Fairdale/Charge/Kaffenback – help me to choose disc brake touring/training rig!

I’m about to buy a new frameset… for commuting, winter training, cyclocross training, and touring, of course. I’m on a tight budget at the moment, and have proper cyclocross, mountain, and road racing bikes, too. So I ‘need’ sg I could use a bit for all kind of thing mentioned before… and don’t have to take care too much! 😀

I have found these (fairly cheap) options:

– Fairdale Weekender frame with Surly Disc Trucker Forks
– Charge Plug 5 (Tange Prestige) frame with Surly Disc Trucker Forks
– Planet X Kaffenback frameset

Which one would you choose? Why? Opinions? Experience with them?

Thanks in advance!

Rigs aside I’d go with the Fairdale.

letmetalktomark – 😆 Okay, okay… should modify the title! 😀 Anyway, thanks!

What is that monster blue thing at the bottom – the latest Funktion 1 incarnation? Edit: Or is it in fact very old?

On topic – I’ve got a kaffenback for commuting and it works.

On another forum, a frequent poster built up a “Tea & Coffee” Kaffenback up for his better half, looked a really nice bike and no mention of irregular tube sizes. 😆

Orange RX9 framesets at £199 at Bike Scene too.

I bought a Charge Plug for more or less what you describe (no CX for me though). Its really nice, the frame has a skinny tube classic look to it and I’m more than happy with the way it rides. Loaded up for touring it did have a slightly soft feel to the back end, could be partially apportioned to the rack and the skinny tubes, in future I’ll load it up differently. The Prestige tubeset was the clincher, I knew they rode nice and of course its debateable whether I’d notice any difference to the PX and Fairdale but it helped make my mind up.
Charge Plug by Bigbroondug[/url], on Flickr

Have you looked at the surly straggler? I do love a good surly and running a pacer and now its probably gonna be around a long time if it keeps riding as good as it is

Blatant plug ( no pun intended), selling my Charge Plug 5 titanium bike in the classifieds.

Got a Kaffenback to ride to work, does what it’s suppose to do a tad hefty but it’s fine for my use.

Cheers, Steve

My Fairdale Weekender, not to everyones taste but I can’t fault it really. The bmx style drop in headset is a work of genius.

Had a Kaffenback previously, wanted to love it, but was never quite the bike I wanted. No real logic to explain that just how I felt about it….

YoKaiser – What kind of forks are that?

Andy_Sweet – What’s the size of the frame? And what about the orignal forks? Are these Kinesis better?

I’ve got a Kaff and it’ll do exactly what you want but by gosh is it dull to ride. It’s supremely versatile and will do all you ask of it but don’t expect it to inspire you to want to ride it. Mine has now been relegated to tow-path and gnarmac duties.

I’ve got a Kaff and it’ll do exactly what you want but by gosh is it dull to ride. It’s supremely versatile and will do all you ask of it but don’t expect it to inspire you to want to ride it. Mine has now been relegated to tow-path and gnarmac duties.

Can echo that! If the OP is after a tool it’s a great choice.
It’s like my Mk1 Yaris Diesel, does the job cheaply but won’t really make you smile while doing it.

Cheers, Steve

drotos,the are Genesis CDF forks bought form 18 Bikes. They were £100 but have since went up to £150. I figured they’d loose a chunk of weight of the bike and improve handling a bit. I should have used the lowrider mounts for my recent touring outing but I had rear racks and had already spent a bit, next time I will utilise them.

Rode my Kaff to work today…. was overtaken by a chap on a full carbon rig…. He was definitely no fitter than me it was must have been the carbon… honest….. 🙄

Cheers, Steve…. off to eat some more pies..

Drotos – Size med. They’re kinesis carbon forks so considerably lighter than the Fairdale forks I imagine…

Andy_Sweet – I’ve just realized, that the 2013 Weekender frames were a litte bit different from yours… 🙁

Drotos – I’ve no idea what year mine was. Got it from Triton for £120 or thereabouts if I remember correctly…

Plug 5.

A friend upgraded from his Kaffenback to the plug.

I’ve built one up for my old man and he won’t rude anything but good steel.

I’ve ridden one and I’m tempted to get one too but lack space for 10 bikes lol.