recommend a steel road bike or maybe Ti…budget £3k

recommend a steel road bike or maybe Ti…budget £3k

so far thoughts are Starley SS bike at £2.3k
Genesis Volare 20 or even Volare team 953
Singular
road Rat
Van Nichols Ti
Planet X Ti?

Road rat?

Ribble Winter trainer steel
You’ll get 3 for your budget!

Ritchey road logic? Not sure on the price though.

I like the looks of the Ritchey steel frames or a maybe an Enigma.

Planet X with a 3k budget. Nah, you need to think big. Moots, or Shand or Seven.

http://www.sabbathbicycles.co.uk/

http://www.fatbirds.co.uk/22285/products/sabbath-september-veloce-titanium-road-bike-2013.aspx?origin=pla?kwd=&gclid=CI_txKn06rwCFWjKtAodWXkAbg

Pegoretti.
Budget is for frame only yeah?

😉

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBPXTIPULT2/planet-x-ti-pro-road-ultegra-titanium-road-bike

I am afraid budget is whole bike 🙁

Rourke custom would be doable with that budget. Would be my choice rather than plain gauge Ti from china/Russia
Or something in Columbus spirit from enigma

Steel:
Pegoretti Duende
De Rosa neo primato
Colnago Master
Burls
Roberts
Bob Jackson
Brian Rourke
etc…

Titanium:
Burls
Litespeed
Moots will be over budget

Call me a snob, but I wouldn’t be riding Planet X, Lynskey or VN for your budget. With £3K, I’d personally go for the Pegoretti and a relatively cheap build of 10 speed Centaur/105 groupset and reasonable factory wheels from Campag or Shimano. What sort of riding do you want to use it for?

I’m about to order a custom Chesini prima, oversize Columbus spirit 1-1/2 to 1/8 head tube and a nice paint job, I bet it rides almost as good as a pegoretti* for half the price yet I’m unlikely to see another bike like it unlike the usual planetx/ribble/cheap plain gauge Ti bikes.
with a decent but midrange groupset and sub 1500g handbuilts it would be around your budget, the enigma frame is even less.
I can’t believe you are considering the roadrat?! That’s one ugly boring stovepipe hybrid.

*i have one of those too so at least it will be an informed opinion.

What size are you after? I am selling my Carl Strong ti frameset (for £1500 with ENVE forks, king headset etc) which will leave you £500 for an Ultegra 6800 groupset and £1000 for a decent set of wheels and finishing kit. You are NOT going to get a better bike for £3k imho.

Pm me if you’re interested (email in profile)

Oh yeah, the Strong has a 54.5cm effective TT

Titanium:
Burls
Litespeed
Moots will be over budget

Call me a snob, but I wouldn’t be riding Planet X, Lynskey or VN for your budget. With £3K, I’d personally go for the Pegoretti and a relatively cheap build of 10 speed Centaur/105 groupset and reasonable factory wheels from Campag or Shimano. What sort of riding do you want to use it for?

Funny how reputations come and go. Are you aware that the Lynskey family were Litespeed – established the brand’s reputation it still still trades on today (using the same family owned fabrication facilities that are now used for Lynksey), then sold off the name to ABG and started over under their own name? From a ‘snob’ perspective surely a family owned ‘niche’ brand has more kudos than a brand name operating under a larger multi brand name corporation?

Personally think the OP needs to give a little more detail about what they want from the bike other than what it’s made from and that it’s for use on tarmac. Racing, touring, audax, commuting, cargo….. or a mixture of the above. Steel and ti can be formed into very different feeling and performing frame – the Litespeed Blade TT frame I used briefly was an absolute bone shaker in comparison to more compliant Alu and carbon frames I’ve used for similar functions, which conflicts rather with the perceived wisdom of bikes of these materials ‘feel’ like.

With a bit of carefully component buying I built this for your budget.[/url]
P1070254.jpg[/url] by Cheers Drive[/url], on Flickr

Yes I was aware, thanks (I was also long-term Merlin owner RIP, so am familiar with ABG). But under their own brand I don’t things went so well with regards to frame failures. Having “done” Ti, I think I’d now go for nice steel. That Chessini is lovely, and I have friends in Verona 😀 . My alloy TCR was a better ride than the Merlin – by all measures, including weight!

