Been reading this thread on and off for a while, and I thought I’d chuck in a couple of observations. First, I really like the overall look of the frame. Aesthetics are important; I’m not an engineer, but generally when something looks right it generally is, Bauhaus School of design, fitness for purpose and all that. The drop-outs are particularly neat, and putting the brake caliper inside the seat/chainstay triangle. The chainstay/BB junction I’m in two minds about, it’s very similar to Evil’s Sovereign, which I like, but that extra brace looks like a horrendous mud-trap. The plate chainstay brace I’m afraid I don’t like, personally, something like the X-shaped brace someone posted up early on is much nicer looking, or a slightly curved version thereof. Take a look at the wonderful curved stone butresses under the tower of Wells Cathedral, to see what I mean. The screw-in cable guides I really don’t see a problem with, TBH. If running as a SS, then a couple of stainless bolts will neatly keep water out, while maintaining a nice clean looking stay, but allowing the easy replacement if going back to geared. RB’s comment about them getting lost out on a ride is frankly ludicrous, because the cable would have to be removed totally from the guide to enable the guide to unscrew itsself, which I just cannot ever see happening. I happen to like Brant’s frame designs, which is good as I have two of them, but that came about due to other frames not looking quite the way I wanted, which brings us back to aesthetics again. I wouldn’t have bought a Cotic, because I don’t like normal wishbone stays, but I do like De Kerf stays. When I bought my first one I wanted a dedicated SS frame, and I would have prefered a Dialled, but Mike doesn’t do singlespeeds, so they’re out as well, which meant an 853 tubed SS for £250 suited me just fine. The fact that a great many people had bought On-Ones and seemed to be happy gave me confidence. As it turned out the bike fitted me perfectly and is an absolute delight to ride. Brant has done cycling a great service by creating a brand of bike that has a hugely enthusiastic following due to neat design, good construction, and great ride qualities, all from his shed, which must have encouraged the other ‘cottage industry’ brands like Cotic, Dialled, Singular, etc, which is good for everyone on here not wanting to be stuck with what a designer in Marin County thinks British mountain bikers want. I love my two ‘Breds, and will enthuse about them to anyone who’ll listen, and if RB wants to interpret that as arse-kissing sycophancy, well, it’s still, nominally, a free country with something that passes for free speech, so he’s quite within his rights to. Perhaps, though, he’d like to sit down and design a product, put it into production then open it up to the public jury that’s the STW massive and suffer the same sort of critism.
