Rob English is not just a talented framebuilder, but also a top-class rider and racer. He recently built this bike for himself. Even though the bike is a superlight racer, it rolls on (extralight) 700C x 32 mm Stampede Pass tires – a sign how far racing bikes have come.
The frame features many of English’s signature touches. For the down- and top tube, as well as the chainstays, Rob used our Kaisei tubes, because they are lighter than anything else he could find.
A neat touch is the upside-down stem: Rather than clamp the stem to the top of a steerer tube that is attached to the fork, the fork clamps to the bottom of the steerer tube that is part of the stem.
Equipped with a range of ultralight parts, the entire bike weighs just 7.0 kg (15.5 lb) complete. Rob wrote a fun story about his bike and its (tongue-in-cheek) 622 mm disc brake rotors on cyclingtips.com.
So … what did he use for the other tubes & why? And is the fork crown area the right place to have bolts, wouldn’t there be a lot of stress around there (genuine question)?
For the other tubes, Rob wanted to use diameters that Kaisei doesn’t offer. The bolts shouldn’t be a problem – they clamp the fork crown to the steerer. It’s the same as a clamp-on stem, only at the bottom of the head tube instead of the top.
I think it’s on Cyclingtips not CyclingNews
You are right. Thank you! Corrected the typo. (The link was correct.)
Your link is to Cycling Tips but your text says Cycling News
Im so pretty, oh so pretty….
skinny thin walled steel tubes: check
Steel fork, stem, post: check
not-removable geardrop: check
non-tapered steerer: check
Rim brakes: check
Light weight: check
32mm clearance : check
Campagnolo Ergo’s: check
Rene Herse tyres: check
Aluminum rims: check