TrekCommuter

Hello, everyone,


I have been toying with the idea of a new or "new to me" bike within the next year. I'll turn 40 in July of '24 and even if the bike is expensive, it's still cheaper than a car for a birthday present! That's my rationale, anyhow.


I've done one full century and 2-3 metrics on my current bike, a 2015 Bianchi Volpe in 55cm. It fits great, is comfortable and reliable, however, I'd like something a bit more spirited. I'm thinking of something along the lines of an endurance steel road bike that could also double as a rando/light touring rig. I won't ever race. Most of my riding is on the Ohio Erie Trail or rural roads. I might also ride in the occasional organized/charity ride.


Here are the criteria in a bike that interest me most:

• US fabricated steel (or titanium) frame
  
• New or used would be fine
  
• Open to rim or disc brakes
  
• Lively, responsive, yet comfortable ride
  
• Max budget ~$3k
  
• If used, still within the era of brifters
  

Here are some of the makes I've been thinking of:

• Used Waterford or Gunnar
  
• Capitol Cycles of London Kentucky
  
• New (on sale) or used Lynskey R300
  
• Also open to buying a frame and building a bike
  
• Open to other ideas...
  

Thank you for bearing with me!

tFUnK

The Volpe is what I would consider to be a good century/light touring bike, so 🤷‍♂️

Not trying to talk anyone out of a new bike (I lost that privilege long ago when my stable started holding redundancies), but I might be tempted to just upgrade the Volpe to make it nicer.

noimagination

IMO any decent (and, decently fitting) frame with rack and fender braze-ons would fit the bill. I think you may find it difficult to find frames with those attachment points (which, if you're talking any kind of touring are, IMHO, non-negotiable requirements), so you may be forced to broaden your scope.

I recently replaced my commuting bike (1995 Cannondale T700 - has > 60,000 mi on it). I was originally looking at building up a frame from Surly, Capitol, Soma, State, All City and the like. These are all steel frames, titanium was out of the price range I was considering.
My guy at the LBS asked me to consider a Trek Domane AL (aluminum frame, carbon fork). In the end it would be lighter than the steel bikes, and either cheaper or at least no more expensive. I decided he was right, and got the Domane AL5 three weeks ago, and I'm happy with it. $2,500 out the door including rear rack, full fenders, water bottle cages, other little do-dads (like mount for front light). (OK, I think it was $2,500.41). With 32 mm tires, the ride is fine (hey, I've been riding an aluminum bike for decades, so obviously the supposed "harshness" of aluminum bikes doesn't bother me - especially since I was running 35 mm tires on the Cannondale). Yeah, I know, it's a Trek, not the sexiest bike out there, but it's definitely an upgrade over the 28 year old bike I was riding. Even with the stock Bontrager tires - which are by no means terrible.

This may not apply to your situation, but my point is that you should be fine on any bike with rack and fender braze-ons, regardless of frame material. I think that you're smart to stick with well-known brands, like the ones you list, if you're looking to buy used, though.

stevel610 

Congrats on your upcoming birthday.

As you know and others have said, your current bike is perfect. Though a birthday is a great reason for a new bike! It looks like you have a good idea of what you want, and some fine possibilities. With a little time to look I'm sure you will come across something. Good luck with your search.

Jeff Neese

You asked for ideas, so here's mine. Buy another set of wheels for the Volpe. Lighter wheels and smaller tires are (mostly) what will give your bike a more "spirited" ride. As capable as that bike is, in stock form the wheels and tires were built for reliability and toughness on a variety of surfaces. Put some lighter rims and a set of 28c Continental GP5000s on that bike, and you'll feel a huge difference. There are maybe a few other changes you could make, but wheels always make the biggest difference.

Then you have two wheelsets that you can swap in an out depending on where and how you're going to ride. Almost as good as having two separate bikes.

big john

Road Sport Disc Titanium Road Bike - Lynskey Performance Designs

Steve B.

Habenaro Cyclocross/Gravel, titanium, at around $3200 with a GRX 2X group, disc. Has fender and rack eyelets.

TrekCommuter

Thank you for the feedback thus far. I appreciate all of it. I've been contemplating a Lynskey but will research Habanero. Regarding a new wheelset, what would be a good option?

Thank you again!

shelbyfv

Astonishingly good deal! The gravel bike is a great price as well.

fishboat

I owned and rode a Volpe for a couple years. Very comfortable bike. With Tiagra level components it ran 28-29 pounds, if I remember correctly. I did one tour with it and the back end seemed a little flexy, though seemed to handle well once I got going. No real complaints on the bike..I did mention good comfort. Bianchi started making the model in 1986 and I think (?) it's still in production. One of the nice things about the bike is it'll run 38mm tires. A new set of lighter wheels never hurts, but I'm pretty partial to fast, wider tires at this point and I'd have a hard time going back to 28mm tires on a daily ride.

The Lynskey above looks pretty nice. The head tube angle at 73 degrees seems a little steep to me for a light touring bike. (for me) 71-72 degrees seems like a better place to be.

At $3k..Vaast might be worth looking at:
https://www.vaastbikes.com/bikemodels/a1/

mstateglfr 

OP- go ride 3 endurance road bikes at local shops and note what you like or dislike about the feel of the bike when steering, standing out of the saddle, and fit.
Then go look for bikes/frames with geometry similar to what you liked about the 3 endurance road bikes.

I say this because it seems like you dont know what you want/like. You have a bike that is, in general, perfect for how you want to ride but you dislike something about it. Saying you want a bike that is 'spirited' doesnt really describe much.
An unspirited bike could be due to slow heavy wheels, or heavy tires, or long wheelbase, or long chainstays, or relaxed fork trail number. Any one of those, or a combo of those all result in an 'unspirited' feeling.

