Steel Frame makers? Who's the best value?

Seaneh

Right lads,

Looking at the idea of buying a steel frame road bike and building it myself over the next few months in bits and pieces, by the frame and then the groupset and then the wheels and so on.

So I was wondering, where should I be looking for frames?

I'm looking for something that can take proper mudguards, a rear pannier rack mount would be handy as well. Becuase of that I've been thinking of the likes of the Planet X Keffenback and the Ribble Reynolds Winter Trainer or maybe a Surley Pacer. But is where anywhere else I should look?

Kinda gone off the ribble because you have to buy a form with it and they sell it with the black storm carbon fork and I'd prefer a steel fork and I find they look cooler :P

Any ideas where to look? Not looking to spend more than €300 on the frame, and keep it as low as possible really.



Cheers.

The Big Lebowsky

How about one of these?

http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m2b0s143p2828

Seaneh

Carbon forks!

The Big Lebowsky

You could sell the carbon forks, and use the proceeds to buy a steel fork.

To be honest-it's difficult to source a decent pair of steel forks with a 1/1/8" threadless steerer tube....I know Ive tried...

My deep mis-trust of anything made from carbon is well known on this fourm..:pac:

Seaneh

I think it's a fairly ugly frame as well, ha.

I really like the look of the Kaffenback and the Ribble Reynolds, I like the thing tubing and so forth. I really like the kaffenback forks too, the only problem is planet x are out of stock on it and I don't know if they will ever have it back in!

FirstinLastout

Kona have a few nice steel frames that'd suit your purpose.
I've seen a Paddywagon built up with mudguards & carrier and it looked great.
Seemed like a good quality of finish with some noce detailing on it too.

Kona will generally sell bare frames too.
Try contacting MBW bikeshop in Moycullen, Co. Galway for more info.

Diarmuid

I have the ribble steel frame. It's a very nice frame "in the flesh". I went for it instead of the PX because of the brakes, cantis vs side pull. Couldn't find any other steel frame anywhere close in price

Idleater

300 budget on a (steel) frame?
I thought my Soma (http://www.somafab.com) was on the cheap end of the spectrum at ~550 frame and fork.

Diarmuid

Idleater wrote: »

300 budget on a (steel) frame?
I thought my Soma (http://www.somafab.com) was on the cheap end of the spectrum at ~550 frame and fork.

the Ribble is €300 for the frame and fork. The fork is carbon with alloy steerer, for what it's worth

Seaneh

Idleater wrote: »

300 budget on a (steel) frame?
I thought my Soma (http://www.somafab.com) was on the cheap end of the spectrum at ~550 frame and fork.

the ribbke and the planet x are both less than €300 for frame and fork, there are others as well. kona honky tonk is about the same.

im not looking for a built to order feame.

petethedrummer

I've looked into this and there is a general price point (1000-1300) for a full bike from the bigger steel providers. You won't get as cheap as planet-x or ribble.

Kona Honky Tonk.
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/kona/honky-tonk-2013-road-bike-ec044022

Genesis Equilibrium (no seat stay rack mounts).
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/genesis/equilibrium-10-2013-road-bike-ec043733

Cinelli Gazzetta Della
Strada http://www.evanscycles.com/products/cinelli/gazzetta-della-strada-2013-touring-bike-ec046650

You could wait for something from the 90's to show up second hand. They usually have 130mm spaced vertical rear dropouts but mudguard/rack mounts are not always present.

Cycleways have a 2012 56cm kona honky tonk frame built up with 11 speed campag for some daft reason, they might give you a deal on the frame and fork.

LeftBlank

Seaneh wrote: »

I'm looking for something that can take proper mudguards, a rear pannier rack mount would be handy as well. Becuase of that I've been thinking of the likes of the Planet X Keffenback and the Ribble Reynolds Winter Trainer or maybe a Surley Pacer. But is where anywhere else I should look?

A Pacer won't take a rack and you'd be limited to 28mm tires with mudguards. I have a Cross Check and I think it's a great frame. A lot of flexibility in terms of tire size and gearing systems (can run geared/single speed/fixed). I've use 40mm tires with mudguards and had no issues. Another one to look at is Long Haul Trucker.

LeftBlank

The Big Lebowsky wrote: »

To be honest-it's difficult to source a decent pair of steel forks with a 1/1/8" threadless steerer tube....I know Ive tried...

??

http://surlybikes.com/parts/category/forks

Should be orderable off Build a Bike in Dublin (they are a Surly dealer afaik)

Seaneh

LeftBlank wrote: »

A Pacer won't take a rack and you'd be limited to 28mm tires with mudguards. I have a Cross Check and I think it's a great frame. A lot of flexibility in terms of tire size and gearing systems (can run geared/single speed/fixed). I've use 40mm tires with mudguards and had no issues. Another one to look at is Long Haul Trucker.

28m tyres is fine I'll probably be using 23/25m on it anyway, I have a touring bike, this will just be for road use only really want to have the possibility of a rack for the off chance I might want to use it for commuting or something. But yeah. it's worth thinking about those points.
The cross check is alway another option, do you know if it's drilled for road breaks or just has the canti mounts?

One option that might be worth thinking about is buying the ribble and selling the black storm carbon fork and buying something like a Surly Pacer Fork but I'm not sure it would look the part and I'd be bumping the price up into the region of the Honky Tonk and to be honest, for convenience sake, I'd probably be happier just buying the Honky Tonk frameset as it will all match perfectly!

Seaneh

petethedrummer wrote: »

Cycleways have a 2012 56cm kona honky tonk frame built up with 11 speed campag for some daft reason, they might give you a deal on the frame and fork.

Probably a bit too big for me, I'm only 5'9 and have tiny legs and 56 seems to be on the larger side for Kona's road bikes!

http://www.evanscycles.com/product_document/file/a4c/986/582/2412/kona-honky-tonk-2013-geometry-chart.pdf