Best hand-built road frame

[GrahamG]

Friend at Venom, years ago, and LA Cycles in Coventry said "Don't bother with a hand-built if an off-the-peg is the right fit".

"We get lots of people coming in wanting a hand-built when they would be just as satisfied with a 74/74 stock frame".

I have to agree here but sometimes the OTP frames don't have everything you want feature-wise - although there are some shops take a very sensible approach to this having the frames built up in Taiwan and then finishing them in the shop with whatever braze-ons are necessary and before spraying, all according to customer's requirements.

 

[bugslop]

Paul Hewitt cycles, Leyland

http://www.hewittbikefitting.co.uk/

 

[vernon]

"We get lots of people coming in wanting a hand-built when they would be just as satisfied with a 74/74 stock frame".

A sizeable majority of hand-built owners would not be just as happy with an off the peg bike. They went down the handbuilt route to make a statement about their taste in bikes.

FWIW my Dave Yates is effectively an off the peg frame because it was made for someone else and I bought it unseen off Ebay. I'm very happy with it and I welcome the admiring looks that it attracts. I quietly gloat at the bargain basement £240 I paid from the new, unused frame upon which the bike is based. I'd certainly baulk at shelling out the full price for a Dave Yates frame.

 

[jimboalee]

A '74/74 stock' frame is a frame that is built to 'average' dimensions for its size and a 74 degree parallel seat/head.

The average bloke is 5' 8 1/2", so a popular framebuilder will build up several 54 and 56cm frames while the jig is set-up. 54 and 56 satisfy 5' 6" up to 5' 10", and how many blokes are that height?

The frames will have a rustproofing and an undercoat, and then hang on a peg waiting for an 'average' bloke to call in.

Given the choice of a £500 custom or a £250 OTP, our average bloke will 90% of the time go for the OTP.

When a 'non-standard' fella calls in, it has to be a custom.

I've had road bikes of various sizes. Some OTP and some Custom - Mercian, Venom, Major Nichols. The bike I found to be absolutely effortless and ergonomic is a Specialized SWorks M5 Road. Mass produced Alloy from California. Swap to a Corima wheelset and its on the UCI weight limit.

 

[fossyant]

I have an OTP and custom - the custom is much nicer to ride and better finished (my own custon designed pain scheme).

High end custom, at a reasonable price, local/near(ish) to me would be a Rourke 953 (stainless super steel stuff).

 

[wafflycat]

I have an OTP and custom - the custom is much nicer to ride and better finished (my own custon designed pain scheme).

'Nuff sed

 

[asterix]

I've had road bikes of various sizes. Some OTP and some Custom - Mercian, Venom, Major Nichols. The bike I found to be absolutely effortless and ergonomic is a Specialized SWorks M5 Road. Mass produced Alloy from California. Swap to a Corima wheelset and its on the UCI weight limit.

Get a 'Roberts' - you'll learn something!

 

[fossyant]

'Nuff sed

Doh.....dyslexic fingers.......that's my excuse !

 

[jimboalee]

I don't need to get another custom frame.

After riding dozens of bikes in my years, this Spesh SWorks and the Dawes Giro 500 are fine.

 

[jimboalee]

Hands up who has seen a frame being made...

 

[pubrunner]

I've had road bikes of various sizes. Some OTP and some Custom - Mercian, Venom, Major Nichols.

I got my son a Major Nichols last year - a very nicely constructed bike ! - - Better than my own in fact, but too small for me !

 

[jimboalee]

School chums and I frequently rode to Smethwick to see the frames being made.
An older boy at School outgrew his so I took it off his hands until I outgrew it.
Metallic green with white pinstriping. Full 531. 19 1/2" C/C with Horizontal toptube.
Campag C-Record group, Cinelli bars & stem and Milremo sprint rims.

 

[asterix]

I don't need to get another custom frame.

After riding dozens of bikes in my years, this Spesh SWorks and the Dawes Giro 500 are fine.

I have 2 OTP frames and 2 custom at the moment. Both the OTP bikes are good, after a little adjustment here and there. If you know well how things should be it's not too hard; if you are a novice it takes a lot of experimentation (been there, done that!).

One of the custom jobs was a disappointment because the builder wasn't up to the task or couldn't be bothered and it needed more changes than either OTP bike: gears, brakes, stem - it was a nightmare. By complete contrast, every time I set off on the Roberts I know it's a special bike, as it was from day one.

 

[jimboalee]

I've heared that story before Asterix.

I've never bought a complete bike from a framebuilder. Just the frame.
Choosing gearing is a scientific procedure. Builders get it mostly correct, to a sorts, but its better to calc them out yourself and buy the cranks, rings, cluster to your own abilities.

BTW. The 24T sprocket on my Sturmey is much better. 38 low, 50 middle and a 68" high.
Average speed hasn't suffered and I'm pedaling a much better cadence.

 

[asterix]

My gear problem was not the ratios! If only..

The silly sod had mixed an Shimano mtb chainring with 105 STI shifters on an expedition tourer. Back then, c.1999 it was a new concept and not widely known that the interval on shinamo road rings is different from mtb's. C+ mag mentioned it around the same time. He wouldn't accept that it wouldn't work, simply because he could get it to shift when he had it on the workstand. I even got an email from the late, great Sheldon Brown confirming that he'd cocked up. Didn't get me anywhere and I put bar-end shifters on and sold the STIs.