What Bike Should I Buy?

[Sigmund Fraud]

Get a secondhand 531 framed steel racer with downtube shifters. Remove the drop bars and fit flat ones. Spend the other 400 quid on something nice. A 200 quid steel racer with flat bars is going to perform better in every respect to an aluminium racer é hybrid...particularly in terms of comfort. The aluminium framed bicycle wasn`t progress, don`t beleive the hype.

 

[brixtonvilla]

Can I recommend a cyclocross bike? I bought one of these last year:

Specialized Tricross. Great to ride on the road (with proper skinny tyres, natch), but will handle off-road as well. I love mine to bits. No suspension, but a great all-round bike that will do more than one thing. I can't wait to take it touring in the summer...

 

[ChrisFilter]

Yeah, cyclo-cross bikes are cool - I was tempted when I bought the Acciaio

 

[Final]

yep - cyclocross for me as well (Kona - Jake the Snake, 2006). But I use 35m chunky tyres as I like to go off road a bit and I'm too lazy to keep changing tyres / wheels.

 

[haZe36]

I have a hardtail I've used for work duties ( Specialized P2 ) but as my commute's mostly road, I'll be getting one of these very soon.

Only £400 and gonna be a far easier/quicker ride in from then on...

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

... but as my commute's mostly road, I'll be getting one of these very soon.

Only £400 and gonna be a far easier/quicker ride in from then on...

£400 for that is a ripoff. Plain guage sterl tubes and clip on cable guides - they should be ashamed of themselves for offering that up for 400 sovs. You could make your own really cool and proplerly individual fixed/free bike for about £200 or for another £100 get a Lemond Fillmore or On-One pompino that will completely outperform the charge plug in every way and hold its value.

 

[Part 2]

Glad you posted on the Charge Sigmund, been meaning to ask what you thought of them for a while.

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

When I first saw it I thought it looked ok but spec wise it is probably lower than the Fuji track, esp in the frame dept. At least the Fujis tubes are butted 4130 cromo, the charge plug is plain guage steel aka 'gas pipe'...nobody has tried forcing that on the bike buying public since the mid 80's. That frame probably costs less than 20USD to make. The most expensive component is the messanger crank at about £60 retail but trade maybe that in USD too.

But it has a cool sticker, a brown saddle and bullhorns so it will probably sell truckloads to impressionable 30 somethings.

 

[haZe36]

impressionable 30 somethings.

That'll be me then

What you reckon to the SE Racing "Lager"?

I like bullhorns, hate stickers.

 

[haZe36]

£400 for that is a ripoff. Plain guage sterl tubes and clip on cable guides - they should be ashamed of themselves for offering that up for 400 sovs. You could make your own really cool and proplerly individual fixed/free bike for about £200 or for another £100 get a Lemond Fillmore or On-One pompino that will completely outperform the charge plug in every way and hold its value.

I'd love to build from the ground up, but it's a ride2work thing so I'm buying off the shelf.

I have a £400 budget which unfortunately rules out the flat-bar Pomp I originally wanted.

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

That'll be me then

What you reckon to the SE Racing "Lager"?

I like bullhorns, hate stickers.

I fall into the same demographic so I'm not one to talk

I take it you're in the US of A? I didn't know anything about the SE Lager but a quick google reveals a 4130 cromo frame and a nice, curved, butted cromo fork too (the Charge plugs straight plain guage would have ridden really horribly). It looks ok and the 2 reviews I saw were favourable. In America you're spoilt for choice, you have the raleigh rush hour, the schwinn madison, the Bianchi san jose as well as the Pista and these Mercier kilos which seem cheep and ok too. Plus the Lemonds, Giants, Speshs etc.

 

[haZe36]

I fall into the same demographic so I'm not one to talk

I take it you're in the US of A? I didn't know anything about the SE Lager but a quick google reveals a 4130 cromo frame and a nice, curved, butted cromo fork too (the Charge plugs straight plain guage would have ridden really horribly). It looks ok and the 2 reviews I saw were favourable. In America you're spoilt for choice, you have the raleigh rush hour, the schwinn madison, the Bianchi san jose as well as the Pista and these Mercier kilos which seem cheep and ok too. Plus the Lemonds, Giants, Speshs etc.

I'm in the UK ( smallpox thing is a Fugazi reference )

Cheers for your advice though, I am more and more liking the sound of the "Lager". Plus I remember SE Racings reputation from my BMX days.

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

£359 compared to $400 is cruel but it looks like a good bike for the money, esp as it has 2 brakes fitted.

 

[braindancer]

You could make your own really cool and proplerly individual fixed/free bike for about £200 or for another £100 get a Lemond Fillmore or On-One pompino that will completely outperform the charge plug in every way and hold its value.

A couple of months ago I got the Le Mond Fillmore for £270 off ebay – it was only a couple of months old and had barely been ridden…

Flat bars and spds now on and it goes like shit off a shovel – I absolutely love it, it’s my first experience of riding a fixie and I’m a total convert already.