What's the late 90s steel frame of choice?

[bikeworkshop]

This came with one of those horrible kona oe loose ball aheadsets and mechanical discs and a few other poor quality oe bits, but otherwise nice and usable. View attachment 823530
I made up a hope headset from tatty parts in the headset spares drawer, and some shimano br-mt200s (these are such value - especially compared to what you could buy in 2004) hydros off a colleague's surly.
There was an ugly but appropriate race face isis chainset in the box (the square taper shimano item on the bike is more valuable to the shop - I mean who buys replacement isis when their isis chainset has just fallen off a new £40 bb?)
Then out for a ride...View attachment 823531
It's interesting that it was covered with disappointingly cheap kona specific parts (bar, saddle, headset, post, seat clamp, stem, pedals) and then midrange (4s&deores) shimano, the gearing, hubs, calipers - apart from the rear xt mech, the showpiece.
View attachment 823532
Of course before this model explosif they'd gone aluminium, and after, the geometry moved towards the more modern long travel short stem wide bar style - so I consider this model the peak of usable steel konadom (the earlier matt paint 95 ones look the best tho imo) - although there's another adjacent year without these silly sliding dropouts

No doubt, objectively, you're correct. Sadly my financial means preclude such exotica, as lovely as they are.

I bought this kona in working order off ebay for £320
That's not an exotic price

 

[al]

Sunn Exact is worth a look.
Beautifully riding bikes.

al.

 

[Stinus]

Ritchey plexus must be on top of that list - most innovative late nineties design

 

[hamster]

One surprise left off the list in my mind is anything from Orange. The P7 soldiered on past the millennium in steel. I love mine, rides like a scalded cat.

 

[Twozaskars]

+1 for the mighty GT Bravado. I'll finish mine one day.

 

[otherself]

I remember Merlin Cycles (Preston UK, not the titanium USA Merlin) made some nice steel frames in the late 90's.

 

[kingoffootball]

Italian brands were still making very good steel frames at that point - Scapin Blato, FRM Race Ready etc.

 

[Monkeeee01]

No doubt, objectively, you're correct. Sadly my financial means preclude such exotica, as lovely as they are.

What do you want though?

 

[winjohn]

I think one can only answer the question posed by this thread through the lens of the budget available.
While a Ritchey Logic Rockhopper might be the frame of choice at a sub £100 (whole bike) budget, an 853 or Tange Prestige might outperform it but at a higher cost. As one moves on to rarer and more exotic frames, the price inevitably increases.

So if the question originally posed is a practical one rather than a hypothetical ( and interesting) exercise I would ask, "what's your budget?"

 

[finbar]

Sunn is a good shout - I'd like to try one, one day.

I guess it depends upon whether you consider Salsa and Serotta boutique or not (either way they are lovely!!) Salsa A la carte had older geo - a good thing in my book

I would put them in the same category as an Independent Fabrication Deluxe and a GT Psyclone - top of the line at the time and hard to find today as a result.

Another contender might be a Jamis Dragon - this had more modern geo. As did the On-One Inbred....

Here's a photo of my old Sunn. The build was rather prosaic at that point - it had been demoted to commuter status by then - but check out the custom paint. I dread to think how much that cost me BITD.