Nashar Cross frames any good?

In article
,
Hank wrote:

On Oct 3, 10:14*am, Ryan Cousineau wrote:
In article ,
wrote:

Nashabr has some great deals on cross frames and carbon
forks

Anyone build up a bike form this?

Yes. I have a CX bike built from their frame and fork. I race it every
weekend at this time of year, and am largely satisfied with it. Here's
what they did right and wrong:

Right:
-price
-not too heavy. It's aluminum, and the weight seems within reasonable
parameters
-cables all routed in the proper way (you think this is a joke, but for
a while Fetish Cycles was heavily discounting its first-gen CX frames on
eBay because the brake cable was routed along the underside of the top
tube).
-bitchin' matte-black finish with only one "X" head tube decal.
-fork has a metal steer tube and carbon legs and metal dropouts,
including the disc mount. That means it doesn't commit the fussier sins
of all-carbon construction.

Wrong:
-135 mm rear dropout spacing, which is odd for a CX bike, since you
usually want to borrow wheels from your road bike, not your MTB. There
are arguments that 135 is a good choice because the wheels build up
slightly stronger, but I didn't want this "feature." In practice, I just
put my 130 mm wheels into the back, use the QR skewer to squeeze it
together, and nothing has broken.
-chainstay bridge is a weird thing on a CX bike. There's still lots of
tire clearance, but mud will get caught there.
-this is a compact-ish geometry frame. The top tube on my 50 (or 52 or
whatever it is) is definitely sloped, though I have had no problems
shouldering the bike in practice. OTOH, I also tend to carry my bike
off-the-shoulder a lot in races, and I also don't ride a very large
frame size. The compact geometry may make bike-carrying very annoying in
larger sizes.
-The fork is not terribly heavy, but in retrospect it would probably be
possible to make it lighter and cheaper if it was all aluminum. There's
some pretty good deals on forks out there, so you may be able to do
better elsewhere.

Hmm:
-disc mounts, mounts for 2 bottle cages, and fender/rack mounts
(including threaded mounts on the sides of the seat stays) which are
great for versatility.
-under-the-BB derailer cable routing; in practice this doesn't cause me
problems, but a lot of CX bikes use a down-the-seat-tube routing for the
fder, with a pulley mounted on the back of the seattube just below the
fder to U-turn the cable back up.
-The frame includes nothing but itself, the derailer hanger, and a few
bolts for the bottle cages and rack mounts. You'll need a seatpost
collar and a rear brake cable stop (if you use canti brakes). Nashbar
sells one that attaches to the seatpost collar. It works.

As an aside, I envision a glorious future in which some component
company or another offers a CX-specific derailer: designed for top-entry
of the cable, but pulling road-correct amounts of cable. Shimano makes
top-entry (top-swing?) fders, but MTB-only. As another aside, I can't
believe the UCI banned disc brakes. That's lame.

Conclusion:
I'm happy. If you want to build up a new CX frame from parts you have on
hand, this is probably still the cheapest decent entry point. The other
super-cheap CX frames out there are the Redline Conquest, the Planet X
whatever, and the NYC Bikes Crosspeed II (some versions of the
Crossspeed I have under-top-tube rear brake routing; if that doesn't
matter for your purposes, they have 'em for $39 in their clearance
section).

As a racing bike, the "X" has been most satisfactory, especially for the
price. As always, building a bike from parts is very close to a mug's
game: if you actually value your time at a non-negative per-hour rate,
you may not be able to justify the process. The small bits and pieces on
these projects (cables, pedals, bar tape, whatever else you forgot to
buy) always seem to add up remarkably fast.

135mm spacing is good given the presence of disc mounts. There is a
dearth of disc-compatible 130mm hubs. FWIW, I stole wheels from my
touring bike. Then aagain, you're racing with yours and I'm commuting
with mine.

I hadn't thought of the hub issue. As you say, it depends what you want
to do with it.

Maybe go with 132.5, like Surly does?

As you an tell by my "bend it and hope" technique, I am a big fan of
132.5 frames.

As for shouldering it, get a WTB PureV saddle. Its hooked nose will
rest nicely on your shoulder.

Heh. I don't know if my saddle is high enough for that. At any rate, I
run a spiffy Avocet Racing 1 saddle, and I can shoulder my shorty frame.

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."

In article ,
futrino wrote:

Ryan Cousineau wrote:


Wrong:
-135 mm rear dropout spacing, which is odd for a CX bike, since you
usually want to borrow wheels from your road bike, not your MTB. There
are arguments that 135 is a good choice because the wheels build up
slightly stronger, but I didn't want this "feature." In practice, I just
put my 130 mm wheels into the back, use the QR skewer to squeeze it
together, and nothing has broken.
-chainstay bridge is a weird thing on a CX bike. There's still lots of
tire clearance, but mud will get caught there.
-this is a compact-ish geometry frame. The top tube on my 50 (or 52 or




Nashbar description now says
130mm rear hub spacing

Interesting that they've changed the spec. Chainstay bridge is still
there, though.

I want 135, ha. I am now trying to decide between the X frame and a
motobecane,(for on and off road commuting) the motobecane already has
the seat clamp, fork and headset installed for $200 shipped. The X is
$129, then I have to add fork, seat clamp, headset plus shipping. I do
like that the X says less toe overlap. Off for more measurements.
dan

Well, horses for courses. How tall are you? In shorter sizes where toe
overlap is a big issue (ie when you're putting fenders on), 26" wheels
have a lot to recommend them.

On a simple mathematical basis, $200 shipped is cheaper than $129
+shipping +fork, unless you have access to a pretty cheap fork (the X
frame takes 1-1/8, so even a cheap fork isn't going to be that cheap).

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."

wrote:
Nashabr has some great deals on cross frames and carbon
forks

Anyone build up a bike form this?

yup. ultra-slack head tube angle makes it ride like a truck. and you
need to select size based on top tube, not seat tube. but other than
that, it's a great ride. very stable.

Ryan Cousineau wrote:
In article ,
futrino wrote:

Ryan Cousineau wrote:

Wrong:
-135 mm rear dropout spacing, which is odd for a CX bike, since you
usually want to borrow wheels from your road bike, not your MTB. There
are arguments that 135 is a good choice because the wheels build up
slightly stronger, but I didn't want this "feature." In practice, I just
put my 130 mm wheels into the back, use the QR skewer to squeeze it
together, and nothing has broken.
-chainstay bridge is a weird thing on a CX bike. There's still lots of
tire clearance, but mud will get caught there.
-this is a compact-ish geometry frame. The top tube on my 50 (or 52 or



Nashbar description now says
130mm rear hub spacing

Interesting that they've changed the spec. Chainstay bridge is still
there, though.

I want 135, ha. I am now trying to decide between the X frame and a
motobecane,(for on and off road commuting) the motobecane already has
the seat clamp, fork and headset installed for $200 shipped. The X is
$129, then I have to add fork, seat clamp, headset plus shipping. I do
like that the X says less toe overlap. Off for more measurements.
dan

Well, horses for courses. How tall are you? In shorter sizes where toe
overlap is a big issue (ie when you're putting fenders on), 26" wheels
have a lot to recommend them.

On a simple mathematical basis, $200 shipped is cheaper than $129
+shipping +fork, unless you have access to a pretty cheap fork (the X
frame takes 1-1/8, so even a cheap fork isn't going to be that cheap).

I ordered the grey motobecane CX with steel fork, well they sent a red
frame fantom cross (upgrade?)with a carbon fork. I guess we'll see and
I will post pictures when I crash my 5th fork. two were steel and two
were aluminum. dan