# Cheap-ish carbon gravel/mudguard frame for tall guy?



## CheapSkate (Feb 26, 2012)

Any help from the hive mind?

Thinking of building up a winter road-with-a-bit-of-gravel kind of carbon bike. Proper mudguards & room for 28 mm Gatorskins & disc brakes. Would use on the road and on some cinder tracks around here. Nothing extreme.

Two problems: 

I really need a big frame - stack needs to be over 600 mm.

I want to run a Campag gruppo, so I am quite limited on wheels, eg no through axles at the back.

Want a frameset, not a full bike. Want carbon, but don't want to spend huge money.

I got excited about the ICAN AC59 (I think in the UK it's the Ribble CR3). less than £500 UK pounds. That would be perfect.... but the largest 57 cm is too small. I could possibly make it work with a flipped stem and lots of spacers, but hmmmmmm.

The Dengfu FM059 58 cm would fit me, but doesn't have mudguard eyes AFAIK

There are a few built up bikes with a decent stack, but mostly metal or very expensive. Eg Canyon Inflite etc etc

Some metal frames, eg Kinesis, but they are heavy.

Basically if I could get an ICAN AC59 frameset in a 60 cm....

Any suggestions about where else I could look for something like that?????

cheers


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## CheapSkate (Feb 26, 2012)

Gave up on this idea. My choices seemed to be the Ribble CR3, which was £500 without fork, so nearer £600 with the fork. Then it turned out to have a PF30 bottom bracket, I'm a bit leery of pressfits, particularly with the Campag crankset which I have lying about. Don't fancy bonding the cups into the frame semi-permanently.

The alternative was to get the ICAN AC059 direct from China, £380 but the chance of being stung with huge EU anti-dumping taxes (49% I think!) plus VAT (20% in the UK). And no real warranty.

So it was all getting very complicated & expensive for a bike which had marginal fit. It was supposed to be fun & cheap-ish.

I am a CheapSkate after all!

I understand now why bike frames now seem so expensive in the UK compared to the last time I shopped six or seven years ago. It's that anti-dumping tax. 

So I keep coming back to the Genesis Croix de Fer - not sure I want steel, or the Kinesis 5T disc, which looks nice, but it's ally. Both will fit me pretty well.

If I see a Kinesis disc 63 cm in the sales for say £350 frame+fork+headset I might go for it. Or even a CdF. Fat chance eh?

cheers now.


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## bigman (Nov 30, 2004)

*gt grade*

[Fanrastic bike, happy huntingQUOTE=CheapSkate;4980316]Gave up on this idea. My choices seemed to be the Ribble CR3, which was £500 without fork, so nearer £600 with the fork. Then it turned out to have a PF30 bottom bracket, I'm a bit leery of pressfits, particularly with the Campag crankset which I have lying about. Don't fancy bonding the cups into the frame semi-permanently.

The alternative was to get the ICAN AC059 direct from China, £380 but the chance of being stung with huge EU anti-dumping taxes (49% I think!) plus VAT (20% in the UK). And no real warranty.

So it was all getting very complicated & expensive for a bike which had marginal fit. It was supposed to be fun & cheap-ish.

I am a CheapSkate after all!

I understand now why bike frames now seem so expensive in the UK compared to the last time I shopped six or seven years ago. It's that anti-dumping tax. 

So I keep coming back to the Genesis Croix de Fer - not sure I want steel, or the Kinesis 5T disc, which looks nice, but it's ally. Both will fit me pretty well.

If I see a Kinesis disc 63 cm in the sales for say £350 frame+fork+headset I might go for it. Or even a CdF. Fat chance eh?

cheers now.[/QUOTE]


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