Recommend a road bike

reanimation · Jan 4, 2013

Really fancying an Equilibrium too, or a Croissant de Fer. I'm putting off building my new road/commute bike as I don't 'need' it really at mo, currently on stand by I have a Paul Milnes Columbus Zonal Light alloy touring frame, its very light and has matching heavy cromo forks. I also a 56cm Raleigh M Trax100 Steel frame, the raliegh is dead tempting to build, I bet it's a hoot as it's fairly compact and sporty, though is a tad too small for me really and doesnt take mudguards or fat tyres... still dunno whether to sell this or build a summer road basher! :-S

I still have my Hybrid and it's for sale Revolution Courier Race, Hybrid was a great purchase for me, it's mega fast.

NeilM · Jan 4, 2013

reanimation":27z2n5pj said:
I also a 56cm Raleigh M Trax100 Steel frame, the raliegh is dead tempting to build, I bet it's a hoot as it's fairly compact and sporty, though is a tad too small for me really and doesnt take mudguards or fat tyres... still dunno whether to sell this or build a summer road basher! :-S

I had no idea about road bike geometry when I built my Raleigh, I just spotted the fact that it was in Reynolds 853, and that was that.

I found it pretty twitchy and harsh to start with, but the more I ride it, the more I appreciate just what a good ride it is. It's still a hard ride, compared to any mtb, but I'm really appreciating the sharp cornering ability and the fact that what little power I can push through the pedals, makes it onto the road in the most direct manner possible.

Go on, you know you want to. :twisted:

reanimation · Jan 4, 2013

Understandable the 853 inspired you Neil.

Well you've tempted me a lil bit more. Mine is only chromo but its nice as its a resprayed NOS frameset, uncut steerer straight blade forks and looks nice n clean and simple. I could cobble something together defo, only annoying thing is it's 1" aheadset so need to purchase bits for that, might be a good way to try a pure road frame even if it is one size too small for me....

The Paul Milnes is also annoyingly a 1"!

I'm part way through collating bits for a ratty looking Peugeot Premier, this will be a budget retro gearded drop bar relic!

NeilM · Jan 4, 2013

Both my road frames and all my mtb's are inch steerer. For the roadbikes I have used an 1" to 1 1/8" shim on the Raleigh and a 1" to 1 1/8" adaptor that takes the place of the quill stem on the Concorde. Both are cheap and give you a much better choice of stems.

Also, places like SJS Cycles still have some NOS inch ahead stems, or at least they did the last time I looked.

Your Raleigh sounds good, it would probably be a more compliant ride than mine, as I really don't think mine flexes much, but that could just be because it has been well used in the past and has work hardened a little :shock:

apache, sorry for the thread hijack

reanimation · Jan 4, 2013

Thread hijack or not, most of us seem to be in the same boat, mostly MTBers or rugged bike riders that have broadened our horizons and experimented so it's all roughly on topic.

All I have done is researched and studied the gemoetries of bikes I currently ride, still learning, still getting it wrong but it's fun trying new stuff! Thanks for the tips 1" stems are doable on ebay and stuff too just a faff to search for and limited search, I have a shim or two somewhere too...

These are like my Raliegh, mid - late 90's I expect, quite slim tubing.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M-TRAX-RACE-1 ... 35c1dc268b

NeilM · Jan 4, 2013

That's nice.

4130 is popular with a lot of the current small UK manufacturers that have their frames made overseas (as most people do), it should ride really well.

I also like straight forks, and replaced the curved steel ones on my Raleigh with straight carbon, pretty much to factory spec of the compete bikes in the late 1990's.

My Raleigh 853

I've upgraded the wheels to Easton EA50's and those Shimano / Mavic wheels are now on my 1980's Concorde.

It also has Ultegra F&R mech, thanks to the bay (where they are a cheap as chips), as the Tri-Color 600 rear mech wasn't too happy with the ten speed cassette!

Next upgrade will be a USE seatpost

MikeD · Jan 4, 2013

Ooh, that's rather fine. Any chance you could sort the angle of the levers out, though? It's triggering my OCD

NeilM · Jan 4, 2013

Nothing wrong with my levers thank you :shock:

Looks wise, I could do with rotating the bars forward a touch, but I'm nice an comfortable where they are at the moment.

It is interesting how different folks like points of contact in different places. My son just bought a CX bike from a very experienced and fast rider who had the levers set up so that they were almost pointing down.

All down to body shape, flexibility and what you're used to I guess.

MikeD · Jan 4, 2013

Actually I've tried bars that shape a few times and I've decided that they just don't work (possibly just for me) with STI levers. A shallow drop with a flat top (rather than ramped), compact reach, hoods horizontal, levers vertical, lovely. This is quite interesting:

http://ruedatropical.com/2009/03/road-d ... -geometry/

NeilM · Jan 4, 2013

That is interesting.

Having never put a road bike together before this one, I only had my son's Boardman ProC plus my mtb knowledge to guide me. One of the things I took into account was the total reach, as this must have an impact on top tube, stem, bars and brake levers. That said, I also had to take into account my unfamiliarity with the road riding position.

Now I have covered a good few hundred miles on the 853 this might be a good time to review the position of the bars / levers, especially as I have just finished the Concorde, and just like my mtb's, I like my riding position to be pretty much the same on each bike.

Recommend a road bike

reanimation

NeilM

reanimation

NeilM

reanimation

NeilM

MikeD

Senior Retro Guru

NeilM

MikeD

Senior Retro Guru

NeilM

Similar threads

Latest posts