Surferbruce

it's about the only thing i can find to fit my 5'1" wife. i'd like to hear from anyone who has one. i cringe at 650 wheels but short of expensive custom or blind luck in the thrift store it may have to be the way.

dolface

i think turd rides one

mcatano

Indeed she does.

She might also have a teeny tiny track frame she's looking to get rid of.

m.

bodegabandit

Ive seen a few at the track here in northbrook why?

Fugazi Dave

Why the fear of 650c wheels? Also, doesn't Harry Havnoonian make a little track frame.

mcatano

Mt. Airy Bicycles has a lot of "junior" sized complete track bikes. Their prices are steep for "not junior" sized bikes, but I think some of the smaller stuff is more affordable. Also, they are very quick to answer emails about their used inventory.

m.

r-dub

for small frames, 650 (or smaller) is really the only way to go if you don't want to sacrifice geometry and have a rediculously shaped bike. Also, there're lots and lots of good used 650 parts out there that can be had super cheap since most folks are stuck on the 700c thing.

tlupfer

I love 650 wheels and would kill to find a 56cm frame built for them since I have a pair of wheels that has been sitting lonely in the corner of my apartment since my divorce (yeah, right, like I'm going to let her keep the wheels I built her).

Guest

Items for sale are ONLY to be place in the For Sale forum, and only by members who donated and have upgraded memberships.

Further attempts to sell items here will only result in this thread being deleted.

Koffee

SSSasky

Umm. Did someone try to sell something? Or was that a pre-emptive freak out? And why would the entire thread be deleted? It's a good question ...

</hoping I don't get baninated...>

Guest

Of course the posts in question were deleted. Again, items for sale are only to be posted in the For Sale forum by members with upgraded memberships.

Koffee

BostonFixed

There was also a post deleted which showed an image of a cat snarling, apparently in response to koffee's swift actions of deletion.

lilHinault

I'd go for it, think of the weight saved in going to 650c.

SSSasky

Maybe they were trying to sell the cat.

Surferbruce

wow that kogswell is pretty cool. the bike is gonna be her 3rd bike(she has a road and mtn bike). of course i'd love to buy or build her a fg but i think it's her recent spinning classes that made her want to try one more than my love of them. mostly it'll be for shorter flat recovery kinda rides, commuting to work, cruising the bike path etc.
i'm kinda bummed mrs. brown deleted the kogswell posts.i had no idea that bike existed and appreciated the info. the wheels for sale post i can jive with the call to delete. Senor Kogswell if you're reading pm me the toptube length on that 46cm mixte, that measurement is curiously missing from the website.
i still may go the budget route and try the fuji. it's a tough call. that mixte would look cool in some minimalist track trim.

jim-bob

Oof. This was the thread with the kool kogswell information?

Glad our mods are around to make sure that information doesn't get to us.

SSSasky

I am in no way associated with Kogswell cycles, or anyone who sells them

From https://www.kogswell.com/g.html:

"Start with a lugged steel track frame from the 1980's. Keep the 120mm rear spacing. Relax the angles and lower the bottom bracket to make it comfortable on the road. Add lots of clearance for big tires and fenders. Drill it for brakes. Finish it off with all the braze-ons and threaded doo-dads that you could ever want, including a few you didn't even know you wanted. And don't do anything to compromise its elegant simplicity. That's The G.

"Our new Model G frameset is a very sophisticated entry into the emerging market for road frames designed specifically for single speed and fixed gear use. Like our Model F, we designed a matching rear hub to complement it. The new 120mm hub has all of the features of its 135mm cousin: an axle and bearings from a downhill mountain bike hub, track threading on both of its flip/flop sides, and ultra fancy hardware. This lugged steel frame comes with a matching 1" threaded fork. A threadless 1.125" fork is also available. Both forks are brazed using our new flat fork crown. "



