Drop bar and brakes, I fancy a yellow / black colour scheme.

Anyway, for £310 to hack about on and perhaps some hill reps, any reason why not/alternatives?

This is the only reason not to I could see. Not yellow and black but I like the look of it more.

How is it better?

Just did a redesign in club colours, red frame fork, yellow rims and bar tape… 😀

How is it better?

I don’t know whether it is, I just liked how it looked more. Only thing to be aware of is that I think the Mango bikes are hi-ten steel and not Chromoly.

How is it better?

Skinwalls.

TBH neither leaps out as fantastic value. The Holdsworth frameset is only £90, but is Cr-Mo.

I reckon you could build better than the generic finishing kit for the £300 of the Mango and it’d be a lighter and nicer bike.

Sheesh, but I don’t want to build it. Just throw it in the shed and ride it from tome to time.

i bought one of the Holdsworth frames above in the frame sale, looks nice from a far, but it weighs a ton, flexes more than Arnie and the decals on it look like something off an Airfix aeroplane i made as a kid.

Tbf, having been to see mango bikes setup. They’re certainly not the pretiest nor at all quality bikes that would take my £300 odd.

Well, I’ve found a Charge Plug for £349. Better? And how are Bullhorn bars, I’ve never ridden with them but they would move the bike into a further niche away from my road bikes which is a positive… and it has more “gravelly” capable tyres. Canti’s though?

Cheapo hack? ‘viking’ or ‘coyote’ branded fixed/free, gas pipe framed efforts from eBay/amazon/ etc.. Should be under £200.

Now my initial enthusiam is wearing off :/

It’s nice you can choose colours/spec on Mango bikes, I’d love the idea of a flatbar Point AR,but for ~£300 new I’d be looking at bikes like…

Triban 500SE
Triban 520 flatbar
Voodoo Marassa
13 Intinsic Alpha Road
Verenti Division 1/2/3
etc.

If you fancy a 56cm Specialized Tricross Singlecross for <£100 (not sold as ready to go bike, needs replacement brake cables and front wheel at least) and can collect from Hampshire, let me know. 😉

State bicycles frames look startlingly similar to Mango’s offerings…

Review of Mango singlespeed here:

Review of the £299.99 Mango Single Speed

Lots of positive, main negative being the weight (12kg) but you’d never notice that on a pub bike!

I had a stealth Mango for a couple of years until I recently sold it due to moving further away from my local station, where the hills are a bit large and long. Great single speed commuting bike whilst I had it.

Huh that Voodoo Marassa is 350 quid and has disc brakes. Attack the drivechain with some ebay 1×10 and that could be pretty tasty for a pub bike.

Mate of mine has got a black and yellow original single speed Mango. Seemed nice enough for the money, but I think he’s ridden it about 4 times then never bothered again.

Saying that, he isn’t a bike person and drives 1 mile to work…

If you fancy a 56cm Specialized Tricross Singlecross for <£100 (not sold as ready to go bike, needs replacement brake cables and front wheel at least) and can collect from Hampshire, let me know.

If that’s still available I’ve a front wheel spare (why do I always end up building bikes like this).

That Holdsworth SS – is it a fixie or dies it have a freewheel?
Really don’t want a fixie.

Freewheel according to the details.
Mate of mine bought a frame to build up a ‘triggers broom’ as his Boardman SS broke last week. He likes it, says if feels stiff. It’s pretty heavy, but looks fair quality for the price.

You could save a shed load of weight off the full bike with lighter wheels though, they’re 2.3kg 😯

Ive a set of Shimano RS50 (something like that anyway) in the shed that may do – are they bolt on wheels?

120mm rear so not unless you cold set them out a bit, not impossible mind you, but probably better just to build a track wheel, you can fit a freewheel to a track hub.

State bicycles frames look startlingly similar to Mango’s offerings…

I needed a SS commuter as we approached winter last year, and ended up with a cheapy State bike. Not sure if there was much difference between them and the Mango ones.

It’s heavy, or at least it feels it when you try to lift it, but once riding it’s fine. It’s done about 1,500km since November, and has just this week had its first consumable replaced (new brake pads). It lives in a bike locker (outside) at both ends of my commute, so goes for weeks without the slightest maintenance.

The wheel nuts are made of very cheaply plated steel, and have rusted, and the wheels do weigh a ton, but not sure how much of a weight-saving I’d make if I got another pair, as presumably much of the weight is from the hub with a solid steel threaded axle.

thisisnotaspoon

If that’s still available I’ve a front wheel spare (why do I always end up building bikes like this).

If you can get over to the east side of Southampton, it is indeed still available. 🙂

I kept thinking that I would make it roadworthy again, perhaps even swapping the forks for one of those cheap Kaffenback disc forks and then buying a front disc wheel. But it still has not happened, ~2.5 years since… In some respects I am an idealist hoarder! 😆

Probably a bit far for a project.

But now I’m thinking I have a spare front wheel, bar, stem, seatpost, I think some brakes, definitely tyres, I could build up a la quelda for just the want of a rear wheel……………

But would ride as nice as a Singlecross, be anywhere near as light and have tyre clearance for at least ~700x40c front and rear? 😆

If it makes it any more tempting, I could throw in my blue Elite Volare Mag trainer, front wheel riser for trainer and 700c (Continental?) trainer tyre for £100 total.

I’ll have a poke round in the garage to check I actually still have the spare wheel and get back to you.

What’s your e-mail address?

n0bodyofthegoat at gmail dot com