New theft, New project

Having had my Orbea Onix stolen from outside my office this week i'm thinking about a total change with the insurance money and going for a steel frame.

I wanted to try and seek some good advice as to whether this might be a good or bad idea. My budget is £1,000 and thus that's going to either get me a carbon frame with totally budget groupset or a steel frame with a pretty solid groupset from what i can see.

Not really sure where to go to buy said steel frame'd bike in London so if anyone has any tips there that'd also be handy.

Buy a used frame from on here?
You'd save yourself some money and could get a more expensive frame for half the price!

For a grand defiantly source used parts if you are planning to build.

Steel vs Carbon is a totally different discussion based on your usage.

There are decent OTPs out there for that budget.

The problem i've got is that the insurance has to be paid to a store as a credit which i can then use. I get to choose the store (as long as the store will accept it) but that still gives me a slight issue.

Main use of the bike is my daily commute, which has just halved due to moving, and is now only about 6 miles .... I used to do it on my steely but the carbon was a whole different beast, but then the steely had VERY old components so it would be different. I can't imagine that with good components on a steel frame, and at that distance, that i'd notice much difference would I ?

Plus i still prefer the look of a nice geared steely !!

For commuting in London steel would be an ideal material.

As per the store credit, I'd decide what I want and then chose (any) store for credit.

In your situation i'd lean towards OTPs over custom built.

But shops like Fitzrovia cycles stock a lot of used/NOS steel frames (Example). So you can get a steel geared bike built there.

Perfect, that's just what i was looking for really. I'll give them a call at lunch and see what they say. There any other places like that about ?

Excusing all ignorance as well .. OTPs ??

'Off the peg'. Basically non-custom.

Ah cool. There just aren't many nice steel OTP's out there that i can find ?!?! Or am i just looking in the wrong places ?

Perfect, that's just what i was looking for really. I'll give them a call at lunch and see what they say. There any other places like that about ?

Excusing all ignorance as well .. OTPs ??

Yep, give us a call on 02076315060 (I'm one of the co-owners at Fitzrovia Bicycles). A budget of £1k is more than ample to build a really nice steel road bike, plus with a custom build you obviously get to decide exactly how it's going to look (to an extent).

Cheers.

Genesis Equilibrium is about as good as you'll get, probably. http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/bikes/road/equilibrium/equilibrium-00 That comes within budget and is stocked at Evans. Or do that^

Based on my mates recent experience, I'd also recommend Pearson.

http://www.pearsoncycles.co.uk/store/

Although from a browse of their site they might be a bit toppy. I would also have a look at the Kinesis TK3 if you're after a practical road bike.

Who did you use for insurance by the way?

Have spoken to Fitzrovia, so will go from there, see what they come back with in terms of quotes etc, and if not i'll think about the OTP stuff.

Cycleguard for the insurance Hugo.

Good news, insurance is paying out. Store credit will be with me in the coming days. So the new build will begin. My thoughts so far are this NOS Deda Zero steel frame:

Then:

Shimano 105 Black
Thomson Elite In Line seatpost
Selle Italia SLR saddle
Thomson Elite Stem
ProBar PLT Compact Bars
Veloflex master Tyres

Only thing i really need some advice on is rims. I want something that's maybe 40-45mm deep, black, black braking surface. From there i'm struggling, I don't really know what to get in terms of rims, hubs and spokes. I regret to say that i will be on a bit of a budget for the wheels (probably around £300).

Help would be great. Bloody looking forward to getting this built up though !!

Deep rims for commuting? Dont do it.
If you go Alu they'll be heavier (for aero advantage that you dont really need while commuting), if you go carbon braking wont be as good, esp in wet.

If you want aesthetics with alu rims the anodised braking surface wont stay black.

Ok cool, well what do you reckon for rims then ? Just a black box rim ?

For comfort while commuting in London a wider rim like archetype or TB14 would work both functionally and aesthetically. Velocity A23 if you dont mind silver braking surface.

This shop on ebay is doing them pretty cheap and handbuilt too.
Novatech/Miche hubs arent bad at all.
If you email him he can offer further discount as he doesent have to pay ebay fees.

I'd also recommend to go for a 25mm+ wider tyres according to your frame and fork clearance for added comfort and pump them up properly.

Ah perfrect, those would do the trick great !!!! Thanks !

.. my 2p .. don't put Thomson kit on a road frame!

But seriously you could use an alloy rim like HPlus Archtypes in silver if you want something deeper rimmed all one colour for no brake track showing asthetics etc ..

You could use an alloy rim like HPlus Archtypes in silver if you want something deeper rimmed all one colour for no brake track showing asthetics etc

I'd do that too (tb14 instead of archetype) + silver finishing kit + white saddle + white tape

Don't lock it up outside/Insure it ;)

Edit: Black archetybes look like this when braked on:

Something like this: http://www.stradawheels.co.uk/classic-campagnolo-record-rebuild-with-h-plus-son-tb14-rims/

Hmmn, that's food for thought on the braking surfaces. That would suck if they went like that really quickly !! i quite like the dark grey with black text for the archetypes - same problem with the braking surface though i guess .....

Any particular reason for the lack of Thomson gear / what would you recommend instead ?

I would go box rim, i've just already done a retro build with box rims / single speed - so don't really want to do the same again.

Any anodised braking surface will wear off.
It generally takes a week maybe for them to wear off. Or a single wet weather ride.
Just go silver or black rim + silver surface.

If you are not too keen on TB14s for them being box rims (aesthetical point of view) go for silver archetypes.

Will go perfect with veloflex master e.g:

Ah yea, they do look nice. Argh, decisions decisions. If i change the rims to silver, everything else will have to change to silver...... I think i might go with the dark grey Hplus with black writing on, then just deal with the fact that i'll end up with a braking surface on after one ride.

roboto has the gunmetal archetypes on his Unknown

http://31.media.tumblr.com/7e0f664e54d645c6a026607c12464372/tumblr_mq4jyk7Out1rjg6ato2_1280.jpg

But he has installed brakles

Nice, they do look good in gunmetal. I think that's probably going to be what i go for. Just a shame the braking surface will rub straight off. Grr. Annoying that there's nowhere that do rims where the braking surface will stay dark !!