Steel road bikes, who has one?

[Wahine]

I personally do not have a steel bike but my BF runs an on-line bike shop that deals in a lot of steel. He loves it and says that a good steel bike rides better than carbon although it is heavier. I have co-worker that just bought a bike from him. This is her rain bike, it's a Soma Double Cross. She says that she thinks it's a nice to ride as her carbon Specialized Ruby.

The BF says that Soma is really good quality workmanship and materials for the price. He does custom builds - you order the frame through him and he builds the bike up with whatever you want. But a build by him would likely be out of your price range. He could build a Soma for less than $2000 but not as low as $1000. But you might be able to get a complete bike from an LBS for around $1000.

Here's his website if you're interesting in just looking at what kind of steel frames are out there that might not be the typical brands you see in an LBS. Click on frame inventory on the left and the chart can be reorganized by clicking on any of the column titles... for eg top tube length (TT) or price.

Hope that helps.

[Biciclista]

Wahine,
none of those bikes are our size!
what's up with that? I found one frame smaller than 50cm!

[Wahine]

Wahine,
none of those bikes are our size!
what's up with that? I found one frame smaller than 50cm!

Those are the frames he has in stock at the moment but he can order other frame sizes and depending on the frame, can get them in usually within a couple of weeks. The frames he has in stock are actual inventory in his shop and are frames that he thinks are really good deals that he has bought on close out from suppliers. That's part of how he keeps his prices down even though he's a small shop. He has built a lot of bikes for smaller women but most of that is done all as special order because those aren't usually frames he can get discounted from suppliers and he doesn't have the room to keep a lot inventory. He also spends a lot of time on email or the phone working with people to find the right bike or build for them.

Thanks for asking.

ETA: I just went on the site, pulled up the frame inventory and reordered the list by frame size (click on the word Size and the top of the chart) and he has 7 frames (6 steel) that are sized 48 or smaller. TT length ranges from 49.5 to 52.5. Some of the 50s have shorter TTs than the 48s.

[Lisa Holman]

Thanks for all the great input! I love the look of the Jamis bikes, our local Jamis dealer seems to have something of a bad reputation (based on online reviews), but I'll probably go have a look anyway. As far as size, I'm 5'9" so the need for a tiny frame won't be an issue.

Is Bianchi currently making steel frames?

[sfa]

Is Bianchi currently making steel frames?

http://www.bianchiusa.com/09-bicycle...oad-steel.html

My steel bike was well under the $1,000 mark......20 years ago when I bought it.

[SandyLS]

I love my Bianchi steel road bike, but it was about twice your price range around 5 years ago. Maybe something like this would work for you. http://bikesdirect.com/products/merc..._serpensIX.htm

[WindingRoad]

I have a Bianchi Imola and new it was probably about $1400. I bought it gently used for $500 and I absolutely LOVE it. I have a full carbon bike too but I like the way my steel bike rides the best. I haven't tried a Jamis but I can say honestly Bianchi makes a sweet steel frame.

Here's a link to my bianchi: Keep an eye out on Craigs list that's how I found mine.

https://www.bianchiusa.com/typo3temp...74b7d56785.jpg

[Wahine]

My BF charged about $1476 for this bike completed, built with Shimano 105.