Am I being too picky

[FetterSteve]

In my quest to find a new ride I have been trawling the net but mostly drawing a blank so am looking for some recommendations.
What I'm after is a drop bar bike that takes 28c tyres and mudguards on a steel frame (to help dampen the joint effects of my p*****re prone lardy butt and the poor roads round here) but they seem to be few and far between based on what I have seen so far.

Anyone help with suggestions?

 

[vickster]

What about the tri-cross style? No idea if those do what you need other than the drop bars - kind of like a rugged hybrid with the drops?

 

[dan_bo]

Kaffenback.

 

[Herzog]

Dawes Galaxy
http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s21p2418

Ridgeback Voyage
http://www.ridgeback.co.uk/bike/voyage

Ridgeback Mercury
http://www.ridgeback.co.uk/bike/mercury

There are more on the Ridgeback site (the above are the first ones I saw)

Condor Fratello
http://www.condorcycles.com/Audax-Commute-Touring/9457-Condor-Fratello-2011/flypage.tpl.html

Hope this helps. What's your budget?

 

[palinurus]

Should be a few options there,

What sort of budget?

 

[mcshroom]

Are you looking for a true steel racer, or a more upright tourer style bike?

If the latter, then the Revolution Country Explorer is a good bike, along with the slightly sportier Ridgeback Century

 

[Norm]

Genesis has a couple of steel cyclocross options in the Day 01 and the Croix de Fer, and there is at least one from Cotic as well as the Surly Cross Check and I think there's a steel frame for the Kinesis Cross Light, but I'm not sure on that one.

And there's also plenty of steel options from UK frame builders.

 

[palinurus]

Want to carry loads (rack'n'panniers) and do a bit of touring, or is it mostly for lightly loaded riding?

 

[zigzag]

if you don't mind building it up, you could buy an old but good condition bike/frame built for 27"(630) wheels and put 700c (622) wheels on it. you would need two front deep drop caliper brakes, drill out brake mount hole in the back of the fork to 8mm. also set the rear dropouts to 130mm. maybe upgrade the headset to a modern one. i had a bike like that for two years.

 

[HLaB]

The Condor Fratello seems a good steel bike, it can take 28mm tyres and guards; scoosh (of this here place) has one and it looks good.

 

[FetterSteve]

Some good suggestions there, I will investigate further.

My budget is up to about £1200 and it will be used for day rides ( not racing or touring) and I would prefer a more relaxed ride.

I like the look of the Fratello but I read that the customer support was a bit hit or miss. The Croix de Fer looks good too and I have a Genesis dealer near so will check that out. I tried , and liked the Equilibrium but it will only takes 25's

The Cotic looks interesting and is completely new to me so will check that out too.

Cheers guys

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I'd go for the Genesis Day 01

The new Dawes Century SE looks good too!

 

[al-fresco]

Another one for the Surly Cross Check here. I added a Madison Flux saddle to mine and am currently doing 80+ mile rides on rubbish roads and canal towpaths without bothering to wear padded shorts.

 

[Scoosh]

I do indeed have a Condor Fratello and it not only looks nice - it rides nice too

.

What I would suggest, though, if you are going the Condor route (and is probably a good idea for any bike

) is to have a proper bike fitting. Once you have the dimensions of what you need, you have a much better idea of what size frame, stem, bars, cranks etc etc you will need for ultimate comfort.

I did this through Paul Hewitt in Leyland, Lancashire and then sent a copy of the sizing to Condor, who were excellent to deal with and through discussion, they made up the bike to an agreed specification.

When it arrived, I only had to straighten the handlebars, adjust the seat height - and I was off ! (I had checked over the rest of the bits and all was in order

)


One of my SRAM shifters broke 18 months after I bought the bike and Condor were very good at getting a replacement sorted under warranty. I have no complaints at all about their customer service.


There are quite a few steel framed bikes which will do what you want. The catch is that few of them are in LBS

.

Most good audax bikes will tick your boxes - contact eck, Noodley and the other audax guys around Forfar/Kirrie - they'll point you in the right direction [and probably suck you into their web and have you riding 100, 200 300s ...... in no time

!]

 

[Atyl1972]

i like the jamis bosanova, nice looking machine