Frame choices

[mr riff raff]

Fairlight Secan.

[rogerzilla]

Sounds like a 1980s synthesiser!

[mr riff raff]

Sounds like a 1980s synthesiser!

I’m pretty sure that’s what Ultravox used in Vienna.

[Ontherivet77]

An earlier poster said they had a steel frame last around 5 years-seems very short and may have been abused. I have ridden a steel bike for s daily for at leat ten years and all that is needed is a regular wash and allow to dry before putting inside.A steel frame will outlast mkost riders who value their bike.Personally I would seek a used frame and refurbish to suit.

Was that me? I don’t abuse my bikes but I do ride them, on average 8-10,000 miles a year. I’ve also had a steel road bike frame that lasted 25 years. It was my summer race and club run bike.

A lot depends on the build quality. The one that lasted was hand built by my local bike shop, who was also a frame builder - the late Brian “Pinky” Green of Langdale Lightweights. In fact, it was still going strong when I scrapped it, it just wasn’t compatible with modern equipment. Most if the others that broke were mass produced, where perhaps less care is taken within the manufacturing process, and you might get weakness within the brazing, which eventually breaks. The exception is the Mercian, which was hand built and only lasted 7 years.

Out of interest did Mercian offer a replacement on the frame that broke?

[David9694]

steel 531 - Ebay - ready August £150.

[nsew]

Depends on the steel. Many modern ones are not as good as our rose tinted memories remember steel. They can be nice but many are some what hefty despite having stickers suggesting a nice steel. This often only applies to a few tubes and the rest are gas pipe. I believe that some modern standards don't allow mass/factory produced bikes to be as, (shall I say flimsy?) as some older ones. Of course not universal but don't just assume that all steel frames are as nice to ride as a good 531 classic.

I doubt any gas pipe finds its way into the Fairlights.

https://fairlightcycles.com/inside-fair ... cba1185463

[mr riff raff]

I doubt any gas pipe finds its way into the Fairlights.

https://fairlightcycles.com/inside-fair ... cba1185463
[/quote]

Doesn’t want to!!

[RobC]

Those fairlights look nice and they’re clearly a well intentioned firm and I wish them every success. I just can’t deal with the ugly welds on their frames.

For me a steel frame needs lugs, and if that makes me a Luddite then so be it

[nsew]

Luggite? I don’t think there are lugs for the billboard tubes.

[RobC]

So make them / get them made

[Manc33]

I’ve had cracks in aluminium and titanium (twice). Every bike I’ve had for the past 15 years, except the current all steel Jackson tourer has had carbon forks. No issues.

Why can't the bike frame be carbon then?

[gbnz]

rose tinted memories remember steel

+ 1. Because old men such as ctc forum users like to remember the days, when people watched TV's, sent messages by pigeons, only camped in proper tents made of canvas and so on.

Have to say my bespoke, english,steel touring frame is cra....., really poorly made, with an abysmal paint finish. It's the first frame I've ever owned which has looked knackered by 5 yr's old, with heavy corrosion and fittings snapped off (Nb. Quite unlike the alu frame with carbon forks I did a 15 month tour on, or my 18 yr alu bike c/w carbon forks or whatever

[Manc33]

It used to be that aluminium frames (in the late 1980's) gave a harsher ride than steel, but not now. The last aluminium road frame I tried (a 2011 frame) wasn't as harsh to ride as the old steel 531 frame I had around the same time. That was the harshest of the lot.

Rose tinted glasses are one thing but with China now selling carbon frames easily accessible at under £500 with a fork (and they are even now at these prices here in the UK, or were before all this virus kerfuffle started), you're getting everything in the one package, stupidly lightweight + no road vibration. In fact the carbon road frames I have used have not only taken away just about all the road vibration, they even soak up mild bumps.

The only thing I would keep metal today is the seatpost and handlebars.

[mr riff raff]

[/quote]

Why can't the bike frame be carbon then?
[/quote]

Mudguard eyes, rack fixings and possibly the extra bottle bosses under the down tube.
And the occasional knocks a touring bike would get.
Carbon fork blades seem to be quite a sturdy affair from my experience but I’m not sure how happy I’d be with a carbon frame sliding down a lamppost within 2 weeks of owning the thing which is what happened to the current Jackson! I used some quality expletives that afternoon I can tell you!

[TrevA]

Out of interest did Mercian offer a replacement on the frame that broke?

I never bothered to take it back to them, I’d had it for 7 years and it was bought in 1997, so before Mercian started charging megabucks for their frames. I think I only paid just over £200 for it, so considered that I’d had my money’s worth.

I could have had it repaired but with a respray it would have cost more than I paid originally, so didn’t bother.