I ride nothing but steel these days and I’ve been through a lot of stuff before coming back to it. Including carbon road bikes, which were lovely and light and stuff and fast… but also slightly dead feeling and they look tatty really quickly. Like JY says, steel will take tones of abuse and can be resprayed and fixed easy enough if there a wee bit of damage. They do look lovely too. Mostly, for me though, it’s about the superb ride quality and longevity of a well made steel frame. My current list includes:

Shand Stoater
Genesis Equilibrium
Enigma Ethos
Singular Swift
Ritchey P29er

Cheapy, badly built steel frames though can be horribly heavy and ride like a dead dog. But, as the genesis listed above proves, you don’t need boutique steel to get something that rides lovely and will stand the test of time…. as well as turn a few heads.

@rocketdog
Is that a classic swift? With the old forks? What’s the clearance like on those tyres? Contemplating some semi + rims/tyres on mine .

Personally, being from a road race background, I just can’t see past drops. If I’m doing multiday riding, I still tend to cover big distances and also travel pretty light. Much like the OP, I’m a carradice, and perhaps a bar bag, kinda person and I like to be able to push on at a decent pace when terrain and weather allows. I have found that getting aero on drops is so much easier… even if sat on the tops or hoods, just coz my arms and hands are closer together.

This isn’t for everyone though, as the above shows, and I think terrain, amount of luggage, and average pace have a lot to do with your choice. Multiple positions is defintely key though.

For reference, I’m on a Shand Stoater, with bars only an inch higher than they are on my lighter road bike, so still a 1.5″ drop from the saddle.

I’ve got a lezyne stainless one… well worth getting stainless IMHO. Never regretted it. Stops it rusting up in a damp backpack/saddlebag/pocket/garage

I like it… There, I said it.

Interested to know how it rides… Look forward to hearing about it tomorrow!

Lovely job!

I’m mid build on an Alan Michael frame, from 1990, built with Excel Tubing… very rare stuff. Each tube is made of 4 panels and there’s 4 weld beads along each tube. It’s got super short chainstays and a curved seat tube too.

I’ve got full 1991 8spd chorus to go on it, including hubs. Just waiting on the wheel build to be finished.

Thanks guys! Some good stuff on there… I’m favouring Glen KG just now, though that haul route looks interesting and definitely requires further investigation… some of those pics of them moving bits of wind turbine are nuts!

I think I’ve ridden that, years ago…. have a vague memory that it gets pretty rocky along there though. OK on the stoater, or one for the 29er?

I don’t have a fat bike …… yet.

Nice pic mate!

Ride singlespeed to avoid butt problems – you’ll spend most of the climbs either standing up or pushing – saves a lot of wear on the nether regions!

That’s the best justification for riding singlespeed that I’ve ever heard… despite being a little tongue in cheek, it actually makes perfect sense!

This is totally my kind of adventure.. it’s on my to do list, but sadly I’m a couple of years away from having the time to ride it, and train for it. Good luck to those who are riding!

shand Stoater…. absolutely love mine.

I’m considering a set for my ratchey p29. From what I’ve heard, they’re stiffer, but also absorb buzz well, so could, in theory, be more comfortable.

Curious to know others experiences.

Re… Spect!

It’s stories like this that make me want to slip into the skin suit again. I suspect I’m a long way off the hour these days though.

Good job mate.

The giro alpineduro look interesting too

Mud clearance is great. Rode through plenty of mud on the Selkirk marathon on Saturday with no problems… and I brought plenty back with me!

I reckon I could run a 2.35 on there without any bother. I’ll take some pics of the clearance for you later

Why thank you @thv3

Size might be distorted by the angle I took the pic… it was dark. I looks really balanced when you see it in the flesh. Medium 17″ frame, with wide bars and a 70mm stem the reach and handling is bang on what I like.

Feels perfect with 100mm fork – Hard to imagine a rigid fork to match it, as the rear is so complaint.

@vondally the new ones have a tapered headtube that takes integrated headset bearings for 1.125 to 1.5″ steerer… meaning you can stick pretty much any modern rigid or suss fork in there 🙂

This is why I’ve been waiting for the new ones. Wanted one of the old ones, but could see the difficulty in getting straight steerer forks. My Singular Swift has a straight steerer and it was a nitemare finding forks for it. That’s now back to fully rigid, as it was intended.

I’m in the middle of new saddle choice too – though my criteria includes a saddle that can support a long day ride.

you’re likely ending up with a perch that weights between 200g and 260g. Two of the biggest contributors to weight in a saddle are the padding, and the rails. Padding is actually not that big a contributor to comfort, as shape and good chamois in your shorts has much more to do with it. Shape wise, many manufacturers now give you options for a shape that suits your flexibility and riding style – like Fizik, SDG, Specialized and Fabric. Switching to Ti rails, from CroMo will drop 20g ish, switching to carbon will drop a lot more. However, I still have concerns over how much punishment carbon rails can offer. Ti rails will likely bend in a crash or bad landing, where carbon may snap.

I’m a bit off Specialized these days, after the Cafe Roubaix debacle, last year, but they do make fantastic contact points. The Venge, would probably suit your requirements, or the Phenom, if you’ve more a racey style.

Fizik offer the Aliante for more relaxed, upright, riding and the aliante and then the Tundra getting more racey, with a flatter profile.

The SDG Bell Air 2.0 looks like a good comfy option, with the duster offering a little more trimming down and more suitable for speed and power delivery.

Fabric look like a great option. Everyone raves about the the Charge Spoon and Scoop, and now you’ve more customisable choices from Frabric. The Scoop, with ti rails, is a fantastically comfy saddle with 3 shape options: Flat, for low race positions, Radius, for upright comfort and Shallow, somewhere in between. For comparison, the Charge Spoon is a Radius shape.

