old 'good / race' bike from the 90s I forced guards onto with P clips) think I may have to invest in a pukka winter frame or at least one with provision and clearance for guards.

Anyone have any recommendations or suggestions? Would be nice to get something classy and steel but thinking prgamatically feel a cheapo Far Eastern alloy offering might be more the thing.

Sorry for the slightly non-retro q, think this is the best place.

 

[pigman]

I would recommend alloy as it doesnt rust, and if you can aford it, titanium as it always looks new - no paint to peel. Value for money, Ribble alloy ones at circa £150 are good and used by lots of clubmen, but there is only clearance for 23mm tyres and short drop brakes with guards. I use a Racelight T2 which allows me to use 28mm tyres & guards with long drop brakes and at 1600g is quite a sporty weight. In fact i used mine last year as my only bike for both winter and summer use. If I had the cash, I'd consider one of the Spa cycles audax titanium frames which has racy measurements with the clearances I want.

 

[daj]

Have you seen the new Ribble Steel winter/club frame/forks?

Looks the business though bit hefty with weight

 

[john]

The current machine is alloy and it's done 16 years so will probably go alloy again.

Quite a few lads in the club have the kinesis frames so certainly on the shortlist. Seems quite pricey now at getting on for £400 f+f though.

The Spa is a handsome machine for sure but probably a bit costly.

CRC seem to be doing a good price on Ridley at the moment > http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Bran ... andID=1417 , know some of those comes with eyelets, not sure on clearances etc though....

 

[pigman]

Quite a few lads in the club have the kinesis frames so certainly on the shortlist. Seems quite pricey now at getting on for £400 f+f though...

depends. Kinesis have recently developed new frames with beefier & lighter tubing and loud colours, and as you say £400ish and more. You can still get the original T2 spec for around £200 (fatbirds had some) + forks for £70ish, so not too bad.
edit - looked on fatbirds and one or two others and there arent many of the origianl T2s around. There's one on our club website. I can put you in touch if its of any use ....

http://www.sheffrec-cc.org.uk/modules.p ... pic&t=3910

I can vouch for the seller, but have no personal vested interest ...

 

[willhouse]

Genesis Equilibrium, 725 Steel... or an 853 if you get really lucky would be one of the frames I would look at for a cheap build.
Surly? Salsa? Kona?

Kinesis or Tifosi or Cannondale Synapse for aluminium winter frame's if aluminium is your choice.

Planet X have a load of awesome steel frames in at the moment, but I am unsure if they have mudguard eyes.

I'd rather sacrifice a little weight for a quality steel frame over a cheap stiff aluminium.

 

[ededwards]

What are you after big man, mixing it on the club run in winter or simply getting out in inclement weather to keep things ticking over? If the latter then steel could well be your friend, pretty much what I got the Gazelle for with it's clearance for 28s with mudguards. Something like viewtopic.php?f=22&t=248225 perhaps (although sold so not exactly much help in providing the link)?

 

[velomaniac]

Kinesis T2 looks a good winter alloy bikeframe with clearance for wider winter tyres and mudguards.

 

[john]

Been giving this far too much thought, just spent the last 45 minutes going over geometery charts in catalogues.

Steel would be nice and indeed real, however I don't want something I care about too much. This will be a tool for a job, left outside cafes, ridden in crap etc. Have other nicer steel bikes for high days and holidays.

Just ended up pulling the trigger on a Ridley Tempo from CRC, just knocked another £20 off them this morning, £198 for an alloy frame and carbon fork seems very keen. Went for the Ridley Tempo 1010A which looks to be the 2011/2012 model, rest of the range is here > http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Sear ... ndIDs=1417

 

[otherself]

Planet X Kaffenback makes a great winter frame. Can be transformed into cyclocross/touring/fixie as well. Only 139.99 pounds for the frame at the moment, 40 pound for the fork.

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/FRPXKV2/pla ... _out_frame