Road bike / Winter bike / Touring / Commuter thingy.

Holla,

Wanting to do some road based winter training, have a bike for going to the shops and the odd jaunt with my roadie Mrs.

Thinking Sonder Santiago, with bull-horn bars because I hate drops.

Obviously steel is real.

Any other options I could consider?

Under 1500.

Have you seen the Spa Cycles frame clearance?

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m11b0s238p0/Frames/Clearance-Frames-Framesets

The listings state they can do custom builds using those frames.

Carbonda CFR696 frame, £500

105 disc Groupset £500

£500 left for you choice of wheels and finishing kit.

My Spa Cycles Audax frame and fork have done me very well for that kind of ask over the years. I’d probably look at doing something similar with something like their Elan mk2 if I were replacing that bike today.

2nd Hand Charge Plug?  The alu disk braked one that takes ~40mm tires and guards, not the steel version.

Thinking Sonder Santiago, with bull-horn bars because I hate drops.

Bars have crept lower over the years, back in the good old days the top of the handlebars was level with the saddle, and that was the default for club cycling.

Even on a lot of “winter bike / touring / commuter thingy(s)” they’re too low.  Flip the stem upwards and give them a fair chance. You should be able to drop down enough that your forearms are flat without your knees hitting your ribs (to an extent this is dependent on how rounded your lower back is).  From there the tops / hoods should be very upright / comfortable and you can use the drops as an aero option when required. There isn’t really a practical difference between bullhorns and riding on the hoods.

Beryl Burton, the most winningest cyclist in history, with her bars only an inch or so below the saddle.

Merlin have a load of ridley, orro and felt’s at great prices

not steel or bullhorned mind

Bars have crept lower over the years, back in the good old days the top of the handlebars was level with the saddle, and that was the default for club cycling.

Yep – bikes designed to look fast propped up against the cafe wall is definitely a thing. As someone with long legs I buy frames with care looking for a longer head tube (or stack measurement these days I guess). Not all bars are made equally either – drop distance can vary by about 25mm even before getting to the more weirdly shaped variants.

Bars have crept lower over the years, back in the good old days the top of the handlebars was level with the saddle, and that was the default for club cycling.

Yep. I’m browsing for a new summer bike, really struggling to find something that matches my requirements due to everything having really low stack heights, exasperated by needing size XL.

My current do it all is Kinesis RTD, saddle is only a bit above the bars, and I love it this way. And I can still keep up on the fast club rides.

As someone with long legs I buy frames with care looking for a longer head tube (or stack measurement these days I guess). Not all bars are made equally either – drop distance can vary by about 25mm even before getting to the more weirdly shaped variants.

I have the opposite problem, 6ft but I have to buy jeans in a short size!

Really what I want is a fairly racy bike with a very sloped TT and mudguard mounts.

I got the spa flat bar tourer built up, put some Jones bars on, well the cheap px ones.  38c tyres fit with guards.  Bought it for commute but it’s rock solid and not been nicked yet, think I paid 1100 all in.

Any of you ever run a Kona Unit with slicks?

I quite fancy one of those as my ‘not road’ bike…

[stealth ad] If you’re 6ft+ and live in the North West, I have one of the Planet-X/Holdsworth Stelvio frames from a few years ago that I built up as a road bike/winter bike/touring/commuter thingy, and have done all those things with. It’s not been used for ages and probably won’t be and I’d let it go to a good home for a very reasonable price (like, you’d have at least a grand left over from your budget for Christmas coke and hookers…).

It’s a lovely looking thing, it’s no lightweight but it rides really nicely.

This is the original thread from when I was thinking of buying it

Planet-X / Holdsworth Stelvio tourer – anyone got one?

There’s a picture of one here (this isn’t mine, it’s just one I found)

NBD Holdsworth Stelvio : r/bicycling

Thanks IHN – think I’d want to go bolt thru front and rear for this.

Probably irrational, but you like what you like, amirite?

Yeah fair enough (not that I’ve ever had any issues with good old Shimano skewers…)

At some point I’ll get round to actually putting it up for sale

I’ve just picked up a Temple Cycles Adventure Disc in the sales (£650 for frame, fork, headset, spacers & stem) and it’s a lovely bit of kit, bought specifically because of the higher stack and more touring-y geometry. I’ve seen them built with flat bars, bullhorns and all sorts. Tyre clearance is good for a road/gravel end of the spectrum at 700×45 and it rides really nicely.

Plus they look lovely and have XL in stock reduced still at £1588 so dangerously close to budget for a STW recommendation! Although I did build a better spec. one for less with the Merlin groupset sales on currently, the frameset only options are back up to full price 🙁 :

Adventure Disc 3

Yep – bikes designed to look fast propped up against the cafe wall is definitely a thing. As someone with long legs I buy frames with care looking for a longer head tube (or stack measurement these days I guess). Not all bars are made equally either – drop distance can vary by about 25mm even before getting to the more weirdly shaped variants.

Have been very relieved to read this thread, I always wondered if I was the only one who struggled with stack heights. Both road bikes (with tall head-tubes for their ilk) have stacks of spacers and flipped up stems, the CX bike has spacers + flipped stem + 20mm rise bars. Only the Gravel bike has a normal looking setup, but that’s because I had it built custom with an extra tall headtube.

Once I realised it wasn’t significantly slowing me down (by that most scientific of metrics – Strava leaderboards) I stopped caring though.