MacB
Lover of things that come in 3's
- Location
- Farnborough, Hampshire
blazingsaddles said:I do like the look of those Roadrats but unfortunately I reckon both the straight and drop bars versions are a couple of cm too short for me. On one are always out of stock too (they must be good)!
Yep, top tube geometry can be an issue, in my case it's due to my choice of bars. Most geometry seems to assume the additional length of stem and then forward sweep of bars from clamp line. If your bars sweep back, then they negate some, or all, of the stem length. I'm not getting rid of my Crosscheck but felt the KM would be a better all round beast. The Crosscheck is also reserved for commuting only and I didn't really want to buy another identical bike. I have the same concerns you have re the sacrifice of the Crosschecks road ability. But I've read a few reviews that rate the KM pretty close on road when set up right. The KM top tube effective lengths are also longer than most frames I've looked at, without also getting a silly long seat tube. In my view you can run either CC or KM with anything from 23 to 50mm tyres on 700c rims. They can both take SS, fixed, gears, hub gears, rack and guards. The stock forks both have long steerer tubes allowing plenty of experimentation before cutting down. The CC's higher and squarer and the KM longer and lower, if that makes sense. It's about a 1lb weight penalty for the KM over the CC but the KM will take more abuse and bigger tyres.
During my original selection process I looked closely at On-One, Cotic and various frame builders offerings. One of the aspects that swung me is how many Surly frames, or bikes, you see up for sale second hand. I know my search was far from exhaustive but I definitely got the impression of bikes people keep hold of.
When I complete my KM your welcome to try it out against the CC if you're ever in the Hampshire neck of the woods.