Steel road bikes, who has one?

[Lisa Holman]

I'm a newbie who's thinking of making the move up from an old hybrid to a road bike, and after doing some reading, I'm thinking of a steel bike. Does anyone have one they love that's in the sub-$1,000 category? I've been looking at the Raleigh Clubman, some of shops are offering the 2009 models at $950 or so, any thoughts?

[staceysue]

I have no idea - steel vs aluminum vs carbon - it's all Greek to me.

But CONGRATULATIONS on your decision to move up to a road bike. I just did it and I'm in hog heaven.

[Biciclista]

I have one, but it's custom, so it's above your 1K threshold. I Love steel though.

[zia]

Thanks for posting this. I just upgraded my aluminum frame to steel (identical geometry). The new frame arrives in a month, and my fingers are crossed that it was worth the expense! I am attracted to the durability of steel. My husband's mountain bike frame cracked after 20 years, and it was just a matter of welding it back together. And he's good to go for another 20 years! My aluminum frame cracked (it was just 2 years old, less than 1,000 miles!), which has soured me on that material, a bit.

I've also heard the ride is great, especially over longer distances.

+1 for the Jamis bikes. They are a pretty good value. I ended up buying my first road bike used, but a Jamis was a close second. I have fantasies about finding a great steel frame at a yard sale and building it up myself... may never happen, but I do find old steel frames so beautiful.

[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]

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

[Yelsel]

+1 for the Jamis bikes. They are a pretty good value. I ended up buying my first road bike used, but a Jamis was a close second. I have fantasies about finding a great steel frame at a yard sale and building it up myself... may never happen, but I do find old steel frames so beautiful.

zia,
Sifting though Schwinn frames would definitely be worth your while -- look / ask for the serial numbers, and compare with frame quality -- there are tons of resources for interpreting Schwinn serial numbers on the web. I'm sure at some point you will stumble across a great frame at next to nothing. You can run modern indexed bar-end shifters on frames that have downtube shifters, I believe.

Also, many people will not touch bike frames with a french bottom bracket, since these are no longer made. If the bottom bracket is in good condition (e.g. cranks turn smoothly!), and the teeth on the chainrings are in great condition, and you like the crankset (crank arm length, chainring setup), then it can be worth getting. You will likely get a great deal on the frame, but might need to spend more money several years down the line to get chainring / crankset replacements.

Or even just paying a bit more for a known quantity -- my Bianchi Eros was not a bargain price, but I had fun so far decking her out in bling, and I'm now planning to slowly upgrade components.

[Yelsel]

The Raleigh Clubman is a nice bike; it works well as a commuting / light touring / long distance / relaxed-fit club road ride. It has been around in one incarnation or another for decades. If you have the option to look at some of the other steel bikes below, you might get a bit more for your money, or more for going up $100 / retail price of Clubman. Plus, since 2010 bikes come out in August / September, all stocked 2009 bikes are going on sale now.

I just suggest that if you take the smallest Clubman size -- 50 cm / XS -- look at a different bike. The geometry change of the bike / top tubes is "old school," where the smaller bikes have longer top tubes(!) -- many modern frame designs have proportional changes in seat-tube / standover height and top tube length. The XS in particular has a very steep seat tube for a 50 cm bike (75 degrees) -- this puts you closer over the pedals, so you need to move the saddle back to get the right distance to the pedals... which just makes the problem of the longer top tube worse. Also, women in general tend to put their seats back a bit farther, to use the glutes more. So if you take a 44 or 47 cm bike, look for one with proportional top tubes (Bianchi, Jamis, Surly). With some manufacturers, such as Masi, the 50/51 cm option might work (Masi has a 51 cm with a 53 cm top tube and 74 degree seattube - and the fork angle is low, so a shorter stem would be stable). And just as a note -- most women's bikes make the top tube shorter by making the seat tube steeper, which partially cancels out the shorter top tube, since the saddle then needs to be positioned farther back. Plus there are studies that women do better with more relaxed / less steep seat tubes (again to get more glute action) -- so I'm hoping that women's bikes continue to evolve to get a truly effective geometry for women. (Average leg and torso ratios aside -- which for biking are actually nearly identical between men and women, men's additional "torso length" is above the collarbone / shoulder joint -- almost universally women have a lower center of gravity and proportionately more powerful glutes.)

