Anyone still have a steel bike?

[Tab]

i had mine out today -

I had my 04 Richard Sachs full Record, Campagnolo Hyperon tubbies out for 80 mile spin with 12,000' of climbing yesterday. Sweeeet!
Left my C50 in the garage.

BTW Ritchie,
How long for my new one???

[onyourleft]

onyourleft, I've heard good things about Time frames. If you get a chance to throw your leg over one give it a try.
Just what I've heard. If I was buying a CF frame it would be my top choice. Not that my opinion means much.

I certainly will, if/when I have the chance to go to a Time dealer. None in my area, I have to drive 2-3 hours to NYC area.

Here's one I'd like to put 50 miles on, the new Raleigh Team. It almost reminds me of a Ridley Noah. The geom in 57 looks good so far, but I don't know the weight:

[popawheelie]

I'm not sure about this but hasn't Raliegh gone through a few major changes in ownership over the years?
Who owns them now? Who is behind the designing and where are they made. I'm not down on them per se, but when it comes to designing and building a bike with lively well behaved feel, everything has to come together.
I think that might be why the Times have such a good reputation. They are designed a bult in house. They have alot of experience and have produced alot of frames. They know what works and what doesn't.
The Raliegh pictured looks great. But it might be a dead frame. Who knows?

[cadence90]

I wonder how long the wait is on a Sachs nowadays - anyone know? Still around 2 years?

I thought more, almost double that.
I still want one next week, though. Every week I want one next week....

[onyourleft]

To the best of my knowledge, Raleigh still has some pretty good designers. I can say that about the '02 & '03 Raleigh "Heritage" series anyway, which were the Professional + Chorus and International + Centaur (Columbus Zona) and Team + Record (Airplane) that were built for just those 2 years. (The last Airplane Team's were '04, but they were no longer OEM'ed with Record, they were D/A) Based on my experience with the Pro for the past 2 years 4 months, I would say it is the equal of any other 'non-custom' Zona Megatube frame, because the geom and welding were very well done for that tubeset, at least on the 56 size I have. I would be willing to put this frame up against any other similar Zona frame designed/built in Europe.

If this exact frame had "Orbea" or "Cinelli" or "Merckx" printed on it, it would have been at least 50% more in price. But I will argue that the extra $400.+ would not have bought a better stock-size Zona frame.

I've read somewhere that Bob Roll said the '02/'03 Pro was a "near-perfect" bike even in its OEM form, and Bicycling mag also gave it a rave in '02, (but they rave about too many bikes really ). Also for those model year's they produced only 250 Team's - each was numbered, and the geom was adjusted from the Pro's & Int'nl's geom to account for the Airplane tubing and Carve seat stays. I think at that time, Raleigh's designers were as competent as any in the world.

The fact that I've kept my '03 Pro for so long now says a lot. I bought the frame/fork/HS and then built it the way I wanted, though I did not like the OEM Columbus Link fork (surely a cost-cutting measure on Raleigh's part), so I replaced it with a Muscle. If this frame had proved inferior, I would have sold it quickly thereafter.

The fact that the tubesets were sent to the Far East for welding & painting is really not an issue that concerns performance or aesthetics, as long as the workmanship was high quality, which it was.

As far as how well the current Raleigh CF frames are designed and built, I don't know yet. They have certainly gone through different ownerships over the years and perhaps different philosophies, but from what I've seen of Raleigh's top models since '02, they deserve to be counted as a serious road bike - even though they may not carry the Euro-panache that other marques may have.

...in my semi-humble opinion!

[jerk]

when will this new bike be around jerk.
doubleD

it's already built and it will have its raw finish clear-coated for all to see at the nahbs show this spring. then it'll go off to jb's for some paint and then it'll be ready to get picked up. so this spring/summer sounds reasonable. it'll be built up with some stuff and ridden around and raced some.

jerk

[onyourleft]

So it's getting a Joe Bell paint job. Very nice.

But what's the mystery, jerk? What frame is it?

[geraldatwork]

Certainly no weight weenie, but I just came back from a 12 mile ride on my Raleigh Super Course from 1982. It weighs 23 1/2 lbs and was merchandised as a low to mid range model at the time. I upgraded it at the time with Shimano 600 components, the for runner for Ultegra. It was a cold 24 degrees F when I went out and still haven't warmed up 30 minute later as I type this.

[popawheelie]

Onyourleft, I didn't make myself very clear. I wasn't talking about the steel frames. I'm no frame maker. From what I've read there are some nice steel frames out there. You can even pick up an older one as long as it isn't damaged. And the ride is great.
It's the carbon frames out there that are light and stiff but can have a dead feel to them.
It seems that it's harder to make a carbon frame that feels alive under you. The numbers say it is stiff or whatever but it's imposible to put a number on feel.
I don't trust reviews very much. I do read them and they are a good tool to help you narrow down the field. But in the end you have to ride the bike to know. Even then I don't know if I would notice the difference unless they were back to back rides and long enough to get an impression.
Right now I'm looking for a full suspension mtb but I won't buy one until I ride a few of them. Ride quality of mtbs has alot of variables. The suspention length goes form 1" to 6" in the rear. I will nail it down. If shops don't let me ride one on the dirt I'm not buying from them. I'll just buy one mail order if I have to. The last time I bought from a shop it was really hard for them to let me ride the bikes. I have learned alot since then so it should be a different story.

[carbonfiberone]

Heres some of mine

Colnago masterlight-- 17.9 LBS Nothing fancy
Merckx MX Leader
Pinarello
Caloi--This is Sean Yates early 90's team Motorola team bike ( Merckx )
Bottecchia
Montagner

[martin]

Heres some of mine

Colnago masterlight-- 17.9 LBS Nothing fancy
Merckx MX Leader
Pinarello
Caloi--This is Sean Yates early 90's team Motorola team bike ( Merckx )
Bottecchia
Montagner

Very cool collection you got there

*makes mental note to take a piccie of all my stell studs once*

[jerk]

So it's getting a Joe Bell paint job. Very nice.

But what's the mystery, jerk? What frame is it?

no mystery-
its a richard sachs that the jerk has been waiting for. should be a nice bike.

the other bikes in the pipeline are a colnago extreme power and a little carbon fiber conconction being built right here in the work shop at home.

jerk

[Steponas]

I have a Sintesi steel frame. I bought it a few years ago but only now am I going to build it up with 2007 Record.
It`s Deda tubing , oversize EOM 16.5 , it`s a very nice frame , Ritchey rear drop-outs , I`ve got a Columbus Muscle full-carb fork on it. The frame weighs about 1.2 kg.

[Kuiper]

I had two, one is hanging right now as decal at my bedroom. (my first frame ever.)



And I sold this one:

[onyourleft]

Heres some of mine

Colnago masterlight-- 17.9 LBS Nothing fancy
Merckx MX Leader
Pinarello
Caloi--This is Sean Yates early 90's team Motorola team bike ( Merckx )
Bottecchia
Montagner

Should I come to visit with a BIG magnet?


Hey jerk -

Is it going to be the standard RS red, or did you go for something a little more adventurous?