So the frame I really want for commuting (13miles each way, 4 days a week), training (usually 2 road rides a week maybe 150miles total) and some light touring (thinking of flying to Nice and riding home next year) is a Kinesis gran fondo ti. Looking at the calliper version so that all my current stuff will go straight over.
But...
The sizing is really weird. I like my road bikes long and low (short legs and long back so this geometry suits me) and fall between about 3 sizes. Height wise I should be a 55.5, stack wise somewhere between a 51 and 54, reach wise a 57 with a 120 stem.
So are there any other similar frames (racks and proper guards, would love t.i. if possible) which are designed more like a 'proper' road bike?? Or do I plump for putting a slammed 130mm stem on a relaxed commuting bike to make it a bit of a compromise?
Kona bikes tend to have short seat tubes relative to the top tube. Huge range of bikes.
Well, I've got one of these: http://www.vannicholas.com/8/Yukon/bike.aspx so of course you should too!
About as trendy as slippers, but's it's got quite old school geometry (i.e. headtube is 15cm on a 56, a Cannodale CAAD 10 is 15.5) so it can go low at the front. Semi-compact so you can get low-ish standover. The geo is also old fashioned - 73.5 seat, 72 head.
It isn't long in the top tube for a given size though. I'm 5 11 and ride a 56 with a 130mm stem. Van Nicholas used to, and seem to still do, a 'Tailor made' option, which I think used to be about £100. That allowed you to specify you tube lengths.
Other than that rack mounts, gaurds, long-drop calipers. That said, you would be srtuggling to get a 'true 25' in under SKS guards with no rubbing on mine. I do Audax, club chaingang, general riding on mine.
Some of the Konas look great, but seem to be pretty much all discs 🙁
Good shout on the Yukon, that's pretty much what I'm after geometry wise, but still a bit odd for the sizing.
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