Reynolds 853 frames…

Hi all…. first of all sapologies for the essay

I already own an On-One Inbred 853 frame in that lovely baby blue colour and i love the feel of the steel, it's just so much nicer than regular steel.. (see below)

My probelm is that i would quite like a slightly slacker head angle and to be a little less stretched out, on-ones do have a pretty long TT.

Do you have any recommendations for a slacker 853 frame? or do you even have one for sale or swapsies? mine is an 18" and i certainly wouldnt want anything smaller. so i think an 18"/19" would be good.

What you know?

cheers
Stru

i love the feel of the steel, it's just so much nicer than regular steel and a world apart from alu (obv.

LOL

(853 inbred owner too but not kidding myself)

there are plenty of non-Reynolds equivalents to 853.

go on….. aint got the money for a ti frame tho

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/853-is-it-really-better

that's a pretty good summary.

Geometry first, material second. 853 is just stronger for it's weight, the tube manipulation is what makes it feel nice.

i had the std inbred originally, and switched to the 853 one, felt a big difference in the ride, loads more spring. like i say, love it.

I've got/had both too, not to mention having ridden a lot of other frames. It's amazing what you can 'feel' when someone's told you what to expect 🙂

I'm out now – All you need is in the other thread I linked to.

I don't know how the geometry differs from the ON-ONE, but I have a Medium 2008 Cotic Soul frame (17.5") for sale. It comes with an uncut Thomson lay-back post and Salsa seat clamp.

chatty_timmy@yahoo.co.uk

Timcotic – ygm

Pipedream Sirius comes in 853 I think, not sure what the head angle is though. Same with the Genesis Altitude – 853, not sure what the head angle is. Also, be wary that the head angles that On-One quote might not correspond to anything you can compare with other manufacturers (sagged, static etc.)

In general I doubt that there are many 853 hardtails with particularly slack head angles. Slack HA hardtails tend to be more hooligan orientated, and those kind of bikes don't often seem to be 853.

Sirius ha IS 69degrees. Some scary reports on the weight of the things though!

In general I doubt that there are many 853 hardtails with particularly slack head angles

Dialled Bikes Alpine, Evil Sovreign (both guesses btw, don't know figures)

Ok, the Evil Sovereign is no longer 853 but you might be able to find an old model in stock. The Alpine is also 853, but I am guessing that the burly hardtails are unlikely to have the `spring' the OP is after …!

I think what clubber is aiming at is that it's it's all utter bollocks, I've ridden 853, 530 and DN6 (yes I know) and one other I can't recall, there really was any difference in the 'feel' of the frame.

Here too, owned a few d76 Inbreds & still have the 853 version, if there is a difference its not noticable to me either.

i've had a couple of 853's (kona explosif & cotic soul) and neither felt any different to my singular swift with isn't 853.

I've def felt the difference between different steel frames albeit they probs had lighter finishing kit and dare I say it rotating weight.

I've got a columbus ss (life?) that rides nice and lively (i.e. flexy)

Genesis frames are very nice and 853. Not sure if they'd have a slacker head angle though.

the thread clubber links to above says all you need to know really. youngs modulus says 2 frames of same dims but different steels will feel the same but strength will vary and the basics of tube section / wall thickness are what affects frame 'feel' the most. for 'feel', you can usually substitute 'level of flex'

OP – even basic cr-mo is known for it's durability, so i'd say buy a steel bike based on tube dims and geometry, not the tube brand (unless Reynold's UK made tubes give you an irrational good feeling, they do for me). the higher spec tubes could be made lighter and flexier for a given strength and there's certainly a big difference in comfort/flex/tracking ability (all aspects of the same thing imo – tube stiffness levels) between a frame with a 31.8 DT and 28.6 TT and another with 34.9 DT and TT.

the Altitude has approx 68.5-68.75 degree static HA with a 120mm forks on it. whether that's 'slack' or not i'm not sure these days, feels good for general trail riding though and it's less twitchy than many bikes (..similar to most good 'UK designed' bikes then).

Just ridden my newly built 853 Sirrius, and TBH felt no different to my Columbus Nemo Cove Hanjob that it has replaced. Looks nice though.

Have DN6 and 853 Inbreds and an old Marin Pine Mountain (Tange sommatorother) – no discerable difference in feel from each other but obviously different to the Alu XTC frame I had.

What about a RM Blizzard? Shorter top tube, very 'chuckable', great fun. Used to be made from 853 so keep an eye out.

The lads I ride with have a combination of all of the British 853 frames.

Out of the three we have (Cotic Soul, Pipedream Sirus and Genesis Altitude) the Cotic has the slackest head angle and the longest top tube.

The only other one I would suggest looking at is a Sanderson Life although I think the geom comes up quite similar to the Pipedream.

My suggestion would be a 19" Cotic (and that's not just cause that's what I've got!)

Old marin PM if 1990's vintage was Tange Prestige wasn't it? Think it went Columbus in the noughties before being dropped though.

Is DN6 tubing now S60 tubing?

Wasn't Brant's whole point of DN6 that it's exactly the same as what other people use who also put their own tube names to it – same for alumninium, etc…