Is Steve Goff still in business?

What's bad about a 3 or 4 month wait for a custom frame? I can remember waiting longer in the 80s. There are plenty of builders who will charge twice as much as Steve for no greater craftsmanship, with infinitely less experience and make you wait far longer. He doesn't build show bikes, just bloody good frames at excellent prices.

I don't mind waiting I just hate to add anything to my list of people to chase up to see if they're doing what they said they'd do last time we spoke.

I decided against having downtube shifters in the end, and decided to go for a Campagnolo groupset throughout, because I couldn't be confident enough about the compatibility of a modern 9/10/11-speed cassette with friction shifters, and couldn't find any conclusive information about how well they work together.

I can always experiment later at my leisure if I feel a burning need to have friction levers; this way I will start out with something that I know works.

Which one you getting? Are you getting disc brakes?

I can always experiment later at my leisure if I feel a burning need to have friction levers;

Good plan.
I’m using an MTB friction thumb shifter from 6 or 7 sp era on a 10sp cassette, works fine. I have read somewhere that the pulls on 11sp is different (more) but I reckon you have a good chance of making 10sp or less work with a nice old friction lever.

https://www.velovitality.co.uk/collections/transmission/products/dia-compe-11-speed-downtube-shifters

Looks like those would work

The problem with friction shifting 11 speed is that the gears are so close together, you have to be really precise with the shifter, if it's not in exactly the right spot, you'll be between gears and your chain will skip up and down endlessly

Other way around surely.

More cogs in the same space (more or less, I know overall width has increased a bit) = more chance of hitting a gear, might not be the exact one you wanted but…

Don't think so, fewer gears over almost the same width and you've got more lever throw until you hit the next gear. Smaller spacing between gears means a much smaller window of smooth running per gear before the chain starts to want to jump up or down to the next one.
That's only what I've read though so you might be right

10 working fine on a soft action (if you know what I mean!?) thumby, has a gentle ratchety click. Never had any problems staying in gear, though I don’t know I may find teeth wear changes that.

My son’s been riding a 9sp with a friction thumby for ages, to school and some other practical stuff, bit of loaded touring. He came to it from an Isla with 8 sp twist shift, immediately preferred friction, always changed gears pretty accurately.

The Goff lives quite literally around the corner from me. See him out n about on one of his creations...

Do i understand things correctly that the man does custom carbon frames for 660 GBP or is this prefab? Anyhow, if he was based in the EU I would be very tempted !

Nope, custom steel frames at that sort of price.

Sorry I was a bit unclear, found a carbon section under frames on his homepage, which suprised me.

Any update on this? I have a Goff on my wishlist and curious how yours turned out!

Just bought a Goff and I love it already!

1 Attachment

A very elegant and classy frame,
Looks that an absolute milage cruncher.
What Steve charging for a 631 from these days?

It's a real beaut and rides like a dream. I'm very happy with it.
I couldn't tell you what he charges unfortunately, as I bought it second-hand. But for reference I paid £550 it.

Bargain,
Website is showing £415 for reynolds 631 frame, which I can only assume is out of date.