geoluv

My Roomie wants to get super into racing and doing a few alleycats this year and street training. She's an experienced alleycat racer and rides her current street fixie every day in the mean streets of NYC. Right now she has a street fixie IRO that is pretty heavy.

I need recommendations on a very light aluminum frame/fork size 49cm in the $200 to $500 range. Anything good on sale right now? Good websites to look? I'm probably just going to get her to pick up a used Fuji Track 1 complete and we'll go from there, sell the wheels and parts gradually so I can build her something stupid light but strong. But I wanted to check to see if anyone has any good recommendations on more unique frames that fit those criteria. Basically I'm looking for lightness above all else.

skinny matt

I have no experience with the frame but the pake french 75 seems pretty light and affordable.

Scrodzilla

If she's as experienced as you say, shouldn't she be able to do this herself?

prooftheory

Wouldn't she know that weight isn't that important?

geoluv

She's very experienced, of course she could pick stuff herself. But I'm a professional bike mechanic, she is not. Trust me I let her do her own thing, she asked for the help. I'm also one of the biggest weight weenies on earth. I'm roughly her size too, about 5'5" so I know that light bikes make way more of a difference the smaller you are when you are accelerating in a straight line.

If weight doesn't matter prooftheory let's race but you tape a cinder block to your frame, let's see who wins.
...seriously... weight doesn't matter in a race? Of course it's 95% the rider but if she gives me a budget for a race bike then by golly she's going to have the lightest bike possible for her needs within that budget.

Im looking for for people that have an encyclopedic knowledge of aluminum track framesets and their weights. Any good sales? Good websites to check out? Good used stuff for sale somewhere?

And please, if you aren't going to help then keep the snide comments to yourself :-)

Nagrom_

Track frames are very heavy.

Jared.

So she has a dream bike but doesn't know what frame she wants? Asking her what she wants would be a good starting point.

Just to race alleycats, I'd want a light(ish) steel frame with a carbon fork.

Also there is a question of geometries. As an example the geometry on a Leader frame is not complimentary to my physical build. Does she want road geo or track geo?

Philasteve

If I were you I would look at Felt tk3 or tk2, Dolan Pre Cursa, Leader 725, Pake French 75. You could also look at Wabi cycles their steel but they're also pretty light. Idk exactly what you're looking for and i'm not sure if all the frames I named come in 49cm but check them out.

ridingfixed

I have a Fuji Track 2.0, 2011 model it ways 18 lbs and it is very responsive, and really strong

AristoNYC

$348 with a road fork shipped to NYC, size 50:
https://www.dpmsports.com/dolan/03-track/precursa.html

and weight really isn't everything, 1-3lbs isn't going to make a huge difference unless you are on a professional/Olympic level.

@work

Tell her to cop the pre cursa

prooftheory

GENESTARWIND

i have a 20 pound pake rumrunner. id recommend that frame even though its not what youre looking for but it rides damn nice and looks good to boot. plus its cheap

rms13

she's very experienced and he's a bike mechanic and still neither of them has any idea where to start building a track bike?

Bat56

Hey dorks, weight matters ridding uphill duh. Have you seen the banks on a track? Super steep yo.

Scrodzilla

geoluv

My vote was for the jamis sonik cause I like how it looks and the 2011 model looks sick all blacked out and they are cheap, also the 2012 or 13 specialized langster pro is f&$king fire with the red and white colors and American Classic wheels but they are hard to find and expensive. I want to just build her an Unknown for price purposes, ideally she'd bump up the budget and I'd build her a kissena or a dosnoventa. The dosnoventa is my top choice just cause I like riding **** few other people have. They are rare in America I don't think they have american distro yet.

Of course I could just start building but I don't have the encyclopedic knowledge of weight vs price that some people do, that's why I came asking. I don't ride track myself, built tons if them vintage and new though. Now if I was building a Bmx or a vintage road bike on the other hand...

geoluv

Shes going to be racing alleycats too, lots of straight line acceleration. Also street training, don't want to get fatigued just from the weight of your bike. Which reminds me the forks gotta have a brake hole cause some silly ride she's doing in LA requires a front brake...

Bandera

When will these silly, silly ride organizers realize that requiring a front brake when riding FG in a group on public streets is well, Silly?

-Bandera

Jared.

Wait...what?

Philasteve

Did you see this website? https://www.evanscycles.com/products/...-bike-ec041476

rms13

I blame the silly 15 year old that died during the critical mass ride a few months ago when he ran his brakeless fixie into a wall. Stupid silly brakes, whp needs them?

solipsist716

****ing this,

This,


and what?



Good luck with that street training.

Philasteve

I actually don't think a Unknown will even be that much lighter than a nice steel frame like a Wabi.

Huffandstuff

Cat6 is going to be very competitive this year.