Well, finally pulled the trigger on a steel bike. Its been a long time coming, and have had my eye on, or thought about getting a few different brands: Pegoretti, Della Santa, Steve Rex to name a few...each of the brands has their own appeal to me.
In the end with with Stoemper, made in Oregon. Basically for two reasons: my old coworker and buddy is 50% of the company, and they are made just outside Eugene Oregon, my college town.
The Taylor is their steel race bike, and comes with an Enve carbon fork that's painted to match. Tubing is True Temper S3, which is no longer being made after this year, and has an excellent reputation for lightweight/strong tubing. I went with stock geometry, 57cm. Thought hard about going with a shorter headtube, but in the end didn't need it, and stock works for me. The stock angles are pretty steep, and its not your long/relaxed steel bike. Its aggressive, but definitely not twitchy. Handles awesome on the downhills, and just buttery smooth.
Parts, went with a mix of Campy Chorus and Record. Why Campy? It beautiful. Sure setup is easier on Shimano and SRAM, but the Campy just looks so damn nice. Other parts are Bontrager Aeolus 3 carbon clinchers, and Bontrager Pro/XXX seatpost, bars, and stem etc. Light, strong, and comfy. Finally some Ciussi INOX cages...originally put on some standard plastic cages but they looked off and needed to go old school with this Inox stainless cages. I spec'd all the parts myself, and finally had the time to build it up, including the wheels, last weekend.
Lastly the paint...I told Todd (welder/painter) to two things:
1) I like the Motorola team bike blue from back in the day.
2) Listen to Beastie Boys Intergalactic while you paint.
And this is it.
In the end with with Stoemper, made in Oregon. Basically for two reasons: my old coworker and buddy is 50% of the company, and they are made just outside Eugene Oregon, my college town.
The Taylor is their steel race bike, and comes with an Enve carbon fork that's painted to match. Tubing is True Temper S3, which is no longer being made after this year, and has an excellent reputation for lightweight/strong tubing. I went with stock geometry, 57cm. Thought hard about going with a shorter headtube, but in the end didn't need it, and stock works for me. The stock angles are pretty steep, and its not your long/relaxed steel bike. Its aggressive, but definitely not twitchy. Handles awesome on the downhills, and just buttery smooth.
Parts, went with a mix of Campy Chorus and Record. Why Campy? It beautiful. Sure setup is easier on Shimano and SRAM, but the Campy just looks so damn nice. Other parts are Bontrager Aeolus 3 carbon clinchers, and Bontrager Pro/XXX seatpost, bars, and stem etc. Light, strong, and comfy. Finally some Ciussi INOX cages...originally put on some standard plastic cages but they looked off and needed to go old school with this Inox stainless cages. I spec'd all the parts myself, and finally had the time to build it up, including the wheels, last weekend.
Lastly the paint...I told Todd (welder/painter) to two things:
1) I like the Motorola team bike blue from back in the day.
2) Listen to Beastie Boys Intergalactic while you paint.
And this is it.
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