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Where to start? I really fancied a custom made frame but no way i could afford a go for a serotta,seven,moots,roberts, setavento I had heard about xacd on the web, £350 for a custom frame seemed like a bargain, if its shit some fool on ebay will buy it from me!
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I emailed XACD around the last couple of days in May 07, Porter got back to within a 24 hrs, not the greatest command of English, but pleasant enough, Told him what I was looking for, roughly a 56cm audax frame, semi sloping top tube,clearance for mud guards and 32mm tyres(for cyclo-cross) bosses for touring racks, Emailed me back with an engineering drawing of a frame, I swapped a few emails over the next couple of weeks changing and tweaking a couple of mm's here and there, Got a final drawing which I was happy with, Told him I was keen to go ahead with the purchase, Sent me the bank transfer details and final price, £302 including shipping, I sent the money via my current account, halifax charged me £25 for the pleasure, 15 days later the frame was in my hands, no problems with import duty, customs, shipping.
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The build
frame,shipping,bank charges £327
10 speed dura ace triple from ebay £320 (no brakes, bought it bit by bit)
frogs legs canti's from ebay £32
Bonty race x lite wheels 2nd hand £200
Bonty carbon stem,bars 2nd hand £75
ITM vista cross fork wiggle.com £80
odds and ends wiggle.co.uk £35
stickers (see link) great service £12
seat,post,pedals from my spare box
total £1081
total bike is around 8kgs
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Still over a grand, but surely at least £1500 cheaper than anything from one of the custom builders.
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Not done many miles on it yet, but so far my thoughts are,, mega comfy, really easy to ride on the drops, BB area is a little flexy, back end is stiff no brake rub when out of the saddle, so far so good, rest assured if something goes wrong, I will post the details.
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LINKS
www.wiggle.co.uk
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I hopefully this post will be useful, I'm no way connected to any of the company's, Just a tight arsed Scotsman in hunt of a cycling bargain.
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DISCLAIMER
If you purchase from any of the links provided and your not happy, tough shit
UPDATE 4/5/09
After almost 2 years and 10000kms the bike is still going strong, No problems.
Update 5th December 09
Still going strong, I had it custom painted, and stuck some Sram red on it
6 comments:
Hi,
I'm in the process of ordering a bike from xacd.com. What would you have told "Porter" to do about the flexy BB area?
Order oversized/ovalised down tube and even partially ovalised seat tube. Just ordered my road frame and have been riding my track frame for 18months which is very stiff
Do you still have the final engineering drawings used for your bike? I'd love to see them.
How much does your frame weigh? Is it single-butted or double-butted?
No sorry
Double,,, its fucking heavy 1.6kgs
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