Endurance bikes - British manufacturers ?

[Jim]

I may have been fortunate, but my two 40yr old and one 14yr old steel framed bikes (a Holdsworth, a Dan Shotton and a Mercian) have never shown any sign of rust save for some superficial rusting on the rear dropout surfaces where the wheels have been removed and refitted over the years. Two have been resprayed for cosmetic reasons. The only "special" care has been the occasional wash, and a thorough one when the roads have been salted. My bikes are kept in my garage when not in use.

[Bmblbzzz]

Does quality steel really rust?

I've had half a dozen steel bikes and not had an issue.

If commuting or off road riding then yes steel isn't the best material but for general touring I think it's quite adequate?

How about an enigma xcr?

Cheers James

A few years ago I was interested in bike manufacturing and did some research. One of the companies I ended up looking at was fuji-ta the biggest bike manufacturer in the world by volume and the manufacturer behind a huge number of bike brands in the west; Cannondale, Bianchi, Specialized, Carrera, Btwin, Muddyfox etc. They manufactured a huge range of bikes at every price level. Anyway they did steel frames including 1040 which were robot welded, phosphate dipped (i.e. galvanised) and the factory door price of such frames back then was about $4-5 and they were much lighter than old school steel frames being close to chromoly steel in weight. It was staggering quality for very little money. In the time it took to hand assemble and manufacture one carbon fibre frame they had probably made 100s of steel frames. The factory door price for a open mould carbon fibre frame was $80 back then for comparison and I think aluminium frames were around $20. These prices included painting the frame but were just the frames and didn't include the price of a fork.
[snip...]

When is "a few years ago"? Just curious.

[mattheus]

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The only "special" care has been the occasional wash, and a thorough one when the roads have been salted. My bikes are kept in my garage when not in use.

I've only put big miles on Ti frames (not steel), but based on my ownership of steel-bodied cars I would say that keeping bikes indoors is a major factor in avoiding the rust worm.
Washing salt off helps (but then the UK can have salt on the road for weeks at a time)
Not living by the coast helps.

(Using stainless steel or Ti also helps )

[Jules59]

Thought I'd wrap this thread up.

After much "faffing about" (that's what SWMBO calls my in-depth analysis and decision making) I ordered a Dolan ADX Disc - Ultegra with Hunt wheels
https://www.dolan-bikes.com/adx-disc-2020/

[Jdsk]

Happy riding.

Jonathan

[pwa]

Nice bike.

[Tiberius]

That's just lovely. I like 'nice' things and TI = Nice (I have two nice Van Nicholas bikes, say no more)

Not cheap but not mad money either, top 'faffing'....