rock lobster.. us/uk ?

[scant]

strictly speaking I've got british built tat ... but lets not start that 1

get well soon dude

 

[greenstiles]

Just as long as a frame is built straight with good tubing and the welds penetrate enough the rest is asthetics and a little snobbery..................as an ex shop manager i have seen some real American hand crafted tat too...................design and materials make the ride not just because it was welded by blind tibetan monks !!! and hey i weld too..............

 

[barry2017]

^^^^^what he said^^^^^
No-one here has mentioned fit, which is more important than anything. Beyond that, quality varies wherever the frame comes from.
There's plenty of custom built frames that are awful. .

 

[Andy R]

gary helfrich once said that you cant judge a weld purely by appearance. the final pass is all you can visibly see. this is in reference to your comparison between your kona & rocky mountain, they might both look good. but the time & care taken to get to that stage might vary massively between the 2 brands... hence the weld is just a tiny part...

but hey this is going off topic somewhat... classic net thread I spose

They'd be single pass welds anyway on stuff like that (so what you see is largely what you get), but you're right mate - we could go on about it all night and it is very OT

 

[scant]

^^^^^what he said^^^^^
No-one here has mentioned fit, which is more important than anything. .

purely as it wasnt relevant to the US, UK rock lobster thread topic

but hey this thread is going off on so many tangents add what you like

sausages!

 

[OrangeRetro]

At 300 notes the merlin RL is great value for money for an 853 frame, possibly the cheapest in the UK and if Paul Sadoff hasn't approved the geometry then he has sold out his brand and that would suck, undermining the US built frames!

I'm guessing the chap in Taiwan that welds the frames together builds more frames in a day then Sadoff would in a week, suggesting that he has had plenty of practice and is quite good at what he does.

So geometry.. check, tubing.. check, welding.. urm I'd hope check.. so well worth £300 and damn good value in fact.

The only way I would pay a grand for a frame is if I went over to the states and had a fitting for a frame.. I know bugger all about geometry, I leave that up to the people who design bikes for a living. If I was stupid enough to order a frame based on what I thought might be a good ride the result would be a grands worth of uncomfortable metal.

The two frames are a bit different, but neither tat, leave that label for a plain gauge modern alu Kona or something similar.

 

[scant]

The two frames are a bit different, but neither tat, leave that label for a plain gauge modern alu Kona or something similar.

sweet! pissing off all the kona owners now

 

[Crell]

...design and materials make the ride not just because it was welded by blind tibetan monks !!! and hey i weld too..............

Hey you leave Funk's and Ellison's out of this! :xmas-wink:

 

[OrangeRetro]

The two frames are a bit different, but neither tat, leave that label for a plain gauge modern alu Kona or something similar.

sweet! pissing off all the kona owners now

Only those pulling wheelies on their halfords specials! :xmas-wink:

 

[therapy]

"853 doesn't rust"

AFAIK, from Reynolds only 953 doesn't rust