TMorris wrote:
Very nice. You have me looking at steel framesets now, thanks a lot.
Thanks. I built up a Surly Pacer for my Dad for his 65th birthday earlier this year (his first new bike ever, he has been riding my hand me downs since he started riding 25 years ago) and that got me looking. I looked at lots of options I was looking for:
1. Steel
2. clearance up to 33mm tires to allow cross tires or Jack Brown tires 3. geometry that fit me
The Surly is nice, but I really like the flexibility that the BMC offers for tires. The Surly can just squeeze a 33mm tire the BMC handles it with plenty of clearance. If the Surly geometry and tire clearance works it is a good option.
Kona makes a complete bike with the Honky Tonk that offers similar tire clearance, but I've always preferred to buy frame sets and build bikes up how I like and the 9 speed and tighter frame clearance on the Honky Tonk were a deal breakers.
All City Cycles has some nice options. The Mr. Pink is similar but I wanted an English BB and the BB30 bottom bracket on the Mr. Pink was not ideal.
That led me to the Hampsten Strada Bianca (which also has similar clearance as the BMC) but couldn't justify the $2k premium over the BMC.
In the end the BMC was the only frame, short of custom, that fit my needs. The price was right and I snagged the last 56cm light blue frame Mike had.
Suffer Well.