Details:
-the 120mm rear spacing allows you to use standard track cranks and hubs
-a low bottom bracket height offers more stand-over room
-room for 35mm tires and fenders -or- 40mm tires in the dry
-thru-the-top-tube rear brake cable routing
-the frame-ends accept single freewheel, fixed gear, coaster brake and some 3-speed hubs
-the finish is a tough, environmentally friendly metallic silver powder coating
-threaded, 1" fork brazed with our new Kogswell Krown
-clearance for Kogswell long reach (48-63mm) brakes
-two sets of mounts for H2O bottles and seat stay mounted rack eyelets
-double eyelets on the rear dropout and single on the front
-threaded fender bosses on the bridges and the fork
-sized for a 68mm English BB shell and a 27.2mm seatpost
-includes a set of silver Kogswell brake calipers and Kogswell head tube reducers

Of course, I have no idea what this has to do with this thread. I'm not even sure if this bike is the one they were talking about.

Kogswell

Thanks, but to original poster should look at a Model M.

SSSasky

Oh yeah. That makes sense. And it's cute.



Hey Kogswell, if you don't mind my asking, where are your frames made?

tlupfer

...and curiously guys named chris are to be referred to only as mister. eh? ugh?

Kogswell

I don't mind.

And I hope you don't mind if I give you my how rant as an answer. It's much more interesting.

The shop where our frames are made is in Taichung county in Taiwan. Taichung is the center of the bicycle industry.

In Taichung is a company called ECO. ECO produces tubing for bicycle frames.

Bicycle frame tubing is a specialized product. The materials used, cro-mo steel and alumninum alloys are not exotic these days, they're the result of years trial and error. What's unique about ECO is how the tubes are formed.

Most of us know that bicycle tubes are butted: single, double, quad. A butted tube has sections that where the wall thickness is thick and sections where it is thin and sections where the thickness tapers from thin to thick.

The kool thing about ECO is that, in the case of the steel tubes that we use, they have a machine that can control the lengths of each of those sections down to the millemeter. The operator can literally program the tube.

Columbus and other tubing manufacturer can do this as well.

But the interesting thing about ECO is that they will fine tune the profile of a tube in very small quantities. So each tube in each size of a given model of a frame has a profile that has been drawn very specifically.

When we found out about this we were floored. And those krazy (*&^%$#@!s at ECO just smiled and gave us that 'beat that, twerp' look.

Our little brains started spinning and we realized that it would be possible to have half a dozen sets of fork blades produced w/ varying profiles and that we could test them to see which profile rendered the best ride for that material.

And now we have owners who call us and say, "This frame rides amazingly well. I think it has something to do with the fork."

Yeah.

The bicycle frame is an interesting bit of engineering. In what other situation do you regularly ask such a small amount of material to actively support you as you careen through space. How that little bit of material is configured is extremely important. And small difference in those tubes can manifest themselves into large differences in how it all feels.

Kogswell frames look like other frames from the outside. But inside...

SSSasky

Wow. Cool man. Thanks for the response. A friend of mine lived in Taichung for a while. Neat place.

PorscheCGT

Although this thread is old, I do have an answer to your question, sorry if it wasn't on time. I ride a Fuji Classic, not Track SE, however mine is 43cm too so I think my input should still help.

I am 5'4" and with the saddle raised, I fit the bike great and it's for the most part comfortable. But with your wife being 5'1" this bike will be awesome for her because I have lots of leftover leg room, or lowering of the saddle if I chose too. The bike becomes uncomfortable when ridden a lot over many bumps or just ridden for a long time. I rode from my house to my school and around, the whole trip was about an hour before I returned home and at that point, my crotch hurt.

The bike is light at 43cm, weighing at about 20lbs, it's easy to flick around and move about when riding. I used to ride a custom online ordered 49cm and that was heavy. Switching to this 43cm was great! The build quality is pretty decent, I can't complain. I used to ride it single speed, but turned to fixed gear for fun and so far I haven't switched back just because stopping and accelerating with this light bike is no problem.

I don't know what else to say off the top of my head, but I hope I answered your question and any questions I'll try to answer!

Scrodzilla

Dude, I seriously doubt he's even still thinking about it seven years later. Most marriages don't even last that long.

PorscheCGT

I know, but this is also for any FUTURE readers that may have the same or similar question. I understand this is 7 years later.