Other manufacturers with steel bikes for about 1k - Masi, Salsa, Surly, Jamis. I especially like Surly, since they build frames that you can do just about anything on -- they take road and mountain bike hubs (the dropouts are sized halfway between the two sizes, which is very unusual); you can usually put on two different types of brakes (cantilever / linear, or cantilever / disc depending on frame); room for *wide* tires and fenders -- so we can run studded tires and fenders in the winter, and skinnie minis wheels in the summer. Surly is a Minnesota company and the bikes are really popular here -- I love their Big Dummy hauler and wish it were in the budget. I plan to get the Traveler's Check (which has couplers to split the bike into two pieces to fit into *standard airplane luggage* -- without having to take anything off except for wheels). The Surlys are sized large, so you would probably need a size smaller than you typically take in road bikes. You would end up with a similar top tube length, and a few tenths of an inch more in standover height.

And don't overlook the steel Bianchis, my favorites! The bikes range from sub-1k to 5k. The Bianchi 2010 Pista fixed-speed bikes are gorgeous track bikes - pre-2010 the Pista clan looked similar to the steel bikes and fixies in general. I lurve the new ones, but can wait a year or two to see if I can start getting them on closeout.

Bianchi doesn't really make women's bikes, but the top tubes run a bit on the short side, and the standover heights are a bit lower, so I think they are women-friendly. Back in 2005 the only 54-55 cm women's bikes were Terry (and maybe Trek?) so I needed to find a good unisex 52-53 cm bike, since the Terry felt too cramped. I ride with the stock stem, but the bikes are so stable that I am certain that taking off a centimeter or maybe even two would not compromise the handling; I would suggest swapping the bars which are fairly large.

I have two steel Bianchis: my commuter bike is a 2005 Bianchi Castro Valley. Bianchi built a 1x9-speed commuter on their Volpe cyclocross frame (shimano dynamo hub and light, fenders), so it is a very versatile bike. It is on the heavy side, about 26-7 lb stock for the 52 cm frame... and now it's got tons of other crap on it. I haven't upgraded the wheels, but that would make the bike a lot faster. I've used it for commuting and road rides for years, and just got cyclocross tires to try off-road and maybe racing(!). This was my first modern bike roadish bike (after my 1983 maroon men's Schwinn World Sport, which was actually about the same weight, curses on the bike thief that stole my 10th birthday present decades later).

My new baby is a 1998 Bianchi Eros, a Craigslist find with only 350 miles on her. Celeste green, the last year for lugged steel frames, and made in Italy. She's a 3x8 speed, with lower-end Campy (Mirage / Avanti)... I'm planning to keep her a triple 8 and gradually upgrade to Record. About 23 lb stock for the 52 cm. I've already decked her out in some yellow bling.

My Eros was $580 -- and I might have overpaid a bit because I wanted the Celeste lugged frame, and the mileage was low and the bike in great condition -- plus I was the first person to look at the bike, but there were a lot of other people interested, not a great position for bargaining! You should be able to get the Eros for $400-550, and the next step up (Veloce) for about $500-650. There are also high-end Schwinn frames / bikes that sometimes go for very little on Craigslist and at yard sales because the people selling don't know what they have (ask for the serial number -- ones made in Wisconsin / Waterford plant are generally high-end -- there are guides to Schwinn bike serial numbers to be had for googling).

[Trek420]

I have one, but it's custom, so it's above your 1K threshold. I Love steel though.

Me too. A Mondonico Futura Legero. I love steel.

[Cataboo]

I'm a newbie who's thinking of making the move up from an old hybrid to a road bike, and after doing some reading, I'm thinking of a steel bike. Does anyone have one they love that's in the sub-$1,000 category? I've been looking at the Raleigh Clubman, some of shops are offering the 2009 models at $950 or so, any thoughts?

look into the jamises... jamis aurora and a few others.

[tc1]

I love my Rodriguez, too. It is definitely out of that price range. I have found that little custom bike shops are all over the place in the US, maybe you could find out what the custom place is in your region and find a used one for sale.

I am so glad that the aluminum bike I bought was a two hundred dollar bike instead of an expensive road bike. It has the harshest ride ever.

[Ana]

I've never ridden steel (although have been very curious about it) but if you're seriously considering a steel frame, don't forget Gunnar The make custom frames for an additional charge

[Trek420]

The teeny tiny itsy bitsy picture in my profile is my Mondonico and KnottedYet's gold Waterford cross (which was bought right here on TE!).

Waterford is Gunnar's custom line.

I <3 steel.

Some larger pictures of my bike here:

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=23195

My bike is out of your price range, heck it was out of MY price range. And now Antonio Mondonico, the builder is retired. But sometimes you can find one on the used market.

If you can find a Torelli or Mondonico bike in your size BUY IT!

[Triskeliongirl]

Terry is also having a big closeout sale on some previous years bikes, some of which are in steel. If you need a smaller frame size, they may fit better. The link was posted in another thread, or just look at the terry site.