Sparton track frames

Has anyone had any experience of these frames? are they up to much?

Word on the street (ie: Velospace) has it that they're a little on the heavy side.

http://velospace.org/node/7373

apparently there was only 300 made :)

well they were on the king kog webiste for some time.......more on the cheap side of things which is not necesarily a bad thing....kinda like IRO frames revamped as lugged old schoolish undrilled unbrazed track frames

I don't know if these guys would ship to the UK, but:

www.alienbikes.com are going to be stocking a fairly decent lugged track frame as of next month. I was going to grab one, but got a sweet deal on a 70's Gitane a couple of days back. Don't know what the tubing is, but I'll guess that (for that price) it'll be comparable to an IRO or suchlike. The track ends are a lot nicer looking than the Sparton ones...

Sparton reckon they will ship one to the UK for $82, the frame and forks cost $189, thought it might be worth a go with the favourable exchange rate.

I've been chatting to a fella in Santiago who seems pretty happy to organise some frames from their end - maybe here's the time to do a group buy? I'm sure that we could get 10 for an even better price and ship by sea - I know someone in the shipping industry as well...

sorry that should be $199

The frames definitely look worth that much money, in my opinion...

turpe Word on the street (ie: Velospace) has it that they're a little on the heavy side.

http://velospace.org/node/7373

He doesn't say how heavy or what he's comparing with thought. If his other bike is a 10k wonder bike then course it's gonna be heavy. Need weight! :)

sparton say its 6.5 pounds in weight

There's also talk about the finishing on them being a touch shoddy (seat posts and bottom bracket shells needing framing, issues with getting headsets on).

But they certainly are cheap as chips. Certainly beater material(?)

Hey, for £160 shipped:

bikenut Sparton reckon they will ship one to the UK for $82, the frame and forks cost $189, thought it might be worth a go with the favourable exchange rate.

...you can't really go wrong. Even if it is a little heavy, no-one's going to be taking theirs to the velodrome, are they?

These days a heavy bike is anything that doesn't have carbon coming out of its arse anyway!

Not really. Track bikes or street fixed are damn light already. I noticed a big difference swapping from the Raleigh to the Twatster. Of course ride anything regularly and the 'difference' basically goes away.

bikenut sparton say its 6.5 pounds in weight

That is very heavy.

hippy Not really. Track bikes or street fixed are damn light already. I noticed a big difference swapping from the Raleigh to the Twatster. Of course ride anything regularly and the 'difference' basically goes away.

Yeah, I suppose. Knowall!

:p

what would be a reasonable weight?

tynan [quote]bikenut sparton say its 6.5 pounds in weight
That is very heavy.[/quote]Yeah, really heavy..

if you think your road fixed needs to be under 6lbs frame and fork then you should weigh yourself first, then maybe have a good shit ;)

bikenut what would be a reasonable weight?

It's not hard to find frames around half that weight ~3.5lb without heading off to ultra-lightweight carbonland.

so what would you have to pay for a 3.5lb frame?

£150 will get you a 31trum twatster special edition:
http://thehippy.net/nucleus/index.php?itemid=902

They're basically gaspipe that's badly brazed together, from what I've read. For £160 you could get a great quality second hand road frame. I know the lack of track ends means that it's not cool with the kids, but it will ride better and be better built. You could even get some track ends brazed into a frame with knackered paint, get it powdercoated and still come in at £160 with a bit of looking around.

Bit of an update for those after a new steel track frame of the lugged n brazed variety.

The alien bikes frame is ready to ship very soon.

From the horses mouth...
"The tubing is double butted .9-.6-.9 from Founder in Taiwan. The lugs are Long Shen. Frames are handmade in Taiwan. Tubing isn't as "nice" as 631, but I don't think anyone would ever notice. Frames weigh in at about 1900g"

They certainly look very nice in my opinion. Tight clearances, quality dropouts and steep angles.
Photos of the frame

And the website