Spa audax or Condor Fratello

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I had almost persuaded myself that the Condor was the bike to go for. I know it's a great bike.

Then I thought again.about the Spa Audax, well reviewed. Not the same paintwork but is the condor really worth the thick end of £700 more?
 

vickster

Legendary Member
What are you looking for and what's your budget? Have you looked at Genesis?
 
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Thegreatthor

Über Member
What are you looking for and what's your budget? Have you looked at Genesis?

Looking for comfortable, quick longish distance machine 100 mile days just over, perhaps the occasional overnighter.

Would like 25, ideLly 28mm tyres and mudguards, Rack mounts would be advantageous but not essential, a saddlebag is sufficient really.

I have thought about the genesis equibrilium but it is pretty close to the condor price for a similar spec.

This is going to be a long term bike to treasure for years to come, budget will be what it is, certainly not more than condor I've seen £1650
 

vickster

Legendary Member
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I built up a Genesis Equilibrium 20 (2013 frame) to the exact spec (SRAM Rival) I wanted for less than £1500 (and probably with better wheels too, an expensive saddle, posh bartape). It has full mudguards and a rack (with P clips)

It's a lovely lovely thing (the gorgeous copper coloured frame helps of course :wub: ) and I'm as quick as it on my carbon road bike (not saying much as I'm not exactly quick :blush: )
It has fulcrum 5 wheels again now

What's the spec on the Condor. IF I was in the market for a Ti bike, I'd be talking to them , and quite possibly Spa...and Sabbath...and Kinesis (I love my British brands)...

Go to Harrogate and talk to Spa, also there's a Condor dealer in York I believe (although the basement of the Grays Inn Road store is a fantabuolus place)
 
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Onyer

Senior Member
I have gone for a Ti bike and would highly recommend them. Lovely to ride as they smooth out road buzz, and they are probably lighter than steel. CTC did a review of Spa Ti bike v Sabbath and the Spa came out very well. Spa, Sabbath, Kinesis, Enigma, etc all have their Ti frames manufactured in the far east - but they are very well made.
 

vickster

Legendary Member
Cream? Yes with nice brown bar tape and a brooks saddle :okay: and stainless steel stem and seat post etc
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
all I can contribute is that I am very very pleased with my Condor Tempo, which is, I understand, the Fratello frame built up in fixie configuration. Whether it's better or worse than anything else I can't really say, but here are some thoughts from my own experience:

1 It is a delight to ride and very nice indeed.

2 I found Condor's service excellent, and the bike-fit on their adjustable fit-o-tron was spot on. A year later I moved the handlebars down 5mm but other than that perfect from the off.

3 I am a bit dubious about the carbon fork, as I have had a biff, and perhaps might be more confident of a steel fork. This is purely psychological, as the bike (still) rides lovelly

4 Maybe it's a bit pricey compared to the Spa or other good quality steel framesets.


In summary, it's lovely, and I'm extremely pleased with mine, but some alternatives may be just as good or better value.
 
I had almost persuaded myself that the Condor was the bike to go for. I know it's a great bike.

Then I thought again.about the Spa Audax, well reviewed. Not the same paintwork but is the condor really worth the thick end of £700 more?
Thought I ought to reply to this as we have both of those bikes, dr_pink has the Fratello and I have the Spa steel audax. This probably is not going to help too much because we both like our respective steeds. Plus side on the Condor is that it is a very good looking bike, solid and reliable [we have done 2 longish tours on them] it is let down a little by the wheels which are a tad sluggish compared to the Spa which to be fair has the 105 hubs which have turned out to be extremely quick. They both have pros and cons but the cons are very small. I would recommend both, the big advantage with the Spa is that it is £400-£500 cheaper.
 
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Thegreatthor

Über Member
Thought I ought to reply to this as we have both of those bikes, dr_pink has the Fratello and I have the Spa steel audax. This probably is not going to help too much because we both like our respective steeds. Plus side on the Condor is that it is a very good looking bike, solid and reliable [we have done 2 longish tours on them] it is let down a little by the wheels which are a tad sluggish compared to the Spa which to be fair has the 105 hubs which have turned out to be extremely quick. They both have pros and cons but the cons are very small. I would recommend both, the big advantage with the Spa is that it is £400-£500 cheaper.

Many thanks, that's what I thought. That Fratello is so pretty, but £600 is a lot just for a paint job.
 

John_S

Über Member
Hello All,

This post caught my attention just because I think that the Condor Fratello is a lovely looking bike.

Now whilst this is a lovely looking bike which I'd love to own sadly it's out of my price range but it does no harm to dream. Therefore having a spare couple of minutes just now I took a look at the Condor website after I'd read the Road cc review, to which a link was posted above, but I'll post again here for quick reference:-

http://road.cc/content/review/143345-condor-fratello-disc-road-bike

Now I've never been in a position to buy a custom bike whereby you choose all of the components and build it up yourself but one thing about this process and the Road cc review just made me think.

The Road cc review states that the price of the bike is £1,400 but also in the article states that the bike starts at £1,305 depending on the components that you specify. The fact that it starts at £1,305 is pretty much correct because I went through the Condor website bike builder picking at each stage the cheapest component available for the Fratello Disc and it came out at £1,310

http://www.condorcycles.com/bike-builder

The only thing that I found a point of interest was that I thought it would be good if in the Road cc review when they state the bike cost they put a price range for a bike when it's customisable like this say £1,310 to £2,000 or whatever it is. Also what would be good is if they could state the component spec of the build that they tested. When I used the bike builder on the Condor website and selected the components that they do mention in the article it comes out at more than £1,400. That's why I thought it would also be good if as well as stating the price range of the bike they'd state the actual cost of the bike build they test and state what it was built up with.

Anyway maybe I'm being a bit picky because the bike given to journalists might be an early production/test model and may not exactly replicate what's available to buy. In addition maybe the bike company/manufacturer doesn't give the journalist a complete list of the bike components/ spec so they don't know themselves and so can't report it.

Therefore maybe I'm asking a bit too much but this just occurred to me when the price difference between the £1,400 price quoted of the Condor Fratello Disc on the Road cc test article and the actual price of it if you added the components that they mention the test bike had.

John
 

vickster

Legendary Member
You should be able to negotiate a bit on spec and price with such companies. My pearson pave was originally priced with Tiagra, but was altered to SRAM Apex, a more expensive groupset to buy (at that time) and a few other changes made to get me the bike I wanted. This was all done in store with one of the owners though, not via a website
 
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