Stunning bike there cheers_drive, OP should pay close attention to that.

+1 on brian rourke.
a custom bike should ride/pedal better than an off the peg bike, as it will fit you perfectly.

OP here 🙂

My riding is mostly endurance road with a commute of 15 miles each way although probably use my singlespeed Genesis flyer for that or maybe my boardman team carbon.

I do not race or do audex but do the odd challenge as well as sportives etc…mostly meet up with mates and do 30 – 50 miles on a weekend type thing….

I am considering quality steel more and more. i visited condor cycles in London yesterday and saw some beautiful bikes. The ti Gran Fondo is good but the Acciaio is lovely..even better is the Super Acciaio, even better the stainless steel Acciaio

i thought the same

had a custom brian rourke, measured up and advised by brian himself. had a great time

built it for about your budget with full ultegra, ritchey finishing bits, fulcrum racing 1’s

Thx cozz that looks lush!

Is the carbon fork coloured to the same colour as the frame? How much did that cost?

Condor said they can do that sort of thing for an extra £50

cheers,

I actually had the outsides coded to match orange, inner fork blades were left carbon weave laquered, so you get a glimpse of carbon through, rourke put a white pinstripe between the 2 colours, that work really well,

they have a great gallery on their website of all the frames (including this one) so have a look, plenty of ideas there. I especially wanted the scrolling lettering / font

the only thing I might change, in hindsight, it to have a pair of more retro/ trad looking wheels, but then again sometimes I like the look of the steel frame with modern components, so not sure

Heard good things about Enigma and Condor, but for the money you’ve got I would have thought you have to go down the custom route. I had a Roberts Audax bike and it was beautiful, fantastic macine. Only sold it because I had bought it 2nd hand and I reluctantly had to concede it was too small for me. Sold it to a slightly shorter mate who would die for it.

If you can up the budget by £200, I’d go for custom frame (I think Roberts is £1,500 for frame and forks), some good wheels (amazing what you can get for £400 if you shop around) an Ultegra groupset for £500 leaving you £400 to spend on everything else. Sorted..

For that money definitely custom steel spending time chatting to the builder to work out exactly what you’re after

Ok what is custom? I spoke to Condor and they offered a bike fitting and then 4 weeks to build. Is this not a custom build?

Ok what is custom? I spoke to Condor and they offered a bike fitting and then 4 weeks to build. Is this not a custom build?

‘custom’, as referred to ^ up there means that the geometry of the frame has been made specifically for you – i.e. they physically cut the tubes to the specific length and mitred the tube angles to create a bike that (in theory) matches your body shape.

Although I may be wrong Condor’s idea of custom is that you can choose specific components to match your needs (specific stem and bars for example) and wants (colour of paint, bar tape etc). These are then bolted to a stock frame.

To be honest a custom frame only really makes sense if you are an odd size or have some unusual needs of the bike. If you have an off the peg shaped body and off the shelf type function requirements an off-the-shelf frame will work just fine.

To be honest a custom frame only really makes sense if you are an odd size or have some unusual needs of the bike.

which made sense when bikes were in 1cm increments as most peoples needs would be satisfied.
i have a ‘custom’ pegoretti but its a stock size because they are available in a huge range of sizes in 1cm increments. if you go to an open mould carbon frame there is often only 3-4 sizes with big gaps in between, I’m my case the head tubes are nearly always too tall for the effective top tube i want.

which is why i’m going custom with the chesini i posted above but it will probably not be much different from a stock size if they did them (they are all custom, there is no size chart) but i’t won’t have a nodder friendly 20cm head tube that you seem to get with 56-57cm carbon frames

Ok what is custom? I spoke to Condor and they offered a bike fitting and then 4 weeks to build. Is this not a custom build?

no. it’s a quick bike fit and whatever bits you want bolted onto a stock frame.
looking at the sizing chart there are 7 sizes and as i want a 66-66.5 top tube i would have to go to the 58 with its 20cm head tube when what i would be better off with the 55’s 17.5 head tube but the top tube is too short. if they did a 56-57 it would be fine. you might be lucky and be the right shape for a stock bike.
if you go custom you can have whatever you want and have the stem length you want (i use 130’s dont like short stems)