I kind of miss the no-maintentance-no-mercy appeal of my Langster and Cross Check from around 10 years ago and I keep pondering building up a new road singlespeed, but there doesn’t seem so much choice as there was back then…

Doesn’t help that at 6’5″ I’m off the scale of most geometry sheets; not to mention that when stocks of bikes/frames are being offloaded in sales it’s always the tiny wee ones going cheap.

Broadly speaking I could take one of two routes (pardon the Surly-oriented labels, they’re just one of the few brands that go big enough for me): Steamroller Style, ie caliper rim brakes, 120mm hub and freewheel; or Straggler Style, disc brakes, 135mm hub and cassette. Advantages of the latter include the fact that I already have everything except a frameset and a pair of calipers, and I don’t really like freewheels (other than the Eno), but I don’t mind taking the former route if need be. (I’d like to avoid canti brakes, though.) I don’t care whether I end up with track ends, an EBB or whatever, but I’d like to avoid a tensioner if for no other reason than just because.

With a slightly arbitrary target figure of £200ish for a frameset (secondhand steel is fine—but again, hard to find in my size) I’m really not finding anything cheap in the Straggler Style. And all I can find in the Steamroller Style is the Dolan FXE at about £240. But then that introduces the cost of wheels; which I can probably build for under £100 but still…

I’ve contemplated repurposing my Longitude, but that’d leave me without an MTB and as road bikes go it’d be a heavy and unforgiving thing with lazy steering.

Anything out there that I’m missing? Anyone got any gates languishing in their shed? 🙂

Have you tried your local cycle recycling store? There might be a decent road frame in there.

Have an ish suitable Genesis cdf waiting to be sold.
Suitable as in about the right size of gate, but would need a tensioner, it’s a complete bike, and would like a little more than your budget for it. Really should get an ad on the classifieds…

Also have a dmr hub with an eno and 26” rim attached. Just can’t seem to shift the eno!

Have a look at the Cube hyde 62cm with Eccentric BB. It may fit the bill.

https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/cube-hyde-pro-frame-black-n-blue-695500

I’m building up the similar Cube Travel frame up as a single speed with drop bars and a 27.5inch carbon forks and slicks.

Have a look at the Cube hyde 62cm with Eccentric BB. It may fit the bill.

I’ve come close to buying that 🙂

It does tick a lot of boxes albeit with somewhat MTB-ish geometry (and as a bonus my spare wheels happen to have blue hubs). If they sold the matching fork I’d probably have gone for it long ago, but I seem to recall I lost enthusiasm trying to find a technically/aesthetically/financially suitable equivalent.

Just can’t seem to shift the eno!

Yeah, they’re buggers to get off.

vitus

edit only 16 inch

Mattbike

Have a look at the Cube hyde 62cm with Eccentric BB.

Shame they don’t have any of those frames in my size. Clicks a number of boxes for a project or two.

My daughter has left her Cube Hooper at home. Basically a slightly upmarket Hyde with a better frame – triple butted instead of double.

It came with 42mm tyres, but I’ve fitted 50mm and they fit quite well, so has potential for a bit of monstertour™* type riding.

Bez, if the matching Cube fork is an alloy one like this one, it feels a bit “dead”, and if it was my daily bike, I’d switch to a carbon fork. Otherwise the bike is lovely.

.

.

*™ Malvern Rider

Is have thought an eBay search would bring something ok up in time?

Been trawling eBay on and off for ages. It’s amazingly rare that anything my size comes up. You get some big old steel frames, but “big” in old frames means tall rather than long, so they’re no good for me hauling a 72″ gear with a dicky back.

(Hopefully I needn’t clarify that by “dicky back” I mean a bad back, it’s not—as occurred to me in hindsight—a reference to a Derek and Clive sketch. Ahem.)

Was totting up the stuff I’d need for an FXE last night. Rear hub, freewheel, spokes, rims, calipers. Maybe a saddle, maybe tyres. I seem to be able to find nearly all of these cheap, but no 32h rim bargains. (I’ve got a 32h dynamo hub and lights kicking about, otherwise numerous readily available cheap 36h rims would be fine.) Hmm.

Been running a Genesis Flyer for the past year. I’m 6ft 4″ and on a Large. I’d say it’s technically too small for me (so you’d need an XL) Anyway, selling that as I miss gears.

I’d look out for one of those in XL. I paid £190 second hand.

I’ve got a set of virtually unused oe langster wheels you can have if you can pick up from sw London

Hm. Might be of interest, I’ll PM you.

I’ve just realised I’ve got some cans of Spray Bike in the garage, which means the matte black FXE would become a nice little canvas… aargh, I’m starting to sense the inexorable tractor beam of n+1…