Apparently they carry Soma and Surly - two companies with an "old school" vibe. They make their frames overseas but they are out of the old NorCal ethic. Good steel bargains. They might have a Moots or two you can drool over. I'll never sell my YBBeat.

Good shops like that are hard to find these days. By all means go there, tell them what you want and let them hook you up. You'll likely pay more but in the end get more. I would rather pay $1K for a Surly or Soma that they assembled rather than a closeout CF slick "deal" from one of the big box bike shops.

OH, my, that comooter is sweet. My spandex is getting tight for some reason.

Glad to hear we got the OP back to the dark side. I am currently on a vanilla Torelli steel frame, but my sweat is wreaking havoc on the paint chips. I must have the most corrosive sweat in the world. I regretfully may have to go back to Ti. Sucks cuz I like painted bikes.

Take a week and have it powder coated. It is what I'm planning for my steel Trek 400.

Powder coating. Yeah, great idea. A Pelicanite has a bike powder coating shop in CA. Gotta look him up. Sycip, I think.

Post the info. if you find it will ya? I have an older steel Peugeot frame I'd like to strip & powdercoat one of these days.

Soma is from a company that has 10 people working for them and yes they're from Nor-Cal

Surly is from a company in the midwest.


Moots has the SWEETEST welds!!!

I'll be droping down here for this
http://www.sandiegocustombicycleshow.com/

When I was over in Milan a good few years ago, I went to visit Masi the old man at his shop under the milan velodrome. His shop's been there since his dad. The real "old man Masi". There are photos of Merckx and Coppi and such. I got measured up for a custom frame. It ended up to be too much money because he had to ship it back and the tax would have killed me. The frame would be 3500 to built, but to ship and tax was like close to $800.00. I really wanted a Casati custom built at his shop. It was way too much. won my first (jr) USCF race with a Casati in 1983. De Rosa, and such they are all up in that area within an hour from Milan. I spend 3 -4 days just doing that. My wife, girl friend then was cool about it as she went shopping. all day long.




I have ridden steel all my life and crashed many of them over the years. dished out lots of pain on steel for them boys and received much much more hurt then I was able to dish out. That's all there were. I like carbon. Still have my look 171 Jalabert special. I like it for those really really long rides. No ti. Never ridden one hard. I really love my Torelli alum. w/ carbon stays. tracks really nice flying down canyons. Corners by itself almost.

It really depends on what type of riding you want to do. If you want to do club training rides (similar to canyon carving in our 911 driving hard) then any frame you ride is forgotten because you will be suffering so bad that the only thing you will remember is the wheel in front of you, then your breathing. If you want to go our for a couple of hours by yourself or a couple of friends, put in a few miles and enjoy the day and push a little bit, That's when you will get to enjoy the frame/bike.

Damn look, how bikes do you have?

4. That's it, no more. I quit racing long ago and no more training/club rides. I really miss that A LOT. I have a Giant carbon mtb that I never ride. I think I went out to the dirt no more then 15-20 times. Just not my cup of tea. Torelli, Look and the Casati (my sweet heart) that I won a few races with. It is restored (no new paint job and such because every time I see a scratch or dent, It reminds me of how and when it happened over the corse of 20+ years. I wouldn't trade it for 2 new Casatis)with campy super record. All I am missing are the mavic wheels of the old that I build. I will find a new set one day when I feel rich.


Jeff

Bought my new bike today! Surly Long Haul Trucker, 62 frame , Deore XT rear derailleur, Durace handlebarend shifting, Shimano drivetrain, DT spokes, XT hubs, Alex rims touring wheels, MK5 touring pedals, mountain clips and Brooks saddle - I'm lovin' it!

Wasn't sure I liked the Olive Green at first, but it quickly grew on me, especially when I had the stock saddle changed out for the Brooks leather.

Bought it at Pacific Coast Cycles in Oceanside, CA - mom & pop bike shop been there 30 years. Great service and people.

Thanks to all for the advice; saved me a lot of grief for sure.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1237334283.jpg

12-25 rear cassette?

Shimano Deore Cassette
CS-HG53. 9-speed. 11-13-15-17-20-23-26-30-34t

Izzat good or bad?

You will be able to climb buildings with that gearing ;)

Sweet ride - pretty close to my ideal of a "real world" bike. The barcons will work flawlessly, the brakes are wicked strong, and you've got wide enough gearing to go up and down steep hills. I like the green but that's totally an individual thing.

This is my version - a tad more "road" oriented with the double crank and sidepulls, but still can do dirt and haul stuff. I actually have a higher rise stem en route that I'll swap to get the bars up a bit more.

http://nostatic.com/photos/salsa1.jpg

Nothing with with that gearset. Just ride it and have fun. Later, you can tweak it to preference.

You just need another set of tires or another wheelset with treaded tires to ride dirt roads.

I think you'll be more happy and more comfortable on that Surly than the Performance road stinker.

PoP, the CA powder coater is SyCip, http://sycip.com and the Pelicanite is jtkkz.

..

Looks like a good bike, for what you need.

Wow, nice bike. 11-34 cassette and triple crank can help you climb the big, long hills. I am envious. I want a Brooks saddle too. I've tried so many and all have let me down. Congrats!

salsa and Surly come frome the same house.


Looks like you did allright!

62 cm frame? How tall are you?

Assuming the shop owner fit you, it looks like he believes in the Grant Peterson school of bike fit - which I agree with as well. Most shops will put you on a small frame and want to see a bunch of seatpost with the saddle lower than the bars. Great if you're racing, lousy if you just want to ride.