Hope that helps.

WP_20150507_22_29_58_Pro by stooopot[/url], on Flickr

OK, OK, it’s dark outside… but I don’t mind going out to look at it, it’s pretty

Yep… As above.

Might be amazing value…. hard to tell, given that the link tells me zero about the event. All I have is a title, date, location.

Would be nice to have a description of the route, perhaps some pictures, an elevation chart…. a rough map (I understand they may not want to give details). What do I get for my £49? Are there feed stops? How many? Do I get a completion T shirt?

On the whole though, still sounds like a lot.
Entry for the Selkirk MTB Marathon was £35 (pre book)
I did the 75km on saturday… brilliant event.
Great course, Loads of amazing feed stops, with cake and powerbar energy stuff, and cheery marshals.
Showers etc at start and finish… timing, and a free T shirt on completion. Great value.

Advice is was given was to “rest” and wait for my referral to come through.

Referral letter arrived 2weeks later, with an appointment that was set for 6 weeks after surgery.

I’m not sure where ‘our place’ is…. But if it’s that great, then you could say. I’m talking about royal infirmary Edinburgh…. And I had a similar experience after 4 seperate knee dislocations, the 4the of which resulted in patella tendon realignment surgery. I had a cast on for 6 weeks, hip to ankle. When the cast came off I couldn’t walk without crutches. My first sight of a physio was two weeks after the cast came off! TWO WEEKS!!

How soon would you advise someone see a physio to get advice after surgery on a cat 5 AC separation?

I went by reputation and recommendation…. I would certainly advise doing some research. Not just grabbing the first one you see in the yellow pages.

All the NHS physios in the country , might be great… The fact is that it is often difficult to see the, early enough.

So, lesson learned here, for me, see a well trained professional, with skill and experience, as soon as possible after injury…. Even if only for advice in the first instance.

You see… Now that’s better… Context and intelligence. And all sounds perfectly reasonable. Now, you’ll notice that I said that the NHS are there to get you back to work and resume normal life, not specifically NHS physios. This is simply the unfortunate state of our wonderful NHS. I’ll clarify my statement slightly…

In every injury I’ve had, that resulted in the requirement for physio, I’ve been on a waiting list that meant I didn’t get seen early enough to get me back to sport early. This is no fault of the physics. All the NHS physics I’ve seen have been great. That said. Both the private physios I’ve seen have been excellent….. Owen at Taylor Physio in Stockbridge, and Kirsty at Peebles Physio… I name the, as it looks like you’re in Edinburgh area. Both of which have been able to act quickly. Due to me not being subject to NHS waiting lists, and done fantastic work.

http://www.shoulderdoc.co.uk/article/60

There you go.

This, however, is nice and helpful, concise and well researched. Well done!

What a load of rubbish.

I appreciate that my description was based on personal experience alone, of which I have a great deal, and I mean no offence to any NHS physio… The NHS do an awesome job…. But I wouldn’t expect the, to get me back to peak sports condition.

Aside from that, if you really want to get into a discussion, then you might want to add some context or background to your statements…. Perhaps a brief explanation of where you’re coming from, or why you have a, clearly, strong view on the topic. I’ve every belief that you have something to add to this thread, other than to simply publicly dismiss something another has said?

Perhaps we just caught you on an off day, or are you always this rude?

I had a category 5 AC separation a few years ago… Some surgery 2 days later, including replacement ligaments, then 2 months of sports physio, started 2weeks after surgery. Was back on the bike riding, gentle, trails after just over 2 months.

Would highly recommend seeing a special sports physio. NHS are there to get you back to work and normal life. They also won’t, likely, was you for a few weeks and you could really start physio within a couple of weeks… Other wise it’ll stiffen up a lot and you’ll possibly develop a lot of scar tissue.

I’ve got the narrow PDW guards with 25mm tyres on mine. Wonderful mudguards, those Portland Design Works.

If the sun is out, I’ll see if I can arrange a BBQ… A burger would have gone down extremely well at that point 🙂

Jordie … Yep, that’ll be me. I believe there was some disappointment that, being an inners resident, my missus wasn’t at the bottom of the hill with the chilled beers…

Words have been had, don’t worry. We’re sorted for next year,

The shifting on X01 is simply sublime. I’d need convincing to go shimano.

Well…. That was a course that had equal amounts of brutality, awesomeness bringing on a comparable range of emotions.

Great day. Just over 7hours for the 75km for me… It’s a bout completing, not competing

Here’s my Shand Stoater
My bikes by StoooPotter[/url], on Flickr

Some lovely bikes up there… That salsa vaya in black is rather lovely

Clearly, you guys got the memo about photos of your steel bike requiring a body of water in the background.

I’m a big fan of steel bikes … In fact I’m now an all steel stable.

I’ll +1 for the equilibrium… And just because I’m selling mine (gratuitous plug … It’s in the classifieds, your size too) fantastic bike, just not as nice as my enigma ethos.

The enigma is wonderful, but probably over budget.

Singular do make great bikes for a sensible price and the osprey looks beautiful. I’ve got a swift and love it to bits.

The surly pacer is super practical, tough and rides well. Have a look at Sumo frames too… Very like singular, but from across the pond. Lovely bikes, good prices, well thought out and they look pretty too.

properly brilliant and inspiring video. My OS maps have just been dragged out the box too. Been too long since I’ve had a wee adventure. Time to do some planning I think.

Would love to know the route you took

I’m a NDS ST guy

Colin,thanks for posting
We’ll be lucky to get weather as good as that on the next one…
I’ve just realised the ‘Adventure cross’ series has a event based around Kirroughtree,
http://bookmyride.ipcshop.co.uk/shop/adventure-x/galloway-gallop-adventure-cross-2015
Anyone else interested?

Count me in too!