Can anyone suggest a few steel frames worth a look at. Usual riding uses. Bikepacking, day to day riding in the peak, trips here there and everywhere.

Ideally working with anything from a rigid fork to a 120mm travel fork.

I'd like to use my existing wheels which are 29 and 100mm front and either QR or 142x12 rear.
Don't need a front mech mount.

I know of lots of frames but nothing is quite hitting the spot.
Looked at shand, lovely but with a geometry tweek it gets very expensive.
I know of the well known ones of course such as surly, cotic, etc.

Any suggestions?

Ta

Brother cycles Big Bro?

Looks nice. I'll have a poke around the website and look at the geometry.

What kind of numbers are you wanting Dave?

Evening.
Geometry wise?

Something like a 480 seat tube. Around 620 stack and 430 reach give or take. 68 or 69 head angle I guess.

Modern stuff the reach seems to be getting longer and longer. And the seat tube shorter. I can go a bit shorter in the seat tube but I already have to buy 400mm posts.

Other option could be seeing if I part with my KM OPS

Edit: HA steeper than you want.

steel 29er's used to be my bike of choice.

previous one's i have owned

2 x halo mary
2 x karate monkey
2 x singular swift
1x vassago jabberwoky
1 x cotic solaris max
2 x on one inbred
and current bike is a surly ecr

the singulars were both fantastic. ran them both with 100mm rebas
the comfiest by far is the surly ecr
and i was never fit/healthy enough to give the cotic a proper good offroad ride.

Cheers Ton.

You say used to be? What is now?

I've had a couple myself. I currently have a carbon framed hardtail. It's very nice and light too but it's harsh and has poor tyre clearance.

the surly is my ideal bike at present
comfy, steady, carries what i need, and i rode 100 miles on it a month after getting it. i wont ever need to ride any further in a day.

oh and i also had a Jones plus for a year. didnt like or get on with it.

Hey Ton. What do you like about the ECR over the Jones Plus?

I have a Troll that I quite like but is nothing like as comfortable as my Pugsley despite similar geometry. I was thinking of swapping the Troll for and ECR or Ogre so was interested to hear you thought the ECR was comfy...

Hamish
to start with, the surly is half the price, but obviously that dont matter if you want a jones.
the surly carries luggage far better and feels more stable when doing so.
it also rides offroad as well, with the moloko bars giving a very controlable front end.
one of my biggest problems with the jones was that it was crap in mud with a chronicle and a single chainring. the chain acted like knife slicing mud off the rear tyre.
not good for winter.

Singular Swift is worth considering

Cheers Ton

That's useful. As I still use racks... I was wondering about the Jones and loads.

My current do it all steel hardtail is a 2Souls Quarterhorse. Weighs a ton but works as a trail bike with a 140 fork and 50mm stem, or has done Charlie's Gravel Dash and some of a BB300 with a 490mm rigid carbon fork and a 100mm stem.

My XL is pretty short in the reach though (I'm 6'2").

Stanton Sherpa?

Modular dropouts so you can get qr, 142 or boost...

Or cheap though...

Not sure of geo but 67.5 HA (iirc).

Ahem, quite often available 2ndhand I believe....

Thanks again guys.

Stanton is interesting. I was semi interested in the sherpa from when it came available. I had one of thier first frames (26er switch back?) It was a good bike.

I have owned a few.
Best by far the Sherpa based on geo and ride.
Swift was good and still have one for town duties. Very similar to a Salsa El Mariachi.
Had a Solaris but felt stiffer and more lifeless than the Sherpa.
Also an Inbred and Sir9 which didn't like.
Also have a Singular Rooster which is great as well.

Looked at shand, lovely but with a geometry tweek it gets very expensive.

Drop me an email with what you need/want.

Might be able to sort something out.

Steven

I have both Solaris (multiple) and a Sherpa.

The Sherpa is more fun than the older ‘solari’ but the longshot geo knocks all that into a cocket hat. The new SolarisMAX is a confidence inspiring (and comfortable) ride.

My bikepacking bike is a mk1 SolarisMAX (old geo) bought and built for its express purpose. The Sherpa gives me aches and pains (lower back & shoulders) after any length of time, probably in need of a longer stem I guess. It helps that LS puts me in the right size (instead of the middle of 2 previous).

Charge Cooker are going to be going back to steel framed hard tails. You'd have to look up the geometry.
https://www.mbr.co.uk/news/bike_news/st ... ker-363511


I have 2012 cooker 3 as a rigid drop bar MX.

metalheart wrote:I have both Solaris (multiple) and a Sherpa.

The Sherpa is more fun than the older ‘solari’ but the longshot geo knocks all that into a cocket hat. The new SolarisMAX is a confidence inspiring (and comfortable) ride.

My bikepacking bike is a mk1 SolarisMAX (old geo) bought and built for its express purpose. The Sherpa gives me aches and pains (lower back & shoulders) after any length of time, probably in need of a longer stem I guess. It helps that LS puts me in the right size (instead of the middle of 2 previous).

What size LS geo did you get?

Sorry for going OT slightly OP.

Stooge? 29er, QR, 69/72 geometry, ideal for bikepacking.

Nearly new Vagabond in the classified section ? .....God loves a tryer

Fat tyre kicker wrote:Nearly new Vagabond in the classified section ? .....God loves a tryer

Ooo...goes to look...

that green charge cooker in the ad looks very nice.

might see if i need a new bike..........