Talk to me about the best bikes for audaxing right now..

[Phil W]

A Van Nicholas Yukon is a popular choice I believe.  Available in disc and caliper brake versions.

Comes with a lifetime warranty so should last forever assuming the manufacturer

My Yukon frame cracked on the chain stay (8 years old / 90,000 miles) back in April.  From breakage to new frame arriving was four weeks. You need to send back the broken frame for inspection.  The only cost to me was getting broken frame to nearest dealer.

I opted for the Amazon disc frame as replacement. It has clearance for 700C 35mm tyres with mudguards which opens up cyclo cross / gravel / studded tyres for winter.  Has mudguard and rack fittings. Can be setup as canti lever or disc. Has cable guides for full length outers on external cables. Has a reasonably tall head tube, so my bars are a similar height to saddle. The recommended disc fork has a crown drilling for mounting a dynamo light, plus holes for fitting mudguards with stays.

Yukon can take 28mm tyres with mudguards (that is how I ran mine) for reference but the clearances are tightish so you will get the usual loose gravel rattles etc.

[toontra]

Van Nic do seem to be the company for ti if a meaningful warranty is what you require  They are good at honouring claims as far as I can see.  As good a reputation as you're likely to get in this day and age.

My Yukon is 12 years old and I still love it for long stuff.  One of the reasons for buying was the lifetime warranty but so far I haven't needed it, luckily.

[zigzag]

p.s. how did that Decathlon bike you rode on the Easter Arrow work out? (this was at least 4 years ago, and I think it was a single-chainring model). Was it the perfect Audax bike??

it was* my runabout/commuter/hack bike and far from perfect audax bike. i made a few upgrades to make it suitable for an occasional audax in bad weather (for it having disc brakes). it had a 1x gears before they were trendy. for some reason i don't miss that bike at all - it was 100% reliable, but not exciting to ride.

*before it got nicked in holborn

[sojournermike]

Brucey’s suggestion of the Spa Audax isn’t far off. The steel frame is really nice, or you can pay more for Ti.

If you want something more lively then the Kinesis GF Ti v2 is very good too. Presumably the ally version is also nice?

Mike

[Bolt]

My best bike for audaxing is a flat bar, hub geared hybrid... that's not a recommendation, it would fail most people definition of light, but it suites me 

Me too  

[BrianI]

i'd start my selection with the frame of the right geometry, weight and features such as threaded bottom bracket (i.e. non of the bb30, bb90, pf30, bbright etc nonsense), preferably external gear cables (brake cable can be internal as it almost never snaps), round seat tube without the braze-on tab, clearance for bigger tyres, no toe overlap, lively handling, mudguard and rack eyelets, hole in the fork crown as mentioned upthread, and of the colour that i like. i haven't found a frame that has all these features yet, perhaps custom is the way to go.

Sounds like my 2014 Pinnacle Dolomite 2! Can take 28mm tyres, or 25 + guards! Best of all the entire biie was only £450! 

[zigzag]

i'd start my selection with the frame of the right geometry, weight and features such as threaded bottom bracket (i.e. non of the bb30, bb90, pf30, bbright etc nonsense), preferably external gear cables (brake cable can be internal as it almost never snaps), round seat tube without the braze-on tab, clearance for bigger tyres, no toe overlap, lively handling, mudguard and rack eyelets, hole in the fork crown as mentioned upthread, and of the colour that i like. i haven't found a frame that has all these features yet, perhaps custom is the way to go.

Sounds like my 2014 Pinnacle Dolomite 2! Can take 28mm tyres, or 25 + guards! Best of all the entire biie was only £450! 

it falls short on quite a few, but still a pretty decent bike!

[De Sisti]

Turns out they were made by XACD. The same company who supplied Setevento...who went out of business because the warranty claims became untenable. Qoroz have also ceased trading and aren't interested in the warranty they promised.

I bought a couple of frames myself from XACD, but I paid £250 with no expectations.

I have bought three Ti frames from XACD. One developed a crack around the seat tube near the bottom
bracket (so was binned). Another sold to a friend in Cheltenham CTC (who still rides it). I still use the
the third frame.

FWIW the Spa audax frame is pretty good; very good even, for the money.

I also ride one of these frames. It's very good in my opinion.

[andyoxon]

i'd start my selection with the frame of the right geometry, weight and features such as threaded bottom bracket (i.e. non of the bb30, bb90, pf30, bbright etc nonsense), preferably external gear cables (brake cable can be internal as it almost never snaps), round seat tube without the braze-on tab, clearance for bigger tyres, no toe overlap, lively handling, mudguard and rack eyelets, hole in the fork crown as mentioned upthread, and of the colour that i like. i haven't found a frame that has all these features yet, perhaps custom is the way to go.

Boardman adv range?  What do the panel think...  e.g.  the adv 8.9  (£1000)   8.8 (£750)
https://www.boardmanbikes.com/gb_en/products/2138-adv-8.9.html

I notice it has external gear cabling

I contacted them re. some extra details:

has full mounts front and rear for mudguards
  front fork stay mounts are locate on the inside edge of the fork blade
  bridge mount on the fork crown is a threaded blind hole
rear mounts are threaded blind holes
two rack and guard stay holes at the bottom of each side of the dropouts which are threaded through holes.
Tyres fitted are 38mm.
Can go bigger with or without guards - depends on the model of tyre and the model and shape of guards that you intend to fit.

[sojournermike]

Chinese carbon alternatives could include the Workswell wcb-r125 (geometry like an Open UP) or Carbonda cfr-505 (more like a Genesis Datum). Or you could buy one of the originals listed, but they are a bit more detailed expensive - the Open in particular.

[GrahamG]

I'm sticking with my cheap carbon cube for the moment but I don't like the internal cable routing or press fit bottom bracket. If I was buying frame or complete bike I'd want the fairlight strael, ticks every box going on everything up thread (except caliper brake if that's your preference) and with to geometry options the will be a size to suits 99% of people.

[TigaSefi]

I'm sticking with my cheap carbon cube for the moment but I don't like the internal cable routing or press fit bottom bracket. If I was buying frame or complete bike I'd want the fairlight strael, ticks every box going on everything up thread (except caliper brake if that's your preference) and with to geometry options the will be a size to suits 99% of people.

Mega expensive though.

[Ian gaggiaport]

The spa steel audax in red looks much better in real life than the web images.

One of my follow audaxers in Cardiff has one set up for the winter and one for summer.
He prefers these over is other bikes, and he has a very nice collection to choose from.

[Jethro]

Have a look at Enigma (titanium) based in West Sussex.  They will also do a custom build and with some very nice paint options too.

[Frank9755]

i'd start my selection with the frame of the right geometry, weight and features such as threaded bottom bracket (i.e. non of the bb30, bb90, pf30, bbright etc nonsense), preferably external gear cables (brake cable can be internal as it almost never snaps), round seat tube without the braze-on tab, clearance for bigger tyres, no toe overlap, lively handling, mudguard and rack eyelets, hole in the fork crown as mentioned upthread, and of the colour that i like. i haven't found a frame that has all these features yet, perhaps custom is the way to go.

I don't know if you like black but my Hewitt, which I bought for PBP 2011, can tick all the other boxes!

EDIT - actually my Carrera Vanquish (c.2010 model) does too!