Winter/Light Touring Frame

brian17n
brian17n Posts: 14
edited September 2009 in Road buying advice
I am looking for steel winter/light touring frame and the Salsa Casseroll and Aravis Audax from Byer Cycles are at the top of my list. Has anybody got experience of these?

Comments

  • mrushton
    mrushton Posts: 5,182
    Is the Aravis the same as the Hewitt Aravis? Sabbath September is good.
    M.Rushton
  • Dustine
    Dustine Posts: 184
    My Salsa Casseroll is probably, I often think, the best bike I have ever owned. I have put 3500 miles into it in the last 13 months since building it up. Its my daily commuter, with a new job im doing 35 miles each day, round trip. Its been fixed wheel since i built it up, has run mudguards for the last 12 months, and I lug all my gear around in a big Carradice saddle bag. My typical average speed on the commute is 15-17mph. I run 32mm Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres, which do nothing to make the bike feel sporty (they weight 785g each!!!) but mean I havent had a single puncture in the last 10 months since i fitted them. Prior to that it had a set of 200g Michelin Pro Race tyres on, and felt like a proper road bike really, although I did suffer punctures.

    I have thought about getting something comparable in Ti (ie, that you could run fixed/ geared depending on mood) but the Casseroll is so good, I really cant justify the expenditure to myself. If i moved to somewhere hillier, I would probably just make it geared. I have a few other bikes (nothing too high end, mind) but if i could only keep one, it would be the Salsa.
  • brian17n
    brian17n Posts: 14
    It looks from the Hewitt website that the Aravis is the same as the Hewitt Chiltern. However I am definately swinging towards the Casseroll. I know they are all made in China or similar but I somehow prefer one made to a specific design for one company rather than a rebadged generic product.

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