Steve
new member
Reged: 12/19/03
Posts: 9
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Been looking around at a new road frame, and he is local to me. He has been building bikes for a long time, since 1973 he claims, but I don't hear much about him or see too many of his bikes on the road.
Any opinions? I'd be buying a TIG welded frame, and putting a carbon fork on it. I'll use it for road racing, training, club rides, whatever. My current bike is a Rivendell, but I want to try something with a shorter top tube and much shorter chainstays, just to see how it feels.
His current price is $1200 for a custom frame, about the going rate for TIG'd steel it seems (in the range of Strong, Soulcraft, Sycip, etc.)
Thanks.
Steve
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TJeanloz
new member
Reged: 02/05/04
Posts: 20
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You've actually probably unwittingly seen a lot of his bikes on the road. The biggest part of Mark's business has historically been building top-shelf frames for other manufacturers. He built all of the Olympic/national team bikes in the 1990s, when they were sponsored by GT. He builds a good portion of Lennard Zinn's frames (Lennard doesn't actually build the bikes that bear his name); he built the high-end Morgul Bismark bikes (the ti and custom steel). He has also built high-end steel and ti for Dean.
From technical perspective, his bikes are very well crafted. He's really quite good, considering the lack of name recognition that he has. And he has generally been pretty affordable. As far as custom goes, there are a lot of good options in the Boulder/Denver area, but Nobilette is certainly one of the better builders, especially for the money.
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OldEd
contributor
Reged: 02/05/04
Posts: 117
Loc: The Great South
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Do I remember you saying you had something to do with editing Zinn's book? Or did I hallucinate that?
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OldEd
contributor
Reged: 02/05/04
Posts: 117
Loc: The Great South
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you're going to sell it to me Real Cheap? Wow! Thanks!
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Steve
new member
Reged: 12/19/03
Posts: 9
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OldEd,
Well, if I find a new frame that I like, I will probably post the Riv for sale here and other places that have folks who might be interested in it.
Keep your eyes open!!!
Steve
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Steve
new member
Reged: 12/19/03
Posts: 9
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I know of Nobilette, Dean Cycles (best deal in Ti around), Primus Mootry (great prices for a range of materials), Anvil (now too expensive for me) but who else is a smaller to medium builder in the area?
Steve
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TJeanloz
new member
Reged: 02/05/04
Posts: 20
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I wouldn't take that much credit, but our entire mechanical staff had a role in both Zinn books. I think there's an acknowledgement in the first few pages of the book.
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TJeanloz
new member
Reged: 02/05/04
Posts: 20
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There are a ton of guys on the Front Range building custom frames. Off the top of my head, in no particular order (with some indication of price):
Gangl ($$$$) Anvil ($$) Yeti ($$$) Dean ($$) Tiemeyer ($$$) Nobilette ($) James ($) Columbine ($$$$) Matt Chester ($$$)
I'm sure there are more that I can't think of right now...
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