Ordering a winter frame from XACD

Pirahna

I know a few people here have ordered from XACD so:

I'm going to order a new winter frame for my wife. On a normal road bike I'd put her on a 52cm top tube with a 185mm head tube, she has very long legs and short upper body.

How does running mudguards affect the design? Does the steering angle need to change?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

edeverett

I'm not a framebuilder, but have had a custom bike built that takes mudguards. You've got a make a few decisions on the components you want to run.

- Choose whether you want to run standard or long drop brakes. This will affect where the brake bridge goes and depend on your needs for fitting larger tyres.

- Choose the fork you want to use. If it takes mudguards the axle to crown distance is likely to be a bit longer. This will affect the length of the head tube as it's really axle to handlebar distance that counts (and possibly how you calculate the head angle)

- Choose what tyre size you want. For a winter bike there's not much reason to to limit yourself too much. Being able to run 28mm tyres is a nice advantage in crappy weather.

Larger tyres and mudguards will also fit more happily on frames with slightly longer chainstays, again for a winter bike there's no reason to have very tight clearances, so err on the side of long.

The steering angle is independent of these things, but take into account any difference of rake in the winter.

The parts of the bike that affect fit should probably be left alone.

hopper1

Have a look at this post, there is a XACD bike pictured.
Maybe PM ronthechef, as it's his bike.

ronthechef

http://ronniethescot.blogspot.com/2007/ ... -bike.html

de_sisti

Here are a couple of my xacd jobbies. Now that I've bought 3 (sold one), and know what dimensions I want,
the next one will be perfect. They both ride well, but the top one looks better.

Pirahna

Thanks for the replies. I've just OK'd the final drawing, so just need to pay now.

I found an excellent resource for designing your own frame:

http://www.bikeforest.com/CAD/index.php#

ronthechef

What's the total cost now?? Did you deal with porter

Pirahna

All emails are from Porter. The cost is

Ti custom road frame
FOB XI'AN USD495.00/set 1set USD495.00
Shipping costs(EMS express):USD155.00
Bank fee:USD40.00
Total:USD690.00

Which is about £420

Integrated headset is another $100, so I went for the external.

It's a winter bike for my wife who has very long legs. The top tube is 520mm, the head tube is 150mm for an external headset, so about 180mm if it was an integrated headset.

Imagine a Moots Vamoots CR with longer chainstays for mudguards and 57mm drop brakes.