If you like a quick feeling front end and that is why you feel the Volpe is unspirited, then you will hate a bike with 70mm of trail due to a relaxed head tube, even if the chainstays are tight, wheels are light, etc.

TrekCommuter

You're right, I suppose I am not exactly certain as to what I want, but this discussion is helpful. I like the idea of testing out some endurance bikes. The Vaast option is interesting, especially for that price - a magnesium frame!

The idea of new wheels is intriguing, as well. The one (performance) improvement I've made to my Bianchi had noticeable results - I changed the stock Vittoria Randonneur tires to Conti Ultra Sport II tires; the former were some of the worst rated on bicyclerollingresistance.com while the later was recommended as their budget road tire pick. GP5000s (or comparable) were on my radar. So if I were to go with new wheels, what would you recommend? Something off the shelf or built by a wheel maker? I've heard good things about Hunt. Not sure if it makes a huge difference on the wheelset, but I clock in at about 130 lbs.

Thanks again for the ideas/options.

tangerineowl

If you can get past the US fab: https://crustbikes.com/products/malo...39794168856666

Spirit tubing, though you'd have to go over the geo carefully; figure out if the ride would actually be a little livelier than your Volpe.
For example, the chainstay looks to be 5mm longer than your bike. Lower bb.
Wheelbase and trail perhaps.

A secondhand Jeff Lyon 700c mid-trail would probably be a good suit for your weight, but those are pretty rare in 700c and mid.
Bike Recyclery had a red one around your size until recently; someone snapped it up.

Jeff Neese

I buy prebuilt wheels but I'm also very budget and value-minded. If I had a budget like yours I'd have a set of wheels custom built. You definitely need to find an experienced wheelbuilder, not just some kid in your LBS.

The advantage of this approach (second wheelset) is that now you have two wheelsets that can be easily swapped in and out. The Volpe is already a pretty versatile bike, and this would make it even more so.

That said, far be it from me to talk anyone out of buying a new bike, if they have money burning a hole in their pocket and just have a hankering for a new bike. Sometimes you just have to scratch that itch. Plus then you have both bikes to ride, depending on conditions (or your mood) and you don't even have to swap wheels. I mean, everyone has more than one bike, right?

fishboat

I've had good luck with multiple wheelsets from both these places.
https://velomine.com/collections/wheels
https://bicyclewheelwarehouse.com/

I've also built wheelsets..not hard if you're inclined to do so.

TrekCommuter

Thank you for all of the feedback. I think over the next year I'm going to continue to research wheels and talk to some builders. Much appreciated!

Jeff Neese

If that's the route you go, even if (when) you do buy another bike later on, you'll always have your Volpe, and as a bonus you'll have two different wheelsets for it. Elsewhere in these forums the benefits of having multiple wheelsets is discussed. The Volpe seems to be a very versatile design so it should be great at performing "double duty", depending on the wheels that are on it.

TiHabanero

I am on my third Habanero. Fantastic bikes originally designed by a cyclist. The cyclocross model has been my favorite one thus far. I use rim brakes and standard QR axles, thus cannot speak of the most recent offerings.
Since you are unable to go with a custom frame, the Habanero ti bikes are a very strong value. Titanium rides like high quality steel...it is lovely!

mstateglfr 

TrekCommuter - habanero was just mentioned as an option and if you do look into them, look past the website that was designed in 1997. The brand was sold a short time ago and from what I have read, the new owners have put time into the brand. The website is still atrocious, but that is not indicative of the product. The fork is sold separately, they offer a handful of forks that vary in cost and more importantly in axle to crown length as well as offset(rake). Those two things drastically change the feel of the bike so if you go the Habanero route, just know what you like for steering feel and select a fork that pairs with the frame geometry to get you the steering feel you want.

hose

any Miyata 1000's around your area?

TrekCommuter

Thank you for the continued insight. I've not searched for a Miyata, but they certainly seem to have a large following. Do they use high quality steel?

bikemig 

The Miyata 1000 did (splined (at least the later ones) double butted chrome moly steel). But do you want to fix up and ride an older bike? But that would open the door to a number of made in the US steel bikes.

Miyata obviously isn't made in the US.

Rodriguez bikes out of Seattle:

https://rodbikes.com/catalog/rainier/rainier-main.html

TrekCommuter

The Rodriguez bikes are some of the best-looking bikes I've seen. The Rainier is gorgeous. Do you own one, bikemig ?

veganbikes

R+E make some excellent bikes so you wouldn't go wrong with them. I owned and will re own a Habanero frame the previous owner was super nice and certainly a kindred spirit. Yes the website is well Angelfire/Geocities but the frames are pretty decent for the price I couldn't find fault with mine other than I wasn't really riding it as much and that was all on me but I built the bike wrong more for looks rather than pure comfort. When I get the frame back from a friend (who really just wanted the parts on it and I wanted the money) I will probably build it up differently for comfort.

I would also look at Ren Cycles/TiCycles/Radhaus/PDXTi. Dave makes really great quality stuff at really low prices and does a lot of stuff not just bicycles but auto industry and probably some other engineering and design work and is fantastic. I am probably going to get a custom Ti frame from him later this year if this new job comes through.

guisar

FYSA- we have (Habanero) 700c wheels which we custom make. CF (3k matte) rims with your choice of spokes, hub, etc. We usually spec bitex but offer DT, WI, I9 and the usual suspects. They, like our builds, are all up to the owner, we don't really do "stock".