Hello folks,
My n+1 urge has got the better of me and I want to build up a drop bar winter / wet weather commuter.
Planet x are doing that London road bundle for 250 quid which includes frame and forks and seatpost with a few other gubbins chucked in.
Now this would be a great start as it takes mudguards etc and I’d ideally be using 105 hydro on it.
Problem is all the reports on the London roads being shoddily made with seatpost issues etc. Is it worth the risk for a crap weather bike and not a top end job?
Are there any other alternatives out there for similar money? 250 quid is a price is imagine is hard to beat.
Thanks

There’s another thread on the Kaffenbak covering similar options.

Folk that rode their London Roads seemed happy with them, the seat tube QC issue was the only issue I think?

I’m (maybe stupidly) assuming the seat post supplied will fit okay, anyone bought the frame bundle to confirm this?
They do seem to get good ride reviews.

For the money it’s a great deal but just check what size is the free seatpost? Is it something wierd like 31.8.

On one hand if you want to keep the seat post it will be fine but if you ever want to change it…..

seatpost is 31.6mm so a standard size, hope that means they have sorted out the seat tube size issue.

I was tempted by one of these a few weeks back, so spoke to someone at PX about the seatpost issue. They assured me it was all ok now, but bare in mind it was obviously PX and they aint likely to say its still an issue. I plumped for a Boardman in the end, so cant help more than that sorry.

Thus is a tricky one. I bought and built up a London Road when they were doing frame and forks for £150. This seemed to be the batch that kicked off the seat post issue. Mine was fitted with a deda seat post and works a treat with no shim and without excess tightening of the clamp. However, I acknowledge not everyone was so lucky and this is what has caused the issue.
I love my bike, it gets ridden way more than my mountain bike (I live in a London suburb so it makes sense) and gets me out and about, however I’m might be one of the luckier ones. I’m not sure I’d take the risk for £250 unless you have a load of parts sitting waiting, when you add it all IP you could probably but something better for the money. Mine cost about £600 all in to equip it with 10 speed 105 groupset including some secondhand wheels and disc brakes

*edit* just realised £250 includes some other bits so might make it more economical depending on what they are.

Worst case is you may need a shim or 31.8 seat post, though it’s not so oversized that the seat post actually slips when tightened anyway

Extras it comes with are:
Seatpost
Seatpost clamp
Headset
Braze on front derailleur clamp
Headset spacers
Cable adjusters
And bottom bracket cable guide.

So fairly good vfm.

I built one about a month ago- seat post (supplied) had no issues.

After my PX debacle with the LR with the bank getting involved.. I replaced it with a chinese frame an FR-602

The 603 version is $420 http://www.flyxii.com/en/products/flx-fr-603.html

I also got one of the £150 framesets a couple of years ago, or whenever it was. Mine has a slightly over sized seat tube and use it with a Thomson 31.6mm post and have never had a problem with it. I have a bolt up seat clamp and don’t think I overly tighten it.

If I was paying nearer £300 then i’d look at the Pinnacle Arkose instead though.

PX are cheap for a reason…

I bought a full build about 6 months ago with rival 11 speed when on offer, no issues with the seat post and ideal for winter commuting, come summer I’ll put some cx tyres on for evening exploring.

thanks guys,
karnali, thats what i was thinking of doing with it, mudguards on it for foul weather and then they can come off in summer if i want to take a more off road route to work instead of the road bike.
nathb, how long did the frame take to arrive, what height are you and what size did you get?
Also, the 105 hydro groupset seems to be £500 everywhere, anyone seen it cheaper? Although 500 is good its always nice to get a bargain!

I’m 183cm/6ft and ride a 55cm FR-602 Took a couple of weeks. I really like Mine

The XLA bundle is the same price and I don’t recall ever seeing QA issues with it.
http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/ZX271XLAB/planet-x-xla-alloy-cyclocross-frame-and-carbon-fork-bundle

What sort of ballpark figure would you be looking at to source everything else needed to build one up, including hydraulic brakes? ~£450-500 if using TRP Hylex?

Sonder Camino Aluminium frameset is £300

Hi goat,
I did look at the XLA but it didn’t have mudguard eyelets etc for properly securing mudguards, unless I missed something.

Extras it comes with are:
Seatpost
Seatpost clamp
Headset
Braze on front derailleur clamp
Headset spacers
Cable adjusters
And bottom bracket cable guide.

So fairly good vfm.

LOL at the list of ‘extras’

By the time you buy all the other parts necessary for a full build you’ve more than likely spent the price of an Arkose X or more…

I built my (£150 frameset with oversized seat tube) London Road for ~£350 from the spares bin and ebay, and I am still happy with it, but I couldn’t recommend one in good conscience…

Nope if I had the spare cash today an Arkose X, plus a Gevenalle – hylex upgrade would be my preference…

I’ve been doing some interweb window shopping recently and just like a few years back, the Arkose is on the virtual list, this time the new Arkose X. There are some great sub £1k bargains out there for the Cube Attain GTC Pro, but they don’t have the clearance for anything bigger than ~28c.

That Hylex upgrade looks interesting, didn’t know anything about that option, in case the bar end shifter was a bit of an unnatural faff! 8)

If you do buy one i sugest you go over it very thoroughly I had a hole in a weald on mine and two threads on the brake mounts needed chaseing and the front disk mounts needed faceing. but it rode nice …I floged it on because i had no confidence in its longevity.

okay,
so ive also had a look at the pinnacle frames and they also look nice,
Had a chat with Evans cycles and they say the arkose 2 2016 frame takes 12mm QR front and rear.
The mavic wheels I saw on the cheap are 9/10mm front and rear, does anyone know of a way to convert mavic wheels from 9/10 to 12mm? I cant seem to find adaptors that do it and 12mm wheelsets seem to be expensive.